LABOR is pursuing a dramatic upgrading of Australia‘s relationship with China that would put diplomatic ties between Canberra and Beijing on a similar footing to relations with the US, Japan and Indonesia. Foreign Minister Bob Carr revealed yesterday that he had sent the head of his department, Dennis Richardson, to Beijing last month to propose the […]
After decades of dealing with the Indian hand in their country’s domestic affairs, Nepali politicians are now confronted with another assertive neighbour — China. Moving from a relatively detached approach to high-profile engagement, Beijing has now started making its views known about Nepal’s political transition. In the past, efforts by sections of Nepali politicians to […]
Until recently, Beijing’s policy in Afghanistan could be characterized as masterful inactivity: It sat on the sidelines of a war that it wanted neither side to win. But the late September visit by security chief Zhou Yongkang, the first by a senior Chinese leader in almost five decades, is the most visible sign that the U.S. 2014 […]
When Xiaobo Zhang got married in the early 1990s, he and his bride, like millions of other couples across China, were given a small room to live in by his danwei, or work unit. At the time a lecturer at Nankai University in Tianjin, Zhang’s room was utilitarian and unremarkable, virtually indistinguishable from the ones inhabited […]
China’s foreign exchange (‘forex’) reserves and its holdings of U.S. government debt are two of the most frequently misunderstood issues in relations between the two countries. Recent events have underscored this problem. On September 18th, a car carrying Gary Locke, the U.S. Ambassador to China, was surrounded and partially attacked in a sideshow to an […]
China has raised the politico-diplomatic ante with Japan over the disputed islands in the East China Seain a definitive manner through a formal Cabinet-equivalent announcement in Beijing and the follow-up of this assertion at the foreign minister level in New York on Tuesday (September 25). Territorial disputes with certain key Asian countries is a high-octane issue […]
China appears ever more willing to use its economic muscle to strategic ends. Japan is the most recent target, as tensions flare over a maritime territorial dispute. Customs processing has been delayed for some Japanese goods, and visas are somewhat less forthcoming. There are concerns about consumer boycotts, especially of Japanese cars. It’s reasonable to […]
Beijing, New Delhi and Islamabad are jockeying for position in Afghanistan after the US draws down most of its forces by the end of 2014. Against this backdrop, the first-ever triangular meeting between the US, India and Afghanistan on Tuesday in New York sent yet another signal that the US is looking to replace Pakistan […]
China’s recent assertiveness in the South China Seas is a harbinger of things to come. Beijing’s seapower project and the enormous resources it has enjoyed have opened up new strategic vistas for Chinese leaders and military commanders. With larger and more capable seagoing forces at its disposal, Beijing is well positioned to fashion sophisticated strategies […]
The whole world is watching China‘s confrontations in the South China Sea and the East China Sea—but India is watching with particular concern. India has no territorial claims here per se, but one Indian official recently said that the South China Sea could be seen “as the antechamber of the Indian Ocean,” given the flow […]
looking beyond borders 