What's New: Middle East

April 07, 2025

Asian Markets Plunge as Trump's Tariffs Spark Global Trade Fears

Exclusive live TV interview on News X, India's fastest growing global Enlgish-language news TV cbannel claiming 100 million viewers.

Posted at 09:30 PM in Asia, Banking, China Business, China's Rise, Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Dollar, e-Commerce, Economics, Economy, Emerging Economies, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Geopolitics, Globalization, Hong Kong, India, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Latin America, Manufacturing , Middle East, Politics, Regional development, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Technology, Television, Turkey, UK, Ukraine , United States, Vietnam, Warfare, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 11, 2025

AUKUS alliance at risk: Will Trump abandon Australia and UK?

Live TV interview on 10 March 2025 with TRT World, a prominent global English language TV channel based in Ankara with studios in London and Washington D.C.

Posted at 01:13 AM in Asia, China's Rise, Current Affairs, Defense, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Geopolitics, Investment , Japan, Middle East, Military, Politics, Regional development, Russia, South China Sea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Technology, Turkey, UK, Ukraine , United States, Warfare, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 27, 2025

Preparing the next Hong Kong generation for Future Business Leadership in a New Global Economy

Download Preparing the next Hong Kong generation (PDF)
A presentation to a group of Hong Kong parents on 24 February 2025.

Posted at 11:06 AM in Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, BRICS, Business promotion, China Business, China's Rise, Cities, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Europe, Executive education and training, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Geopolitics, Globalization, Healthcare, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Life, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Philosophy, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, United States, Urbanization, Vietnam, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 14, 2025

Paradigm Shifts Upending the Global Order 2025

A PowerPoint presentation at the Hong Kong EGN Founding Chairmen Group meeting of 14 February 2025.
Download Paradigm Shifts Upending the World Order 2025

Posted at 08:00 PM in Africa, Asia, Banking, BRICS, China Business, China's Rise, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Denuclearization, Development_, e-Commerce, Economics, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, Ethics, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Games, Gas, Geopolitics, Globalization, History, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Politics, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, South China Sea, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Terrorism , United States, Urbanization, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 19, 2025

American "TikTok refugee" folk song on heart-warming exchanges

Threatened by America’s impending ban, later stayed by President Trump, millions of American ardent TikTok supporters have fled to China’s ubiquitous Xiaohongshu (known as RedNote), China's hugely popular "Instagram" until now populated virtually entirely by China's young generation.

This has prompted numerous person-to-person, heart-to-heart bilingual outpourings between young peoples across the cultural and ideological divide, with many a tear-jerking epiphany moment. A new America-composed folk song captures the spirit of the moment. Download American folk song on Xiaohongshu

So far separated by anti-China rhetoric, the gulf between China's youths and their Western counterparts with similar lifestyles and hobbies is poised to be breached by a wave of migration to Xiaohongshu. This should help usher in a new phase of more positive people-to-people exchanges, paving the way for better international relations.

This adds impetus to a rising tide of people-to-people exchanges following China’s unilateral visa-free treatment to 38 European countries: namely, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Australia, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia, Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Republic of Korea, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Estonia, Latvia, Japan and Negara Brunei Darussalam.

Momentum is building up to reach President Xi’s target of bringing 50,000 young Americans to China over the next five years for study and exchange programmes by way of improving ties.

Posted at 04:33 PM in China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Current Affairs, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economics, Economy, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Future, Geopolitics, Globalization, ICT, Innovation, Latin America, Lifestyle, Middle Class, Middle East, Pakistan, Philosophy, Politics, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Technology, Travel, UK, United States, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 09, 2024

U.S Presential Election on Election Day - pre-recorded TV interview on Iranian state television

Pre-recorded TV interviews broadcast on Telewebion, the streaming broadcaster for the Iranian IRIB state Television and Radio Corporation.
Full TV program (In Perssian, my voiced-over interview appeared midway in the news clip)
Following are the specifc segments of my interviews.
Download MP4 video clip of my TV segment (1)
Download MP4 video clip of my TV segment (2)

Posted at 08:20 AM in China's Rise, Current Affairs, Democracy, Energy, Europe, Gaza, Geopolitics, Globalization, Middle East, Military, Politics, Russia, Television, Ukraine , United States | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 20, 2024

Should Israel and the United States Attack Iran’s Nuclear Program Now?

