Asia Insight

Assessing Indo-Pacific AI Governance and Risk

As part of The Evolution of AI Governance and Regulation in the Indo-Pacific project at NBR, this Asia Insight episode features NBR Senior Director of Research and Programs Doug Strub sitting down with Mr. Renan Araujo and Ms. Husan Chahal as they discuss AI risks and the role of multilateral organizations in AI governance.

Renan Araujo is the Director of Programs at the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy.

Husan Chahal is an AI policy researcher currently working as a Senior AI Risk Analyst for the AI Risk Explorer Project at the Observatorio de Riesgos Catastroficos Globales. She is also a Nonresident Fellow at NBR.

Doug Strub is Senior Director of Research and Programs at NBR.

AI Governance and Regulation in Southeast Asia

As part of The Evolution of AI Governance and Regulation in the Indo-Pacific project at NBR, this Asia Insight episode features NBR Senior Director of Research and Programs Doug Strub sitting down with Mr. Nigel Cory and Dr. Karryl Kim Sagun Trajano as they discuss AI governance in Southeast Asia, and opportunities and challenges for ASEAN countries to collaborate with the United States in shaping a future AI agenda.

Nigel Cory is a Nonresident Fellow at NBR and is a Director with Crowell Global Advisors. His November 2025 paper on "Codeveloping the Model: U.S. and ASEAN Cooperation in Shaping and Deploying AI" can be viewed at https://www.nbr.org/publication/codeveloping-the-model-u-s-and-asean-cooperation-in-shaping-and-deploying-ai/.

Doug Strub is Senior Director of Research and Programs at NBR.

Karryl Kim Sagun Trajano is a Research Fellow for Future Issues and Technology in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her September 2025 paper on "Charting ASEAN’s Path to AI Governance: Uneven Yet Gaining Ground" can be viewed at https://www.nbr.org/publication/charting-aseans-path-to-ai-governance-uneven-yet-gaining-ground/.

Documenting China’s Borderlands – Episode 6: In Russia's Shadow

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR.

Episode Six: In Russia's Shadow

This sixth episode unpacks how China has managed to significantly increase its presence in Central Asia across four key domains (political, economic, people-to-people, and security), in what Russia considers a “region of privileged interests,” part of its so-called “near abroad.”

With Bradley Jardine (Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs), Nargis Kassenova (Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University), Edward Lemon (Oxus Society for Central Asian Affairs), and Temur Umarov (Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center). 

Materials cited or referenced in the recording

• Xi Jinping, “Championing the China-Central Asia Spirit for High Quality Cooperation in the Region,” Speech at the Second China-Central Asia Summit, June 17, 2025.
• “Wang Yi on Neighborhood Diplomacy: Harmony is Key to a Prosperous Family in All Endeavors,” Press Conference, March 7, 2025.
• Hu Hao [胡昊] China’s Achievements and Challenges in Promoting the Construction of a Community of Shared Future for Mankind in Central Asia [中国在中亚地区推进人类民运共同体建设的成就和挑战] Contemporary China and the World no.4, 2024.
• Bradley Jardine, Edward Lemon, Backlash: China’s Struggle for Influence in Central Asia (Oxford University Press, December 2025).
• Bradley Jardine, Edward Lemon, “China Is Using Vocational Training Centers to Rebuild Its Image in Central Asia,” Carnegie Politika, October 6, 2025.

Recommended additional readings

• Nicola Di Cosmo, Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
• Craig Benjamin, Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE-250 CE (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
• Dan Markey, China’s Western Horizon: Beijing and the New Geopolitics of Eurasia (Oxford University Press, 2020).
• Adina Masalbekova, Nigora Tangatarova, "What Happens to Central Asian Youth After Following China’s ‘Educational Silk Road?’" The Diplomat, December 29, 2023. https://thediplomat.com/2023/12/what-happens-to-central-asian-youth-after-following-chinas-educational-silk-road/

Power, Risk, and Opportunity in Asia in 2026

This first Asia Insight episode of 2026 features NBR President Michael Wills in discussion with NBR colleagues Jeremy Rausch, Nadège Rolland, and Doug Strub on their outlooks for U.S.-Asia policy and the Indo-Pacific more broadly in the year ahead.

Jeremy Rausch is Director of Political and Security Affairs at NBR.

Nadège Rolland is Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR.

Doug Strub is Senior Director of Research and Programs at NBR.

Michael Wills is President of NBR.

Documenting China’s Borderlands – 2025 Recap and Look Ahead to 2026

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR.

In this special episode, NBR Project Manager Alayna Bone sits down with NBR Distinguished Fellow for China Studies Nadège Rolland to look back at NBR’s Mapping China’s Strategic Space: Borderlands project, what we have learned so far, and to share some highlights of what is in store for 2026.

Documenting China’s Borderlands – Episode 5: The Himalayan Rim

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR.

