What's New: Transport

October 06, 2023

Why Europe seems to shun China's electric cars?

Recorded TV interview (in English) on 4 October 2023 by Izvestia, Russia's state-owned online TV channel.

Download Izvestia TV interview 4 October 2023

Posted at 12:45 AM in China Business, China's Rise, Climate Change , Consumption, Current Affairs, Defense, Economics, Energy, EU, Europe, Geopolitics, Globalization, Innovation, Investment , Manufacturing , Politics, Russia, Sustainable Development, Technology, Transport, UK, Ukraine , United States, Warfare, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 18, 2023

8th Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong

Backchat with RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) on 18 September 2023.

Posted at 07:23 PM in Africa, Asia, BRICS, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Covid-19, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economics, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Future, Geopolitics, Globalization, Hong Kong, ICT, India, Innovation, Investment , Latin America, Manufacturing , Middle East, North Korea, Pakistan, Politics, Regional development, South China Sea, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Transport, Turkey, Ukraine , United States, Vietnam, Warfare, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 05, 2022

How the Ukraine war is likely to play out in global geopolitics

At the start of the War on Ukraine, President Putin initially seemed to be losing his grip. Massive losses of armors and combatants were incurred with little territorial or other strategic gains. As a result, there was a prevailing sense of triumphalism in Washington and the US-led NATO coalition that Putin's "adventurism" has spectacularly backfired.

The Western commentariat has been busy speculating on a looming ignominious Russian defeat, the emergence of a more unified Ukraine, a more united Europe and NATO rallying behind America's global anti-Russia leadership, a probable collapse of Putin's regime, and even his eventual consignment to a health sanitorium.

For good measure, America's China strategists were quietly rubbing their hands that finally the United States would now be placed in a much better geopolitical position to concentrate on subjugating China, the “most serious long-term challenge to the international order”. "China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it", according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken's China policy address at George Washington University on 26 May, 2022, his velvet-glove rhetoric of not wanting a Cold War against China notwithstanding. Some quarters in America's intelligentsia are even cheerleading for an enduring American Century.

However, according to Ukraine President Zelensky, Russia has now controlled some 20% of Ukraine. This is seen as President Putin's "Plan B" focusing instead on occupying the Donbas region with a possible land bridge linking Russia-occupied Crimea. He has reaffirmed that Russia will not let up until all his goals are reached, banking on a prolonged war of attrition with Ukraine and its Western backers.

Europe has been bearing the brunt of energy and food shortages with resultant price hikes, inflationary pressures and prolonged economic recession fears. Now over 100 days into the War, a sense of "Ukraine fatigue" in the West coalition is beginning to set in, according to Edward Luce of the Financial Times.

Gazprom has cut off at least 20 billion cubic meters of its annual gas supplies to customers in six European countries —Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, because they failed to make payments in rubles, a retaliatory demand President Vladimir Putin made back in March. This amounts to nearly 13% of the European Union's total annual gas imports from Russia.

While some of the European countries are wriggling out of these strictures by converting their Euro payment into Russian currency at Putin's designated Russian bank, replacing Russia's readily-available piped gas-supply through maritime oil or gas imports from the Middle East or America is unlikely to be a smooth logistical and economic solution.

Even as Europe is stocking up energy supplies in preparation for the coming winter, such precautions are unlikely to be adequate for households, let alone impact on Europe's economic activities.

Additionally, Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, accounting for more than 18% of international exports. In 2019, Russia and Ukraine together exported 25.4% of the world’s wheat, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).

In addition, Russia exports nearly 20% of the world’s nitrogen fertilizers and, combined with its sanctioned neighbor Belarus, 40% of the world’s exported potassium. Most of these commodities are now off limits to the world’s farmers, thanks to Western sanctions and Russia’s recent fertilizer export restrictions. That's why the Chairman of the African Union, Senegal's President Macky Sall, called on President Putin on 3 June to ask for help freeing up Ukrainian grain exports.

Meanwhile, energy and agricultural price hikes worldwide are boosting Russian coffers, strengthening instead of weakening the ruble.

After branding Saudi Arabia as a "pariah state" over the murder of journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, President Biden's planned goodwill visit to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is unlikely to yield adequate results, given Saudi Arabia's long-established prudent oil production and pricing policies. Moreover, windfall energy price hikes are a bonanza to the Saudis and other major oil producers in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, President Biden's domestic ratings are back in the doldrums, raising the odds of losing Congress at mid-term elections in the autumn. Biden risks becoming a "lame-duck" President for the remainder of his term.

