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Jan 16, 2025 | 
eastasiaforum.org | William Jones
On 9 December 2024, former yellow shirt street protest leader and media mogul Sondhi Limthongkul issued a public threat to the Thai government led by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. The threat — annul the 2001 joint communique signed by then prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand and Hun Sen of Cambodia and withdraw from the 2001 Memorandum of Understanding.
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Dec 12, 2024 | 
thediplomat.com | William Jones
Cambodia and Thailand have a maritime border dispute that dates back to 1973. Under the leadership of prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and Hun Sen, the Cambodian and Thai governments were able to begin the process of settling the overlapping claims by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2001. Due to domestic political instability in Bangkok, however, the two sides have more or less been frozen in their positions and have met no more than seven times over the past decade.
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Haruka Satake |William Jones |Shafi Mostofa |Muhammad Husaini Fikri
The semiconductor industry has become an increasingly critical pillar of the US economy and national security, underscored by the rapid construction of semiconductor manufacturing facilities across the country. Intel’s new Fab 42 facility and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)’s factory in Arizona represent significant investments in domestic production capabilities.
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Aug 20, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum.org | William Jones |Shafi Mostofa |Benny Subianto |Pieter E. Stek
On 7 August 2024, Thailand’s Constitutional Court ordered the dissolution of the Move Forward Party and banned its executives from holding political office. In doing so the court has positioned itself as the country’s arbiter of truth, ethics and national interests. Move Forward, Thailand’s largest parliamentary party, pledged to reform the lese majeste law — a law that makes it a crime to defame or threaten the Thai monarch in the country’s criminal code.
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Aug 16, 2024 | 
geopoliticalmonitor.com | William Jones
The past two weeks have been upending for anyone tuned into Thai politics, a span that has seen the Kingdom’s most popular party dissolved and popular politician banned, a sitting prime minister removed from office and the selection of yet another Shinawatra as prime minister. One thing is for certain, politics in the Kingdom of Thailand are moving at whiplash speed.
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Aug 9, 2024 | 
geopoliticalmonitor.com | William Jones
On Wednesday August 7, 2024, Thailand’s Constitutional Court provided its verdict in the case against Thailand’s Move Forward Party. The verdict was in line with this author and many others prediction, which was to dissolve the Move Forward Party and ban its executives from politics and political office for 10 years.
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Jul 9, 2024 | 
geopoliticalmonitor.com | William Jones
The first US presidential debate took place on June 27, and the entire world looked on in 50 shades of wonderment, shock, shame and horror. Regardless of one’s feelings towards the United States or the candidates, two facts came across crystal clear to the entire globe – something is terribly wrong at the top of the US political system and reliable and responsible US world leadership is not to be found.
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Jun 28, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Nguyen Long |Nguyễn Thành Long |William Jones |Amitav Acharya |Dennis LC Weng
Thailand’s cultural industries have been making significant strides in their international popularity. This ‘T-Wave’ phenomenon holds promise for enhancing these industries’ growth and bolstering Thai soft power on the global stage. Thailand’s cultural momentum bears a striking resemblance to South Korea’s experience, which was moulded by the severe impact of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.
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Jun 27, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum.org | Sourabh Gupta |William Jones |Rumi Aoyama |Jiannan Luo
The third plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CPC) 20th Central Committee in July 2024 comes at a critical juncture for an economy beset by profound challenges. Successful third plenary sessions include the December 1978 meeting, which shifted the CPC’s focus from ‘waging class struggle’ to ‘socialist modernisation’ and the November 1993 session, which established the ‘socialist market economy’ system.
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Jun 27, 2024 | 
eastasiaforum.org | William Jones |Seth Hays |Morgan Hughes |Soyoung Kim
In April 2024 Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin proposed a Schengen-like visa program with some of his ASEAN counterparts. Srettha’s plan envisages a single or common visa area for the mainland ASEAN states of Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. If the plan follows the EU model, short stay visitors would, with a single application, have access to the six countries for up to 90 days. The initiative seeks to boost tourist numbers beyond their pre-COVID levels.
