interest, the global economy, our portfolio, d w business beyond. here's a closer look at the project. our mission to analyze the fight for market dominance . get us to the head with d w. business beyond this is did avenues, asia coming up to date, an election that will determine thailand's course for years to come. the country heads to the holes with the government facing for ratings and bringing it back to challenge to the military. griffin par plus in time. it's military and prepares to defend the island. the armed forces conducted seeds of drills, practicing their response to a mock seaborne invasion. ah,

i've been expanded. you welcome to dw news asia. glad you could join us. the stage is set for thailand to hold a general election in may after the distribution of parliament by government decree . current prime minister by you, john archer launched the move, seeking to extend his time in office, the election bits him and the military backed establishment against an opposition block held by building a populist and to time former prime minister talk. since you know what, his daughter bent on tongue she now what is the leading candidate for prime minister? thought is lead and backed by toxeme, have won the most seats in every election since 2001 bought have been toppled from park by military coups and court rulings. and joining us for more and this is, did you learn pong? so the right professor of political science actually long on university in bank called mr. on to the right of why has prime minister problem john,

which are decided to seek new elections now in the lower house? i mean for yes, has expired. so you spoke to on elections. i have been delayed for some weeks and months it earlier and but now i'm now actually coming out on the 14th. does prime minister approach on which i believe that the current political climate might be mildly favorable to him. i don't think that he believes that if the environment is favorable to him because he would have caught an earlier lesson at the top. so at the same time, if you look at the, the trends in bangkok, thailand where i am now, you look at the various local parties, the momentum, the lack of performance government. and that generally on lack of popularity,

you can see that the momentum is not with them. i think that the less and aspects are not good for him and you said united nation party, and as was the other cause in government parties. so i think this election coming up is very close question. and by the way, for you audience, if this is the most important election, i will have to last 2 decades. not this yet. it will decide if you just type audit and finance and thought and now they are sitting and not with speaking of the opposition, but he's also facing a challenge from the beginning about family. how much popular support do they have? yes. is remarkable. i mean, i've been an early critic of this, you know what family from 2 decades ago, 20 years ago. but timing again, this party has been dissolved weiss, this is a vehicle now and is going to win the election again based on all of it. so

there's something going on here and how come this party that's out there by me? twice in 2006 in 2014. this soft weiss by the judiciary is still going to win this election. it says that kind of lecture is changing. they want the policy that, that the party as perpetuated. ok. so this means basically that the popular voice is majority of electron then want something else to want a different kind of future that the conservative forces, not the more you putting up. how much control does the military have or the outcome of this election? considerable, i mean, decisive control before after and who in 2014, we had a military government. and during that time, the military came up with its own kind of constitution give itself one birth control parliament. but nevertheless, it, it was able to form cause in government 2009 in the last election. but this time,

despite stacking the rules, despite haven't been powerful 90 it is still on course to lose the election. but this is where i think things will get tense and confrontational, and the military is not going to go away quietly. there's been number of cause in thailand and it's not out of the imagination that act in the same way. again, you keep power along with the forces in pilot. and we've had seen that judicial who's already judicial, the solutions of parties. so it's not straightforward election and i mean the, the conservative forces led by they will do all they can't maintain power out. and what are the main issues that are likely to dominate this election campaign? a lot of other countries, you know, there are different lines, different issues that divide it, that the basic issue is,

is what kind of political or that political framework should this country have? what kind of blow should the military have? what kind of rules monarchy have within the constitution, and how the majority of electric should be able to choose the will of the people should be able to choose the piece of the country. so this is a main, i think, of fundamental comments in this election, but there are other issues about the welfare policies, about income distribution, about close strategy development projects and so on. but overall, is about what kind of the political framework that kind of should have with the military, the monarchy, bureaucracy, and the will, the people, political parties, democratic institutions. some have democratic institutions have to prevail as with the traditional. otherwise, people will not be happy, as we've seen in recent years. but demonstrations. we live over the time,

we went to so much for joining us to their fitness function. there are functional, i'm going to investor in bank of thank you. the timelines military has practiced empty landing exercises in the north of the island, the drill simulated propelling, and enemy force landing on a beatrice and troops fighting back invaders who entered residential areas. the drills come in the week of the highest levels of tensions between taiwan and china . in recent years, paging is absurd and growing time to be in the united states and taiwan. and his bowed to reunify the island by 2049. and gentlemen, for more context in w correspondent, william yang, william, let's talk about these drills fast. do they give us an indication of how taiwan intends to fight off a potential chinese envision? yes, indeed. this is an important cross military exercise that time one is

trying out between the air force and also the navy and the defense ministry has already said they will increase the frequency of such a cross military collaboration and drill because it's very important for time one to be able to actually carry all these different strategies and scenarios, and they're also going to have more senior trainers to start educating the younger pilots about the different kinds of scenarios and strategies that they will have to face in a real life battle. so i think this is a really important indicator about time once overall efforts putting into the national defense, especially after the over or reform that we saw that was laid out late last year. talk to us about this overall reform. what steps is tiwana taking to make sure it is capable of resisting possible chinese aggression?

so there are many different facets of this reform. one else, the most important part is the extension of the compulsory military service. originally, it was shorten, down to 4 months spent. now is being extended back to at least one year. and at the same time, there are a lot more content of life's life fire drills that are going to be included in the exercise. and also the training for the come, the conscripts, but at the same time for the reservists as well. because in the past, there were a lot of complaints about these trainings not being solid enough. so the ministry is now really putting in a lot of efforts to include real life life fire drills for these soldiers to have an experience in different kinds of scenarios and actually hands on experience with different types of weapons. and of course, we are also seeing a lot more military, a purchase that is going to be approved in the coming months. and also years in the

united states, in increasing its number of military personnel in taiwan to help the time when he soldiers to get familiarized with all the new weapons that are about to be approved from the washington. over the next few years, william does type a think or chinese invasion is inevitable. i think that the moment the government's stance is still that they don't think china is going to immediately launch any kind of military invasion. however, the threat and also the need for taiwan to increase its own capability and preparation is definitely rising compared to just a few years ago. so that's why we're seeing all these reforms being carried out. that's right around the time of the last 2 of the current president tying once administration because she wants to make sure before she leaves office. there are these very important ground rules and also little frameworks in place. so down the

incoming government, whoever takes over from her, is going to be able to continue down this new path of the beef of defense that we are seeing throughout the a 7 years that she's been in power. let's talk about the polity in taiwan because he did talk about the i've got a president saying when you have a former time when he's president, my young joe, who will be china next week. the 1st visit by a former leader since 1949, he's from the opposition k m t. what does that see about how united taiwanda polity is and resisting the threat from china? i think because next year, in less in about 10 months, we are going to have a very important presidential election to decide the next president. that's why we are seen the main opposition party going down really starting to engage with china again at a very frequent basis. was just a few months ago there, deputy chair,

person of the party also led a delegation to china and then they met some key chinese officials that are in charge of taiwan affairs. and so this visit by mine, joe, who until today still has a lot of influence inside the party is definitely a very important signed the cam t is trying to differentiate itself from the ruling party, the d p. p which has long been advocating for preserving taiwan sovereignty. and they came to note that they need to differentiate themselves from the d p. p. other time when the cross street tensions are rising and the international community is very concerned about the situation across the taiwan straits. so they want to, i think, present themselves as a party that's capable of maintaining communication between aging and ty, pay rather than the d. p. p because we know that since time when took power in 2016,

basically paging has cut off almost all official contact with ty paid for the last 7 years. and that is one of the factor that a lot of the international experts are saying it's increasing the level of uncertainty across the town story and attention. so the deep the campus definitely trying to present itself in a different role. that's it for today. but ah, for the to go beyond me, obvious with him as we take on the world i, we're all about the stories that matter to me with whatever it take policeman follow with on fire made for

mines with secrets lie behind these walls, discover new adventures in 360 degrees. and explore fascinating world heritage site. d. w world heritage. 360. get the app now. ah, i'm from beardsley in berlin. here's a look at our top stories. markets move in opposite directions after another bed interest rate hike is an end to the inflation battle inside or could there be bigger challenges ahead. international airlines are unhappy with india's tight fisted control over the countries lucrative aviation market. and it's preference for a hometown operation. we'll have more from delhi also on our show,

brazil reports progress in the fight against illegal gold mining communities, say the damage is already done. welcome to our show. the latest rate hike by the u. s. federal reserve was pushing markets in different directions as investors puzzle out its broader implications in asia markets rose on hopes that the quarter point rate hike announced by fed chair jerome powell would be one of the last that was after shares on wall street fell. we address investors, they're focusing on power comments about a possible credit crunch among banks. concerns over the banking sector, remain high after recent high profile failures sparked in part by those raised borrowing rates. and we're joined now by carson. jesse. he's chief economist at i and g germany. carson, welcome back to the show that we both know the fed is in an unenviable position. it has to on the one hand, protect the stability of banks which have been effected by fast raising for.