Related Posts

U.S. Sanctions Hong Kong Firms Over Illegal Mining in the DR Congo

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed penalties on a pair of Hong Kong-based companies for "destabilizing activities in the DRC" that involved the purchase of illegally sourced minerals. The companies were allegedly operating in an area near the far eastern city ...

Rare U.S., China Alignment Over Designation of Pakistani Separatist Group as “Terrorists”

The U.S. announced this week that it would designate the Pakistani separatist militant group The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and its affiliate The Majeed Brigade as a terrorist organizations. The move was well-received in Beijing. Monday's decision by the State ...

Direct Flights Between India and China Set to Resume as Part of Broader Rapprochement

A nearly five-year freeze in relations between India and China is quickly thawing ahead of a landmark visit to Tianjin later this month by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi's upcoming trip would mark his first visit to China in ...

China E-Mobility Weekly Digest: BasiGo Partnership For CATL Battery Systems Maintenance as E-Motorcycles Numbers Grow

This is a free preview of the upcoming Africa EVs Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service launching in Summer 2025. Chinese automakers are reshaping the electric vehicle (EV) market with a tech-first strategy and competitive pricing. This is, ...

Australia Moves to Counter China With Vanuatu Security Pact

Australia on Wednesday hailed a breakthrough in efforts to sign a security agreement with Vanuatu, a deal that could dilute China's influence in the Pacific island nation. A delegation of Australian ministers ironed out the deal during negotiations on the slopes ...

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 ...

U.S. Designation of Baloch Militants Deals Blow to India, Secures Chinese Projects in Pakistan, Chinese Commentator Says

On August 11, the U.S. State Department announced it was designating the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and its armed wing, the Majeed Brigade, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) effective immediately, while also listing the Majeed Brigade as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group (SDGT). ...

How Pandemic Controls Still Shape Trade and Migration in a China–Myanmar Border City

A deeply reported story published on a WeChat public account specializing in literary reporting examines how pandemic-era border control policies in Ruili, once China’s busiest land port with Myanmar, have outlasted COVID-19 and devastated the city’s once-thriving jade trade while restricting the movement of cross-border migrant ...

Chinese-Built Roads in Malawi Bring Hope but Not the Riches Many Expected

Does the Chinese proverb "If you want to get rich, build a road first" ring true for Malawi? Or does this proverb apply only to Chinese construction companies rather than Malawians? ...

China’s Belt and Road Hits New Highs, but Latin America Lags

By Fermín Koop and Patrick Moore The first half of 2025 saw the highest engagement ever for a six-month period under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China’s flagship global infrastructure program, a new report has shown.