Nurliana Kamaruddin is currently Deputy Executive Director (Academic and Students Affair) and Senior Lecturer at the Asia-Europe Institute at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. She specialises in international security and development cooperation with an area focus on East Asia. Karl Chee Leong Lee is Senior Lecturer in the Institute of China Studies (ICS) at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Malaya, Malaysia, and Expert Advisor to Market Research Future. He is a specialist on Taiwan’s soft power and quasi-state relations with Southeast Asia. Nur Shahadah Jamil is Senior Lecturer at Institute of China Studies (ICS) at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. Her research interests include East Asian security, China’s foreign policy, South China Sea dispute, Xinjiang, regional multilateralism and Malaysia’s external policy.