Recent remarks from Chinese president Xi Jinping suggest we may be on the cusp of a third wave of state attempts to influence and pressure.
Public exchanges between the US and Chinese embassies in Yangon have echoes from the Cold War that test Myanmar’s neutralist stance.
Despite new democratic freedoms, a tendency towards conformity in Myanmar politics and society is destined to reproduce autocracy.
In countries undergoing a transition to democracy, deeply engrained social and intellectual tendencies are often at odds with idealistic international political norms.
