South East Asia

In 2022, there will be great interest in Asia’s summit season because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The annual East Asia Summit, ASEAN and APEC meetings always attract attention due to the proximity of many world leaders, but the less glamorous work of the multilateral mechanisms goes on throughout the …

As their strategic rivalry grows, China and the U.S. are increasingly operating in close proximity in the Asia Pacific. An accident or misinterpreted signal could set off a wider confrontation. The danger level is low, but dialogue is needed to dial it down further. What’s new? The risk of an unintended …

On May 16, wheat prices reached a new high, as India banned exports amid a disastrous heat wave.India, the second largest producer of wheat worldwide, conveyed growing concerns about the status of its own food supply amid skyrocketing prices and decreased harvests. Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is a …

China wants to expand the group of emerging economies known as BRICS, in the first shake up of the bloc in over a decade, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Thursday. Brazil, Russia, India and China initially formed the bloc in 2009, with South Africa joining in 2010. “China proposes …

China has been unabashed about making its intentions known. Already in 1999, two colonels in China’s People’s Liberation Army, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiansui, wrote, “Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America.” In it, the authors “suggest the significance of alternatives to direct military confrontation, including international policy, economic …

Face à ce nouvel argumentaire diplomatique un peu vaseux, la nécessité d’une stratégie occidentale globale Selon la Chine, Taïwan demeure la 23e province chinoise. Mais en réalité, depuis 1945, l’île est de facto indépendante de la république populaire de Chine – qui n’y a jamais exercé aucun pouvoir politique, mais …

This year, China is expected to overtake the United States as the world’s largest oil refining country.[1] Although China’s bloated and fragmented crude oil refining sector has undergone major changes over the past decade, it remains saddled with overcapacity.[2] Privately owned unaffiliated refineries, known as “teapots,”[3] mainly clustered in Shandong …

The Taliban have dissolved Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission, and four other government departments, citing a budget crisis. The cuts were announced on Monday, days after the Taliban announced their first annual national budget. Afghanistan’s budget deficit for this year is $501 million. At the time of the announcement, Taliban officials …

Chinese President Xi Jinping has come up with a new global security proposal questioning implicitly the logic of the Indo-Pacific strategy, as well as the Quad involving Australia, Japan, India, and the United States. Xi proposed a new “Global Security Initiative” at the Boao Forum for Asia’s annual conference in …

CIA Director William Burns has stated that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become unsettled by the performance of Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. China, a country that has been increasingly aggressive against Taiwan, has been known to be a Putin ally and has been observing how the …