The Week Ahead: Xi Jinping embarks on a Southeast Asia adventure

Hello friends!

I have had one of those head colds where you lie in bed for a week and dream about the type of person you’ll be when you’re well again, chiding yourself for not appreciating all those times your sinuses were clear.

Which explains why this Monday newsletter is particularly well formatted. It’s a big week ahead, let’s crack in.

Erin Cook

 🇨🇳 Mr Xi is coming to town

Here comes Xi Jinping! The Chinese President is having his first big regional trip in a dang while this week. He kicks it off today, heading straight to Vietnam. The two countries are commemorating 75 years of diplomatic relations and much will be made of this after the US hit Vietnam with extreme tariffs. Expect breathless commentary on these two brothers-in-arms nations. Here’s China Daily to start it off. 

He’ll head to Malaysia on Tuesday, where he’s expected to meet both Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and the king, Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar. Malaysia is, of course, head of Asean this year and much of the visit will revolve around that. Still, let’s get some bilateral trade going, Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan told media last week as per the Star. I’m low key excited for any statements from Anwar. He loves a thinly-veiled sledge, especially on the Americans. 

And then over to Cambodia, where I would similarly expect absurd stories in state-run media on both sides. Thailand secured some pretty heavy security deals after Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra led a delegation to China at the start of the year. That led directly to a massive crackdown on scam centres — an issue also plaguing Cambodia. But, unlike Thailand, Cambodia is home to these centres and far less inclined to clean them up than Bangkok is. Let’s see if they get a hard word. The timing marks the Khmer New Year, which seems weird. But surely not for the Huns to decide. 

It’s an “important signal,” Lowy Institute’s Susannah Patton writes for Nikkei Asia. Xi doesn’t really travel that much internationally and, while Southeast Asia is just next door, he rarely visits the region. “It suggests that China sees now as the right time to advance its interests in each of the three countries, different though they are,” Patton points out. 

In Cambodia, a longtime friend to China (often at the expense of regional solidarity), it’s less about shoring up support and more about getting the money flowing again. Vietnam has expertly walked the US vs China tightrope for years, but a mean-spirited high tariff from DC may have Beijing hoping for an in. Over in Malaysia, Anwar has hardly been a fan of the US at the best of times. A relatively low tariff rate won’t be helping with that. 

🇸🇬 People’s Action Party firms up ahead of elections

No date has been announced yet for Singapore’s general election, due any time between now and November. But it’s surely coming down the pipeline after the dominant People’s Action Party finalises its list of candidates. 

Announcements of who is running where have been dripping out, slowly and surely. But I’m more interested in the way the party and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong have seized this moment of global uncertainty as a campaign slogan. 

“There is a gathering storm and we are flying straight into turbulence. In such conditions, who you have in the cockpit matters. Singaporeans will have to decide on the team they trust to navigate the storm and chart the way forward for our nation. I take this responsibility seriously, because the stakes are high for ourselves and our families and for our future and for Singapore’s place in the world,” Wong said over the weekend, as per the Straits Times. Lucky timing for a party whose main offering is ‘we’re the sturdy hand, remember?’

He’s nearing a year in the top job but I still find Wong’s public statements a bit stale and flat. I suppose you can eventually be the bride, but you’ll never be a Lee. I’m hoping we’ll get a date in the next few weeks and can start digging more into the races. 

🇹🇭 American academic dinged on Lese-Majeste in Thailand

Paul Chambers, an academic at Naresuan University in northern Thailand, was briefly detained last week on lese-majeste charges before a court allowed bail Thursday — a very rare move for charges like this. 

“He should not have spent a single second in prison in the first place,” his legal team said Thursday after his release, as reported by the New York Times. “Unfortunately, the storm has not passed,” they added as Chambers faces possible deportation. As of now, he’s unable to leave the country as the charges are worked through.  

It all comes back to the description of an online event Chambers, whose work focuses on civilian-military relations in the country, spoke at in October hosted by Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. 

10%. 