Nevertheless, 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.

This shows how robust China's centrality remains in the world's inter-connected supply and value chains. After all, China remains the largest trading partner for 130 nations worldwide, compared with 57 for the United States. This centrality is being cemented by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This consists of ASEAN and its main trading partners including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, representing a third of the world's population and a third of the world's GDP. China is at the trading and logistical heart of it all.

Beijing is doubling down on its global footprint. Witness the latest round of island-hoping in the South Pacific, signing a number of cooperation and law enforcement deals.

This represents a further extension of China's massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), now being reformed to address concerns about debt-sustainability, transparency, corporate governance and environmental sustainability. The BRI already covers land and sea in Asia, Africa, Eurasia and Europe. Added to this is a "Polar Silk Road" capitalizing on the now more navigable, much shorter Artic Circle route linking the Pacific with the Atlantic, thanks to Climate Change, and a "Digital Silk Road" linking businesses across the globe including undersea fiber-optic telecommunication cables.

A key strategic consideration of the BRI is to neutralize the threats posed by transit choke points such as Singapore's Malacca Strait controlled by America's Seventh Fleet. Energy and international trade, China's economic life-blood, can now transit overland, for example, through China-friendly countries in Eurasia, the Middle East, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)., including the port of Gwadar.

Save bipartisan unanimity to confront China, the United States remains a politically deeply-divided country, undermining its overarching geographical, natural resources, technological, cultural, financial and military dominance. It is now engaged on war on two fronts, against both Russia, the world's largest landmass, and China, the world's second largest economy, soon to become the world's largest. It is struggling with how best to keep using its "exorbitant privilege" of money-printing to prop up its economy without undermining global trust in the greenback.

Meanwhile, China is pushing ahead with completing its own single-handedly-built Space Station by the end of this year. This will eventually replace the US-led 21-year old International Space Station (ISS), whose useful life has been repeatedly extended to 2031. The ISS has been excluding China right from the start.

This speaks volumes about China's technological capabilities, along with its head start in certain domains of 5G, Big Data, and Internet of Things (IoT), technologies set to change lives and how businesses are conducted in a "Fourth Industrial Revolution" of the 21st century. China already dominates the world in e-payment systems. It is fast developing a digital sovereign currency (digital yuan), which is set to challenge the dollar's hegemony on multiple fronts,considering China's status as the world's largest trader, manufacturer and logistical hub.

In addition, China is also achieving a breakthrough in nuclear fusion, a source of endless, sustainable energy, according to the South China Morning Post of 11 November, 2021. This is supported by China's leading positions in solar, wind, hydro energy capacities and as the world-largest electric vehicle production and market. Additionally, the country seems on track to realize its Paris Agreement pledge of "carbon peak" by 2030 and "carbon neutrality" by 2060.

China has launched the world's fastest programmable quantum computers, a million times more powerful than its nearest competitor, Google’s Sycamore, according to a report of 26 October 2021 in the South China Morning Post.

According to a research paper dated August 2021 of George Town University, by 2025 Chinese universities will produce more than 77,000 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) PhD graduates per year compared to approximately 40,000 in the United States. If international students are excluded from the U.S. count, Chinese STEM PhD graduates would outnumber their U.S. counterparts more than three-to-one.

Militarily, China is also catching up by leaps and bounds. China's navy has already become the world's largest in numbers. It is about to launch a third state-of-the art aircraft carrier. Apart from its Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) medium-range high-precision aircraft-killer missiles, according to a report of 18 December 2019, The New Missile Gap in The National Interest, Dan Goure, Ph.D., vice president at the Lexington Institute, a public-policy research think-tank, opines that America is losing to Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons. This includes China's "Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS)" that can circumnavigate the globe in all directions before striking targets with guided, hypersonic, multiple warheads, neutralizing extant missile defense systems.

Some critical technological bottlenecks remains, such as high-end micro semiconductor chips (smaller than 10 nanometers). However, to assume that China would for long be crippled technologically underestimates the nation's technological resilience.

Along with robotics and digitization, a three-child policy with measures to support child births, China is grappling with its worsening demographics with increased productivity through nationwide high-speed transport connectivity.

