JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA

OfficialTwitter of JLPW CROSS BORDER ASIA, an interdisciplinary professional services network of 150 strategic advisers led by law firm Jeff Leong, Poon & Wong

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

We solve jugular problems for international businesses crossing disciplinary, jurisdictional and cultural borders.

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@ctindale Interdependence is the industrial version of mutually assured destruction in the event of conflict. War was to be avoided and conflicts resolved at the table for mutually assured prosperity.

[Carl Zha @CarlZha]

Alien in China

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@sesthegreat_ 48

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@darshal_ All

[AMRO (ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office) @amro_asia]

Geopolitics, pandemic aftershocks, and rapid tech change are reshaping Asia’s production networks. Firms are shifting parts of their operations as ASEAN's appeal as an alternative hub continues to rise. How can Asia thrive and move ahead in the next era of global value chains?

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@RnaudBertrand Brilliant. This will be the bargaining chips around which a new mutual dependency, governance and international multilateral order will be built. Enlightened ESG will deny military usage for those technologies and promote peace coexistence

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@RnaudBertrand @etinHelvetiaEgo @mahbubani_k Why did the attempted subjugation fail?

I think mutual dependency in integrated supply chains and each other’s economy is too deep to tear asunder without mutually assured economic destruction. The road to peaceful coexistence is deeper integration and dependency?

[Nury Vittachi @NuryVittachi]

CHINA BROUGHT A GIFT to the United Nations’ 80th General Assembly session yesterday: soil and rocks from "the dark side of the moon”.

It was powerfully symbolic.

The country was as poor as the least developed African nations in the 1960s, when the super-rich US was making its pioneering voyages to the moon—but China has developed so speedily that it can today send spacecraft to the moon and share in humanity’s sci-fi adventure.

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CHOOSE FRIENDSHIP
China’s number two leader, Premier Li Qiang, had a more direct message to the world, too: humanity should choose China-style international collaboration, not the US strategy of dividing and polarizing the world. And although he did not mention Washington directly, it was clear who he was talking about.

He lamented the decision of some to focus on “tariff hikes and erection of walls and barriers” and pointed out that: “Solidarity lifts everyone up, while division drags us all down.”

Humanity was “at a crossroads” but “the Great Way remains smooth and steadfast”.

Li called for other countries to share China’s opposition to the revival of Cold War divisionism. “A single flower does not make spring,” he said.

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THE REAL CHALLENGE
Instead of focusing on the major countries, let’s give every nation respect, he said. “All countries, big or small” should be “treated as equals” he said.

The world needed to urgently unite against real challenges such as climate change. “We must respond with concerted efforts and protect our shared home,” Li said.

He also indirectly referred to the way the west insists their version of governance is the only correct one and must be followed by every nation. In contrast, we “never impose our ways on others”, he said. (Economists have pointed out that China doesn’t even impose its system on itself, with multiple “special economic zones” with different rules.)
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DIFFERENT SKIN COLORS

Li, 66, normally a dry and formal speaker who prefers to talk about economics, let a little personal reflection into his speech too.

“Arriving at the U.N. headquarters this time, I saw over 190 national flags lined up in front of the building and fluttering in the breeze,” he said.

He shared his pleasure at seeing sculptures with an anti-weapons theme, showing swords being beaten into ploughshares (farm implements).

“And I saw staff members from different regions, of different races, and with different skin colors working in collaboration for the common goals of humanity,” he said.

“What I saw got me thinking: Those people, objects, and scenes that embody peace, progress, and development are exactly why we choose to commemorate victory. They’re also what inspires us to forge ahead, hand in hand.”

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HUMANITY WILL FIND THE TAO

There was another hidden message delivered too. And that was Li’s very presence, representing China at this all-important meeting. The New York Times and other commentators like to present leader Xi Jinping as a sole dictator-like master over 1.4 billion people.

But clearly China’s leadership has many good people—and Xi’s decision to send Li to represent the country at this key event showed that to the world.

Li closed with a reference to the “way” – the age-old Chinese belief that if humans behave with wisdom they can forge a path, or a Tao, to a harmonious, cohesive society.

While each day’s news may contain details of conflicts, seen on a longer timescale, humanity can develop positively. “The tide of history surges forward, and the Great Way remains smooth and steadfast,” Li said.

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[Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, spoke at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 26, 2025]

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@Senecat123 Maybe he’s just showing off with low blow sound bites? Or he forgot Malaysia’s role as ASEAN Chair this year.

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@typesfast There will be a mad scramble for feeder ships, old and new

[Raghu @IndiaTales7]

Thread of the Most Mysterious Places on Earth🧵

1. Gunung Padang in Indonesia ~The World’s Oldest Pyramid.

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@YashengHuang MacKinder geopolitics. Heartland = central area of Eurasia, which includes parts of modern-day Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia.

“Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; who rules the World-Island commands the world.”

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@onlydjole Somehow, I wish those who produce rare earth metals will comply with UNGPs on Business and Human Rights, supercharge ESG and deny supply of rare metals for use in producing military weapons. We need to avoid escalating the arms race towards nuclear Armageddon

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@thinking_panda “On December 8, 1939, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith issued a decree allowing Catholics to participate in ancestors’ veneration.

…This 1939 instruction, known as “Plane compertum est” was approved by Pope Pius XII”

https://t.co/1JPRC1c2fO

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@kvng_baff Dr Goh said, “Now I’m going to let you into what has been a state secret up to now. This is a file which I call Albatross.”

https://t.co/SvO9JrB15N

[Cam Kerry @cam_kerry]

Efforts to consolidate international AI governance are premature and ill-suited to the complex challenges of governing advanced AI. Curent diverse, decentralized efforts are a feature, not a bug. https://t.co/rQdOPDeKOw

[Zlatti71 @Zlatti_71]

‼️🇺🇸🇷🇺US Secretary of State Marco Rubio unexpectedly repeats the main ideas of the Russian President

▪️The new US Secretary of State unexpectedly voiced the main essence of Vladimir Putin's ideas about the multipolarity of the world, and in many ways Rubio's words correlate with the famous Munich speech of the Russian President:

➖"Our foreign policy must defend the national interests of the United States. The world has always been built according to these rules. The Chinese defend the interests of China. The Russians defend the interests of Russia. The Chileans defend the interests of Chile. And the Americans need to defend the interests of the United States ...

➖This [rule] was lost after the Cold War, when we remained the only superpower. We took on the responsibility of being a global government, trying to solve every problem in the world. Yes, terrible things are happening in the world. Some of them concern our national interests, and we must take them into account.

➖But a unipolar world is not normal. It was an anomaly, a product of the end of the Cold War. We will have to return to a multipolar world with great powers in different regions. We see this in China and Russia; in rogue states like Iran and North Korea. We must not forget that U.S. foreign policy must defend our national interests,” Rubio said.

▪️It is interesting that the Trump administration is generally raising the banners of what Putin has been promoting for decades: traditional values, the fight against neoliberalism and all sorts of perversions, the protection of national interests and multipolarity.
- RVvoenkor

[JLPW CROSSBORDERASIA @jlpwcrossborder]

@dmartkc @ryangrim @RnaudBertrand It’s Negotiation dynamics - the deal is done lightning fast with Mexico.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

It's becoming clearer and clearer that we're looking at a seismic shift in the US's relationship with the world, between:

1) The US dismantling its foreign interference apparatuses (like USAID 👇)
2) Marco Rubio stating that we're now in a multipolar world with "multi-great powers in different parts of the planet" (https://t.co/dyHpStHPsO) and that "the postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us" (https://t.co/TPOksRgnwP)
3) The tariffs on supposed "allies" like Mexico, Canada or the EU

This is the US effectively saying "our attempt at running the world is over, to each his own, we're now just another great power, not the 'indispensable nation'."

It looks "dumb" (as the WSJ just wrote) if you are still mentally in the old paradigm but it's always a mistake to think that what the US (or any country) does is dumb.

Hegemony was going to end sooner or later, and now the U.S. is basically choosing to end it on its own terms. It is the post-American world order - brought to you by America itself.

Even the tariffs on allies, viewed under this angle, make sense, as it redefines the concept of "allies": they don't want - or maybe rather can't afford - vassals anymore, but rather relationships that evolve based on current interests.

You can either view it as decline - because it does unquestionably look like the end of the American empire - or as avoiding further decline: controlled withdrawal from imperial commitments in order to focus resources on core national interests rather than being forced into an even messier retreat at a later stage.

In any case it is the end of an era and, while the Trump administration looks like chaos to many observers, they're probably much more attuned to the changing realities of the world and their own country's predicament than their predecessors. Acknowledging the existence of a multipolar world and choosing to operate within it rather than trying to maintain an increasingly costly global hegemony couldn't be delayed much further. It looks messy but it is probably better than maintaining the fiction of American primacy until it eventually collapses under its own weight.

This is not to say that the U.S. won't continue to wreak havoc on the world, and in fact we might be seeing it become even more aggressive than before. Because when it previously was (badly, and very hypocritically) trying to maintain some semblance of self-proclaimed "rules-based order", it now doesn't even have to pretend it is under any constraint, not even the constraint of playing nice with allies. It's the end of the U.S. empire, but definitely not the end of the U.S. as a major disruptive force in world affairs.

All in all this transformation may mark one of the most significant shifts in international relations since the fall of the Soviet Union. And those most unprepared for it, as is already painfully obvious, are America's vassals caught completely flat-footed by the realization that the patron they've relied on for decades is now treating them as just another set of countries to negotiate with.