An ideological split between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the country’s business and cultural elite has come to the fore after a hardline commentary by a known Maoist supporter received official blessing in state media. The widely distributed commentary, laden… Read More ›
Adversity creates alliance. If China’s goal was to unite the world, it is succeeding. Taiwan and Japan are getting cozier than ever, as are Taiwan and the EU. The shift is happening and maps may need to be redrawn. The… Read More ›
China is pursuing a “population optimization strategy” to dilute the Uyghur majority in southern Xinjiang by raising the proportion of Han Chinese through immigration while imposing strict birth controls on the Uyghurs, says a report based on official Chinese documents… Read More ›
US President Joe Biden has made a strategic decision to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan, after twenty years of military presence under the pretext of eliminating terrorism and spreading democracy. Twenty years later, the Taliban has become more powerful and… Read More ›
In an effort to galvanize NASA’s return to the forefront, then-US Vice President Mike Pence sought to re-create the 1960s Cold War space race, when the United States beat the Soviet Union to the lunar surface, The Washington Post reported. But… Read More ›
Li Haijian and her aged 91 grandma who brought her up since 3 (photo captured from SingTao Daily)
China is planning to build 43 new coal-fired power plants and 18 new blast furnaces — equivalent to adding about 1.5% to its current annual emissions — according to a new report. The new projects were announced in the first… Read More ›
Jailed Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan has lost half her bodyweight since her detention in 2019, when she began an intermittent hunger strike in protest at her jailing. Zhang, 37, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment by Shanghai’s Pudong District… Read More ›
The White House’s distinction between Far Eastern allies and Afghanistan is consistent with the US strategic pivot during the Obama years: away from the Middle East, toward China. While China interprets the befuddled Afghanistan withdrawal as an indication that the… Read More ›
The speed and scope of the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan have prompted introspection in the West over what went wrong, and how, after billions of dollars spent on a 20-year war effort, it could all end so ignominiously. China, though,… Read More ›
China will now allow couples to legally have a third child as it seeks to hold off a demographic crisis that could threaten its hopes of increased prosperity and global influence. The ceremonial legislature on Friday amended the Population and… Read More ›
The Tokyo Olympic Games, just concluded, were a spectacular success and grateful thanks are owed to our Japanese hosts to make this event so, at a time when we were in the middle of a global pandemic. There were many… Read More ›
China’s president has vowed to “adjust excessive incomes” in a warning to the country’s super-rich that the state plans to redistribute wealth to tackle widening inequality. According to reports in state media, Xi Jinping told officials at a meeting of… Read More ›
After being sworn in as the U.S. Air Force’s top civilian, Frank Kendall went straight to the budget books. Kendall, a former Pentagon acquisition chief who is well-acquainted with the world of military technology, immediately immersed himself in the Air… Read More ›
As China watches the chaotic scenes unfold in the Afghan capital Kabul, it is likely seeing more imminent risk than opportunity. Since US President Joe Biden announced in April a full withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, there has… Read More ›
Taiwan continues to shine. Aide sent to Haiti after a devastating earthquake combines growing ties with Lithuania. China objects—and those are bad optics that China’s speech-control can’t control outside its borders. China has been rewriting religion for years. Hymnals already… Read More ›
In 2014 then US President Obama announced that he plans to cut the 34000 strong American forces in Afghanistan by 70 percent. He further stated that by 2015 he intended to bring the strength to 5500 and by 2016 a… Read More ›
Another Canadian national detained by the Chinese authorities days after the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver has been handed an 11-year jail term by a court in the northeastern province of Liaoning on spying charges. Michael Spavor,… Read More ›
Xi Jinping, the ruler of China, suffers from several internal inconsistencies which greatly reduce the cohesion and effectiveness of his leadership. There is a conflict between his beliefs and his actions and between his public declarations of wanting to make… Read More ›
Xi Jinping’s ascent to the pinnacle of power within China and the Chinese Communist Party has brought with it a more assertive foreign policy in all directions. Under his leadership, China has eschewed Deng Xiao Ping’s wisdom of tao guang… Read More ›
Authorities in Shanghai have canceled primary school English exams in a bid to lighten the burden on children and parents, amid growing calls for English to be de-emphasized in China’s state schools. The Shanghai municipal government education bureau announced last… Read More ›
