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 …
Read More »Something’s Brewing: China’s “Teapot” Refineries and Middle East Oil Producers
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 …
Read More »Taliban Dissolve Government Departments Over Budget Crisis
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 …
Read More »China: Xi Proposes Global Security Initiative
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 …
Read More »China is Unsettled by Russia’s Military Failures in Ukraine, CIA Chief Confirms
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 …
Read More »North Korea Policy under the New South Korean President: More Continuity than Change
On 9 March, South Koreans voted a conservative, Yoon Suk-yeol, into the presidency to replace the left-leaning Moon Jae-in. Yoon has taken a harder rhetorical line than his predecessor toward Pyongyang. But a dramatic shift in North Korea policy is unlikely. South Korea is changing political direction. After five years …
Read More »Biden names envoy to SE Asia bloc, stressing US attention
President Joe Biden on Friday announced he’s nominating one of his top national security aides as ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, aiming to underscore his administration’s commitment to the Pacific region.
Read More »India And Germany: Moving Beyond Diplomatic Niceties
Germany’s recently elected center-left coalition under Chancellor Scholz chose India as the partner for its first governmental consultations on 2nd May 2022. Beyond the signaling effects that Europe’s and Asia’s largest democracies intend to cooperate more closely together, the final joint statement exhibits the depth of mutual understanding and trust …
Read More »What Would Be China’s Capital Market Under New Policy? – Analysis
Recently, the central government of China has issued a new policy on the “Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a Large Unified National Market (hereafter referred to as ‘Opinions’)”. The Opinions propose to speed up the …
Read More »Russia and China: The Worst Moment in History Coming Soon
Russia has a nuclear doctrine known as “escalate to deescalate” or, more accurately, “escalate to win,” which contemplates threatening or using nuclear weapons early in a conventional conflict. It cannot be a good sign that Russia, China, and North Korea at the same time are threatening to launch the world’s …
Read More »