Exploring the strategic threshold of global chokepoints, China's twenty-year 'Malacca dilemma' regarding energy imports, and how maritime vulnerability drives naval capabilities.
A study in 'Defence Industry Conversion in China' highlights Yunnan province's role as an "irreplaceable gateway" to Indochinese resources. It proposes Yunnan as a land-based lifeline for critical mineral supply, mitigating China's reliance on the Strait of Malacca and enhancing supply-chain resilience.
Indonesia says it is not choosing sides. That is true in diplomacy. It is less true on the map. The “major defence cooperation partnership” announced by Washington and Jakarta on April 13 is written in the safe language of official communiques: capacity building, education, exercises, cooperation. But the harder meaning lies beneath the phrasing. The most important line in this new defence partnership is not the reassuring one about “peace and stability”. It is the one about “maritime,...
