Related Posts

Why China May Succeed in the Middle East Where So Many Others Have Failed

Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Saudi Arabia last week and his participation in three summits with Arab leaders went precisely according to plan. The President was feted lavishly by the Saudi royal family while seeming to rise above the region's often toxic politics.

Xi-Mohamud Handshake Proves Opposing China on Xinjiang Isn’t a Diplomatic Death Sentence for Small Countries

Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was one of at least a dozen heads of state to do a brief meet-and-greet with Xi Jinping during the China-Arab summit in Saudi Arabia on Friday. The interaction was wholly unremarkable, but the ...

Contrasting U.S. and Chinese Diplomatic Styles on Full Display This Week

It's rare for the U.S. and China to host major regional summits less than a week apart. But with the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit set to get underway in Washington, D.C., just a few days after the China-Arab Summit concluded in Riyadh, ...

Media Frustrates White House Efforts to Avoid Making This Week’s Africa Summit About China

Senior African policy officials in the White House and State Department have been adamant that this week's African leaders summit is about Africa... not China. But the international news media doesn't appear to see it that way -- framing the story as the latest installment of the ...

Asia, Not Africa Most Likely Region For China to Set Up New Overseas Military Base, Says Rand Report

Four countries in Asia have been identified by researchers in the United States as the most likely places where China will set up a new military outpost. The findings by a trio of scholars at the U.S. government-supported 

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Revealing Reactions to China’s Festival of Optics

In terms of geopolitical optics, this week was nothing short of a banquet. It served up at least two sets of images that seem to crystallize our historical moment and that will live on in the Wikipedia of history as shorthand for where the world was in 2025.
One is the waves of uncannily synchronized soldiers and a bewildering array of high-tech weaponry gliding down Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue. The ...

China Launches New Site Dedicated to Belt and Road News in Africa

China's state-run Xinhua news agency launched a new online portal that is ostensibly intended to serve as a hub for Belt and Road information in Africa.  The new site appears to be little more than a repackaging of ...