The change in nighttime illumination around Myawaddy between 2021 and 2024, with specific scam centre locations annotated. Navy blue shows an increase in nighttime illumination, and red shows a decrease.

The specific location of 27 identified scam compounds in Myawaddy township along the Thai border:

In Myanmar, scame compounds have become so ubiquitous in several areas that the language has developed a specific moniker, Kyar Phyant, borrowed from the Chinese word for ‘scam’

Read @aspi-org.bsky.social's full report here. Through extensive satellite imagery analysis, @nrg8000.bsky.social shows that scam compounds along the Thai-Myanmar border have grown from 11 dedicated compounds to 30 since the junta took power in 2021.

“The sheer volume of Chinese investment has been so much larger than in the West,” Dr. Wong Leung said. “It meant they could build industries from the ground up, all the way through the supply chain.”

ASPI has just launched a Taiwan newsletter! Our weekly "State of the Strait" is a data-based approach to tracking of all the ways China is putting the squeeze on Taiwan.

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The Trump admin's response, filed by Pete Marocco, the new Director of the Office of Foreign Assistance at State, states that the administration will continue its freeze on funds for both USAID and State:

NEW: The Trump administration has just told a federal judge in a court filing that it will not comply with the court's order to resume funding for USAID and State Department foreign assistance.

🥰 This NYT article includes Axios as part of the Washington Post "peer group": "

The New York Times, The Washington Post, Axios and Politico"

New ASPI report: We identify several prominent Chinese companies that are putting persuasive technologies to work for China’s propaganda, military and public-security agencies.

What are persuasive technologies and why does this matter for democracies? Keep reading: