South East Asia

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 …

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 …

US Navy ships routinely sail close to the islands to challenge Chinese sovereignty claims, to Beijing’s anger. Two US aircraft carrier groups have entered the disputed South China Sea for training, the Department of Defense said on Monday as Taiwan reported a new Chinese air force incursion at the top …

The Russian-led military operation in Kazakhstan has presented an important test for Moscow’s ties with Beijing. In early January, Kazakhstan was shaken by nationwide protests that sparked uncertainty in the central Asian nation that had hitherto remained largely stable. Though much remains to be seen as to how the events …

China and the United States have engaged in a renewed spat over the activity of a U.S. naval ship in the South China Sea, with Washington asserting its right to navigate territorial waters and Beijing warning of “serious consequences.” The USS Benfold guided-missile destroyer conducted a “freedom of navigation operation” …

Taiwan, a perennially sensitive issue between Japan and China, gained increased salience in the run-up to Japanese elections in fall 2021. In separate incidents in late August and early September, a Chinese flotilla sailed through the waters between Taiwan and Japan’s island of Yonaguni and on through the Miyako Strait …

On Friday, U.S President Joe Biden stated that there is no need for a confrontation with China, but instead, technological and economic competition. U.S. President Joe Biden noted on Friday that the relationship between Washington and Beijing should be focused on technological and economic competition instead of unnecessary U.S-China unnecessary …

Can Washington successfully pressure Beijing to join multilateral peace efforts? Since November of 2020, Ethiopia has been suffering from a deadly internal conflict that has claimed an estimated 50,000 lives and displaced over two million. The United States, the African Union and others in the region have attempted to secure …

The PLA has carefully studied the use of network-centric militaries such as the US Army and observed the reliance of those organisations upon information as a key element of their technological superiority. A theoretical representation of the centrality of information to western methods of warfare is provided by the Observe, …

Given the lack of joined up thinking by China’s geopolitical adversaries, the biggest threat to China’s growing economic and geopolitical dominance may actually be itself. For a country considered by many to have been the source of a global health pandemic resulting in over 5.3 million deaths globally, it is …