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Russia Was China’s Top Oil Supplier in 2024, but That’s Likely Not Going to Be the Case This Year

Russia remained firmly atop the leaderboard of China's top oil supplier in 2024, with Saudi Arabia coming in a distant second, according to new data from the Reuters news agency. Chinese oil buyers snapped up a record amount of Russian crude ...

FT: Ships Carrying Propellant for Iranian Ballistic Missles to Set Sail From China

Iran's beleaguered ballistic missile program will get a boost when a pair of container ships carrying more than 1,000 tonnes of sodium perchlorate, a key ingredient in missile propellant, depart from China in the coming weeks, according to a report in the Financial Times. ...

China Manufacturing Activity Contracts for First Time in Four Months

China's manufacturing activity shrank in January for the first time in four months, official data showed Monday, as Beijing battles to sustain the recovery in the world's second-largest economy. Policymakers have battled to reverse a post-pandemic slump driven by a crisis ...

Philippines, U.S., Vietnam, Indonesia Train for Maritime Law Enforcement Cooperation

Coast guard and fishery officials from the Philippines, United States, Vietnam, and Indonesia practiced vessel boarding and arrest techniques at a joint maritime law enforcement training, the U.S. Embassy in Manila said Monday. The two-week course on the Philippines' southern island ...

Donald Trump’s China Contradiction in Latin America

New U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is breaking with tradition to make Latin America the destination for his first overseas trip later this week. Previous Secretaries of State typically prioritized Europe and Asia for their initial visits. That's probably a ...

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 ...