Bethany Allen 貝書穎

Our report shows that Myanmar and its junta are central to the continued existence of this transnational criminal ecosystem, and that continued significant bilateral engagement with junta authorities is incompatible with goals to disrupt the scam industry.

The compounds are heavily securitized and fortified, with fences, watchtowers, checkpoints and heavy surveillance,
along with considerable permanent border-crossing infrastructure. That infrastructure directly enables the human
trafficking of victims across the Thai border.

The change in nighttime illumination around Myawaddy between 2021 and 2024, with specific scam centre locations annotated. Navy blue shows an increase in nighttime illumination, and red shows a decrease.

The specific location of 27 identified scam compounds in Myawaddy township along the Thai border:

In Myanmar, scame compounds have become so ubiquitous in several areas that the language has developed a specific moniker, Kyar Phyant, borrowed from the Chinese word for ‘scam’

Cyberfraud epicentre: Myanmar scam centres are a global cyber and humanitarian threat | The Strategist Myanmar has rapidly become the global epicentre of a burgeoning cyberfraud industry, a crisis deeply interwoven with the dynamics of the post-coup conflict that has overtaken the country since 2021. T...

www.aspistrategist.org.au/cyberfraud-e...

Read @aspi-org.bsky.social's full report here. Through extensive satellite imagery analysis, @nrg8000.bsky.social shows that scam compounds along the Thai-Myanmar border have grown from 11 dedicated compounds to 30 since the junta took power in 2021.

Revealed: the huge growth of Myanmar scam centres that may hold 100,000 trafficked people Operated by crime syndicates and fostered by the country’s military junta, the number of vast complexes such as KK Park on the Thai-Myanmar border has doubled since 2021

ASPI's exclusive new report, shared with the
@theguardian.com, reveals that the number of scam centers operating along the Thai-Myanmar border has more than doubled since Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021

Read the Guardian's on-the-ground reporting:

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

China drilling for oil and gas inside Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone Exclusive: Experts say the move could be part of Beijing’s ‘greyzone’ grab for disputed territory

WOW. China is drilling for oil and gas inside Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone, a move that analysts believe is likely part of Beijing’s unilateral grab for disputed territory.

Great scoop from @heldavidson.bsky.social and @thejamestownfdn.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

“The sheer volume of Chinese investment has been so much larger than in the West,” Dr. Wong Leung said. “It meant they could build industries from the ground up, all the way through the supply chain.”

How China Went From Clean Energy Copycat to Global Innovator A surge in high quality research and patent applications has cemented China’s dominance in the industry.

In this article about China's green tech revolution, the New York Times cites ASPI's Critical Technology Tracker and my colleague Dr. Jenny Wong-Leung:

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I was today years old when I learned the final appendix to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense — the pamphlet that set fire to the Revolution — concludes with a firm rejection of “mingling religion with politics.”

The context is he’s fighting with Quakers he says aren’t Quakers, but he doesn’t mince words.

If the world doesn't know that protests are happening in China, it's very hard to assess the Chinese government’s assertions that its policies, and thus its governance model, are successful.

CDM’s work to document local protests "shows that China has serious social conflicts" that are "exacerbated by China’s political system," said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. "This is the opposite of what the Chinese government claims internationally."

The last public database tracking protests in China is about to go dark | The Strategist As global financiers tried in late 2024 to predict how much stimulus Xi Jinping would roll out to boost China’s faltering economy, government censorship of China’s economic data drove them to a surpri...

If the State Department doesn't renew funding for Freedom House's China Dissent Monitor, the world will lose an entire category of knowledge about how people in China are actually experiencing life under CCP governance.

Read my latest:

www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-last-pub...

"Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intel Cmte., led by … Marco Rubio."

Taiwan: I've finally discovered a country where everyone else apologizes to everyone else almost as much as I do, for non-infractions such as dropping a straw in front of a stranger and apologizing because now you have to stoop down in front of them to pick it up.

A collage depicting blimps, planes, drones, and ships trawling the sea and sky for digital devices and information.

NEW: A ChinaFile investigation into China's powerful, but leaky, internet censorship system at locknet.chinafile.com
1/21

There's a family in the coffee shop I'm at who are alternating between Farsi and German. The fact that I understand both these languages has basically never been useful in my career, but it does make me an A+ eavesdropper lol

Michele Bachmann says Christians should be thrilled about the Israel/Iran war: "We are living in the times that the Bible said that the prophets longed to see. The prophets of the Bible wanted to be alive now!"

The Robe and the Sword · Columbia Global Reports When the robe becomes a weapon, who can stop the violence? We think of Buddhism as a faith of peace—rooted in compassion, patience, and nonviolence. But across South and Southeast Asia today, the robe...

Wow, @columbiagr.bsky.social is keeping up its tradition of eye catching covers. I’ve loved the ones for my books with them and just saw the one they have for a forthcoming CGR that I can’t wait to read (by a writer I admire & on a topic of interest to me) globalreports.columbia.edu/books/the-ro...

Taiwan Is Rushing to Make Its Own Drones Before It's Too Late Unmanned vehicles are increasingly becoming essential weapons of war. But with a potential conflict with China looming large, Taiwan is scrambling to build a domestic drone industry from scratch.

It is increasingly clear that drones — from reconnaissance UAVs to long-range loitering missiles to uncrewed subs — are a fact of modern warfare.

Yet as it stare down the possibility of imminent Chinese invasion, Taiwan is struggling to build its own drone capability. www.wired.com/story/taiwan...

"toward"

New Zealand halts millions of dollars in aid to Cook Islands over deals struck with China Wellington says it has paused payment of some funding until Pacific island nation takes steps to ‘repair the relationship and restore trust’

AP: New Zealand has halted millions of dollars in funding to the Cook Islands over the “breadth and content” of agreements the smaller Pacific nation made with China, officials from the New Zealand foreign minister’s office has said

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Chinese embassy in Israel urges citizens to leave The Chinese embassy in Israel has urged Chinese citizens to return home or leave the country via land border crossings as soon as possible, on grounds that the security situation has deteriorated and Israeli airspace remained closed.

China tells its citizens in Israel to evacuate.

www.reuters.com/world/china/...

Denying Visas to Chinese Students Could Backfire on America

"Protecting the borders from espionage is essential. It’s something else to deny students because they are Chinese and hope to pursue a STEM degree in the United States."

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/b...

A British university’s technology entanglements with Russia and China | The Strategist A major British research university’s joint venture campus in China maintains partnerships and close links with entities sanctioned by Britain, the US, EU and others for supporting Russia’s invasion o...

Here is the link to our full research report: www.aspistrategist.org.au/a-british-un...

Liverpool university’s China JV has links to sanctioned entities, report says Think-tank highlights how Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University has come under scrutiny by the US and EU

Today @financialtimes.com has featured my team's latest research. Liverpool's China venture has extensive and close ties to sanctioned Russian and Chinese entities, including a new "China-Russia cooperation center," and partnerships with Chinese semiconductor groups.

www.ft.com/content/476d...

The second coming of Doug Wilson (RNS) — Conservatives are elevating long-controversial Idaho pastor Doug Wilson, framing him as a champion of a relatively moderate form of Christian nationalism — but critics say his ideas remain ext...

2. For the unfamiliar, here's a primer on Wilson, a rising star on the right who co-founded a denominations whose members include Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. religionnews.com/2024/05/31/t...

Hong Kong has declared six locations of Beijing’s national security office as “prohibited places,” including four hotels and the office’s future permanent sites in Kowloon.

hongkongfp.com/2025/05/13/h...