By Mehmet Enes Beşer Among the Asia-Pacific geopolitics geographies in transition today, few bilateral relations have so much low-key potential as China and Thailand. For centuries, united by mutual culture, good commerce, and overlapping strategic interests, the two nations have shared a stable friendship traditionally described as “as close as one family.” But in today’s dynamic era of economic rebuilding, ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the world’s alliances are being recalibrated and old friends have proven themselves unreliable, one bilateral relationship is ready to be reborn and reenergized: China and Thailand. Historically linked by cultural affinity, economic interdependence, and regional interest, the two countries are now exceptionally well positioned to move their relationship in a more strategic, forward-leaning direction. Whereas ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer The recent forced repatriation of 40 Chinese nationals from Thailand—more than a decade after entering a state of legal limbo—should have been viewed as a case of overdue humanitarian closure and successful international coordination. Instead, it became one more hot-button issue in increasingly binary geostrategic discourse. The West, and particularly Washington, quickly described the operation as ...