Category: The Diplomat

In a rare display of cooperation, Taiwan’s coast guard, following requests from China’s coast guard, initiated search and rescue missions with their counterparts for surviving sailors after a fishing boat capsized near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands and Matsu Islands, groups of heavily fortified islands only miles away from the Chinese mainland.  On March 14, Taiwan quickly dispatched four coast guard vessels with rescue divers on board to the disaster site near Kinmen, while China sent six helicopters and three vessels. The next day, another Chinese fishing boat capsized near the…

Hong Kong lawmakers unanimously approved a new national security law Tuesday that grants the government more power to quash dissent, widely seen as the latest step in a sweeping political crackdown triggered by pro-democracy protests in 2019. The legislature passed the Safeguarding National Security Bill during a special session. The law will expand the authorities’ ability to prosecute citizens for offenses including “colluding with external forces” to commit illegal acts as well as charge them with treason, insurrection, espionage, and disclosing state secrets, among others. It comes on top of…

Whatever metric you are looking at, when it comes to Africa-China relations, Angola is typically close to (if not at) the top. As a result, President João Lourenço’s official visit to China last week, with stops in Beijing and Shandong, was one to watch, especially in terms of what it might offer regarding Angola’s 2050 vision. The president’s visit also represented the second visit of an African head of state to China this year, following Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio in early March. Both visits are important bellwethers as…

The 10th anniversary of the Sunflower Movement was commemorated on Monday with a rally in front of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s legislature, in Taipei.  This takes place as part of a series of events organized by the Economic Democracy Union, one of the civil society groups originally involved in the movement. Key movement figures such as former student leaders Lin Fei-fan and Dennis Wei were among the speakers.  The Sunflower Movement was one of the largest social movements in Taiwanese history. The movement broke out on the eve of March…

Russia’s foreign policy has been growing more helpful to China lately, with Moscow granting diplomatic support to Beijing on the Indo-Pacific issues and the scope of the Russian-Chinese joint military maneuvers increasing. This process has profound strategic reasons underneath it, and is therefore set to continue and further develop in the future. The Russian-Chinese joint statement on strategic cooperation from March 21, 2023, besides promising “decisive mutual support on the issues of protecting one another’s core interests,” included Russia’s vow to oppose Taiwan’s independence “in any form,” and “firmly support…

Taiwan’s national elections on January 13 led to a clear victory for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s presidential candidate, Lai Ching-te, but a split legislature. According to Doublethink Lab, Taiwan was the target of frequent information operations that likely stemmed from China in the lead-up to the election. Particularly, Chinese state actors amplified stories that exacerbated internal conflict within Taiwan in the pre-election period, such as alleged scandals of DPP politicians, and completely fabricated stories closer to election day.  Doublethink Lab also investigated how pro-Kremlin Russian Telegram users with a…

At the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference held this month, two proposals made by Professor Jia Qingguo of Peking University attracted considerable attention. One focused on making China more appealing to foreign students, while the other sought to encourage the public to effectively convey the Chinese story to the rest of the world. Much of the attention focused on the first of these proposals. The suggestion that China be made more appealing to foreign students is not, of course, at odds with any of the policies of Chinese President Xi…

On March 11, the Chinese government concluded the “Two Sessions,” the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber-stamp parliament, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body. As the Chinese Communist Party asserts greater influence over state governance, the Two Sessions has become less of a platform for original policymaking and more of a venue for conveying the directives of the party leadership. In keeping with convention, the Two Sessions focused primarily on domestic issues such as the economy and social policy. Nonetheless, the…

Mo Yan’s writing won China’s first Nobel Prize for Literature, but is it patriotic enough for Xi Jinping’s China? That’s the question at the center of a high-profile lawsuit that has driven a debate about nationalism in China in recent weeks. Patriotic campaigns have become more common in recent years in China, as online nationalists attack journalists, writers or other public figures they say have offended the country’s dignity, but it is unusual for a figure as prominent as Mo Yan to be targeted. Patriotic blogger Wu Wanzheng, who goes…

On February 14, hundreds of Tibetans in Derge County (Dege in Mandarin), part of the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, protested in front of the county government office building. They sought a halt to the construction of 1.1. million kilowatt hydropower station on the Drichu River. In a related demand, the protesters wanted authorities to withdraw the order for thousands of Tibetans to relocate from Upper Wonto and Shipa villages and six important monasteries – including the Wonto monastery, which was built in the 13th century and has…