Category: The Diplomat

China’s new law on “Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress” that came into effect on July 1 has drawn considerable international attention. That’s largely due to Article 63 of the new law, which stipulates that “organizations and individuals outside the territory of the People’s Republic of China who commit acts that undermine ethnic unity and progress or create ethnic division shall be held legally responsible according to law.” For some commentators, this constitutes a new step in Beijing’s efforts to “pursue organizations and individuals outside China who allegedly undermine ethnic unity…

Amid the global shift to renewable energy, China leads the world in manufacturing and processing capacity. It is building major green infrastructure in Tibet, including large solar projects and the planned Metok (Motuo) mega-dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo. Many batteries used in clean technologies also depend on materials produced in the region. Tibet therefore stands at the forefront of China’s green energy development across wind, solar, and hydropower. Recently, a newly identified chromite deposit was discovered in the Dongqiao region near Amdo Town in Amdo County, Nagchu Prefecture, adding over…

On July 6, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) launched a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) into the Pacific Ocean. The launch has received plenty of coverage. What came the next day did not. A single social media post provided important context. The launched SLBM’s likely maker, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), put an image on Weibo to commemorate the 89th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The graphic visually linked the July 6 missile test to an incident of historical victimhood. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident of…

In the midst of a three-year-long civil war, Sudan has few friends. The international community has largely left – no Western country maintains an embassy within the country. The World Food Programme and the International Red Cross run limited campaigns to deliver water or medical supplies, but the United States closed its embassy in April 2023 at the outbreak of the civil war and ceased all aid in January 2025. The European Union has committed over €200 million for aid, but deliveries rarely arrive in an appropriate manner. Meanwhile, the…

On July 6, the 14th Dalai Lama turned 91. In Dharamshala, the Himalayan town that has served as his home in exile since 1959, the day was marked, as it was last year, with long-life prayers, khata scarves, and delegations of devotees from across Asia and beyond. But the birthday of the Dalai Lama is no longer merely a religious observance. It has become an annual reminder of a clock that is ticking on one of Asia’s most combustible questions: who will choose the 15th Dalai Lama. Behind that question…

China’s recent calls for “constructive strategic stability” with the United States and a “new type of international relations” with Russia indicate that Beijing is intent on managing competition with Washington to create the strategic space to build a global order no longer led by the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump’s mid-May trip to Beijing revealed a new dynamic in China-U.S. relations, with Beijing demonstrating greater agency in shaping the bilateral relationship. This dynamic was reinforced only a few days later when China’s party and state leader Xi Jinping articulated…

When Prime Minister Andrej Babiš returned to power in late 2025, many assumed Czechia’s unusually warm relationship with Taiwan would cool with him. Under the previous government, Prague had become one of Taipei’s most enthusiastic partners in Europe. Babiš had criticized that posture as ideological indulgence that harmed Czech business interests in China, and the signals since have seemed to confirm a pullback. A closer look at what has actually changed, rather than what has been said, suggests a more precise reading: Babiš’s government has cooled the rhetoric while leaving…

In 2016, if an analyst had suggested that within a decade China would serve as the economic and logistical lifeline enabling Russia to wage full-scale war against Ukraine, most observers would have laughed it off. If that same analyst had added that Beijing and Moscow would cooperate with Tehran to mass-produce lethal drones to kill thousands of Ukrainians, the prediction would have seemed similarly far-fetched. The notion that North Korean troops would be fighting alongside Russian forces in Europe, learning crucial lessons of modern warfare, would also have been outlandish,…

China has recently gone to great lengths to ensure the world knows it is open for business. President and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, has repeatedly taken it upon himself this year to deliver that message to key world leaders and corporate heads. “Over the next five years, China will continue to promote high-quality development and expand high-standard opening-up,” Xi told Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in January. Xi also expressed a willingness “to step up economic and trade cooperation, seek synergy of development strategies in…

On September 3, 2025, Xi Jinping held a military parade in Tiananmen Square to mark the 80th anniversary of China’s victory over Japan in World War II. The display was deliberate in every detail, from the advanced weapons systems to the leaders of multiple authoritarian states in attendance, Russia and North Korea among them. The scale of the parade was rare, even for Xi. It was a signal of authority to the military, a performance of legitimacy for the public. But it was not his only weapon. A week after…