Related Posts

BRICS Nations to Gather Without Xi, Putin

By Facundo Fernández Barrio BRICS leaders will meet in Rio de Janeiro from Sunday, with the bloc depleted by the absence of China's Xi Jinping, who is skipping the annual summit of emerging economies for the first time in 12 years.
China’s Hainan Islamic Pilgrimage Stopover Reveals Bigger Plans
A mosque in Haikou, Hainan. China is building Hainan into a Muslim pilgrimage stopover hub, with a bigger plan. Photo by Miyuki Yoshioka / Yomiuri / The Yomiuri Shimbun via AFP
China is quietly transforming the island of Hainan, located 20 kilometers offshore in the South China Sea, into a strategic transit hub for Muslim pilgrims from Southeast Asia, starting with Indonesian travelers seeking to make the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, known as Umrah. ...