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Geopolitics Ideas

China-Russia Alliance, How The West Failed To See It Coming

A resurgent, ambitious Russia has taken the West by surprise, just when the United States was pivoting and bracing itself to face down China.

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In The News

Le Weekend ➡️ Djokovic, BoJo, Xi Jinping: Rules & Power In Pandemic Times

January 15-16 Kazakhstan’s vicious circle of strongmen COVID school chaos around the world The truth behind why we lie to ourselves … and much more! BUT FIRST, A NEWS QUIZ! What do you remember from the news this week? 1. What extreme measure did the Canadian province of Quebec take to encourage people to get […]

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Society

Peng Shuai, A Reckoning China’s Communist Party Can’t Afford To Face

The mysterious disappearance – and brief reappearance – of the Chinese tennis star after her #metoo accusation against a party leader shows Beijing is prepared to do whatever is necessary to quash any challenge from its absolute rule.

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In The News

Russia Space Blast Endangers Astronauts, Belarus Border Clashes, Leo’s Beach

? ሰላም!* Welcome to Tuesday, where Russia is under fire for blowing up a satellite in space, clashes erupt at the Poland-Belarus border and Leo’s Beach opens again. Courtesy of German daily Die Welt, we also look at the reasons behind the major discrepancies in COVID-19 vaccination rates across Europe. [*Selam, Amharic – Ethiopia]   […]

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In The News

Chinese Students Now Required To Learn To Think Like Xi Jinping

“Xi Jinping Thought” ideas on socialism have been spreading across the country since 2017. But now, Beijing is going one step further by making them part of the curriculum, from the elementary level all the way up to university.

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Geopolitics Society

Why Chinese Youth Are Still So Eager To Join The Communist Party

BEIJING — “Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to join the party…” Yanru, a 22-year-old university student studying at a well-known university in northern China, just became a CCP member last year. For her and her peers, joining the Chinese Communist Party is something that just seems natural: “It has led us […]

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In The News

Strait Talk: China Invading Taiwan Is Mostly Just A Matter Of Time

Though Beijing is not likely to launch any overt operation right away, experts predict it’s most likely to try to force Taiwan’s reunification between 2025 and 2030. This would almost certainly prompt a U.S. response.

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In The News

Argentina Looks For Its ‘Niche’ in China’s Trading Empire

Argentina must discern and deftly negotiate for its national interests in the rising, global trading order dominated by China.

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Economy Future

Billionaire Surveillance: China Tracks Its Tech Moguls

For a number of weeks now, Beijing has been trying to regain control of its internet heroes, who are considered too dominant. E-commerce giants and their standard-bearer, Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma, are directly in the line of fire.

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In The News

India-China Standoff: Dalai Lama, A Not-So-Secret Weapon

The Narendra Modi government has largely ignored the Tibetan leader, who lives in exile in India, but the country’s military leaders now say support for the iconic monk could be the perfect way to push back on China.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Xi Jinping Risks All And Nothing In Hong Kong Crackdown

-OpEd- Chinese tanks have not rolled through the streets of Hong Kong, but Beijing’s legislative coup Tuesday, on the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the territory’s handover to China, is provoking a similar fear. Pro-democracy business owners have hastily removed the slogans that lined their storefronts and thousands are applying to emigrate, with Australia […]

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In The News

Coronavirus And The Global Cost Of Chinese Secrecy

-Analysis- PARIS — In his most recent book, Chine, le Grand Paradoxe (China, the Great Paradox), Jean-Pierre Raffarin reminds us that, “the key to diplomacy is reciprocal respect.” Prime minister at the height of the SARS crisis, in 2003, Raffarin was one of the rare foreign leaders to proceed with a scheduled trip to China. […]

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Economy Ideas

China Unleashed, Europe Paralyzed: A View From Germany

The Asian giant is like a super-charged Formula 1 car racing past a beautiful, but old Fiat 500.

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In The News

Everyone’s A Suspect: How China Keeps Tabs On 1.4 Billion People

With facial recognition cameras and Big Data, the Chinese leadership is pushing its penchant for surveillance to new heights.

