Related Posts

China Pulls Taliban Deeper into Central Asian Fold

China’s special envoy for Afghanistan, Yue Xiaoyong, met with the Taliban’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and the acting Defense Minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid. The meeting was confirmed by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Monday. She said the meeting aimed “to ...

Mexico Pivots as Trump Announces Tariffs

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump promised to impose 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada and an “additional” 10% on Chinese imports as a response to irregular border crossings and drug trafficking. He said the measures would be implemented on “day 1” of his term. ...

Philippines, China Clashes Trigger Money-Making Disinformation

By By Ara Eugenio, Jan Cuyco, Lucille Sodipe, Nattakorn Ploddee Violent confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea are being manipulated online by disinformation networks for profit, posing risks to regional security, an AFP investigation has found. ...

China, Indonesia and the Great Power Competition for Transition Minerals

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is not a fan of the Biden administration's climate legislation known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), describing it as a "green scam." Trump has promised to repeal it, which will undoubtedly be welcome news in Indonesia. ...

Two Projects in Asia and Africa Highlight the New Realities of Chinese Development Finance

Two very interesting stories this week highlight the complexity of China's development finance initiatives in Asia and Africa. In Cambodia, people close to the massive $1.7 billion Funan Techo canal project hint that Chinese financing isn't as secure as Prime Minister Hun Manet made it sound when ...

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 ...