Year: 2025

The People’s Liberation Army kicked off drills around Taiwan on Monday that it called “legitimate and necessary” to safeguard national unity. Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesman for the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command, said the exercise was a warning to “independence forces” and external interference. He said the drills – dubbed Justice Mission 2025 – were taking place in waters and airspace in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, southwest, southeast and east of Taiwan’s main island. Advertisement Shi said the exercise was being conducted by Eastern Theatre…

Ivan Krastev is a Bulgarian political scientist best known for his work on Europe’s democratic crisis, the psychology of post-communist societies and the political legacy of 1989. He is chair of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and the author of several influential books on European politics. In this Open Questions interview, Krastev reflects on Europe’s loss of bearings in a faster, harsher world, the fading of the post-Cold War transatlantic order and the psychological shock of a…

Of all the warplanes in China’s rapidly growing air arsenal, it was an older model that sent shock waves across the region earlier this month. A rare stand-off between Chinese and Japanese fighter jets took place near the Miyako Strait northeast of Taiwan. The incident brought the Shenyang J-15 carrier-based fighter jet, which has been in service for more than a decade, back into the spotlight. Japan said J-15 fighter jets, launched from the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, twice engaged their fire control radars to lock on to its F-15…

Saudi Arabia has pledged to boost investments in America to nearly US$1 trillion, but according to analysts Riyadh could struggle to meet that target. Rather, they said the pledge – announced when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Washington last month – was more about the “political display” than a binding commitment. Advertisement By comparison, China and Saudi Arabia signed commercial deals worth about US$30 billion when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Riyadh in 2022. China and Saudi Arabia signed about US$30 billion worth of deals when Chinese President Xi…

Three more top-ranking Chinese officers have been expelled from the national legislature, becoming the latest to fall foul of an anti-corruption campaign sweeping through the military. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress said on Saturday that it had expelled Wang Renhua, head of the Central Military Commission’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee; Zhang Hongbing, political commissar of the People’s Armed Police (PAP); and Wang Peng, director of the CMC’s training department. All three remain full members of the Central Committee, the Communist Party’s top decision-making body. Advertisement The…

In the heart of Algeria’s Sahara Desert, Chinese state-owned giant China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) has completed laying track on the PK330 Bridge, a final and critical link in a new railway designed to unlock the nation’s mineral wealth. It was the “most technically demanding railway engineering feat ever undertaken in North Africa”, CRCC said on December 10. 16:09 How China is reshaping its economic ties with Africa How China is reshaping its economic ties with Africa The ore will be processed at newly established industrial complexes in the region…

China’s ultra-wealthy are quietly parking their private jets offshore to sidestep tougher compliance rules at home, while corporate executives are downgrading to commercial flights, analysts say, as economic headwinds hit the country’s business aircraft fleet. Aircraft owned by affluent Chinese nationals are said to be increasingly resurfacing in hubs such as Singapore and Japan, while more billionaires and corporate executives are turning to first-class commercial cabins or timeshare jet services for overseas travel. The number of business jets in mainland China fell to 249 last year from 270 in 2023,…