China
Full steam ahead for the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway?
At the China-Central Asia summit this month in Xi’an, China’s President Xi Jinping and Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Zhaparov agreed to begin the construction of the China…
Explaining China’s Central Asia pivot
A surge in apprehension followed the establishment last week of a China-Central Asia Summit. “The war in Ukraine has weakened some of Russia’s influence in Central Asia,” warned…
Analyses
Chips, subsidies, security, and great power competition
Motives in the tech competition between the United States and China pose increasingly difficult policy issues for other economies.
Why the WHO needs Taiwan
In late 2021, just outside Taipei, a highly pathogenic coronavirus leaked from a lab.
It happened in a high-containment…
Europe’s divisions over China could hamper G-7 unity
While the focus of the G-7 meeting in Hiroshima this week will be on Russia, the gathering leaders will have China on their minds. But could differences in Europe over how best to…
Foreign policy China-style: beyond protocol and alcohol
There are phases in international relations when diplomacy between some countries is unfortunately reduced to protocol and alcohol. Such phases are never entirely intentional. No…
China to the rescue, with peace plans for Saudi, Iran, Russia, Ukraine and Afghanistan – up to a point
In another sign of its increasingly prolific international diplomacy, China last month released an 11-point position paper on the “Afghan Issue”. China’s Afghan démarche came just…
The disproportionate attention on the Solomons-China security pact
In his statement delivered during the March 2022 parliament session, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare described the then recently revealed security pact between…
Hydro-hegemon? Complexities of shared rivers between China and India
Transboundary river governance has long been a headache for governments in Asia. One of the region’s most complex cases is the bilateral governance of the Yarlung Tsangpo…
“Play defence” in any collective response to China’s economic coercion
Many Western governments consider Beijing’s frequent use of economic sanctions a “clear and present danger” to the global economy which erodes the rules-based order. Canberra…