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China’s AI Disinformation Threat Demands Democratic Resilience

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  The latest revelations about China-linked online influence operations should be treated as more than another episode in the long-running contest over information. They point to a fundamental transformation in cognitive warfare: artificial intelligence is making it cheaper, faster and easier for states and their proxies to manufacture the appearance of public opinion. The danger is not simply that artificial intelligence can create false information. The more consequential development is its ability to combine falsehoods with genuine grievances, authentic news, realistic images and apparently independent voices. This makes manipulation considerably harder to distinguish from legitimate democratic debate. Recent investigations provide a warning. OpenAI reported in June 2026 that it disrupted China-linked clusters using ChatGPT to generate social-media comments and images designed to influence American debates over data centres, AI policy and tariffs. One operation created mater...
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When Academic Disputes Become Human Tragedies

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  The death of Professor Jason Arday has become more than a tragic episode in British academia. It is a warning about what can happen when allegations of academic misconduct, institutional accountability, media scrutiny, social-media amplification and personal vulnerability collide. Arday, who became Cambridge University’s youngest Black professor in 2023, resigned on August 5 after intense scrutiny over allegations concerning plagiarism, his academic record and aspects of his personal history. He was found dead in London days later. Police have said his death was unexpected and not being treated as suspicious. It would be wrong, however, to conclude that the allegations caused his death. That causal connection has not been established. Equally, it would be wrong to ignore the extraordinary sequence of events preceding his death. His family described a sustained campaign of abuse and misinformation, while supporters criticised the scale and tone of media coverage. Arday him...
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Malaysia Needs a Stronger Defence Strategy

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  Malaysia’s 10th-place position in the Lowy Institute’s 2025 Asia Power Index should be read not as a measure of national prestige, but as a strategic warning. Malaysia is classified as a middle power with significant diplomatic, economic and cultural influence, yet its military capability ranks only 17th among 27 countries and territories. This imbalance raises an important question: does Malaysia’s defence strategy adequately match the strategic environment it faces? The answer is increasingly uncertain. Malaysia’s overall power score of 20.6 reflects a country whose influence exceeds its hard-power capacity. Its diplomatic influence ranks ninth, economic relationships eighth and cultural influence sixth. Military capability, however, stands at 17th. This disparity has allowed Malaysia to pursue strategic autonomy and maintain constructive relations with competing major powers, but it also exposes a potential vulnerability: diplomacy can reduce tensions, but it cannot substitute...
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Autonomous Warfare Needs Sovereign Security — Part II

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  The K3 Scout controversy should not be reduced to a question of whether a camera sent harmless technical signals to an internet address in China. The more important question is whether Britain and its allies have fully adapted their security thinking to an era in which military capability increasingly depends on commercial electronics, software, cloud infrastructure, communications networks and globally distributed supply chains. If the answer is no, the consequences could extend far beyond one uncrewed vessel. The reported “heartbeat” communications may have contained little intelligence value individually. Yet intelligence operations rarely depend on a single piece of information.  Repeated technical signals can potentially reveal when equipment is operating, whether a platform is connected and, over time, patterns of activity. When combined with information from other sources, apparently insignificant metadata can contribute to a much broader intelligence picture. This do...
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Autonomous Warfare Needs Sovereign Security — Part I

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  The discovery that cameras aboard Britain’s new K3 Scout uncrewed surface vessels were transmitting automated “heartbeat” communications to an internet address in China should be treated as a strategic warning, not merely a technical anomaly.  It exposes a vulnerability at the heart of modern defence procurement: a military platform can be designed, assembled and operated by a trusted defence establishment while still containing components whose origins, software, firmware and communications behaviour are insufficiently understood. That is precisely the kind of vulnerability foreign intelligence agencies seek to identify and exploit. According to The Telegraph , cameras fitted to Royal Navy K3 Scout vessels used by the Royal Marines had been sending signals to an IP address in China. The issue reportedly emerged during a cybersecurity investigation, following which the Ministry of Defence removed the cameras’ internet connectivity.  Defence Security Asia likewise charac...
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Malaysia’s security depends on shrewd diplomacy

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  Unveiling the 13 th Malaysia Plan in parliament on 31 July , Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim underlined the importance of regional security to Malaysia’s 2026-2030 development roadmap . He singled out the South China Sea, declaring that Malaysia’s “readiness to confront sovereignty and security threats in the South China Sea will be intensified more comprehensively.” Without naming specific countries, the Prime Minister’s statement reflects a clear understanding that the strategic environment in the Asia-Pacific is becoming increasingly dangerous. China, which is Kuala Lumpur’s largest trading partner and with which it shares deep historic and cultural connections, is becoming more assertive in the region, matched by record defence spending . Of real concern for Putrajaya are Beijing’s infringements on its maritime sovereignty. Last year, the China Coast Guard (CCG) spent 261 days in the northeastern area of Malaysia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). While Putrajaya ...
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