Related Posts

Xi Seeks to Contrast China’s Approach in Asia Against the U.S.

Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up a week-long diplomatic sprint in Southeast Asia this weekend with the conclusion of the APEC summit in Bangkok. Prior to his return to China on Saturday, President Xi restated his ambition to "foster an open, fair and non-discriminatory trade and investment environment" in ...

China Crows As India Bails on IPEF Trade Pillar

India’s prominence at the SCO summit comes at a delicate moment for the United States as India moves to limit its participation in the new U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). Indian officials said it will not join IPEF’s trade agreement, one of four core ...

Biden Didn’t Say the Word “China” in His Summit of the Americas Speech But He Didn’t Have to Since Everyone Knew It Was on His Mind

U.S. President Joe Biden opened the three-day Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles with a new economic plan and a promise to re-engage countries in the Western Hemisphere... that is, friendly countries in the Western Hemisphere. The White House also unveiled the "Americas ...

The End of Strategic Ambiguity on Taiwan: A Reset or Repeat for U.S.-Global South Relations?

By Mariah Thornton “Yes, that's the commitment we made.” These words from President Biden during an official visit to Japan marked the end of U.S. strategic ambiguity on the Taiwan question. That question is: would the U.S. defend Taiwan if China ...

Prominent Chinese Scholar Says If IPEF Has Any Chance of Success, U.S. Will Have To Overcome Two Challenges Simultaneously

This week’s launch of the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) provoked considerable consternation in Beijing about Washington’s ongoing efforts to mobilize coalitions of regional states to challenge China’s dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. Not surprisingly, Chinese officials and state media both dismissed the new bloc as something ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

BRICS Announces Numerous New Initiatives

The BRICS group wrapped up its two-day leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. The summit’s final communique is a 16,000-word doorstop that covers numerous issues from economics to education.
The communique avoids any direct mention of the United States, and references to “unilateralism” and other coded criticism are also relatively scarce. Rather, the communique keeps the focus on the BRICS’ vision of the strengthening and reform of the global multilateral system ...

Lots of Fanfare But Little Real Enthusiasm For New U.S.-Led Economic Pact in Asia

U.S. President Joe Biden formally lifted the veil on the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) at a ceremony on Monday in Tokyo alongside fellow Quad leaders Fumio Kishida from Japan, India's Narendra Modi, and newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.  13 ...

Biden’s IPEF Plan Gets Lukewarm Reaction in Asia

U.S. President Joe Biden is in Asia for his first official presidential visit to South Korea and Japan. One of the main goals of the trip, which kicked off on Friday, is to promote the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) to Asian governments. 

Why Washington’s Latest Trade Plan for Asia is Probably Dead on Arrival

IPEF is the latest U.S. acronym that we're going to hear a lot more of as of today. President Joe Biden will tout the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework during the two-day summit with eight ASEAN leaders that begins on Thursday. The IPEF is ...

Why Africans Should Keep an Eye on the U.S.-ASEAN Summit

Nobody would blame Africans for not focusing on this week’s summit between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN.) After all, the continent is dealing with a few prior priorities: creeping debt distress in key states largely ignored by the international community, ...

Is it Possible to Keep Geopolitics Out of Development?

This week, my colleague CAP Editor in Chief Eric Olander unearthed a startling statistic: China’s trade with Africa so far this year already exceeds all trade between Africa and the United States for the whole of 2021. Think about that ...