Thailand is seeking Chinese investment to help galvanize a five-year, 1.7 trillion-baht (US$51 billion) development plan for its eastern seaboard to bolster the economy.While political tension has shadowed Chinese investment in nations from Australia to Sri Lanka, the Thai military government views its so-called Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) project as well placed to link with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

China has been the world's largest importer of recyclable materials since the 1980s. In 2017, China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced an import ban of 24 types of solid waste (later updated to 32 types) including unsorted wastepaper, textiles and plastics. The secondary raw material harvested from the imported waste is expected to be replaced by domestic resources.

You may not have noticed, what with the outbreak of trade war with the United States (US) and all, but China’s economic diplomacy has had a bad few weeks. The country’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is dealing with ever-greater resistance, slowing a momentum that once seemed unstoppable.

There’s a dog that hasn’t barked in the current round of trade tensions between the United States (US) and China.

In the face of growing economic protectionism, undergirded by a trade tiff between the United States (US) and China, Southeast Asian economies are bracing for the impact from a possible economic fallout.

Cambodia and China recently marked 60 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations with a grand gala dinner. Presiding over the event were Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen and Chinese ambassador to Cambodia, Xiong Bo. Both countries established formal diplomatic ties in July 1958 and have since elevated ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Cooperation in 2010.

A police raid on the Wai Mei Dat Thai Recycling factory, 100km east of Bangkok last month revealed a shocking find. The 40-acre complex was laden with huge piles of electronic waste – keyboards, motherboards, electrical wires, computer screens and smartphone batteries, just to name a few. The high-level operation found that undocumented immigrant workers from Lao PDR and Myanmar were used to recycle or discard the e-waste at the site.

President Donald Trump’s moves to protect United States (US) trade interests are creating unusual bedfellows in Asia.India and China, longstanding economic and strategic rivals, are seeing a thaw in relations less than a year after the most serious border flare-up since a war in 1962 threatened ties between the two Asian giants.Since May, China has made it easier for India to export non-Basmati rice, removed import duties on anti-cancer drugs and agreed to share data that predicts river flows

The slump in China’s yuan is stoking fear that policy makers are less willing to temper the currency’s decline as the economy slows and a trade battle with the United States (US) worsens.That’s a sharp turnaround from just a few weeks ago, when the yuan was in effect serving as an anchor for emerging economies facing rising global interest rates and a strengthening US dollar.

Xi Jinping vowed to match Donald Trump blow for blow in any trade war. Now as one gets closer, some in Beijing are starting to openly wonder whether China is ready for the fight - an unusually direct challenge to the leadership of the world’s second-largest economy.In recent weeks, prominent academics have begun to question if China’s slowing, trade-dependent economy can withstand a sustained attack from Trump, which has already started to weigh on stock prices.