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 ...
Tag: twitter
Related Posts
Chinese Company in West Africa Turns Nigeria’s Political Dysfunction Into a Controversial Marketing Campaign
A Chinese wholesale company in Nigeria sparked widespread controversy with its new ad that leverages the West African country's political dysfunction to promote its services. The ad opens with a news clip of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu telling viewers that he "feels ...
Hondura’s President Announces That’s She’ll be Traveling Soon to Beijing to Sign “Auspicious Agreements”
Honduran President Xiomara Castro looked visibly pleased with her decision to switch ties from Taiwan to China last week when she announced on Twitter that she'll soon be headed to Beijing to sign a raft of new agreements. The President did not ...
Honduran President Fulfills Campaign Pledge to Dump Taiwan and Establish Diplomatic Ties With China
Taiwan suffered a major diplomatic setback on Wednesday when Honduras became the latest country to abandon ties with the island in favor of relations with China. President Xiomara Castro announced on her Twitter page that she will make good on the promise ...
Why “Encirclement” has Become a Chinese Talking Point
This year-old map produced by the UK-based think tank Council on Geostrategy is circulating widely on Twitter this week following Tuesday's AUKUS summit in California and last week's comments by President Xi Jinping that the U.S. and its allies are "encircling" China.
Background: Why China-Iran Relations Are a Lot More Complicated Than They Appear
Bill Figueroa is a research associate at the University of Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics and is widely regarded as one of the world's foremost experts on China-Iran relations. The analysis below is copied from a 12-part thread that he published on Twitter and has been lightly edited for ...
One of China’s Leading Mideast Scholars Expresses Sympathy For Iranian Protestors, Testing the Limits of What’s Acceptable in His Own Country
One of China's most prominent Mideast scholars, Fan Hongda from the Middle East Studies Institute at Shanghai International Studies University, is expressing solidarity with anti-government protestors in Iran on social media. At the same time, he's pushing the boundaries of what's acceptable online speech for a Chinese ...
China-Global South and the Long Shadow of Empire
Writing is slow on my side today because as someone living in a former British colony, I can't tear myself away from Twitter reactions to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Even as British Twitter is dominated by stiff-upper-lip memorials, Irish, ...
Insider Explains Why Exploitative Videos Exposed by BBC Will Continue to Flourish Unless Chinese Government Bans Them
Just as the algorithms on U.S. digital media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter are all optimized to display the most outrageous, inflammatory content in pursuit of higher engagement, the same is true in China. The so-called "blessing videos" featured in ...
Chinese Social Media is Oddly Quiet About the Racism Accusations Uncovered in the BBC Documentary
Over the weekend, in the run-up to Monday's broadcast of the BBC documentary, some of the staff at the network were bracing for what they expected would be a forceful response from China's online supporters -- both Chinese and foreign. They ...
Motorists Respond to Nairobi Expressway Grand Opening
Kenyan social media influencers were among the lucky few that were invited to drive along the Nairobi Expressway during this weekend's public trial. Not surprisingly, the reactions were overwhelmingly positive on both YouTube and Twitter, especially since they had the roads to themselves.
Rwandan Court’s Prison Sentence for Chinese Mining Boss Sparks Passionate Response Online
The Karongi Intermediate Court in Rwanda's decision to hand down a hefty prison sentence on Tuesday to Chinese mining boss Sun Shujun for brutally beating his employees sparked an outpouring of emotion online. "The Chinese are there mining the minerals and stealing ...
China’s Ambassador to Somalia Takes On All-Comers In Rare Twitter Brawl
China's ambassadors in Africa are normally very reclusive, especially on English-language social media platforms like Twitter. So, it was a bit surprising to see Fei Shangchao, China's envoy to Somalia, get into an all-out Twitter feud on Tuesday with anyone and everyone willing to throw a verbal punch ...