The Economist
In Myanmar, Facebook struggles with a deluge of disinformation
Mg Mg Kyaw can still remember the day he got his first mobile phone. It was 2012, and Myanmar was emerging from decades under the heel of a military junta. In a country where GDP per person was $1,000, sim cards, which sold for as much ...
If China won’t build fewer dams, it could at least share information
River flow downhill, which in much of Asia means they start on the Tibetan plateau before cascading away to the east, west and south. Those steep descents provide the ideal setting for hydropower projects. And since Tibet is part of China, Chinese engineers have been ...
South-East Asia’s biggest river is drying up
ish writhe frantically in the shallow pool, as their schoolmates stranded on the exposed sandbar breathe their last. It is November, the end of the monsoon season, yet the water in the Mekong river is perilously low. On this stretch, in north-eastern Thailand, the bank is ...
South-East Asia is sprouting Chinese enclaves
In a remote part of northern Laos, the bamboo forest gives way to cranes. A city is being carved out of jungle: tower blocks cloaked in scaffolding loom over restaurants, karaoke bars and massage parlours. The beating heart of Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (so ...
Methamphetamines from Myanmar are causing problems across Asia
The Chinese cemetery in Kutkai, a town in the north of Myanmar’s Shan state, is a popular spot to get high. Twitchy men with gaunt faces and wild eyes lurk near its entrance. The ornate tombs provide a good place to stash drugs and weapons ...
