Grey zone is not a fixed concept but a hypothetical place between peace and war. While I was writing this article, a never heard of development was taking place in the Indian state of Punjab. The Indian Prime Minister was… Read More ›
Politics & Law
Is China ready to host the Winter Olympics?
Chinese officials have promised that the 2022 Winter Olympics — to be held Feb. 4 to 20 and followed by the Paralympics March 4-13 — will be a “safe, streamlined and splendid” global event. But that won’t be easy. With… Read More ›
Crystal Gazing 2022: India and The World
If we thought 2019 and 2020 presented uncertainties then 2022 is here to surprise all of us. It could be remembered as one of the most complex, unpredictable, and potentially dangerous years in the recent past. COVID-19, oil crossing $100/barrel,… Read More ›
Japan looks west to guard against a rising China
Japan signed on Thursday a new security treaty with Australia, a fellow middle power that is similarly aligning against an increasingly assertive China. The blandly-branded Reciprocal Access Agreement, which was signed virtually by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese… Read More ›
China targets ride-hailing operator Didi for delisting in New York
China’s internet regulator has ordered the operators of a major ride-hailing app, Didi Chuxing, to delist from the New York Stock Exchange, in an ongoing government crackdown on the country’s technology sector, international media reports said on Friday. The Cyberspace Administration… Read More ›
How China is trying to turn the U.S. against itself
As Congress advances a set of bills to protect against Beijing’s efforts to subvert American democracy, China is using our system of government to block and tackle. On November 12, Reuters reported that Chinese officials have been pressuring American companies,… Read More ›
Chinese geo-strategic expansion in the Levant: A case study of Lebanon
As soon as the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, China and the Middle East faced a series of challenges. In recent years, China’s influence in the region has expanded due to its economic interests in energy, trade,… Read More ›
The Chinese Communist Party still thinks it owns the future
A rising chorus of analysts now describe China as a “peaking power”—one that might take greater risks to revise the international order before its strategic window of opportunity closes. They cite the country’s aging population , slowing economy , and hostile external environment… Read More ›
Biden and Xi move back from the brink
The three-and-half-hour virtual summit meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping did not, and could not, solve the fundamental problems that have driven the two great powers toward confrontation. But both men clearly wanted to challenge the… Read More ›
Xi Jinping’s Terrifying New China
China’s social media was briefly aflutter this fall about an impressive feat in the popular online fantasy game Honor of Kings. A player had completed a “pentakill,” or five kills in a row, but something just smelled wrong: The user… Read More ›
China is closing to the world, and it isn’t just about borders
It’s been nearly two years since China shut its international borders as part of its efforts to keep Covid-19 out. China tamed the initial outbreak in Wuhan by locking down the city of more than 10 million people, confining residents… Read More ›
Australia shows the world what decoupling from China looks like
China’s attempt to bully Australia has been a spectacular failure. When Australia had the temerity to call for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 last year, China was incensed. It responded with an unprecedented wave of trade restrictions… Read More ›
Strike China and Save the World: Part 2 – Manufacturing Reality
Just imagine a video of Chinese authorities brutally assaulting and arresting Chinese citizens who have a credit rating below certain criteria, appearing on Sina Weibo. In no time this video would be viral on WeChat, DouBan, YouKu, and several other… Read More ›
What Does China’s New Land Borders Law Mean for Its Neighbours?
China has a new tool to wield during any future flareups along its borders with foreign entities, whether those be the Indian government, Afghan refugees or Myanmar rebel groups. Announced on October 23, the new Land Borders Law authorizes the… Read More ›
China has started making the same mistakes as the Soviets
It’s boom time for historical analogies in America’s China policy. Beijing’s test of an orbital weapon has been compared to a “Sputnik moment” by Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley among others. Analysts, including me, have argued about whether the U.S. and China… Read More ›
The curious case of Pakistan, China, TTP and BRI
On 1st October Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan broke all hell loose when on the Turkish government-run TV channel, TRT World, he disclosed that the Pakistani government is in secret talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), facilitated by the Afghan Taliban…. Read More ›
Instead of confronting China’s rise, we must manage its decline
Nations, like people, have reputations, and in both cases there can be gaps between the rep and the reality. China is known as the sage of nations, strategically patient, thinking in terms of centuries while the West flits about like… Read More ›
The end of China’s rise
The prevailing consensus, in Washington and overseas, is that China is surging past the United States. “If we don’t get moving,” President Joe Biden has said, “they’re going to eat our lunch.” Countries everywhere are preparing, in the words of… Read More ›
China’s Xi Jinping a danger to American business
China’s rapid changes will impact many American businesses. Companies in the states import many products from China, and China is the third-largest market for U.S. exports. Financial investments also flow in both directions between the two countries. Changes in the… Read More ›
Why is Iran so keen on joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation?
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 extends a fast helping hand to the Taliban
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 dies suddenly days after taking office
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 to keep Kabul embassy open and ‘beef up’ relations with Taliban
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’s foreign ship law stokes South China Sea tensions
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 ›
Turmoil in Afghanistan and India’s Calibrated Steps
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 ›
Signs of impatience with China’s 17+1 initiative in Europe
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 ›
China on the cusp of a ‘profound transformation’
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 ›
China’s reaction to the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan
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 Afghanistan, China is ready to step into the void
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 ›
Is democratic leadership as it should be?
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 ›
Chinese president vows to ‘adjust excessive incomes’ of super rich
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 ›
China finally realises the return of the Taliban poses more risk than it does opportunity
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 ›
China jails Canadian businessman Michael Spavor for 11 years on ‘spying’ charges
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’s dictatorship threatens the Chinese state
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 ›
China’s reckless hostage diplomacy increases the chances of war
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 ›
Beijing and the myopia of the left in the West
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 ›
West’s Anti-lockdown and China’s ‘Beyond Good and Evil’
Anti-lockdown protestors
Australia flags trade swing from China to India
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 ›
China is pushing a big COVID-19 lie that makes a new pandemic harder to prevent
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 ›
Taliban tells China what it wants to hear on East Turkestan Islamic Movement
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 ›
The dubious terms of China’s massive international loan spree
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 ›
Analysis of China’s “Belt and Road” Initiative: Genesis and Development
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 ›
China Discovers the Limits of Its Power
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 ›
What have we learnt in the past century?
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 ›
US-China rivalry rooted in lost trust
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 targets overthrow of global order as expert warns of ‘brutal authoritarianism’ rise
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 ›
US warns companies about doing business in Hong Kong
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 ›
U.S. Senate passes bill to ban all products from China’s Xinjiang because of forced labour
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 ›
Saigonisation of Afghanistan?
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 ›
Xi’s centennial speech set the tone for China’s aggressive future
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 ›
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