Episode Five: The Himalayan Rim

China’s growing economic and political power is redrawing the map of South Asia as a cluster of countries centered around its Himalayan borderlands, connecting its land neighbors through infrastructure building and economic corridors, while redefining the region’s governance norms according to the so-called "Chinese model."

This fifth episode, recorded in New Delhi with Professor Jabin T. Jacob (Shiv Nadar Institute of Eminence, India), Shruti Jargad (Australian Strategic Policy Institute), and Dr. Constantino Xavier (Center for Social and Economic Progress, India) takes a look at the many facets of China’s increased presence in the Himalayan region.

Materials cited or referenced in the recording

• Constantino Xavier and Jabin T. Jacob (Eds.) “How China Engages in South Asia: In the Open and Behind the Scenes,” CSEP Report, July 2025.
• Constantino Xavier and Jabin T. Jacob (Eds.) “How China Engages in South Asia: Themes, Partners and Tools,” CSEP Report, May 2023.
• Shruti Jargad and Constantino Xavier, “Semantics as Strategy: Interpreting China’s Official Discourse on South Asia,” CSEP Working Paper 103, September 2025.
• National Land Borders Law of the People’s Republic of China (adopted on October 23, 2021 and officially in effect as of January 1, 2022) https://www.mfa.gov.cn/web/wjb_673085/zzjg_673183/bjhysws_674671/bhflfg/ldfxzhxfl/202303/P020230313533924391693.pdf. 

Recommended additional readings

• The PRC’s Land Borders Law, USINDOPACOM J06/SJA TACAID Series, October 23, 2023 https://www.pacom.mil/Portals/55/Documents/Legal/J06%20TACAID%20-%20PRC%20LAND%20BORDERS%20LAW%20-%20FINAL.pdf.

 

Documenting China’s Borderlands – Episode 4: The Great Wall of Villages

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR.

Episode Four: The Great Wall of Villages

Since 2016, China has been building or refurbishing several hundreds of so-called “xiaokang (well-off) villages” along its Borderlands, complete with new infrastructure and an increased security presence. Some of these villages have been built on Bhutan’s sovereign territory. 

This fourth episode trails the strategic motives and the unfolding development of China’s border villages revitalization campaign. With contributions from Japneet Kaur (Center of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, Shiv Nadar University, India), Professor James Leibold (La Trobe University, Australia) and Professor Robert Barnett (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Lau China Institute, King’s College, United Kingdom).

Materials cited or referenced in the recording

• “South China Sea: What’s China’s Plan for Its ‘Great Wall of Sand’?” BBC, July 14, 2020 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53344449.
• Muyi Xiao, Agnes Chang, “China’s Great Wall of Villages,” New York Times, August 8, 2024 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/08/10/world/asia/china-border-villages.html.
• Robert Barnett, “Forceful Diplomacy: China’s Cross-Border Villages in Bhutan,” Turquoise Roof Bulletin, October 15, 2024 https://turquoiseroof.org/forceful-diplomacy-china-cross-border-villages-in-bhutan/.
• Japneet Kaur, Devendra Kumar, Jabin T. Jacob, “Beyond the Military Prism: China’s Development Objectives in Xiaokang Villages in Tibet Autonomous Region,” Shiv Nadar University Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies Occasional Paper no.4 (February 2025) https://snu.edu.in/centres/centre-of-excellence-for-himalayan-studies/research/beyond-the-military-prism-chinas-development-objectives-in-xiaokang-villages-in-tibet-autonomous-region/.
• Sun Chunri [孙春日]  “Population Loss in the Border Areas between China and North Korea, and Countermeasures：A Case Study of Yanbian Korean Ethnic Minority Autonomous Prefecture” [中朝边境地区人口流失及对策 – 以延边朝鲜族自治州为列] Journal of Northern Minzu University no.93 (2010).
• Yang Minghong [样明洪]  and Wang Zhoubo [王周博]  “Types, Causes and Governance of the ‘Hollowing Out’ of China’s Land Border Regions” [我国陆地边境地区 ‘空心化’ 的类型、成因与治理] Journal of Sichuan Normal University 47 no.6 (2020).
• “Xi Jinping Delivers an Important Speech at the Second Xinjiang Work Forum”  [习近平在第二次中央新疆工作谈会上发表重要讲话]  People’s Daily, May 30, 2014.
• Owen Lattimore, The Inner Asian Frontiers of China, 1940.