A Foreign Policy podcast of 15 October Counterpoint (in partnership with the Doha Forum) features a heated debate between Matt Kroenig, vice president of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a professor of government at Georgetown University, and Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center and a lecturer in international affairs at George Washington University.

On the hawkish side, the debate reflects deeply-embedded "American Exceptionalism", that the United States remains able and justified to take matters in its own hands to shape the world according to its own agenda. It also highlights an American tendency to shoot first and face consequences later. The disastrous "War on Terror" comes to mind.

American hawkishness (which resonates outside this debate) ignores the reality that America's "unipolar" moment has already passed. Aside from China and Russia, more and more nations are now able to pull their weight to challenge American diktats in safeguarding their own national interests. Not least Iran and other Arab countries.

What is more important, as highlighted by Babara Slavin, pulling the U.S. trigger on Iran's nuclear installations now risks missing hidden nuclear assets in Iran's myriad underground facilities while provoking and galvanizing the Iranian nation for quickened moves to acquire nuclear weapon capabiliites.

There is also the worse-case scenario of an uncontrollable escalation towards nuclear Armegedden, as frightfully portrayed in New York Times best-selling author Annie Jacobsen's well-researched and timley book Nuclear War: A Scenario (Dutton, New York, 26 March, 2024)

Posted at 03:44 PM in Afghanistan, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Denuclearization, Energy, Ethics, Future, Gas, Geopolitics, Globalization, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Politics, Regional development, Religion, Russia, Technology, Terrorism , Turkey, UK, Ukraine , United States, Warfare, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 22, 2024

Andrew's October 2024 Newsletter

(My quarterly Newsletters go out to some 8,000 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my October 2024 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What is New on my website.)

Greetings! I hope you have had a rewarding and enjoyable summer!

Barring uncertain outcome of the U.S. Election, American foreign policy continues to be dictated by chauvinistic hubris and political correctness borne of decades of American primacy and exceptionalism. This translates into an obsession with shaping the world in America's own image and bending countries to suit American interests, at the expense of balkanizing the world into divided camps. China, America's perceived primary "challenger", remains the elephant in the room.

The jury is still out on how best the United States should respond to an overhyped "existential threat" from China, how it could realize sustainable peace in the Middle East, and what role it should play to resolve the bloody Russia-Ukraine connundrum for a more peaceful Europe.

Serial U.S. proactive actions or measures, whether sanctions or shuttle diplomacy, seem to be running around in circles, talking past opposite numbers, if not tilting at windmills, while humanitarian crises deepen in war zones and disruptions continue to degrade livelihoods across the globe.

Absent cool-headed analysis of viable and sustainable endgames, confrontation hardly equates to credible strategy. Apart from the scale and dimension of China's rise including the best support of its people, we now live in a very different and closely-connected world, driven by the digital Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions, rampant pandemics, and multifacted impacts of quickening Climate Change.

The following may hopefully offer some different perspectives, if not practical insights for making the world a better place.

Great Power Rivalry
To avert Thucydides Trap, US should compete with China in Olympic spirit (Op-ed in China Daily). Sanitized and abridged versions in Chinese can be accessed here and here.
U.S. and China: Edging Toward the Brink? (An Aspen Institute discussion by eminent international experts)
The Arctic Silk Road (TV panel discussion on TRT World)
Malaysia's bid to join Brics - implications (Backchat on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)

China-Africa
China-Africa Summit 2024 - Implications (Backchat on RTHK)

China's development
Gradual increase of Mainland China's retirement age - Implication (BachChat on RTHK)
China's Third Plenum 2024 - Behind the jargons and the rhetoric (Full-length feature article in The Global Analyst)
"China needs more than hikes in Total Factor Productivity to realize its 2035 ambition" (An in-depth analysis)
How to read China correctly in the coming Third Plenum (An in-depth analyis)

China's auto industry
A CSIS podcast (An in-depth discussion by American experts)

Hong Kong
Enacting HKETO Certification Act will sacrifice Washington’s own interests (Op-ed in China Daily)
Hong Kong Editors Convicted of Sedition in "Blow to Press Freedom" (Live TV interview on Aljazeera English Channel)

Climate Change
Fast fashion typified by SHEIN invokes ecological backlash (TV panel discussionn on TRT World)

UK
2024 UK election result - implications (Backchat on RTHK)

Cheer Up and Chill Out

A 10-point Multimedia Outlook on Life (Music video)
Inspirational videos and excerpts for life's down-moments

International investment opportunities
I am on the International Advisory Board of Silk Road Partners, an international investment firm. Mr Yves Leterme, ex-Prime Minister of Belgium (November 2009 to December 2011) has joined the firm as Senior Partner. If you are interested in getting in touch with us, please give me a shout.