Long the talk of the town, China's high-speed rail network accounts for two-thirds of the global total. This will be nearly doubled to 70,000 km over the next 15 years. The will link up all cities over half a million people, while an additional 200,000 km of modern railway would connect all towns of 200,000 people and above. Even the remotest parts of the country are to be connected. This would hasten China's urbanization rate from 60.6% in 2019 to 65%, doubling China's consumer middle class to 800 million by 2035. Various city clusters are formed, capitalizing on their mutual transport connectivity. All these will boost overall productivity.

To address widening socio-economic inequality, China is adopting a strategy for "common prosperity", targeting monopolistic or predatory behavior of the nation's biggest and wealthiest conglomerates. This is part of President Xi's strategy to build "China 3.0", creating a fairer, healthier, stronger and ecologically more sustainable nation in fulfilment of the "China Dream". China's miraculous economic transformation in recent decades explains the Chinese people's overwhelming support of China's Communist Party (CCP), (over 90%), multiple ranks above many countries including the United States, according to recent Harvard Kennedy School findings.

As pointed out by Kishore Mahbubani, a world-renowned Singaporean academic, diplomat and geopolitical consultant in his book Has China Won? (Pubic Affairs, New York, 2020), while America's bottom half have seen their incomes stagnate over the past thirty years, China's bottom half have the best lives ever, for the past 4,000 years! A resounding answer to the West's continuing aspersions about the CCP's legitimacy.

When the Ukraine war eventually comes to an end, a weakened and ostracized Russia and a devastated, partitioned Ukraine are likely to ensue, along with an extended NATO encompassing Finland and Sweden. A more nervous yet resilient Russia surrounded by enemies at the gates is likely to double down on friendship with China "without limits", both countries being arch enemies of the United States.

In particular, Russia would rely on China as its largest customer for its energy and agricultural products, the latter production likely to expand thanks to global warming. China's trade and investments are likely to replace Russia's domestic markets vacated by Western enterprises and brands. As a gateway to the rest of Europe, Ukraine is also likely to resume having China as its largest customer of its wheat and other commodities, capitalizing on the BRI's deep wallets. .

Wary of the perceived "China Threat" to values and security, the European Union is unlikely to return to its former coziness with China. While relying on America's leadership and NATO's combined military might to deter an embittered Russia, leading countries like Germany, France, Italy and Spain are likely to foster growing European capabilities, including the military, to conduct the EU's own independent affairs of state.

Europe's overall attitude towards China, therefore, may not be on all fours with that of the United States. On the one hand, it would erect firewalls and safeguards against perceived threats, on the other hand, it is likely to capitalize on the EU's excellent institutions and unique traditions to foster a more constructive relationship with a more powerful China pivoting more to Europe and Eurasia in preference to a hostile United States. This is likely to translate into more EU-China trade, investments, research, and people-to-people exchanges, to say the least.

All told, the War in Ukraine promises to be a global game-changer. It exposes Russia's and Ukraine's vulnerabilities as well as resilience. It is ushering global dynamics more in tune with China's quest for its China Dream of national renaissance than with the United States' hope of not having to share power ever with a vast country of diametrically different civilization, culture, race and ideology. It would also beg the question whether the United States' current hard-wired anti-China mindset and policies needs some major modification.

Posted at 03:14 AM in Africa, Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, Books, BRICS, Business promotion, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Cities, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economics, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Gas, Geopolitics, Globalization, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, Pakistan, Politics, Regional development, Russia, Science, South China Sea, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, United States, Urbanization, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 11, 2021

Hong Kong social welfare spending cuts

Backchat with RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) on 10 December 2021 (My interventions in the top bar start from time counter 13:14, 28:31, 35:12, 39:40, and 42:09)

Posted at 02:19 PM in China's Rise, Cities, Consumption, Covid-19, Current Affairs, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economy, Healthcare, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Middle Class, Politics, Population, Public health , Sustainable Development, Technology, Transport, Urbanization | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 27, 2021

Andrew's October 2021 Newsletter

(My quarterly Newsletter goes out to some 8,500 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my October 2021 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What's New on my website)

Greetings!

President Biden has retreated from a "forever war" in Afghanistan to concentrate minds on China, leaving new geopolitical space for China and Russia in Eurasia and the Arab Peninsula. Notwithstanding a high-profile "hostage exchange" with Beijing, the United States is doubling down on confronting China in the Asia Pacific. Witness the AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) nuclear-powered-submarine alliance, completing the China-encirclement with military assets in the "First and Second Island Chains" (Okinawa and Guam). This augments other coercive capabilities, including sanctions, tariffs, decoupling, and access denial of frontier technologies, not to mention anti-China narratives and tactics on human rights and democracy.

