The creation of a business association of Chinese mining companies in the Congo should be interpreted as Beijing centralizing its levers of control over the country through the establishment of a powerful lobbying group that will undoubtedly advance the strategic interests of the People’s Republic while the Central African state undergoes an unprecedented political transition …
Continue reading China Is Centralizing Its Levers of Control Over the Congo
Prominent Hong Kong opposition leader Edward Leung was sentenced to 6 years in prison for assaulting police and his role in leading riots in 2016. The Guardian in its article “Hong Kong jails independence leader Edward Leung for six years,” would report: Hong Kong’s leading independence activist has been jailed for six years for his …
Continue reading Hong Kong’s Paradoxical “Independence” Movement
This may not be about condos on North Korean beaches after all. Arguably, the heart of the matter in the Trump administration’s embrace of Kim Jong-un has everything to do with one of the largest deposits of rare earth elements (REEs) in the world, located only 150 km northwest of Pyongyang and potentially worth billions of …
Continue reading Sexy Metal: the Missing Element in the Korean Puzzle
Donald Trump has just threatened to implement a new round of tariffs on Chinese goods as Beijing is making plans to implement a 25% tariff on a variety of US imports valued at $50 billion. China’s new tariffs are of course a mirror of those which Trump imposed on Chinese imports to the US last …
Continue reading Does Trump Really Think That China Hasn’t Identified His “Negotiating” Pattern?
The bright line that separates Donald Trump’s foreign policy from his predecessors is the question of regime change. Between the collapse of communism in 1989 and the departure of the Obama Administration, the American foreign policy establishment embraced the “end of history” premise that liberal democracy would replace all the autocracies of the past, and …
Continue reading A Neocon Senate Coup Against Trump’s Foreign Policy?
Scores of people gathered in several cities all across Vietnam in order to draw attention to what they fear is China’s imminent exploitation of a proposed bill on Special Economic Zones (SEZ) that will give investors 99-year leases on land in three coastal regions. Their concerns are just speculation at this point since there’s no …
Continue reading Vietnam’s Protests will Complicate the Clinching of Any Pragmatic Deal with China
The argument that China is being “marginalized” by Washington while it works bilaterally with Pyongyang on the profound security issues on the Korean Peninsula has been completely discredited with the surprising news that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is back in China on a two-day visit that began today. The Singapore summit between US …
Continue reading Trump Holds the Clock on North Korea While Putin Plans His Moves
On Friday, the Trump regime announced a 25% duty on $50 billion of Chinese goods, targeting imports “contain(ing) industrially significant technologies.” A White House statement said tariffs will be imposed on “goods related to China’s Made in China 2025 strategic plan to dominate the emerging high-technology industries that will drive future economic growth for China, …
Continue reading China Retaliates Against US-Imposed Tariffs
Looking at the unfolding trade war between Donald Trump and the world the phrase that should come to mind is “One good turn deserves another.” In the case of the insane sanctions on Oleg Deripaska and Russian Aluminum giant, Rusal, back in April, we finally got some clarity as to how Russia can and will …
Continue reading Mr. Trump Attacks Aluminum, Russia Attacks the Debt
