China
Russia foreign policy: the search for new friends
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to its near-complete political and economic estrangement from the West. This has obliged Moscow to intensify reorientation of its foreign…
China is its own worst enemy
On 3 April, the Philippines government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr formally unveiled four additional locations where US forces will be permitted to operate. Two of those…
Indonesia-China: a smart city can make for clever politics
China is one of Indonesia’s largest investors and for President Joko Widodo this amounts to a capital idea – quite literally, with his plan to move the seat of Indonesia’s…
Great power rivalry is poisoning multilateralism
Multilateralism functions when great powers agree on certain fundamentals. Conversely, multilateralism is bound to sputter when there are deep contradictions between major powers…
Climate change, ironically, reduces the heat in the South China Sea
Australia’s decision to go ahead with the purchase of nuclear-powered submarines from the United States and United Kingdom reflects a judgement that China, and more particularly…
China’s food dilemma
Despite China’s enormous population, the country has limited resources, making the security of food supplies a constant preoccupation. For older generations, including President…
China trumpets the Saudi-Iran deal, yet much credit goes to Pakistan
China’s brokering of a Saudi Arabia-Iran peace deal was presented earlier this month as a diplomatic blockbuster, a sign of the country’s growing influence in the oil-rich Middle…
India’s delicate dance with the Taliban
The Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan has not yet been the nightmare scenario that some in New Delhi had feared. India finds itself in the peculiar position of now being…
A Catch-22 for India’s tech ambitions
The ongoing Russia–Ukraine war has induced several unexpected shifts in global geopolitical dynamics. While previously stagnant India–Russia trade has more than tripled in just…
AUKUS commits Australia to fight China if America does, simple
Defence Minister Richard Marles is sure that the AUKUS submarine deal does not commit Australia to support America in a war with China over Taiwan. He made the point in two…