In the early twentieth century, during a period when Tibet was effectively self-governed, it was known as “the hermit kingdom.”… In more recent times, Tibet’s isolation has been shaped by altogether different forces, some of which have reduced it and some of which have heightened it.
Read Here | Foreign Affairs
The Chinese government is expected to announce soon that the nation’s population has shrunk for the first time in nearly 60 years, Financial Times reported. According to the FT, the latest census numbers for the world’s most populous nation are expected to show a decline to less than 1.4 billion people, though it is unclear how much less.
Read Here | South China Morning Post
America’s focus on real and perceived threats overseas has led to an unconscious oversight of domestic, inherently American threats. This strategic distraction has favoured addressing foreign threats and those domestically with a foreign aspect, leaving a wide space for domestic extremism to go unchecked.
Read Here | The National Interest
The reaction to China’s growing economic power reveals many of the West’s deep insecurities. Trump’s use of the term “China virus” was not just jingoism meant to reduce his responsibility for the mounting death toll. There was also a sinister undertone laced with the accusation that perhaps China had waited before alerting the world so that it would wreak maximum damage on its competitors.
Read Here | The Nation
Two emerging phenomena have worsened the situation enormously: new communications technologies have contributed to the disappearance of a common factual basis for democratic deliberation, and what were once policy differences between “blue” and “red” factions have hardened into divisions over cultural identity.
Read Here | Foreign Affairs
Gradually the PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) government is losing its grip on power, as the political opposition not only has pushed it on to the back foot but has also weakened the military establishment’s control of the power chessboard. On Sunday, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), and alliance of opposition parties, held its third massive public gathering, this time in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.
Read Here | Asia Times
Never before has imperialism been so condemned as now. European colonialism continues to constitute a raw and living memory in the collective minds of its hundreds of millions of victims and their descendants, even while each and any aspect of racism is noisily condemned in the United States. Empire, in other words, has come to represent the world-historical face of racism writ large.
Read Here | The National Interest
Growing numbers of people no longer find religion a necessary source of support and meaning in their lives… Modern societies have become less religious in part because they no longer need to uphold the kinds of gender and sexual norms that the major world religions have instilled for centuries.
Read Here | Foreign Affairs
Powerful governments and special interests know that people tend to associate risks and dangers such as illness, natural disaster, and famine with conduct that transgresses societal norms. When people believe that “better behavior” can remedy a threat, they work hard to force that behaviour on everyone.
Read Here | AIER
The pandemic and the protests of recent months should serve as a reminder of a simple truth: a mask is always just a mask. What matters for democracy is not whether people cover their faces in public, but which people, and why.
