The United States’ loud complaints about the Chinese currency’s exchange rate, a thorny issue in the two nations ties over the past decade, have quietly faded away since Donald Trump became US president. Read Here – South China Morning Post
Conflicts in the Middle East, whether in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, or Yemen, share a common factor: the rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia. For years, this rivalry has inflamed violence in areas already torn by war and created new battlefields where there had been relative peace before. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
It was not an ordinary statement or pledge; not only because it was made by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but also because of what it implied — and it was followed only two weeks later with an exceptional, earth-shattering move. Read Here – Arab News
In most Asian capitals, as in Washington, Trump’s arrival in the region for an 11-day trip has prompted acute anxiety about what he might say or do. This is especially true regarding trade issues and North Korea, the two focal points of the U.S. administration’s still-nascent Asia policy. But in Beijing, Xi and the rest of the […]
As the Trump administration works out the specifics of its strategy to contain Iran, China is looking for ways to bring Iran into the global system. After the recent party congress, which cemented President Xi Jinping’s grip on power, those efforts will likely take the form of the completion of his most ambitious foreign policy plan, the […]
Donald Trump is kicking off an Asia tour next week that includes a two-day state visit to China starting Nov. 8. At the top of the agenda for his meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping is, of course, North Korea and trade—two items that, in Trump’s mind, can be traded against each other. Read Here – […]
A growing number of economists are joining the chorus forecasting the arrival of a stronger Chinese economy under President Xi Jinping – a stark contrast from a year ago, when China was seen as a source of instability for the world. Although Beijing has delivered scant evidence that it is taming its debt mountain, the optimists […]
As Donald Trump angles to make America’s debt burden great again, he has some finessing to do with his bankers. No, not Russia in this case, but China and Japan, both by far the biggest holders of U.S. Treasuries with a combined $2.3 trillion. South Korea’s $95 billion stockpile also has folks in Seoul curious about […]
This new era marks the resurrection of Mao’s one-man rule and symbolises the death of Deng’s two most important political legacies: the consensus-building “collective leadership” and an orderly power succession mechanism… Also, with no clear successor, Xi is set to dominate decision-making for years to come, putting 1.4 billion people, the world’s second-largest economy and an emerging nuclear-armed […]
Seventeen years after Vladimir Putin first became president, his grip on Russia is stronger than ever. The West, which still sees Russia in post-Soviet terms, sometimes ranks him as his country’s most powerful leader since Stalin. Russians are increasingly looking to an earlier period of history. Both liberal reformers and conservative traditionalists in Moscow are […]
looking beyond borders 