Category: The Diplomat

The recent results of Latin America’s electoral super-cycle (2025–2026) suggest that China has become an increasingly important feature of regional politics. While Beijing’s overall popularity in the region is at an all-time high, Latin Americans are voting in candidates who position themselves as U.S.-aligned and, at times, China skeptics.  The ideological pendulum seems to be swinging to the right, and with it, the region’s place in the broader China-U.S. geostrategic competition is shifting. Even Peru and Colombia, where China policy did not initially appear likely to become a decisive electoral…

Taiwan and China are back at the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Meeting, returning after all external partners were excluded in 2025. And Beijing isn’t happy about it: China’s special envoy called Taiwan’s participation “very inappropriate” and warned, “There will always be consequences.” With multiple Pacific leaders not in attendance amid whispers of foreign interference, China-Taiwan competition is on everyone’s minds. While no Pacific country switched recognition in 2026, Beijing’s pressure campaign this year has been more systematic and intense than in any year since Naoero (formerly Nauru) flipped…

After many months of contention over Taiwan’s government spending, the pan-Blue camp seemed to finally relent on August 14. The budget was finally passed on that day – 266 days past the deadline, and almost one year after the Executive Yuan originally submitted the budget for consideration on August 29, 2025. The eventual passage of the budget occurred amid growing concern that defense spending was being held up – especially funding for drones.  The Kuomintang (KMT) – which currently holds the majority in the legislature along with its third-party ally,…

The Ming Dynasty navigator Zheng He is often closely associated with Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road narrative. But the historical figure has been used as a diplomatic tool for decades, long before Xi launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Zheng He entered the diplomatic storytelling of the People’s Republic of China within a decade of its founding. Under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao he became part of a broader historical argument about China’s rise, a role that remained prominent during the first years of Xi’s presidency.  Much attention has…

On June 23, 2026, South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok walked onto the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing, where he had earned a law degree in 2010. “I believe that my time studying at Tsinghua University will remain one of the most beautiful memories of my life, forever cherished and held close to my heart,” he told his hosts. Kim had flown in from Seoul on early morning flights, he recalled, just to make it to class on time. (Kim has since resigned from office to become the chair…

Waving Chinese national flags and singing the military anthem are sights more commonly associated with state-sanctioned patriotic rallies. Yet on the night of August 18 along Chongqing’s Nanbin Road, young men used these patriotic symbols while marching against a seemingly bizarre enemy: teenage idol trainees of a boy-band talent agency and their female fans. What began as a localized dispute outside the headquarters of Shidai Fengjun (also known as “Time Fengjun,” or TF Entertainment), an agency that helped pioneer China’s idol-trainee industry, rapidly escalated into a prolonged public disturbance. For…

In the first six months of 2026, China received 22.91 million visits from foreign nationals, up 20.4 percent year on year. The uptick is the result of China’s visa-free policy, which accounts for 77.7 percent of all foreign arrivals.  Earlier this year, China announced that starting February 17, 2026 all ordinary passport holders from Canada and the United Kingdom can travel to its mainland for up to 30 days without a visa. The expansion in China’s unilateral visa-exemption program to include Canada and the U.K. followed recent visits to Beijing…

Law has become an increasingly important arena for international competition. Over the past six years, China has introduced a series of foreign-related laws and regulations to counter foreign sanctions, intervention, and long-arm jurisdiction, collectively constituting what Chinese policy discourse calls the “three-anti”  legal framework (“三反”法治体系). While Beijing’s sanctions and export controls have attracted much of the international attention over the past few years, the blocking and judicial remedy mechanisms under this framework are now also being put into practice. The latest case came on August 19, when China’s Ministry of…

Faced with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), U.S. legislation that presumes any goods made in Xinjiang involved forced labor, as well as with new European forced labor rules, China has not retreated. Instead, Beijing is building its own corporate responsibility and supply chain standards, limiting how some Western audit and standards systems operate in China, and promoting China-led standards abroad. China’s Ministry of Commerce recently accused the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) of assisting U.S. sanctions against China over alleged forced labor in Xinjiang and barred Chinese organizations and…

China’s influence operations are expanding across the Indo-Pacific. In Japan, disinformation circulated on social media during the House of Representatives election in February 2026 in what appeared to be a coordinated Chinese influence operation. Posts on X systematically spread memes promoting narratives such as “Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae is a militarist” and “Japan cannot win in a Taiwan contingency.” The Japanese text bore traces of simplified Chinese, some meme images resembled those used in Chinese government affiliated media, and the narratives aligned with Chinese government talking points — all pointing…