Keep pulling the thread on People's Liberation Army.
All countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands are within range of the People's Liberation Army's ballistic and cruise missiles.
In a 2024 survey of Southeast Asian elites, China surpassed the United States for the first time as the preferred alignment partner, with 50.5% choosing China versus 49.5% for the U.S.
In a 2024 survey of Southeast Asian elites, support for aligning with the United States dropped by 20 percentage points in both Malaysia and Indonesia.
The Gaza crisis was a likely tipping point that caused a decline in support for the United States among Southeast Asian elites.
In a 2024 survey, between 70% and 75% of elite respondents in the Muslim-majority countries of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei preferred alignment with China over the United States.
China has delivered operational major infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, including the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Rail in Indonesia and the Boten-Vientiane Railway in Laos.
China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) played a direct role in the Solomon Islands' decision to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China by offering Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare's government half a billion dollars.
China is actively positioning itself as the preferred internal security partner for Pacific Island nations by offering policing initiatives.
China is the largest supplier of infrastructure finance to Southeast Asia, providing more than the G7 and multilateral financial institutions combined.
China dominates the entire electric vehicle manufacturing supply chain in Southeast Asia, from nickel smelting to battery production and final assembly.
Outside of Singapore, Huawei is the primary telecommunications infrastructure provider in Southeast Asia.
Chinese companies have rapidly come to dominate the cloud computing market in many Southeast Asian countries through large investments in data centers, eroding a previous advantage held by Western firms.