Advertisement Since the 2013, China has made major infrastructure investments worldwide as part of President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). One significant recipient of Chinese investment has been Panama, which under former President Juan Carlos Varela switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China in 2017, resulting in a windfall of increased support from Beijing and a December 2018 visit to Panama by Xi. Proposed Chinese investments in Panama in recent years have included bridges, a rail line, commercial ports, and a cruise ship…
Month: February 2022
War in Ukraine is a severe test of Beijing’s new axis with Moscow | Yu Jie
President Vladimir Putin’s full military escalation in Ukraine has unsettled his seemingly best friend in international affairs, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who has invested in the bilateral relationship personally and politically. Beijing’s axis with Moscow was recently strengthened during the 2022 Winter Olympics, with their joint declaration to proclaim “their cooperation with no limit”. The western foreign affairs community then rushed to conclude that Moscow and Beijing were forming – if one had not already been formed – a “strategic alliance” aimed at destabilising the liberal, rules-based world order.…
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Tests China’s ‘Sovereignty’ Rhetoric
As Russian troops have poured into Ukraine, officials in Beijing have fumed at any suggestion that they are betraying a core principle of Chinese foreign policy — that sovereignty is sacrosanct — in order to shield Moscow. They will not even call it an invasion. “Russia’s operation” is one preferred description. The “current situation” is another. And China’s leader, Xi Jinping, says his position on the crisis is perfectly coherent. “The abrupt changes in the eastern regions of Ukraine have been drawing the close attention of the international community,” Mr.…
China ponders how Russia’s actions in Ukraine could reshape world order
The news came as a surprise to many in Beijing. Barely 24 hours ago, Chinese pundits predicted that a war in Ukraine was not inevitable. In New York, as Russia geared up for a full-on assault on its neighbour, China’s UN envoy, Zhang Jun, urged in a security council meeting that “the door to a peaceful solution to the Ukraine issue is not fully shut, nor should it be shut”. But when people in Kyiv woke up to sound of bombs in what the Nato chief called a “deliberate, cold-blooded”…
Who Will Make It Onto China’s Top Leadership Body?
Advertisement The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is expected to hold its 20th Party Congress later this year. At that event, the promotions and retirements of a significant number of Chinese officials will be revealed, and if “personnel is policy,” we will get some inkling of China’s political future. One of the most important organizational entities in China is the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee (PSC). Currently, the PSC has seven members: Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, and Han Zheng. What might the PSC look…
China’s Relationship With Argentina Goes Far Beyond the Falklands/Malvinas Dispute
Advertisement The Falkland Islands, also known as Islas Malvinas in Spanish, a small South Atlantic archipelago off the eastern coast of Argentina, have become the focus of geopolitical scrutiny following a recent Argentina-China summit. The Falkland/Malvinas archipelago has been officially occupied by the United Kingdom since 1833, despite Argentina’s claim to inherited sovereignty from the Spanish crown, dating back to 1767. The United Nations specifically acknowledged the territorial dispute in 1965 and set out Resolution 2065, encouraging urgent negotiations. However, tensions boiled over following several failed discussions and plans to…
The Kamila Valieva case shows yet again that the IOC is betraying teen athletes
A fish rots from the head. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the head of the Olympic movement, and it is rotten to the core. Long ago, this vile organisation abandoned its stated principles of “excellence, friendship and respect” to embrace greed, corruption and abuse. For many, the enduring image of Bejing 2022 will not be one of Olympic glory, but the tragic and bizarre spectacle attending the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva. Once again, the Russians got caught cheating: Valieva tested positive for a…
Interpreting China’s Policy Toward the Russia-Ukraine Crisis
Advertisement China and Russia came under increasing Western pressure in recent months for their domestic human rights abuses and attempts to forcibly revise the international order. In early February, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, issued a joint declaration opposing the U.S.-led alliances of NATO and AUKUS, which respectively threaten Moscow and Beijing’s security interests. However, as the Russia-Ukraine crisis deteriorated in late February, with Moscow on the precipice of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chinese officials at the Munich Security Conference and U.N. Security Council…
The Ukraine crisis is a major challenge for China
Vladimir Putin says he’s liberating Russian speakers inside Ukraine. What of the ethnic Mongolians, Koreans, Kyrgyz and the like who are now part of China? More potentially explosive for Beijing, what if Tibetans or Uyghurs renew calls for greater autonomy or even independence? BBC
‘Actively develop friendship’: China’s new ambassador to Australia strikes softer tone
China’s new ambassador to Australia has offered an olive branch in the intense diplomatic dispute between the two countries, saying they should “meet each other halfway” and “look into the future”. Xiao Qian, who arrived in Canberra in January after years of increasing tensions, said China attached “great importance” to the relationship and was willing to “actively develop friendship and cooperation with Australia”. The intervention comes just days after the prime minister, Scott Morrison, accused China of a dangerous “act of intimidation” over a Chinese warship’s shining of a laser…