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I don't think China is that interested. It has been shipping goods via rail to Europe for a few years now. Look at the current shipping crisis in the Red Sea. The rail service to Europe has become even higher in demand. China-Europe Railway Express stabilizes global supply chains amid security concerns in Red Sea

Originally, the "Nine Dash Line" was called the "Eleven Dash Line". The Eleven Dash Line was made by the Republic of China (ROC) aka Taiwan today back in 1947, before the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. If the PRC claims itself as the legitimate government of the whole of China, then it has no choice but to inherit the Eleven Dash Line claim that the ROC had made, 2 years earlier. What exactly did China did to Hong Kong before the series of protests and later rioting? Nothing. It did not interfere in the running of Hong Kong until things get out of hand by imposing the National Security Laws. Mind you, under Hong Kong's mini constitution, the Basic Law, Hong Kong was required under Article 23 to enact a national security law on its own but it failed to do so because its weak politicians easily succumb to protests. The failure to enact a national security law had allowed foreign forces to make use of gullible youths to cause trouble in Hong Kong. Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 The former Soviet Union was a federation, not a unitary state. Russia itself, is a federation, so if the Donbas region of Ukraine wants to join it, are they allowed to?

I'm a Cantonese speaking Chinese Malaysian. If you are not an ethnic Chinese like me, I don't think you can understand the mentality of these Hongkies (we called them that) that "fled" to the UK. If you really want to understand these people, read the following article written by someone who I think is a Westerner: Hong Kong Riots Have Nothing to Do With Human Rights, Everything to Do With HK’s Superiority Complex I know this as a fact because Hongkies look down on all other ethnic Chinese from anywhere, whether from the Mainland or from Southeast Asia.

I'm not from the US, but in Malaysia, we did study a bit of American history. I don't remember the Confederate States were allowed to secede peacefully from the United States in the American Civil War. And the United States is a federation. But China was never a federation. China has been a unitary state for thousands of years.

Malaysia is seeing a surge in China tourists recently, not sure if it was due to the new visa-free policy or if the tourists were trying to escape winter.

Youth unemployment figures can be misleading, especially if the overall unemployment rate in China is 5%. College enrolment in China surged from 35% in 2017 to 65% in 2023. Should we count those who are studying as unemployed? At what cut-off age that we should count those youths to be unemployed? 23? What if they continue to do their masters degrees or PhDs? If there is a difficulty in getting an accurate picture, might as well get rid of it, instead of presenting a misleading picture. Many factories that have moved to Vietnam from China are owned by Chinese businesses. And many of them have moved long before the start of the trade war by Trump because labour costs in China were no longer low. But these factories still have to import lots of raw materials and parts from factories in China, which are now more and more automated. The West has always been doubtful of China numbers. That's why they get a rude shock when they visit China cities. Western "China experts" have been predicting the collapse of China for decades. I think they may get a better hit if they start predicting when the West would collapse.

Malaysian visitors highest in China after 15-day visa-free travel kicks in Can't wait to visit China again, next year.

With a Muslim separatist problem in the south, not easy for Thailand to negotiate for a visa-free status with China. Malaysians like me are luckier: From Dec. 1, citizens of five European countries and Malaysia can enter China without a visa

The Chinese (25% of the population) contribute more in taxes than the Malays (65% of the population). It's economic suicide to chase out the Chinese, who dominate in business. That happened to Burma (now Myanmar). Burma used to be the richest country in Southeast Asia. After the British left, the Burmese forced its Chinese population to leave by nationalising their businesses. It turned the country into the poorest in Southeast Asia. Chinese Malaysians, generally do not visit those East Coast states. Too backward and too many restrictions, very difficult to do business. I can say that almost all the towns and cities in Malaysia were founded by the Chinese. Even in the predominant Malay towns or villages, the commercial center is usually the Chinese-populated area.

Malaysian here. Most Chinese Malaysians go over to Hat Yai for shopping and dining. Most Malay Malaysians (Muslims) too go over to Hat Yai for shopping and dining. Kelantan Malays are more likely to visit Sungai Kolok instead of Hat Yai because of the distance. Of course, some Malays do go over to Thailand for things that they have been forbidden from, but the Chinese do not have those restrictions, so there are nightclubs, bars, etc. in the 11 states not ruled by the Islamic Party, which is in control of 3 states (Kelantan, Trengganu and Kedah). Chinese Malaysians have other more exciting entertainment options which you cannot get in Thailand: Yes, Malaysia is not exactly an Islamic country.