Consultation services
Please email me at [email protected] or text my Hong Kong mobile +852 98198987. I can also be reached on Skype at andrew.k.p.leung, LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/andrewleunginternational, Whatsapp at (852) 98198987, WeChat at Andrewkpleung, Facebook at andrewkinpongleung, and Twitter at @Andrewkpleung

Business networking and speaking platform in Hong Kong
As an Advisor to the Denmark-based Executives' Global Network Hong Kong, I welcome your suggestion of a suitable speaker for an EGN event in Hong Kong. This will be entirely at our own cost with acknowledgement of your support, provided that we are not asked to cover any speaking fee, travel or accommodation expenses.

RSS feed and weblinks
My posts are regularly uploaded under my three blogs CHINAwatch, Publications and What's New .A collection of leading China media and research sites can be found under China Links.

Please feel free to save my website on your computer, laptop, tablet, iPhone or iPad as a reference resource. If you wish instant access as soon as my postings appear, just click on “Subscribe to this blog’s feed” under RSS Feed on top of the right-hand column of each blog. Select the appropriate Google feed option. It is free of charge.

This newsletter is uploaded to my website here. You may save it for reference or reading at leisure. You are free to share it on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Twitter or other social media devices.

Courtesies
I look forward to your guidance, advice, comments, suggestions, and criticisms. You may share the above contents with colleagues or friends. You are also welcome to publish any of them with full attribution.

If you think that I may add value to your endeavors in any way, please let me know how I may help. If for any reason you do not wish to receive my emails, just ask me to delete your name from my data bank permanently.

Best personal regards,

Andrew K. P. Leung, SBS, FRSA
International and Independent China Strategist
Andrew Leung International Consultants and Investments Company Limited

Positions

Chairman and CEO, Andrew Leung International Consultants and Investments Limited

(Founded in London, now re-incorporated in Hong Kong; name changed from Andrew Leung International Consultants Limited as from 10 July, 2017)

China Futures Fellow, Berkshire Publishing Group, Massachusetts, USA (2011-13)
Brain Trust member, The Evian Group (global think-tank), Lausanne, Switzerland

Gerson Lehrman Group (Global Experts) Council Member
International Expert, Reuters Insight Community of Experts, Thomson Reuters

Senior Analyst, Wikistrat, a cloud-sourced global strategic consultancy based in Tel Aviv and Washington D.C.

Download Wikistrat Excellence Award

Senior Consultant, MEC International (a UK-based global strategic energy consultancy)

Distinguished Contributor, Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance (ATCA) (global think-tank)

Professor of Practice, Hong Kong Institute of Education for Sustainable Development (2018-20)

Download Certificate of Appointment as Professor of Practice

Certified Sustainable Development Planner, World Institute of Sustainable Development Planners

Download Certificate of Recognition as Certified Sustainable Development Planner

Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA)
Elected Member, Royal Society for Asian Affairs

Contributing author, Politics Today

Think-tank Research Fellow, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai Campus, PRC (14.4.2017-13.4.2020)

International Advisory Board Member, Silk Road Partners

Download Silk Road Partners - corporate profile 24-06-2022

Download Silk Road Partners 2023

Advisory Board member, The e-Centre , European Centre for e-Commerce and Internet Law, Vienna

Honorary Adviser, International Institute of Management (IIM)

Advisory Board member, The Global Analyst, India

Honorary President, China Hong Kong Economic and Trading International Association (from 28 March, 2016)

Download 中國香港國際經貿合作協會簡介和組織架構 (28.03.2023)

Download A brief introduction to the China-Hong Kong Economic and Trading International Association

Global Commercial Agent, Changsha City, China

Hong Kong Advisory Board member, Denmark-based Executive Global Network (EGN)

Visiting Professor, London Metropolitan University Business School

Governing Council Member, King’s College London, UK (2004-2010)
Advisory Board member, China Policy Institute, Nottingham University, UK (2005 -2010)

