The BRICS Expose the West’s Hypocrisy

Who do they think they are, these upstart economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa? That might sum up the feeling in the U.S., Europe and Japan as the BRICS nations consider a new development bank that might challenge the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The move brings to mind Alice Amsden, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist who died last […]

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Sri Lanka’s Growing Economy Battles Commercial Disputes

Since the end of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war in 2009, the government has clearly been focusing on expansion, with new investments in infrastructure and the private sector that are helping to spur growth and contributing to an increase in disposable income and rising consumerism. While this growth is largely positive, there has also been […]

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Chinese Trade With Africa Keeps Growing

Chinese are coming to Africa in ever greater numbers and finding it a comfortable place to visit, work in and trade. An estimated 1m are now resident in Africa, up from a few thousand a decade ago, and more keep arriving. Chinese are the fourth-most-numerous visitors to South Africa. Among them will be China’s new […]

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India and China: New Chapter, Old Challenges

President Xi Jinping is expected to hold his first meeting as China’s new leader with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this week, along the sidelines of the March 26 BRICS Summit in South Africa. The talks — they are expected to be a brief event according to officials in Beijing, who cited the limitations of Mr. […]

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China And Its African History

On the second leg of his first overseas trip as China’s head of state, Xi Jinping is visiting a number of destinations in Africa, including Tanzania, the Republic of Congo, and South Africa where he will attend the 5th BRICS Leaders Summit in Durban. Xi’s trip reflects the growing importance China places on Africa in […]

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Xi In Russia

The atmospherics surrounding Xi Jinping’s coming trip to Russia – his first visit to a foreign country as China’s new president – remind me of a slogan from my early childhood in the late 1950’s: “Russia-China, Friendship Forever.” The irony is that, even in that slogan’s heyday, Sino-Russian relations were deteriorating fast, culminating in spasms […]

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