South East Asia

Taiwan Can’t Wait

What America Must Do To Prevent a Successful Chinese Invasion In March 2021, Admiral Philip S. Davidson, then the commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, informed Congress that China could invade Taiwan within the next six years. In October, Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng gave an even shorter timeline, asserting that …

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Next phase of China-Iran ties depends on nuclear talks

Iran and China’s long-term strategic partnership awaits any new outcome of the JCPOA. In a highly symbolic move, the Iranian Council of Ministers recently approved the opening of a Chinese consulate at Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main trading port and the capital of the coastal province of Hormozgan. While Tehran currently …

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US military drills with Pacific allies send a message to China, expert says

Military exercises between the United States and its allies in the Western Pacific, both ongoing and upcoming, send a message to China not to pull a “stunt” to distract people at home, according to a New Zealand-based American security expert. The U.S. Air Force is about to launch Cope North, …

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China Plays the Waiting Game on the Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Amid the looming threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Western nations continue to use a wide-ranging toolkit of policy options, including diplomacy and security assistance, to avert the risk of a full-blown war in Eastern Europe. The U.K. is supplying short-range anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. Canada is deploying a …

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China’s Hypersonic Missile Test Could Spur a Regional Arms Race

In a move that many observers have likened to the opening scene of a techno-thriller or science fiction novel, China reportedly tested an advanced hypersonic missile in August. Technically known as a Gliding Fractional Orbital Bombardment System, or G-FOBS, the weapon is said to have missed its target by about …

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The U.S. Should Compete With China and Russia—but Wisely

As the Biden administration prepares to release its National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy, observers are searching for clues on how those reviews will grapple with the framework of “great-power competition” that anchored the previous administration’s high-level policy documents. That framework has achieved substantial bipartisan traction in the intervening …

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The U.S. Is Competing With the Wrong China

A graphic illustration of China’s prowess in building its national high-speed passenger rail network caused a minor sensation as it made the rounds on Twitter last week. Like a colorful time-lapse photograph, only employing bar graphs instead of, say, plant life, it showed a lively dance of nations contending for …

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Timeline: The Downward Spiral Of China-Australia Relations – Analysis

To check the pulse of China-Australia relations, one needs look no further than a recent tweet from an official PRC government Twitter account depicting an Australian soldier cutting the throat of an Afghan child. It would appear as though the bilateral relationship – by far Australia’s most important in economic …

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