Visiting Professor, Sun Yat-sen University Business School, China (2005-10)
Founding Chairman, China Group, Institute of Directors City Branch, London, UK (2006-2010)
Vice Chairman, 48 Group Club, UK (2008-2010)
Committee Member of RSA, London Region, UK (2006-2010)
Included in UK's Who's Who since 2002
Awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star (SBS) in the July 2005 Hong Kong Honours List

Posted at 02:43 PM in Africa, Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, BRICS, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Denuclearization, Development_, e-Commerce, Economics, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Geopolitics, Globalization, Healthcare, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Terrorism , United States, Urbanization, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 21, 2024

Malaysia's bid to join Brics - implications

Backchat on RTHK (Radio Televsion Hong Kong) on 21 June 2024

Posted at 07:06 PM in Africa, Arctic, Asia, Banking, BRICS, China Business, China's Rise, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, Dollar, e-Commerce, Economics, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Geopolitics, Globalization, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Manufacturing , Middle East, Military, Politics, Regional development, Russia, South China Sea, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Turkey, UK, Ukraine , United States, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 19, 2024

Andrew's July 2024 Newsletter

(My quarterly Newsletters go out to some 8,000 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my July 2024 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What is New on my website.)

Greetings! May I first wish you and family a most prosperous and rewarding summer!

Electoral dynamics are mutating in many countries, not least the United States, the United Kingdom and France, tilting towards right-wing nationalism, xenophobia, and isolationism. These are now mixed with momentous repercussions to the global order with intensifying Great Power rivalry, a protracted Ukraine War, and a catastrophic Israel-Hamas conflict. These challenges, perhaps "not seen for a hundred years", are taxing countries' ability to transcend short-termism and self-denial.

Meanwhile, the digital, technological, and borderless Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions are transforming how people live and work, how businesses are conducted, how deep reaches on the planet and outer space may be explored, how wars are fought, and how nations interact and defend themselves. Concurrently, common challenges of Climate Change, mutating pandemics and nuclear proliferation are pushing nations closer together.

Hopefully the following may offer some useful perspectives.

World Order
With 3 wars and Taiwan, global inflection points are looming (Op-ed in the South China Morning Post)
China’s Alternative Order, and What America should Learn from It (Op-ed in Rome-based World Geostrategic Insights) Also published in French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic Related commentary on Foreign Affairs think-piece
The United States, China, and the Future of the Global Order (An Asia Society New York panel discussion)
Where Global Governance Went Wrong—and How to Fix It (Commentary on Foreign Policy think-piece)
Ode to Peace (Song by Zhou Shen at the United Nations Chinese Language Day in New York )

International relations
How the US Keeps Fighting China, Knowing It Won’t Win? (Op-ed in Rome-based World Geostrategic Insights) Also published in French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. A related in-depth analysis
Nobody Is Competing With the U.S. to Begin With (Commentary on Foreign Policy think-piece)
Anti-China Cold War, TikTok, Ukraine, Gaza - video interviews with Izvestia (Recorded interview with Izvestia of Russia)
People-to-people exchanges would keep China-US relations in balance (Op-ed in China Daily)
Premiere Li Qiang's 3-party talks in Seoul with Japan and South Korea (Live exclusive TV interview with TRT World)
Xi Jinping's Europe visit implications (Backchat with RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)
What does President Xi's visit to Europe signify? (Recorded TV interview with NTV of Russia)
US Secretary of State Blinken to visit China (Exclusive TV interview with NDTV of India)
Majority in Southeast Asia would choose China over US, survey suggests (Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute report)

China
China has become a scientific superpower (Leader in The Economist)
An era of great misunderstanding of China (Op-ed in India-based Mero Tribune)
China’s Defense of Its Human R ights Policies (Penn State Journal of Law and International Affairs)

China's economy
Challenges and Prospects of the Chinese Economy (Exclusive in-depth video interview with Rome-based World Geostrategic Insights)
China Is Still Rising - Don’t Underestimate the World’s Second-Biggest Economy (Commentary on Foreign Affairs think-piece)
China: Keeping the dragon awake (Allianz Research)

The dollar
Report of the dollar's imminent demise is over-exaggerated (A succinct in-depth analysis)

Climate Change
Xi Thinks China Can Slow Climate Change. What if He’s Right? (Commentary on New York Times Guest Essay)

Hong Kong
Hong Kong convicts 14 activists of subversion (Exclusive recorded interview on BBC Newshour)
Hong Kong government spending - how to make more with less (Backchat with RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)