South East Asia

Jabhat Ansar al Din (JaD), a longstanding pro-al Qaeda group in Syria, has confirmed the arrest of Abu Saloh al Uzbeki earlier this week. Uzbeki was the founder and former emir of Hay’at Tahrir al Sham’s Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad (KTJ).

Romanian and Bulgarian interests have diverged on many occasions throughout history, but their outlooks have recently become more aligned. For one thing, both countries have fostered a competitive dynamic to exploit their advantageous position near the Black Sea, or to join the EU and the Schengen Area. Their narratives regarding …

Bottom Line Up Front China and India—two nuclear-armed powers with the largest populations in the world—have recently been engaged in a tense standoff along one of the world’s longest shared land borders. While this is not the first time China and India have clashed over territorial demarcation, what is different …

U.S. President Donald Trump says China’s actions on Hong Kong are “plain violations of its treaty obligations” in remarks Friday that strongly criticized Beijing on a host of issues including its trade practices, handling of the coronavirus pandemic and dealings with the World Health Organization.

Beijing just imposed a raft of new security measures that will completely undermine the independence of Hong Kong’s own legislature. The new measures will apparently be announced in a few weeks — but one can assume that they include extradition to the mainland and imprisonment.

China’s decision to propose new legislation tightening control over Hong Kong has sparked a wave of condemnation from American lawmakers and officials, in yet another sign of worsening relations between the economic superpowers.

India has voiced a rare note of criticism of China’s assertive actions in the South China Sea, amid a tensions between the two Asian powers on their long land border.

China to hike defense spending by 6.6% China set its 2020 defense budget growth target at 6.6 percent, resulting in a draft budget of 1.268 trillion yuan ($178.2 billion), lower than the 7.5 percent growth in 2019.

Amid the recent muscle-flexing in the disputed South China Sea, one maritime drill went largely unnoticed that could be an important harbinger of China’s strategic thinking, and how its forces could project power across heavily contested waters.

China has warned France not to sell weapons to the self-ruled island of Taiwan, saying such a move would harm bilateral ties.