Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you again to the witnesses for being with us at a late hour. I thank them for their insights.
Mr. Kuhonta, my question is about democracy in the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. In your chapter co‑written in 2020, “The Institutional Roots of Defective Democracy in the Philippines”, in Stateness and Democracy in East Asia, you explore the issue of democratization in the Philippines, the Southeast Asian country with the longest tradition of democratic elections. You say that these elections alone have not led to substantial improvements in the Philippines, which has a dismal economic record, both in terms of growth and fairness.
In a 2006 article in The Pacific Review, you noted that ASEAN is far from turning its back on illiberal policies in the name of democratic values. A recent publication by the Council on Foreign Relations describes the state of democracy in Southeast Asia as going from bad to worse.
In light of this, would you say that ASEAN is fertile ground for Chinese disinformation, which wants democracy to be a system that doesn't live up to its promises?