Tag: International Relations

Philippines Says It Removed Chinese Barrier That Blocked Fishing Boats

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Faced with China’s determination to exert control over a vast area of the South China Sea far from its mainland, the Philippine Coast Guard said Monday that it had taken matters into its own hands, taking down a Chinese barrier that had kept Filipino fishing boats at bay. The Coast Guard released video of a diver cutting through the ropes that kept the barriers in place at the Scarborough Shoal, which is claimed by both the Philippines and China. The maritime obstacles could then be seen being hoisted out of…

Biden Hosts Pacific Islands, With a Rising China in Mind

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President Biden hosted the leaders of 18 Pacific Island nations at the White House on Monday, the second gathering of its kind in a year and the latest illustration of a regional competition for influence between the United States and China. Speaking to the leaders at the White House on Monday, Mr. Biden invoked America’s World War II campaign against Japan in the region, and, without naming China, implied that another kind of battle was now underway. “Like our forebears during World War II, we know that a great deal…

Blasting Bullhorns and Water Cannons, Chinese Ships Wall Off the Sea

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The Chinese military base on Mischief Reef, off the Philippine island of Palawan, loomed in front of our boat, obvious even in the predawn dark. Radar domes, used for military surveillance, floated like nimbus clouds. Lights pointed to a runway made for fighter jets, backed by warehouses perfect for cruise missile launchers. More than 900 miles from the Chinese mainland, in an area of the South China Sea that an international tribunal has unequivocally determined does not belong to China, cellphones pinged with a message: “Welcome to China.” The world’s…

Syria’s Leader, al-Assad, Visits China in Search of Friends and Funds

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The News President Bashar al-Assad of Syria arrived in China on Thursday as he sought financial support to rebuild his country and to improve his international standing after being ostracized over atrocities committed during Syria’s ongoing civil war. His visit takes place as China seeks to present itself as a powerful influence in the Middle East, and a partner to nations that are shunned by the United States and the West. He is expected to meet with China’s top leader, Xi Jinping. Background Mr. al-Assad’s trip is his first visit…

Hong Kong Says It Calls the Shots, Not Beijing. Investors Are Wary.

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Isolated from the world and pulled closer into Beijing’s orbit over the past three years, Hong Kong is finding that its fortunes are tied more than ever to China. The city’s stock market, which is seen as a proxy for China’s economy, is among the world’s worst performing this year. The rivers of money that flowed into companies, minting new wealth, have slowed to a trickle. And there is the gnawing feeling that the once-vibrant international city that staked its reputation on being separate from China has itself become more…

U.S. and China Aren’t Invited to speak at U.N.’s Climate Ambition Summit

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The United Nations’ secretary general, António Guterres, convened a special summit on Wednesday in New York City designed to highlight the efforts of the most ambitious global leaders on climate policy — and to implicitly shame those who are dragging their feet. Mr. Guterres, who has made climate action a centerpiece of his agenda and has called on the world’s largest carbon emitters to rapidly shift away from burning fossil fuels, the main driver of global warming, pledged that only high-level leaders whom he sees as taking climate action seriously…

Biden Is Caught Between Allies as Canada Accuses India of Assassination

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A day after promising to “defend democracy,” President Biden brought up India and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday during a round of meetings at the United Nations — not to raise concerns about repression by either, but to hail them for helping establish a new economic corridor. “I think it’s a big deal,” he said. Perhaps no two countries reflect the difficult and delicate trade-offs in Mr. Biden’s foreign policy at the moment more than India and Saudi Arabia. He has made it a priority to court both nations as part…

Robert Benewick obituary

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My friend Robert Benewick, who has died aged 90, was a political scientist who made major contributions to our knowledge of British and Chinese politics. He was also a soft-spoken fighter for social justice and international understanding. He first visited China in 1975 and over the next 40 years held four visiting professorships at Remnin University of China. In collaboration with British, American and Chinese colleagues he produced seven books and scores of articles on China. As a critical friend of the country he had a leading role in the…

Biden, in U.N. Speech, Calls for Action on Ukraine and Other Crises

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While he took an unrelenting stance against Russia’s brutal war and warned against appeasing Moscow, he drew a more measured line on China, repeating his commitment to “push back on aggression and intimidation” by Beijing while seeking ways to work together and denying that he was trying to contain the Asian giant. “We seek to responsibly manage the competition between our countries so it does not tip into conflict,” he said. Mr. Biden mentioned a litany of other major issues confronting the world today, like fentanyl abuse, artificial intelligence, terrorism,…

Burner Laptops and Smaller Profits: Firms Portray Their China Challenges

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American companies doing business in China are less optimistic about the future than at any other time in more than two decades. Restrictions on economic data, like the extent of youth unemployment, is making investment decisions harder. Few of the many foreign executives who left China during the pandemic are returning. These are some of the takeaways from reports released Tuesday by organizations representing close to 2,000 European and American firms. The papers by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China…