Southeast Asia was one of the first regions hit by the spread of COVID-19. The region’s public health response varied, with some states like Vietnam proving models for the world, while others, like Indonesia and the Philippines, faltered badly. However, they have generally taken a common approach in one area: nearly all have used the pandemic to crack down on political freedoms and civil liberties.

Governments in Southeast Asia have adopted policies that are fueling militancy by restricting freedoms and fostering authoritarianism.

China, other Asian nations, and the United States remain unprepared for Myanmar to spark a refugee crisis, a large-scale conflict along its borders—or even a nuclear breakout.

For all its economic might, Asia remains, overall, so much poorer than the United States that the region will take decades to catch up—if it catches up at all.

Many cultural, economic, and political trends suggest that Asian nations are becoming more integrated and even developing a regional consciousness. … Concurrently, however, other trends have led to rising nationalist sentiment in the region.

Leaders of nations like Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam have begun to debate how they can apply a Chinese model to their own nations.

Many Southeast Asians now regard China as a benign presence to be emulated—a sharp contrast with current regional views of the United States.

Beijing has enjoyed considerable success in Africa, building close ties with countries from Sudan to South Africa, becoming a vital aid donor …, and developing military relationships with many of the continent's powers.

In the past year Quebec's separatist movement has revived in dramatic fashion. Polls show that over half of Quebecers would vote for sovereignty if a new referendum were called. …

Anti-Bush administration sentiment, which developed between 2002 and 2004, has mutated and strengthened into a broader anti-Americanism.

The influx of investment in gambling is powering Macao's growth, and Beijing thus far has tolerated the casino boom. In the longer term, however, China could enact policies that would stunt Macao's gambling industry and potentially burst the enclave's economic success.

Throughout the repression and the economic backsliding, most countries in the West have said little about Laos, even as they decry similar problems in Burma and Tibet and other regions of the world.

A struggle looms within Xinjiang's Uighur population between a no-holds-barred, more violent resistance to Beijing and a more assimilationist, peaceful approach that hopes to win greater political autonomy and economic rights. Unfortunately, too often both Beijing's and Western nations' policies toward Xinjiang only strengthen the hard-liners.

The optimism surrounding the possibility of a democratic thaw in 2002 “was a mirage, a blip distracting attention from a more depressing long-term trend. … Burma's Asian neighbors, including democracies India and Thailand, increasingly are giving the junta free rein to dominate politics and abuse the citizenry.

Although China has made some attempts to help the United States combat terrorist groups, its contributions have been limited and overpraised, and it has manipulated the war on terror for its own means.

Ultimately, if reformist elements … do not restrain [Prime Minister Thaksin], Thailand could develop into a larger version of Singapore: a state with a veneer of democratic politics covering a one-party system.

American officials have turned their attention toward Southeast Asian policymaking— something largely ignored since the end of the Vietnam War—and have declared Southeast Asia the ‘second front’ in the global campaign against terror. … [But] backing Southeast Asia's often brutal and compromised militaries, which themselves contain elements linked to Islamist radicals, will only boost human rights abuses, breeding popular resentment and setting the stage for more terror.