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In The News

We May Have Just Witnessed The Moment China Overtook The U.S.

It will be marked in the historical record as the date when China took over control of Far East Asia.

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In The News

China, Deconstructing Xi Jinping’s Imperial Temptation

By becoming president for life, Xi Jinping is bringing China back to its imperial history, taking advantage of the exceptional development of his country but also of America’s mistakes. But Chinese coming fortunes are still very much up in the air.

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In The News

Trump Rolls Out ‘Madman Strategy’ For Global Trade War

-Analysis- PARIS — With his new sweeping round of protectionist tariffs on steel and aluminum, it looks like Donald Trump has decided to extend to the economic field the “madman strategy” he had already applied to the Korean Peninsula. That was the take last week from former CIA Director David Petraeus. Developed by the Nixon-Kissinger […]

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Geopolitics Society

In China’s Crackdown On Religions, Buddhism Gets A Pass

President Xi Jinping demands ‘inflexible atheism’ from his fellow Communist Party members. But he also has a soft spot for Buddhism, sources suggest.

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Eyes on the U.S. Ideas

When Trump Went To China, ‘America First’ Blindness v. Visionary Xi

Xi Jinping knows exactly where he wants to go. Donald Trump, not so much…

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Economy Ideas

Xi Jinping’s Second Term: It’s The Economy, Stupid

Will China’s unfulfilled promises of real market reforms finally come to pass? Eyes on the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party, opening on Oct. 18.

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In The News

China Is In Driver’s Seat When It Comes To Powering Electric Cars

-Op-Ed- LAUSANNE — While plenty of attention has been paid to Donald Trump’s “America First” pledge — as troublesome or laughable as it may seem — relatively little is being said about another protectionist economic strategy, one that could have a far greater impact on Europe and the West. Unlike the U.S. president, with his well-known habit of airing every thought and whim on Twitter, authorities in Beijing have been discreet about their “Made in China 2025” initiative. Don’t be fooled though. It may not have a lot of fanfare, but this is no half-measure. Just as China has already […]

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In The News

In Xi Jinping’s China, The Cult Of Mao Comes Roaring Back

BEIJING — In Xi Jinping’s China, it is again a risky proposition to openly criticize Mao Zedong. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thought it had resolved the discussion in 1981 when it decreed that the reign of Mao, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, had been 70% good and 30% bad. But since […]

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Geopolitics Ideas Trump And The World

Have U.S.-Europe Relations Changed Forever?

After Brexit and Trump, Europe is forced to fight back. The precious Transatlantic Alliance may be at risk.

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In The News

Trump Will Make China Stronger — And More Skittish

-Analysis- PARIS — For more than 70 years, the United States was the ultimate life insurance policy for Europe against the Soviet and now Russian thirst for power. The U.S. also held sway in Asia, in large part to counter China and to contain North Korea’s dangerous and eccentric drifts. The rise of China’s economic […]

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Economy Geopolitics

Giant Ghost Town Reflects What’s Wrong With China’s Economic Model

LANZHOU NEW AREA This city is supposed to be the diamond’s on China’s Silk Road Economic Belt a new metropolis carved out of the mountains in the country’s arid northwest. But it is shaping up to be fool’s gold, a ghost city in the making. Lanzhou New Area, in Gansu province, embodies China’s twin dreams of catapulting its poorer western regions into the economic mainstream through an orgy of infrastructure spending and cementing its place at the heart of Asia through a revival of the ancient Silk Road. Hundreds of hills on the dry, sandy Loess Plateau were flattened by […]

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blog

Fury In China Over Maritime Dispute Ruling

Dongfang Zaobao, July 13 “The South Sea Islands have been part of China’s territory since ancient times,” Wednesday’s front page of the Chinese daily Dongfang Zaobao reads. “China does not accept the ruling that does not recognize the South China Sea.” The defiant headline comes in response to Tuesday’s decision by a UN tribunal to […]

