Analysis
Diverse voices, unique insights on key issues shaping China’s engagement throughout the Global South.
analysis
Amid Middle East Chaos, China Changes Tactics on Taiwan and Japan
By Peter Apps As U.S. Vice President JD Vance returned to Washington last weekend after unsuccessful peace talks in Pakistan over the crisis in the Gulf, China’s Foreign Ministry was preparing for a bumper slate of visitors, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei ...
analysis
Leading from the “Global Middle”: China’s Bid to Host the New Ocean Treaty
"China's financial commitments are simply more tangible and easier to grasp than those of Europe," one delegate from an island state remarked to me on a bright spring day in late March, as we both gazed out at the East River from the United Nations Headquarters. ...
China Moves to Block Entrance to Disputed South China Sea Shoal, Images Show
By Greg Torode and Karen Lema China is employing ships and a barrier to tighten control of the entrance to the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea amid roiling tension with the Philippines over the disputed feature, satellite imagery ...
The Asia-Pacific’s New Oil Order
In response to Iran’s partial closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the United States has begun implementing a counter-blockade—leveraging naval patrols, sanctions enforcement, and selective interdictions to constrain Iranian oil exports and raise the costs of Tehran’s strategy. Rather than restoring stability, however, this tit-for-tat dynamic is ...
Iran War Promises Green Edge for Asia as Plastic Packaging Runs Short
By Minwoo Park, Kaori Kaneko and John Geddie An 'eco-friendly' range of paper tubes and pouches touted by Yonwoo, a South Korean maker of packaging for cosmetics, has reaped unexpected benefits from the Iran war, which has disrupted supplies of the ...
Uncategorized
A man uses his smartphone as a giant screen broadcasts news showing Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands with Cheng Li-wun, chairperson of the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan's largest opposition party at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, April 10, 2026. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov
By Peter Apps As U.S. Vice President JD Vance returned to Washington last weekend after unsuccessful peace talks in Pakistan over the crisis in the Gulf, China’s Foreign Ministry was preparing for a bumper slate of visitors, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the leaders ...
Amid Middle East Chaos, China Changes Tactics on Taiwan and Japan
By Peter Apps As U.S. Vice President JD Vance returned to Washington last weekend after unsuccessful peace talks in Pakistan over the crisis in the Gulf, China’s Foreign Ministry was preparing for a bumper slate of visitors, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei ...
China Moves to Block Entrance to Disputed South China Sea Shoal, Images Show
By Greg Torode and Karen Lema China is employing ships and a barrier to tighten control of the entrance to the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea amid roiling tension with the Philippines over the disputed feature, satellite imagery ...
China Model Gains Appeal in Vietnam as Police Expand Power
By Francesco Guarascio Vietnam is increasingly edging closer to China's model of governance, tightening state control while embracing Chinese technology and regulation as its most powerful leader in decades heads to Beijing this week, according to internal documents, public ...
The Real Victor: The Arab Media Debate on China and the Iran War
By Francesca Daniele On March 11, 2026, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 2817. Proposed by Bahrain and backed by fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as well as Jordan, the resolution condemns “in the strongest terms” Iran’s ...
On Iran Truce, All Sides Want Bigger China Role, but Does China?
By Shaun Tandon For decades, the United States has cast itself as the guarantor of stability in the Middle East, allying militarily with Gulf Arab states as well as Israel and brushing aside global rival China's aspirations for a greater role. ...
The Panama Paradox: China’s Escalation Ladder and the Rise of Logistics Coercion
More than two months ago, Panama’s Supreme Court annulled a long-standing contract that allowed Hong Kong-based company CK Hutchison to operate the ports of Balboa and Cristobal, located at either end of the Panama Canal. The decision essentially removed a Chinese-linked company from two of the most ...
China’s Mining and Port Power in Peru Draws Renewed U.S. Attention
By Lucinda Elliott and Marco Aquino As Peru heads into the first round of its presidential election on Sunday, Washington is mounting its most assertive push in years to shore up influence in the major copper producer that has become a ...
Guinea Iron Ore Project Tests China’s ‘Transition Finance’ Credibility
By Deng Yaowen In January 2024, China Baowu Steel Group issued the first tranche of a bond that raised CNY 10 billion ($1.45 billion) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Media reports described it as one ...
China Is on China’s Side…but Whose Side Is That Exactly?
By Lukas Fiala China is on China’s side. That was the verdict of a GCC China expert cited in Jonathan Fulton’s excellent China-MENA newsletter this week. Despite Beijing’s veto of Bahrain’s UNSC proposal and reports of Chinese shipments of ...
U.S. War Against Iran Gives Beijing Intelligence Dividend
By Sophie Wushuang Yi Operation Epic Fury has given Chinese military planners something no simulation can replicate: a live stress-test of American high-end warfighting capacity in a prolonged, high-intensity conflict against a determined regional power. The more consequential question ...
China’s Copper Import Slump Marks a Shift in Market Power – ROI
By Andy Home A two-week ceasefire in the Iran war has dispersed some of the macroeconomic gloom enveloping the copper market, but there may be an even bigger problem for copper bulls. China, ...
China E-Mobility Weekly Digest: Chinese EVs’ New Lifeline in Africa, Asia and Latin America as Oil Volatility Grows
This is a free preview of the upcoming Africa EVs Weekly Digest, part of the new CGSP Intelligence service. With this edition, we start our expansion from covering EV adoption in Africa to tracking electrification across the Global South. ...