That’s how much one private wealth manager in Indonesia estimates his high-worth clients have taken from their wallets and dumped into crypto, according to Bloomberg. The unidentified finance bro (making assumptions here) works with clients bragging net worths between $100 million and $400 million — and that’s USD, naturally. It’s part of a wider trend of wealthy Indonesians looking for places to park their cash outside of the country. It began in October, with the inauguration of President Prabowo Subianto, but is accelerating sharply after the rupiah began its horror slide last month. 

🇲🇲 Ceasefire lies and aid denied in Myanmar

The Myanmar junta has repeatedly breached the post-earthquake ceasefire it agreed to with resistance groups, the United Nations said. The truce was called in the aftermath of the March 28 quake and was supposed to last until April 22. Violent attacks on resistance groups continue when “the sole focus should be on ensuring humanitarian aid gets to disaster zones,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Friday, as reported by Al Jazeera. 

The attacks include those within the area most directly affected, Myanmar Now reports via local sources. Two civilians, including a girl aged only 13, were killed by airstrikes in Mandalay Region’s Madaya Township and Sagaing Region’s Kawlin Township on Thursday, the outlet reports. 

In Mandalay, much of the community finds itself in temporary housing after the earthquake devastated the city. In the days following the earthquake, aid and rescue operations were relatively free to move around but a junta directive April 5 has forced all organisations to obtain permission from the military before they can get to work. “Before that, people were able to give donations to us freely. But fewer people have been coming to donate since the announcement. Only two donors came today,” one resident told Frontier. That’s down from more than 10 a day prior to the announcement. 

Families of those lost in the Duterte-era war on drugs gathered in Manila yesterday for the Palm Sunday procession. This one was led by ‘Father Flavie Villanueva at the Arnold Janssen Kalinga Foundation along Oroquieta Street, Manila,’ Rappler reports.

The Nation papped Pita Limjaroenrat, the former head of the now-defunct Move Forward Party, at Songkran celebrations this weekend. A super soaked-blast from the (near) past.

Reading list

🇻🇳 Trump’s tariffs test Vietnam’s role as manufacturing alternative to China — Lam Le, Rest of World

In Vietnam’s manufacturing sector, the US’ 46% tariff spelt annihilation. With those numbers now on hold — allegedly for 90 days, but it’s anyone’s bet — Vietnam has a reprieve. In the tech hub of Bac Ninh, cortisol has gone through the roof.

“Vietnam’s overall [cost] advantage has become very slim now,” Xie Qing, a factory property realtor in Bac Ninh, told Rest of World two days after the 46% tariff rate was announced. “The pessimism is spreading. Some people felt the sky was falling down.”

🇲🇲🇹🇭 Flowers in their hair: Shan boys ordained into Buddhist monkhood — AFP

Hundreds of thousands of Shan, hailing from the north-east of Myanmar, have fled the violence at home for relative safety in Thailand. Communities wholly transported mean culture too, and this story from the AFP looks at the tradition of shaving boys’ heads before ordination as monks, which is now playing out in Chiang Mai. Around 40 boys had their head shaves at a temple in the city ahead of a short period in the monastery. 

Ms Mokam Lungkuna, a 35-year-old construction worker who took her nine-year-old son Thanwa to be ordained, has lived in Thailand for two decades.

“My heart is in Shan State,” she told AFP, speaking over the sound of drum rolls echoing through the ceremony.

“It will always be our culture.”

🇸🇬As Singapore sees a surge of mainland Chinese eateries, is local food culture OK? — Jean Lau, SCMP

Fascinating food and culture piece here from the SCMP in Singapore. There, Chinese food options are ever expanding — great! — but some punters say it’s at the expense of more traditional Singaporean fare — not so great. Food writers and vendors say critics are on to something.

Jeffrey, a 67-year-old retired civil servant who grew up in the area and declined to provide his surname, told This Week in Asia that it was getting harder to find some of his favourite local delights compared to options like mala xiang guo.

“There’s a lot more China-type cuisines than before, it’s now harder to find the local favourites like char kway teow (fried noodles) or hokkien mee (a stir-fried yellow noodle dish) or even a decent Singapore Chinese rojak (fruits and vegetables in a sweet-savoury sauce) or Peranakan pork satay with the peanut sauce and a dash of crushed pineapple,” he said.