South East Asia

Tokyo, Beijing, And New Tensions Over Taiwan – Analysis

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 …

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Biden: No Need for Confrontation With China

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 …

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Despite High Stakes in Ethiopia, China Sits on the Sidelines of Peace Efforts

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 …

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How China’s PLA exploits information disruption

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, …

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The Pandemic Has Done Little to Check China’s Geostrategic Ambitions

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 …

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China appoints envoy for Horn of Africa

China’s announcement of an envoy to the troubled Horn of Africa raised questions about the effectiveness of the Chinese role in resolving regional conflicts, especially the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam crisis, which is still a subject of tension and disagreement between Cairo, Khartoum and Addis Ababa. China has recently announced …

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No Progress in China-India Military Talks

India and China held a 14th round of military talks earlier this week to resolve the border confrontation between the two countries that began in mid-2020. The corps commander-level talks were held at the Chushul-Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that separates …

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Declining And Dangerous China – Analysis

Is China on the decline? Chinese economic statistics like all other information flowing out of China are unreliable, but now those, along with other indicators, paint an unflattering picture of the economy. In May 2021, the Chinese government revised its population data from 2011-19, adding approximately ten million births over …

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Oil prices reach highest point in seven years

High oil prices are a victory for Saudi Arabia, but a blow to the United States and China. Oil prices reached their highest point since 2014 today. The price of Brent crude opened above $87 a barrel. Brent crude is widely considered the benchmark for global oil prices. Oil prices …

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China won’t ‘bully’ neighbours over South China Sea, foreign minister says

China will not use its strength to “bully” its smaller neighbours including the Philippines, its foreign minister said on Monday, as he highlighted the importance of settling disputes in the South China Sea peacefully. “Stressing only one side’s claims and imposing one’s own will on the other is not a …

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