Day: March 24, 2022

China’s Foreign Minister Makes Surprise Stop In Afghanistan

Chin@Strategy

Advertisement China’s foreign minister made a surprise stop on Thursday in Afghanistan’s capital to meet with the country’s new Taliban rulers — even as the international community fumes over the former insurgents’ broken promise to reopen schools to girls beyond the sixth grade. The official Bakhtar News Agency announced that Wang Yi will meet with Taliban leaders “to discuss various issues, including the extension of political relations, economic, and transit cooperation.” The Taliban, who seized power in August 2021 during the last, chaotic weeks of the withdrawal of U.S. and…

China’s Push to Isolate Taiwan Demands U.S. Action, Report Says

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The report from the German Marshall Fund, a research group that promotes democracy, laid out similar examples of coercive diplomacy by China in the constellation of United Nations agencies and associated groups. (The authors, Jessica Drun and Bonnie Glaser, both Taiwan experts, said they had received funding from the Taiwanese government for the research but that the views in the report were their own. Separately, Laura Rosenberger, senior director for China and Taiwan at the White House National Security Council, was a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.) In…

China finalising security deal with Solomon Islands to base warships in the Pacific

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Solomon Islands has signed a policing deal with China and will send a proposal for a broader security agreement covering the military to its cabinet for consideration. According to a copy of the draft security agreement circulating on social media on Thursday, it would allow China to base navy warships in the Pacific, less than 2,000km off Australia’s coast. The arrangements are also likely to worry the United States, which said in February it would open an embassy in Solomon Islands after senior US administration officials expressed concern China wanted…

China Eastern Pilots Were Experienced, Adding to Mystery of Crash

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The pilot of the China Eastern Airlines flight that crashed in southern China with 132 people aboard was an industry veteran with more than 6,000 hours of flying time. His co-pilot was even more experienced, having flown since the early days of China’s post-Mao era, training on everything from Soviet-model biplanes to newer Boeing models. Together, the men operating Flight 5735 had more than 39,000 hours of flying experience, the equivalent of four and a half years nonstop in the cockpit, adding to the mystery of why the plane plunged…

Enes Kanter Freedom and the Consequences of Speaking Out

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Freedom, who is Muslim but knew little about the Uyghurs, threw himself into the cause. Tahir Imin, a Uyghur activist in Washington who met Freedom at a Capitol Hill rally, said that Freedom “boosted the morale of Uyghur activism.” That was just over a week after Freedom opened the N.B.A. season with the Boston Celtics, in October. Ahead of their first game, Freedom posted a video on Twitter with a caption referring to China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as a “brutal dictator.” During the game, he wore shoes designed by the…

China plane crash: cockpit voice recorder analysed for clues as first victims found

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The cockpit voice recorder from a plane which crashed into a Chinese mountainside with 132 people onboard is being analysed in Beijing, as the recovery mission confirms it has found human remains at the site. The China Eastern Airlines flight crashed on Monday afternoon, after plunging from more than 6,000m (20,000ft). The cause of the crash is not known, and investigators have said determining it could prove difficult given the circumstances. The plane crashed with such force that much of it disintegrated on impact, and the recovered black box was…