Here's another story from Malaysia. Location of abduction: Thailand. Location of scam operation: Myanmar. Parents Bring Home 23-Year-Old's Ashes Who Died After He Was Scammed & Abused In Myanmar The long porous border with Myanmar presents a huge challenge to the Thai authorities in preventing the cross border trafficking of humans.

Not difficult to search for the movie for viewing online. It has English subtitles. Can learn something from the movie.

Have you watched the movie? I have. Of course the scammers were Chinese. Nothing in the movie portrayed other races as the scammers. Was Thailand mentioned in the movie? No. But if you have watched the movie, you too would most likely conclude that the abduction happened in Bangkok. Where was the location of the scam operation? No country was mentioned. But most would conclude that it was somewhere in Myanmar. Is the threat of being abducted in Thailand real? Here is a story from our Malaysian newspaper: Kidnapped in Thailand: When 'friends' sell you to human trafficking syndicates

China's economy crashing idea is just nonsense - China tourists are staying away from Thailand because of the fear of getting kidnapped by cyber-scammers operating in Myanmar and Cambodia. The Siam Paragon shooting just gave them an additional reason to avoid Thailand.

Let's see if Malaysia has a better luck in getting more tourists from China: Malaysians to get 15-day visa-free travel to China; to reciprocate with 30-day visa-free travel China announces visa-free travel for five European countries and Malaysia

I think the reason why you have to get off Malaysian trains at Padang Besar is because the tracks in Thailand are not electrified, not because they are of a different gauge. The existing tracks between Kuala Lumpur and Padang Besar are of meter gauge, same like in Thailand. Apart from using electricity, the line from Kuala Lumpur to Padang Besar is a double-track one, so there is less need for trains to stop often to let other trains pass. The double-tracking project in Malaysia also eliminated all level crossings, so trains crashing into cars have long become a thing of the past. The new East Coast Rail Link from Kota Bharu to Kuala Lumpur that is currently being built is of standard gauge.

Everyone can have their opinions, I only look at facts and the 2 professors provided lots of facts. The fact here is that Sri Lanka got into financial trouble because of the costly sovereign bonds that it had issued, not because of the Hambantota port loan. It is a well known fact that the huge bulk (90 to 95%) of the debts owed by developing countries around the world are to Western countries, Japan, the IMF and the World Bank but somehow China was highly demonized for its small share of ownership of the debts. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what is going on - banks from other countries, especially Western ones, cannot stand the competition from China.

But if it was a trap, someone must set it up. The Chinese obviously did not. They just lend the money because they have too much to lend. It's like a real estate agent trying to sell you a very costly property. He doesn't care who you are going to borrow from. He is the initiator of the debt trap.

These 2 professors from Harvard and Johns Hopkins really did a good job researching the subject: The Chinese ‘Debt Trap’ Is a Myth As said in the wiki article, China was not even involved in the beginning. It was the Canadians and the Danes that did the feasibility studies. I particularly like this paragraph from the above article:

Looks like you didn't know anything about Taiwan's original claim. Here's the 1947 claim by the ROC (called the 11-dash line map). To appease Vietnam, the PRC removed 2-dashes from the original Taiwan claim, becoming the 9-dash line map. The irony here is that Vietnam's later claim itself is just slightly smaller than Taiwan's. Just to remind you that many nations in the region have overlapping claims against each other, not just with China.

Yes, tell that to the ROC. The government that first made the South China Sea claims was not the People's Republic of China. It was the Republic of China (aka Taiwan) that first made that claim back in 1947 (before the founding of the PRC), with the blessing of the United States. In 1946, the ROC had sent warships which were given by the US to occupy the Spratlys and Paracels islands. Some of the islands were named after the ROC warships that were sent there. Here's one of the warship: USS Decker aka ROCS Tai Ping

Both Malaysia and Thailand are weird countries. Normally, one would only go overseas to work as labourers if jobs are unavailable locally. But both Malaysia and Thailand have millions of foreign workers.

China is a major bully? Then the US is considered as what? A hyper-bully? The rest of the world has suffered terribly from bullying by Western powers for the past few centuries until today. Ever since the founding of the PRC, China has shown to the US, the UK, the Soviet Union and India that it cannot be pushed around any more. Other countries were not so lucky, including even a big power like Russia, which failed to stop the expansion of NATO. Spreading rumours is a form of bullying, didn't you learn that in school?

Unsubstantiated rumour treated as fact? Even the Taiwan defence ministry refuted it. In 2022, Xi was rumoured to be under house arrest when he was not seen for a few weeks after returning home from overseas. This year, Xi was rumoured to have suffered an aneurysm after he was reported to be skipping the G20 summit. But some people just love these anti-China rumours.