The US received a major blow to its global hegemony, and one which is sure to trigger more fighting talk from hawks in Washington. This week it was announced that China has established a ‘payment versus payment‘ (PVP) system to clear Chinese yuan and Russian ruble transactions. The aim, we’re told, is to to “reduce…
For many years, the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan has been one of the most important drivers of instability in all of Asia that is causing global concern. Many countries are concerned about the Afghan problem. However, this situation poses the greatest threat to the countries of Central Asia close to it, as well as…
In May, 2017 the Prime Minister of India refused to participate in the founding meeting in Beijing of the ambitious Belt-Road Initiative (BRI), the network of high-speed rail and deep water port linkages across the Eurasia land mass. The official reason given was that China had gone ahead with her neighbor state and long-term ally,…
American and Indian intelligence agencies failed in their frail attempt to convince the world that the Taliban had all of a sudden decided to ally with Daesh, but this fake news story might be the beginning of a new tendency to equate any unfriendly armed group to the “caliphate” or falsely accuse friendly ones of…
Radio Free Asia, a media organization publicly funded by the US government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors, alleged in a now-viral report last week that China was forcing Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang to hand over their Qurans and prayer mats under the threat of punishment. They also quoted the so-called “World Uighur Congress” which…
In early August, a Chinese-American professor, Huang Jing, and his wife were expelled from Singapore. He is accused of collaborating with foreign intelligence agents, according to the South China Morning Post. While the Singaporean government has yet to disclose which nation’s intelligence agencies he is accused of collaborating with, the South China Morning Post and other…
