Organizer: Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI)
Type/Location: Virtual
Description:
In February, under pressure from the United States and China, Cambodia declared its plan to eradicate its $19 billion cyber scam industry by the end of April. Since then, the government has claimed to crack down on 250 centers, but politically connected high-level operators have largely escaped accountability and experts estimate that up to 70% of compounds were bypassed the raids. Despite operations, sanctions, and indictments to target scammers, the industry has continued to thrive and proliferate beyond Southeast Asia.
Join ASPI for a webinar on Wednesday, July 22 at 8am EDT to unpack both the state of the cybercrime industry in Southeast Asia and beyond, what the U.S. and China have done so far to address it, where these approaches have fallen short, and needed next steps.
Speakers will include Sue-Lin Wong, Asia Correspondent at The Economist and host of the award-winning Scam Inc. podcast; Jacob Sims, expert on transnational crime and Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Asia Center; and Selina Ho, Dean's Chair Associate Professor in International Affairs and Vice-Dean (Research and Development), Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Bryanna Entwistle, Press and Program Officer at ASPI, will moderate.
About the Speakers:
Sue-Lin Wong is Asia correspondent at The Economist. She was previously China correspondent and South-East Asia correspondent. She also co-created and hosted two long-form narrative podcast series: “The Prince”, about China’s leader Xi Jinping, and “Scam Inc”, about the global rise of online fraud. “The Prince” was named one of the 100 best podcasts of all time by Time magazine and “Scam Inc” won a Peabody Award and an Overseas Press Club Award. In all, her work has won 14 international journalism prizes. Before joining The Economist, she reported from China for the Financial Times and Reuters.
Jacob Sims is an analyst recognized for his work on transnational crime, authoritarian political economy, and related security challenges in the Indo-Pacific. He serves as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center, Senior Advisor for Transnational Crime and Emerging Threats at Inca Digital, and a columnist for The Diplomat. Across research, advisory, and policy roles, he helps governmental, civil-society, and private-sector partners understand how modern criminal networks become embedded in political systems and what kinds of responses are likely to be effective. His work has contributed to public policy formation and major media coverage on cyber-enabled organized crime, illicit economies, corruption, trafficking, and emerging threats. Sims is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Selina Ho is Dean’s Chair Associate Professor in International Affairs and Vice-Dean (Research and Development) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. She is a leading expert on how China wields power and influence via infrastructure and water resource capture in Asia. Selina is the author of Thirsty Cities: Social Contracts and Public Goods Provision in China and India (Cambridge University Press, 2019), co-author of Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia (University of California Press, 2020), and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of China-India Relations (2020). She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, commentaries, and op-eds. Selina is a Council Member of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. From September 2017 to September 2018, she was a Global Futures Council Fellow with the World Economic Forum. Formerly a civil servant with the Singapore government, she received her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
Bryanna Entwistle (moderator) is a Press and Program Officer at the Asia Society Policy Institute. She manages press and supports editorial work for ASPI staff across the globe. She also supports ASPI's Security and Diplomacy pillar with programming and research, focusing on U.S.-China relations and Southeast Asia. Entwistle’s writing and research has been published by the Straits Times, ChinaFile, The Diplomat, 9Dashline, Channel News Asia, and more. Entwistle received a BA with Honors in History and Minors in Government and Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages from Dartmouth College. She has been recognized as a rising leader in foreign policy by The Asia Foundation and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Entwistle was born in Hong Kong and raised in Mumbai and Singapore.
Registration:
To attend the event virtually, please register here.