Glossary of Chinese terms used in the recording

• 边境小康村 bianjing xiaokang cun: border areas moderately-prosperous (or well-off) villages
• 成都山地所 Chengdu shandi suo: Chengdu Mountain Institute (a research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
• 三农问题 sannong wenti: “Three rural problems”(nongmin 农民rural people, nongcun 农村rural areas, nongye 农业rural production)
• 兴边副民行动 xingbian fumin xingdong: “Border Revitalization and Prosperous Residents Program” (a State campaign aimed at boosting economic development along China’s borderlands launched in 1998)
• 治国必治边、治边先稳藏 zhiguo bi zhibian, zhibian xian wen zang: “To govern the country, one must govern the borders; to govern the borders, one must first stabilize Tibet” (Xi Jinping addressing a delegation of officials from the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 2013 https://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2013/0902/c64102-22771651.html)
• 空心化 kongxinhua: hollowing out
• 神圣国土守护者 shensheng guotu shouhuzhe: “Guardians of the sacred lands”
• 中华民族 zhonghua minzu: Chinese nation

South Korea’s Competition Policy and Its Impacts on U.S.-ROK Trade

This episode of Asia Insight complements an ongoing NBR initiative examining Indo-Pacific approaches to digital regulations and competition policy, with this episode focusing on Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) enforcement activities targeting U.S. firms, featuring NBR Senior Director of Research and Programs Doug Strub in conversation with NBR Advisor Tami Overby and NBR Nonresident Fellow Nigel Cory.

Nigel Cory is a Nonresident Fellow at NBR and is a Director with Crowell Global Advisors.

Tami Overby is a member of the Board of Advisors at NBR and is a Partner at DGA Group Government Relations.

Doug Strub is Senior Director of Research and Programs at NBR.

Documenting China’s Borderlands – Episode 3: The Opening-Up/Securitization Paradox

From the National Bureau of Asian Research, an Asia Insight miniseries exploring the geostrategic significance of China’s borderlands, led by Nadège Rolland, Distinguished Fellow for China Studies at NBR.

Episode Three: The Opening-Up/Securitization Paradox

Since the early 1990s, China’s borderlands have played a crucial role in the central government’s "opening-up" program. However, starting in the mid-2010s, at the same time as the Belt and Road Initiative was supposed to accelerate China’s opening-up to the rest of the world, Beijing also began to harden the security of its borders – a trend intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This third episode examines the tension between prioritizing openness and maintaining security. With contributions from Professor Victor Konrad (Carleton University, Canada), and Professor Alessandro Rippa (University of Oslo, Norway).

Materials cited or referenced in the recording

• Zhuang Rui [庄芮], Song Huike [宋荟柯], Zhang Xiaojing [张晓静], "Strategic Considerations on China’s Border Opening-Up: Historical Logic and Forward Direction" [我国沿边开放战略思考：历史逻辑与推进方向] Chinese Economy and Trade, no.7 (2021).
• "More Indulgence, My Dear Friend? Why China Is Grudgingly Mending Ties with North Korea," The Economist, September 27, 2025.

Glossary of Chinese terms used in the recording

• Xibu dakaifa 西部大开发 Great Development of the West / Great Western Development

Recommended additional readings

• Zhiding Hu and Victor Konrad, "Repositioning Security Spaces of Exclusion, Exception, and Integration in China-Southeast Asia Borderlands," Regions & Cohesion 11, no. 2 (Summer 2021).
• Thomas Ptak, Jussi P. Laine, Zhiding Hu, Yuli Liu, Victor Konrad, Martin van der Velde, "Understanding Borders Through Dynamic Processes: Capturing Relational Motion from South-West China’s Radiation Centre," Territory, Politics, Governance 10, no.2 (2022).
• Alessandro Rippa, Borderland Infrastructures: Trade, Development, and Control in Western China (Amsterdam University Press, 2020).
• Alessandro Rippa, "Mapping the Margins of China’s Global Ambitions: Economic Corridors, Silk Roads, and the End of Proximity in the Borderlands," Eurasian Geography and Economics 61, no.1 (2020).
• Zhang Zheren [张哲人] Li Wei [李慰] "Comprehensively Optimizing the Regional Opening-Up" [全面优化区域开放布局] Hongqi no.16 (2023).
• Guo Yinhong [郭垠宏] Song Tao [宋涛] Sun Man [孙曼] "The Functional Evolution and Temporal Division of China’s Border Regions in the Context of the Security-Development-Opening Up Nexus" [安全、发展与开放关联下的中国边境地区功能演化及时段划分] Geographical Research 42, no.10 (October 2023).

Critical Minerals: Analyzing U.S. and Indonesian Strategies and Approaches

On this episode of Asia Insight, NBR Senior Director of Research and Programs Doug Strub sits down with NBR Advisor Meredith Miller and SAFE Senior Policy Analyst Zoe Oysul to discuss U.S. and Indonesian critical minerals strategies and opportunities and challenges for the two countries to work together within the larger geopolitical context.

Meredith Miller is a member of the Board of Advisors at NBR and is a Senior Advisor at DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group.

Zoe Oysul is a Senior Policy Analyst at SAFE’s Center for Critical Minerals Strategy.

Doug Strub is Senior Director of Research and Programs at NBR.