China is being seen as an existential disruptor of the extant world order dominated by the United States. It begs the question how the West would be able to coexist and where needed, share power with a self-assured, ideologically different China on an equal footing. It also calls into question whether obsession with military and coercive tactics would be barking up the wrong tree, especially when China may become the world's largest economy sooner than expected.

During this global power transition, different dynamics in multiple theatres, arenas and regions are at play. The following may hopefully help with some fresh perspectives.

China

"China Is a Declining Power—and That’s the Problem" - A rebuttal (An in-depth analysis) Also published in French, Spanish, and Russian.

China’s ‘common prosperity’ goal won’t mean Robin Hood-style redistribution (Op-ed in South China Morning Post)

Behind Beijing's Big Tech Crackdown (Feature article in The Global Analyst)

Beijing’s massive crackdown on Big Tech won’t derail China’s trajectory (Article in World Strategic Insights)

China’s game-changing digital sovereign currency is set to mitigate its ‘Dollar Trap’ but unlikely to usurp the dollar’s supremacy

World Order

New Concert of Powers: How to Prevent Catastrophe and Promote Stability in a Multipolar World (A PowerPoint presentation)

The original concept article is published by World Strategic Insights in Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic.

The Long Game : China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order (An in-depth analysis)

End of an Empire (An Indian journalist's outline of "American decline")

CCP

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Centenary in Retrospect (Feature article in The Global Analyst, republished by World Geostrategic Insights in French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic)

Xi’s Gamble: The Race to Consolidate Power and Stave Off Disaster (An in-depth analysis)

Space and Technology

China's Space Odyssey (Feature article in The Global Analyst, reprinted in World Geostrategic Insights)

Quantum computing - a new frontier in techno-nationalism (A Hindrich Foundation report)

US-China conflicts

China slams US for sailing warship through South China Sea (Live interview with Press TV)

Beijing slams US for blacklisting 23 Chinese entities over alleged human rights abuses (TV interview with Press TV)

Taiwan

US approves potential sale of Howitzer artillery systems to Taiwan (Live interview with Press TV)

North Korea

North Korea rejects call to declare end of Korean War over persisting ‘US hostile policy’ (Live interview with Press TV)

US envoy says "no hostile intent" toward North Korea (Live interview with Press TV)

Iran and Afghanistan

Shanghai alliance SCO grants Iran full membership (Live interview with Press TV)

Taliban says talks underway in Doha on future Afghan govt. (Live interview with Press TV)

Covid-19

China rejects WHO call for further coronavirus origins probe (Live interview with Press TV)

Zhengzhou flood

How anti-Beijing media tried to hype the massive Zhengzhou floods to discredit China's infrastructural claims (TV panel discussion on CNN News18 of India)

Hong Kong

How to promote Hong Kong (Backchat discussion on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)

Cheer up and chill out

I have added some inspirational translations to the repertoire of inspirational music, videos, songs and words.

Invitation for expressions of interest in investment opportunities

An upended world abounds with fresh BUY and SELL investment opportunities on many fronts across the globe, including new technologies, new markets and new businesses. If you wish to avail yourself of my business network worldwide, please drop me a line on a strictly no-commitment basis initially. A UK property and alternative asset opportunity is featured here .

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 andrewleunginternational, Whatsapp at (852) 98198987, WeChat at Andrewkpleung, Facebook at andrewkinpongleung, and Twitter at @Andrewkpleung

Speaking and lecturing invitations

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Business networking and speaking platform in Hong Kong

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Best personal regards,

Andrew K.P. Leung, SBS, FRSA

International and Independent China Strategist

www.andrewleunginternationalconsultants.com

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.

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

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

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

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 09:21 PM in Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, Books, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Cities, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Food and Water Security, Gas, Geopolitics, Globalization, Healthcare, History, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Television, United States, Urbanization, Vietnam, World | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 04, 2021

Andrew's July 2021 Newsletter

(My quarterly Newsletter goes out to some 8,500 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my July 2021 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What's New on my website)

Greetings! May I first wish you a relaxing summer, pandemics permitting!