A few years ago, the economist and historian Giovanni Arrighi published a curious text entitled “Adam Smith in Beijing”, which attracted the interest of geo-political enthusiasts. Arrighi, who left us in 2009, had a truly unique career path. At his… Read More ›
Anti-lockdown protestors
A Chinese court has upheld the death sentence of a Canadian citizen who was accused of trafficking more than 200 kilograms of methamphetamine from China to Australia. Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was born in 1982, was one of several Canadians… Read More ›
Australian special envoy and former Prime Minister Tony Abbott said a free trade agreement between his nation and India would signal the “democratic world’s tilt away from China.” Abbott visited New Delhi last week as Australia’s special trade envoy for… Read More ›
India has an aircraft carrier. It just finished its maiden voyage in China’s backyard. Those shipping lanes—one third of ocean-faring trade traffic—which China wants to claim by planting islands next to—most of them pass India. If any of them have… Read More ›
It took until the final few medal events of the Tokyo Olympics, but the United States pushed ahead of China to close the 2020 Games as the big winners. The U.S. took home more gold medals than any other country… Read More ›
Beijing refuses to give World Health Organization critical data, and pushes a propaganda lie that the virus originated in the United States. As Americans wrestle over how to defeat the delta variant of COVID-19, China’s government is still refusing to… Read More ›
It’s fast, very fast. In fact, it is the fastest train the world. Capable of speeds up to 600 km/h ( (373 mph), China’s high-speed Maglev electric bullet train could very well close the gap between rail-based trains with a maximum… Read More ›
A Chinese Olympic gold medalist posted a social media photo of her and her partner standing on the podium, but something that had been on their jackets went missing: badges depicting the former Communist leader Mao Zedong. Bao Shanju, 23,… Read More ›
China’s crackdown on private enterprise has wiped out more than $1.2 trillion in market value for many powerful Chinese companies and stoked fears about the future of innovation in the world’s second largest economy. But the end goal of Beijing’s… Read More ›
Japan is planning to deploy missile units on an island 300 kilometers off the coast of Taiwan to counter China’s growing naval presence in the area and defend against a potential Chinese attack. Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a… Read More ›
Afghanistan’s Taliban and China are drawing closer together as the militant group drives to seize power through force in the wake of America’s troop withdrawal. Whether the two sides can build a mutually beneficial alliance, however, will come down to… Read More ›
At least 4 reasons explain the differences between China and the USA on viewership of the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games. While the viewing of the Games both live and via media reporting in Greater China — mainland, Taiwan Island, Hong… Read More ›
Chinese companies wanting to go global are running into shipping problems. Access to cheap manufacturing at home gave Chinese businesses an advantage overseas. But it’s turning into a disadvantage now, as the pandemic and trade tensions disrupt international supply channels…. Read More ›
China is the world’s biggest lender to governments. And that’s not just because of its gigantic stockpile of US Treasuries. For much of the past decade Beijing has sought to plug massive infrastructure funding gaps across multiple continents through its… Read More ›
Understanding the foreign policy and geo-economic strategies of countries, especially in such a difficult time when national borders are closed and the “militarization” of cybersecurity (Hopkins, 2012), becomes an important, if not vital, task for each individual country in its attempts to… Read More ›
With the United States withdrawing and the Taliban having swept to control of about half of Afghanistan, few observers give the Afghan government much chance of survival. September may be a decisive month, when the withdrawal is complete and American… Read More ›
British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is trudging through China’s backyard. Chinese government news “Global Times” describes Britain as trying to relive its old days. China was never happy about getting its ass whipped twice in the Opium Wars, which… Read More ›
After promises during the 2008 Olympics, “[f]ew could have imagined the CCP stooping to the level of running campaigns against individual news reporters and outlets, resulting in harassment and death threats against foreign reporters,” writes William Nee. On July 20,… Read More ›
A couple of years ago, during a meeting of Tibetan leaders in Dharamshala in India, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was asked about his reincarnation. Addressing the room of monks, religious teachers and Tibetan politicians, the Dalai Lama asked… Read More ›
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