China
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Russia, China keep the ‘dragon in the fog’
An quasi-alliance rooted in dynamic economic partnership — trade touched $110 bn last year — and intensifying cooperation and coordination in the foreign policy arena takes a big leap forward, as the two countries join hands to strengthen their political systems. Beijing’s interest to highlight it speaks for itself. Continue reading
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Current Situation in South China Sea and Vietnam’s Policy
“We see that, with the changing world order, the rivalry between the current centers of power continues to intensify and so does the battle for leadership in the future. Unfortunately, the threat posed by the novel Coronavirus has not reduced these geopolitical tensions, exacerbating them instead. We would like to reiterate that, from our point… Continue reading
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US lobbyists set the Indian narrative on China border
The civilian-military relationship is a complex matrix. In ‘wartime’, this is more so when civilian leaders who never held a killer’s weapon in their palms are called upon to take decisions on the passage of arms. Of course, there are strong-willed leaders who force their will. Bismarck was one such leader — Stalin another —… Continue reading
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Don’t beat the bushes for China, there’s nothing out there
The border tensions between India and China are accentuating a malaise among Indian analysts — their tunnel vision. Continue reading
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The US is alone in its ‘trade war’ on China
With everyday passing, it is becoming clear that the US-China trade deal will eventually unravel, paving the way for a long-term standoff, even if not a full-fledged ‘cold war’, between the two super powers. As recent remarks made by the US National Security Advisor (NSA), Robert O’Brien, showed, the US is planning ‘more steps’ to… Continue reading
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New Law Liberates Hong Kong From U.S. Interference
After the U.S. instigated riots in Hong Kong last year the central government of China saw a necessity to intervene. In sight of other anti-China measures the U.S. has taken the reputational costs of doing so had become less important. Continue reading
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US-China trade deal unravels. What next?
The world community can heave a sigh of relief that there isn’t going to be a new cold war between the United States and China. A Cold War needs two blocs: while Washington is unable to cobble together a bloc, Beijing is disinterested in one, lacking a bloc mentality. But isolating China in the international… Continue reading
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PEPE ESCOBAR: The India-China, Himalayan Puzzle
It was straight from an Orientalist romantic thriller set in the Himalayas: soldiers fighting each other with stones and iron bars in the dead of night on a mountain ridge over 4,000 meters high, some plunging to their deaths into a nearly frozen river and dying of hypothermia. Continue reading
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How we Sold the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia for Plastic Shopping Bags
For months, this has been a story that I want to share with young readers in Hong Kong. Now it seems to be the really appropriate time when the ideological battle between the West and China is raging, and as a result of it, Hong Kong and the entire world is suffering. Continue reading
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Is Kashmir a US Trap to Confront Russia and China?
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), founded in 2001 by the Shanghai Five (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) and to which Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan were later added would be the ALBA and Iran countries hard core of resistance to world hegemony of the United States and Great Britain. Consequently, the avowed objective of the United… Continue reading
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Nixon-Trump vs. the Strategy of Tension
Trump’s MAGA woes have been compounded by a shoddy geopolitical move in tandem with Law and Order: his re-election campaign will be under the sign of “China, China, China.” When in trouble, blame a foreign enemy. That comes from serially failed opportunist Steve Bannon and his Chinese billionaire sidekick Guo Wengui, or Miles Guo. Here… Continue reading
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1962 India-China war redeux?
The Indian analysts have been comparing the military build-up in the India-China border in eastern Ladakh to the Doklam standoff in 2017. This was only to be expected since the leitmotif was once again a road construction in disputed border regions. Continue reading
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The Corona Pandemic and Trump’s Trade War against China: America’s Dependence on “Made in China”
The US has been threatening China with trade sanctions for several years. At the outset of the Trump administration in January 2017, Washington not only envisaged punitive trade measures, it also called for “an investigation into China’s trade practices” focussing on alleged violations of U.S. intellectual property rights. Continue reading
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EU, China draw closer in post-pandemic setting
The 10th annual Strategic Dialogue between the European Union and China on June 9 can be regarded as marking the resumption of structured big-power diplomacy in the post-Covid-19 setting. It was both a symbolic and substantive event, preparing the ground for the forthcoming EU-Summit. Continue reading
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Post-Pandemic Economic Scenarios: China & Europe (Interview #2)
This past April, in the midst of the surging pandemic and collapsing US economy, I was interviewed by three sources in Europe for a US perspective on the events. The following is the second part of an interview with Polish social commentator, Konrad Stachnio, that will appear in a collection of interviews later this summer.… Continue reading
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Russia aiming to realize Greater Eurasia dream
The Russian role will be to balance the hegemonic powers, as a guarantor of a new union of non-aligned nations Continue reading
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Coronavirus: Five key questions about China and COVID-19
Since the world first heard about COVID-19 in December 2019, nearly every corner of the planet has been affected by this pandemic. Based on what media around the world is saying, it’s hard to know what is true and what is not. Continue reading
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Trump’s China policy at a cul-de-sac
This past week has been a catastrophic seven days that shook America. Some of the debris may have inevitably fallen on President Donald Trump too. Most important, the Trump administration has lost the plot on China. Continue reading
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Stock markets innoculated, but economy remains vulnerable due to underlying condition – low profitability
In many ways, we are now in the eye of the hurricane or cyclone. That eerie calm with clear blue skies. But as any meteorologist knows, the tail winds that follow this calm are more powerful and destructive than the leading winds which have recently passed. Continue reading
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Beijing sees Trump’s hand and won’t fold
Everyone was expecting US President Donald Trump to go nuclear by de facto sanctioning China to death over Hong Kong. In an environment where Twitter and the President of the United States are now engaged in open warfare, the rule is that there are no rules anymore. Continue reading