A French Navy vessel will conduct surveillance activities in the East China Sea until early March as part of international efforts to block North Korea from engaging in ship-to-ship transfers of goods at sea in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry. It will be …
Read More »North Korea orders expansion of political prison camp system
The North Korean authorities have reportedly ordered the expansion of political prison camps in the country. A source told Daily NK that North Korea, having declared war on the so-called “anti-socialist and non-socialist phenomenon” during the recent Eighth Party Congress, intends to overhaul its incarceration facilities ahead of a major …
Read More »Afghan Peace Talks: Could a Third-Party Mediator Help?
Mediators alone do not guarantee success, but there are few examples of significant peace agreements in their absence. At present, the Afghan peace negotiations (APN) between the Afghan government and the Taliban do not involve any third-party presence beyond hosting and supporting roles. The parties to the conflict and members …
Read More »Six Challenges for the Biden Administration’s China Policy
Can Washington work with its allies and partners to shape Beijing’s behavior and find realistic ways to cooperate on shared interests? Last week, President Biden held a call with General Secretary Xi Jinping, China’s paramount leader. They reportedly talked for more than two hours, a length that, combined with the …
Read More »When It Comes to Soft Power, China Is Already Outpacing the U.S.
The coming crisis of American power that is sure to follow the November election will be unique in U.S. history. Competing with China, Russia and whatever other major rivals may emerge will be less about aircraft carriers, fighter jets, nuclear submarines and stealth bombers than ever before, and more about …
Read More »On Trade, Trump Is Turning the U.S. Into a Cheap Copy of China
Reciprocity has become the watchword for the Trump administration’s increasingly confrontational approach to China, from imposing limits on the movement of Chinese diplomats and journalists within the U.S., to banning Chinese-owned social media and messaging platforms TikTok and WeChat. The immediate goal is to impose costs for Beijing’s similar restrictions …
Read More »China’s Naval Buildup Is a Real Challenge to the U.S. Navy’s Dominance
While the United States Navy struggles to figure out if, how and when it can expand the size of its combat fleet by 47 ships—a 15 percent increase—China continues to crank out around a dozen new large warships a year. In May, the busy shipyard in the port city Dalian …
Read More »China’s Double Standard for Diplomatic Speech Online Sparks a Global Backlash
In early December, amid rising tensions between Australia and China, Prime Minister Scott Morrison posted a statement on the Chinese social media platform WeChat to voice his outrage at an incendiary tweet from a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson. Within a day, WeChat, which routinely polices sensitive content on its platform, …
Read More »China’s Road to ‘Cyber Superpower’ Status
n late November, Daniel Zhang, the chairman and CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, gave a speech at the Chinese government-sponsored World Internet Conference. The event was taking place in Wuzhen, a historic town in eastern Zhejiang province, but Zhang’s intended audience was hundreds of miles away, in Beijing. Just …
Read More »Genuine Nationalism calls for Peace and Friendship with China and Giving up subservience to Imperialists
After reading Bharat Dogra’s article “ For De-Escalation on India-China Border, Government Needs Wider Support of the Opposition”- February 14, 2021 in counter currents, I would like to share my views on this issue. The 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and India in 2020 has …
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