In 1945 nuclear weapons were used in armed conflict for the first and only time. 355,000 people were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by two nuclear bombs. Two. That number alone puts in stark perspective the world’s current arsenal of about 13,000 nuclear weapons. And yet in many ways the 13,000 weapons held globally represents progress; it’s less than a quarter of the more than 63,000 weapons in circulation in 1985 during the cold war. But what John F Kennedy said in 1961 at the United Nations is as urgent…
Day: August 24, 2022
What Kenya’s Presidential Election Means for China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Advertisement On August 9, Kenya held general elections for various seats, including president, in accordance with the 2010 constitution, with the presidential election closely contested. The chairman of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC), though disowned by four commissioners, eventually declared William Ruto the president-elect, having attained 50.48 percent of total votes cast, followed closely by Raila Odinga at 48.8 percent and the remaining two candidates at 0.72 percent. The change in government could have huge implications for Chinese investment in the country. Kenya was the third African country…
Faced with an overseas debt crisis, will China change its ways?
Few moments better encapsulate the hope and hubris of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure binge, than the inauguration of Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port City in 2014. Xi Jinping, China’s president, attended in person, nodding approvingly as a project manager introduced the $15bn plan to build a high-tech offshore financial centre with a marina, hotels and luxury homes on 665 acres (269 hectares) of land reclaimed from the sea off Sri Lanka’s capital. Local officials likened the project to Dubai and Singapore. Mr Xi (pictured on his visit…
What’s Behind China’s ‘Action Guidelines on Military Operations Other Than War’?
Advertisement On June 13, China announced in a press release that its paramount leader Xi Jinping, in his capacity as chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), had signed an order for the implementation on an experimental basis of the “Action Guidelines on Military Operations Other Than War,” which took effect from June 15. While the full text of the mandate has yet to be publicly released, China’s state-run media have summed it up as comprising 59 articles in six chapters, setting up norms specifically for main subjects such as…
China issues alert as drought and heatwave put crops at risk
A drought in China is threatening food production, prompting the government to order local authorities to take all available measures to ensure crops survive the hottest summer on record. On Tuesday, four government departments issued an urgent joint emergency notice, warning that the autumn harvest was under “severe threat”. It urged local authorities to ensure “every unit of water … be used carefully”, and called for methods included staggered irrigation, the diversion of new water sources, and cloud seeding. A record-breaking heatwave combined with a months-long drought during the usual…