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Society

China’s Grand Soccer Ambitions

The last time China made a World Cup appearance in 2002, the team lost all three group matches and went out without a single goal. While Chinese fans are mad about soccer, their own national team rarely gives them reason to rejoice. But there are grand pl

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blog

China Faces Catastrophic Floods, Braces For Typhoon

Dongfang Zaobao (Oriental Morning Post) — July 7, 2016 This Thursday edition of Shanghai-based Dongfang Zaobao features emergency forces at work in the Yangtze River basin, with the headline “Flood emergency! President Xi deploys Disaster Relief Forces.” At least 120 people are dead or missing, and an estimated 16 million people have been affected by […]

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blog

Extra! Shanghai Disneyland Grand Opening

Dongfang Zaobao, June 16 Chinese daily Dongfang Zaobao featured the grand opening of Shanghai Disneyland on its front page Thursday after the theme park dynasty opened its doors at midnight following five years of construction. The $5.5 billion Shanghai Disney Resort is the American company’s biggest theme park outside of the U.S. Some 10,000 employees […]

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blog

Xi Jinping, A Stars-And-Stripes Front Page In China

Renmin Ribao, June 7, 2016 Tuesday’s front page of the Chinese state-run daily Renmin Ribao features President Xi Jinping in front of American and Chinese flags as he spoke at China-U.S. bilateral talks in Beijing. The 8th round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Development and the 7th round of China-U.S. Cultural Exchanges and High Level […]

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blog

March 14

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blog

China Shuts Down Notorious Army Song-And-Dance Troupe

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s glamorous singer wife Peng Liyuan used to perform with them. But so too did less reputable women, including several who became the center of public scandals. Now, after more than six decades of service, the Chinese People’s Liberation Song and Dance Troupe has been disbanded, reports Taiwanese newspaper China Times. Founded […]

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blog

On This Day – November 15

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Geopolitics

China In Doubt, Contradictions Of A Nation On The Defensive

Faced with enormous challenges both at home and abroad, China reveals itself as a land of double standards and growing uncertainty.

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blog

Historic Taiwan-China Summit, Another Russian Crash, Dylan Auction

WHY WILL CHINA, TAIWAN LEADERS FINALLY MEET? Doses of both silence and skepticism have followed the surprise announcement Tuesday that the leaders of Taiwan and China would meet for the first time in 66 years. Presidents Xi Jinping of China, and Ma Ying-jeou of China will meet on Saturday for what’s being dubbed as a […]

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Economy Ideas

China’s Changing Economy And The Great Global “Hangover”

-Analysis- BUENOS AIRES — We’re now very much in the “hangover” stage, the proverbial “morning after,” as countries all over the world face painful adjustments now that the party years — when China’s booming economy fed a seemingly insatiable appetite for outside products — are finally over. While the pain may not be as intense […]

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Ideas

China Reflections: From Mao To Xi

NEW YORK — For some years now, I have been observing China from a distance, never going back to the country that I called my third home for many years. Back then, during my long stays in China, I learned a lot about the country and its culture. In the past, foreigners had to travel […]

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blog

Refugee Quota, Pope & Xi In U.S., Ginger Plot

EU PUSHES THROUGH REFUGEE QUOTA DEAL The European Union has approved a controversial plan to relocate 120,000 migrants from Italy and Greece over two years. EU governments forced the deal through despite the opposition of four Eastern European states, using a rule that bypasses the usually required unanimity. Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia all […]

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blog

Xi Jinping Begins U.S. Visit

People’s Daily, Sept. 23, 2015 “Xi Jinping begins U.S. visit” reads the front page of Chinese state-run People’s Daily Wednesday, together with a picture Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan waving upon their arrival in Seattle on Tuesday. The Chinese president’s seven-day visit, aimed at strengthening diplomatic and commercial ties with the […]

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blog

Extra! People’s Daily: Xi Jinping Photo Spread, No News On Market Crash

China’s President Xi Jinping is featured three times on today’s front page of Chinese state-owned newspaper People’s Daily. Xi arrived in Ufa, Russia on Wednesday for a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summits. The Chinese leader is pictured shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian […]

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