What Happened: Iran became an observer in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization – originally comprised of China, Russia, and 4 Central Asian republics – back in 2005. In the 16 years since, Tehran has consistently pushed for an upgrade to full… Read More ›
China has reassured the Taliban that it is ready to begin development activities in Afghanistan via its ambitious multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative (BRI), as the war-torn country drifts toward an economic meltdown. In what some see as Beijing’s tacit… Read More ›
Germany’s ambassador to China Jan Hecker – a confidant of Chancellor Angela Merkel – has died only a few days after taking up his post, Berlin’s foreign office said on Monday. “It is with deep sadness and dismay that we… Read More ›
China has promised to keep its embassy in Kabul open and “beef up” relations, the Taliban have said, as Afghanistan’s new rulers worked on preparing their new government and winning international recognition. A spokesman for the Islamist militia, Suhail Shaheen,… Read More ›
China has stepped up its domination strategy for the South China Sea via a new maritime law that deliberately restricts freedom of navigation for various types of foreign-flagged vessels that enter Beijing-claimed waters. The law, which was passed in April… Read More ›
As the dust settles on the erstwhile Kingdom of Gandhara, the attention shifts from the ongoing evacuation and the so-called American blunder, to ‘what next?’. Distant nations in the European Union and the Middle East are on guard as it… Read More ›
Lithuania has announced that it is pulling out of China’s “17+1″ bloc in Eastern Europe. This followed the annual 17+1 summit on February 9, where the leaders of some European Union member nations snubbed China’s invitation to the summit. China has invested… Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
Beijing’s confrontation with Australia should have been an unequal contest. That’s not how it worked out in practice. “Chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes.” That’s how Hu Xijin, the editor of the Chinese Communist Party–run Global Times,… Read More ›
It is 100 years since we were supposedly getting over the war to end all wars, World War I, and forming the League of Nations with the purpose of preventing such a conflict and slaughter happening again. Regrettably, the only… Read More ›
As early as 2005 John Gersham and Melvin Goodman alerted against the trend of an over-militarized US foreign policy. The warning has been a recurrent theme of American debate, although it gained little traction. The debate recently spilled into mainstream media… Read More ›
CHINA has set out to overthrow the global liberal system in favour of a more compatible “authoritarian” order, a former CIA officer has stated. The Chinese leadership has set out to replace the international rules bases order, a former US… Read More ›
The Biden administration issued a blanket warning Friday to U.S. firms about the risks of doing business in Hong Kong as China continues to clamp down on political and economic freedoms in the territory. Four Cabinet agencies — the departments… Read More ›
The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Wednesday to ban the import of products from China’s Xinjiang region, the latest effort in Washington to punish Beijing for what U.S. officials say is an ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim groups…. Read More ›
As the date of complete withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan nears, more and more often we hear comments in which this withdrawal is compared with (literally) the escape of US military forces from South Vietnam in the seventies of the… Read More ›
On July 1, the Communist Party of China celebrated its 100th anniversary with great pageantry and propaganda. The magnificent display in Beijing involved a highly choreographed ceremony in Tiananmen Square with large-scale aerial exhibitions (including China’s most advanced J-20 stealth… Read More ›
President Macron and Chancellor Merkel jointly held a direct talk with President Xi via video conferencing on July 5 Monday, merely four weeks after the release of the G7 communique (VOA 2021 June 13). As regards the two European leaders’… Read More ›
Amid immense international curiosity, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is celebrating its centennial this week with great pomp, while cementing its position as one of the largest and longest-surviving one-party governments in the world. Through all these decades, the… Read More ›
Most of the Western media so desperately wants the dominant climate narrative – especially the bit where the West is the villain – to be true that they simply do not interrogate the facts. The G7 meeting was a genuine… Read More ›
With little expectations, but a lot of combinations and nervousness, was the long awaited summit of the Presidents of America and Russia a failure? It was not. And can it be described as a success, as a breakthrough from the winter… Read More ›
Some media says that G7 communique singles out China to accuse, but is entirely ignorant of the communique’s severe attacks of Russia as Russia not China is G7’s EU members’ major threat. Therefore Defense One says in its report “NATO… Read More ›
G7 meeting in Cornwall, UK 2021 (photo by Leon Neal/PA Media and captured from BBC
The Group of Seven rich nations will announce on Saturday a new global infrastructure plan as a response to China’s belt and road intiative, a senior official in U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration said. The official, who spoke to reporters… Read More ›
China’s aggressive economic diplomacy is pushing America’s allies bruised by Trump’s go-it-alone foreign policy back into the U.S. orbit. China will dominate discussion during President Joe Biden’s first foreign trip, as the G-7 summit kicks off Friday. And that’s exactly… Read More ›
Over the past several years, the international community has watched the tragedy in Lebanon unfold as that country continues its seemingly inexorable descent into a failed state. In its “World Report 2021,” Human Rights Watch captured Lebanon’s compounding crisis: “In… Read More ›
India’s boundary dispute with China is intrinsically linked to Tibet. New Delhi’s recognition of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet was contingent upon China’s acceptance of Tibetan autonomy. The Dalai Lama gave up the quest for independence in exchange for genuine autonomy…. Read More ›
The narrative surrounding US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s visit to Phnom Penh last week was that Washington eyes a possible reset of relations with Cambodia. Even a recent article from Cambodia’s state-owned news agency, which long-ruling Prime Minister… Read More ›
Originally posted on Craig Hill:
China says it wants to become loveable China’s President Xi Jinping said this week that China wants to become more credible, loveable and respectable, but that seems easier said than done. It’s about as likely…
Faced with widespread international criticism over China’s approach to a litany of issues both at home and abroad, its leader has an idea: a rebrand. President Xi Jinping said this week that China must improve the way it tells its… Read More ›
The U.S. will give Taiwan 750,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, part of President Joe Biden’s move to share millions of jabs globally, three senators said Sunday, after the self-ruled island complained that China is hindering its efforts to secure the… Read More ›
Speaking in Greenville, North Carolina, at the state’s Republican Party convention, Trump joined a chorus of Republican politicians who are criticizing Fauci for asking Americans to wear masks to guard against the virus and who at times has been skeptical… Read More ›
China’s great weakness – or rather the Chinese Communist Party’s – is that no one likes authoritarian rulers, or people that lie, steal, spy and send out start pandemics. As I said over a year ago, the one thing China… Read More ›
Facing Covid-19 pandemic – mission of saving human lives In its response to the Covid-19 pandemic the Republic of Serbia introduced state of emergency on 15 March 2020 and then terminated it on 6 May 2020. From the start of… Read More ›
A good relationship between free societies and China is not something that the communist regime in Beijing bestows. It is something that China must earn by respecting the rules and norms of international behavior and by recognizing other countries’ sovereignty… Read More ›
The Guangzhou Sino-Israel Bio-industry Investment Fund (GIBF), which seeks to promote and invest in Chinese and Israeli joint ventures in the biomedical field, said Monday it is raising a second fund for a total of $300 million (2 billion yuan)…. Read More ›