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has just celebrated its centenary. Under its tutelage, the lives of the Chinese people, a fifth of mankind, have been miraculously transformed. China has become the world's second largest economy, largest trader and manufacturer, with notable advances in computing, 5G, AI, military and space capabilities. After a "Century of Humiliation", the Chinese people can now hold their heads up high, embracing the China Dream of national renaissance, including a greener and "more beautiful China".

According to Harvard and PEW research surveys, across the globe, the CCP is the government most trusted and supported by its people, belying questions about its legitimacy. Meanwhile, perhaps by 2028, China may overtake the United States as the world's largest economy (albeit not in per capita terms).

On the other hand, China's growing global clout, its perceived transgressions on human rights, undesirable trade practices and assertive actions over the South China Sea, Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong, are troubling Western nations and Asian neighbors. Indeed, China's image is plummeting across the world.

China has no intention to rival the United States' 800 military bases in more than 70 countries. Its scientific and technological breakthroughs in multiple fields remain way behind the United States. The mighty dollar still reigns supreme. Nor can China hope its ideology will be readily embraced by more than a handful of countries, or that its culture will be more popular.

Regardless, intensifying Great Power contest has totally upended US-China relations across the board, including ideologies, the military and space. On the other hand, the world is becoming more multipolar, with many countries, including most Western allies, hedging their bets.

In this generational geopolitical maelstrom, how to avert war and promote peace will continue to tax the best minds. Would a little less binary or Manichaean thinking help? On ideological application to China, should one recall Deng Xiaoping's black cat, white cat, or perhaps a hybrid cat in between?

The following may hopefully serve to stimulate some fresh thinking.

China's politics, economy, and finance

China: No longer the Global Growth Engine? (Feature article in The Global Analyst and a Bloomberg Research report warning)

What China's Low Growth Means for the World - China's game-changing Five Year Plan (2021-25) (Feature article in The Global Analyst)

China's digital currency (Feature article in The Global Analyst)

Understanding China's Innovative Development (A PowerPoint presentation)

China's 18.3% first quarter growth in 2021 - what's behind it? (Exclusive live TV interview on TRT World)

US-China relations and Geopolitics

New Concert of Powers (Feature article in World Geostrategic Insights, republished in Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. (Original commentary)

Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community April 2021 (An analysis)

Waning US must overcome fear of China's inevitable rise (Op-ed in South China Morning Post)

How Will We (U.S.) Win the Second Cold War? (A riposte in World Geostrategic Insights)

Can Asia guide Biden's China Policy? (An insightful analysis (video) by Professor Kishore Mahbubani)

President Biden's State of the Union address - warning to Russia and China (Live interview on Press TV)

Energy and Climate Change

The Future of Power Is Transcontinental, Submarine Supergrids: China wants to lead the way in creating a global energy internet (An in-depth analysis)

Would a US-led Carbon Tax, instead of partnership, spur China's progress under the Paris Agreement? (Article in World Geostrategic Insights) (Original commentary)

Taiwan

Post-script on Taiwan (Feature article for the UK Liberal Democrats)

American senators land in Taipei, trip likely to irritate China - but what is the end-game? (Live interview on PressTV)

U.S. reaffirms partnership with Chinese Taipei during high-level visit (Live interview on Press TV)

China’s navy says ongoing drills near Taiwan to become regular (Live interview on Press TV)

Hong Kong

Changes at the top of the Hong Kong government (Backchat discussion on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)

Hong Kong's Apple Daily to shut down in a few days after asset frozen - smoke and mirrors (Backchat discussion on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)

June 4 in Hong Kong under National Security Law (Backchat discussion on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong and a brief note on the future of Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China)

Hong Kong to introduce Beijing-imposed electoral reform - whys and wherefores (Backchat discussion on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) and a SCMP video documentary China’s Rebel City: The Hong Kong Protests.

Hong Kong Immigration Bill amendment controversy (Backchat discussion on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)

Suspension of HK protest documentary "Inside the Red Brick Wall" (Backchat discussion on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)

North Korea

North Korea rules out 'any contact' with US (Live interview on Press TV and a Foreign Policy report)

Pyongyang accuses Washington of insulting dignity of North Korean leadership ( (Live interview on Press TV)

Russia

Russia warns against Ukraine-NATO activities (Live interview on Press TV)

Belt and Road

Sri Lanka handing control over Hambantota Port to China (Live TV panel discussion on CNN News 18 of India)

History

Admiral Zheng He may have explored the New World way before Christopher Columbus (Exploring Zheng He's possible footprints in the New World)