CHINAwatch

South Korea and the US have kicked off joint war games - wider implications

Live interview with Press TV on 25 September 2023

China's Role in a Multipolar World

PowerPoint presentation at the 10th Annual Conference on International Studies, Center for Strategic Research and Analysis, Lisbon, Portugal 14-15 September 2023. (CESRAN 2023) (An online presentation) 

Download China's Role in a Multipolar World - CESRAN 2023 (New) [Autosaved]                                                                                      

Chinese aircraft carriers pass through Taiwan Strait: wider implications

Live interview with Press TV on 27 May 2023

Has the EU visit shown a ‘united European front’ or emboldened China's stance on Ukraine and Taiwan?

Live TV panel discussion on TRT World's "The Newsmakers" program on 10 April 2023 

The Great Tech Rivalry - China v the US: How China will surpass USA in key 21st Century technologies by 2030

Drawing from the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Centre December 2021 Report - The Great Tech Rivalry: China vs the US, a YouTube podcast dated 18 March  2023 summarizes the state of play in 21st Century technologies comprising Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G & 6G, Quantum Information Science, Semiconductors, Bitoechnoloy, and Green Energy, indicating that China is likely to surpass the US by 2030 in key domains in these fields. 

The full Belfer Centre Report may be accessed here.

China's "global ambitions" according to two prominent Western sinologists

In Daring to Struggle: China's Global Ambitions Under Xi Jinping (10 June,2022), Bates Gill, Chair of the Department of Security Studies at Macquarie University and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Insitute in London, focuses on China's six perceived strategic interests: Legitimacy; Sovereignty, Wealth, Power, Leadership and Ideas.

The Ideas consist of four strands - (a) a new global era with dynamic "changes not seen in a hundred years" as backdrop for the struggle to realize the China Dream of national renaissance; (b) an aim to build a "Community of Common Destiny" for mankind beset with interconnected and inter-dependent challenges like Climate Change and global security; (c) achieving global "unity with diversity" in international relations, relying on China's ancient adage of "harmony despite differences" (和而不同); and (d) seeking "Chinese Solutions" for global challenges instead of blindly following a superficial, one-size-fits-all Western hymnbook.  

In The Final Struggle: Inside China's Global Strategy (2022), Ian Eason, Senior Director of the Project 2049 Institute, based in Arlington, Virginia, USA, tries to turn President Xi's concept of "Common Destiny" on its head, hyping it as a sinister plot to achieve global dominance by shaping a panopticon "world government" bent to his will. Understandably, to veteran China-bashers and those otherwise infected with Sinophobia, every curved shadow would look like a snake, as the Chinese saying goes. (杯弓蛇影)

Eason's overhyped narrative and wafer-thin understanding of China notwithstanding, eye-catching infographics by Louis Martin Vezian are perhaps the most interesting parts of the book, showcasing at a glance how much national progress and global influence China has achieved over recent decades under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The following reproduced infographics may come in handy by way of reference or reminder. 

Download China's One-World Government (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download Taking Over International Institutions (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download Wall Street PRC (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download PRC Owned IoT in America (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download Compromised Container Ports (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download We Surround You (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download China is the Future (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download Buying Global Influence - (Louis Martin-Vezian)

 

 

Implications of the Biden-Xi 2-hour 17-minute talk

Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) - Hong Kong Today morning news programme on 29 July, 2022 (Go to the segment "Pelosi visit could be 'dangerous flashpoint')

China's solar power manufacturers dominate global green energy market

Exclusive live interview with RT on 9 July, 2022

Will NATO’s new strategic concept work?

Inside Story on Aljazeera on 30 June, 2022. 

What The Economist omits to address in President Xi's vision of a global security order

The Economist article of 5 May 2022 claims that "Xi Jinping lays out a worldview with Chinese-Russian roots".

Laced with arguments soothing to Western ears, the article points out that Beijing's worldview primarily serves its own best interest, not wanting to lend support to a US-led Western coalition to punish, ostracize, and cripple, if not totally topple, Putin's Russia.

Well written regardless, the article glosses over the following dimensions:

(a) Should the pot call the kettle black? After all, all nations act in their own best interests, not least the United States. The war in Ukraine is seen as a godsend to revive US leadership and European/NATO unity. It would weaken if not destabilize Putin's Russia. Likewise, it presents a timely opportunity to implicate Beijing, which, as the article rightly points out, remains the United States' primary adversary. If all goes according to plan, a crumbling Russia would further empower the United States to prevail on China. 

(b) Beijing so far refrains from getting actively involved as a broker over Ukraine. Any even-handedness would be seen by the United States as pro-Russia. Following the US hymnbook would be ignoring Russia's security concerns; nor would it be in China's best interests. 

(c) The existing US-led "liberal order" seems on the verge of breaking down. It can't prevent the war over Ukraine from happening. Nor is the United States prepared to get directly involved. It is full of self-serving hypocrisy and double-standards. Witness Guantánamo Bay, illiberal treatment of US immigrants; selective embrace of Arabian authoritarian regimes; and indiscriminate coercion against other countries' rightful development.

(d) The United States seems turbo-charged to segregate the world into two camps, framing this a contest of the century between democracy and authoritarianism. However, notwithstanding draconian across-the-board sanctions and other restrictions, according to Wang Huiyao, founder and president of Center for China and Globalization (CCG) in Beijing, in 2021, "global trade hit a record $28.5 trillion, up 25% year-on-year and 13% higher than in 2019, before the pandemic struck. For all the talk of decoupling, U.S.-China trade swelled more than 20% last year, to $687.2 billion. Even with war in Ukraine, global trade is forecast to grow in 2022, albeit at a slower pace". "Cross-border investment also surpassed pre-pandemic levels last year, swelling to $1.65 trillion. China, in particular, is more integrated into the global economy than ever. In 2021, its foreign direct investment inflows rose by a third to an all-time high of $334 billion. In the first quarter of this year, they grew by more than 25% year-on-year". Click here "Globalization isn’t dead, It’s just not American anymore", Wang quipped. 

(e) Why should a world with diverse history, race, culture, ideology, politics, and stages of development, including ancient civilizations, be dictated by a US-defined one-size-fits-all formula? After all, the West represents only 8% of the world's population. The developing world now accounts for 57% of the world GDP. 123 countries have China as the largest trading partner compared with 57 for the United States. Not to mention the legitimacy of different regimes in the eyes of their own people. According to latest reports of Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center and Edelman Trust Barometer findings, over 90% of China's people trust the CCP government, multiple rankings above virtually all Western countries including the United States. Click here

(f) Why shouldn't President Xi's idea of a new global security order be at least equally good, if not better, for the world? What is wrong with his call for a security order that is “common, comprehensive, co-operative and sustainable” eschewing divisive alliances and blocs? Wouldn't this at the very least reduce spiraling global conflicts? 

(g) Why should (c) (d) (e) and (f) above be branded as having "Russian roots"?