Italy has announced its formal withdrawal from the Belt and Road Initiative after joining the China-centered infrastructure and investment project in 2019.
The timing of the announcement that Rome won’t renew its BRI commitment is notable. It came only a day before the EU-China summit, which kicks off on Thursday. The summit will likely be more contentious than usual, with European leaders expected to push China on the treatment of EU firms amid discussions ...
Category: Xinjiang
South Africa’s Ruling Party Praises “Great Progress” In Xinjiang
Senior members of South Africa’s African National Congress praised China’s “remarkable achievements” in alleviating poverty in its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, saying the country is drawing inspiration from China. The officials took part in an event at the Chinese embassy in Pretoria, which ...
After Siding With the West, Liberia is Now Aligned With China on Sensitive Territorial Issues
Deweh Gray, a deputy foreign minister in Liberia, told an audience at the Chinese embassy in Monrovia on Tuesday that her government firmly supports Beijing's One-China policy. For most countries, that's not a very controversial stance, but not in Liberia, where ...
Global South Ambassadors Participate in State-led Xinjiang Junket and Didn’t “Find Any Human Rights Violations”
Ambassadors from 25 developing countries completed a week-long junket to Xinjiang organized by the Chinese government and, according to Chinese state media, found "people in Xinjiang are enjoying a happy life." The participants included envoys from Myanmar, Iran, Samoa and Dominica. ...
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi Visits Türkiye After BRICS Meetings
China’s newly-returned Foreign Minister Wang Yi followed his recent trip to BRICS meetings in South Africa with a stopover in potential future BRICS member Türkiye. Wang met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. They didn’t hold press ...
Türkiye’s Parliament Rejects Special Committee to Investigate Uyghur Human Rights Ahead of Wang Visit
The Turkish Parliament's Human Rights Committee blocked a plan to create a new sub-committee to investigate allegations of human rights violations of China's minority Uyghur population in Xinjiang. Instead, lawmakers opted to assign the issue to an existing sub-committee focused on ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Awkward Timing as Italy Withdraws from BRI
Arab League Officials Tour Xinjiang to See How China “Respects and Safeguards Human Rights”
A 34-member delegation from the Arab League spent four days last week touring Xinjiang as part of a junket organized by the Chinese government. Chinese propaganda said the visit was specifically intended to refute Western media accusations about the well-documented mass incarceration ...
Is Turkey Serious About Its Recent Criticism of China?
By Buğra Süsler Last December Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu held an end-of-year press conference to review the year’s foreign policy developments and Turkey’s relations with the world. A highlight of this conference was his exceptionally open criticism ...
African Ambassadors Tour Xinjiang to See “Happy Life of Local Residents”
China’s use of diplomatic junkets to justify its anti-Uyghur measures in Xinjiang to the Global South are ratcheting up again. Ambassadors and other senior diplomats from Senegal, Benin, Mali, Rwanda, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda, Lesotho and Chad visited the region on Thursday.
Islamic Scholars Tour Xinjiang as Part of China’s Efforts to Refute “Western Lies”
A group of 30 scholars from 14 Islamic countries is participating in a highly choreographed tour of China's western Xinjiang region as part of Beijing's latest efforts to push back against well-documented U.S. and European accusations of human rights violations there. ...
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 ...