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 ...