The exiled government of East Turkestan has hailed France’s National Assembly and French citizens for recognising the Chinese Government’s atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic people in East Turkestan (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) as ‘genocide’. East Turkestan’s government further urged for a full boycott of the Beijing Olympics 2022. According […]
Chinese Corporate Transparency Is Far Better Than America’s
It’s tempting to assume that because China is an authoritarian country, concern for things like transparency is minimal. And indeed, when it comes to the government itself, that’s usually the case. But unlike in the United States, Chinese law mandates the disclosure of a wide range of information from even […]
Why Germany Will Be at the Center of the Next Pandemic
Germany was an obvious choice for the WHO, for political and technocratic reasons. But it remains to be seen whether Berlin’s clout is going to be enough to overcome the organization’s biggest shortcomings: global rivalries spurred by China’s rise and nationalistic policies that prevent access to reliable information. The WHO’s […]
As China Eyes Colombia, the United States Is AWOL
Hit hard by the pandemic, Colombia hasn’t had the luxury of being choosy about its partners. With high budget deficits and a rising national debt, the country lost its hard-fought investment grade credit ratings in 2021. And while Colombia is expected to report GDP growth of more than 9 percent […]
Why China Is Slow-Rolling Taliban Cooperation
China’s calculated behavior toward the Taliban is driven by a deep mistrust that has taken shape since Beijing’s initial contact with the group in the 1990s. Back then, while the Taliban’s first emirate was still in its infancy, Uyghur separatists had intensified their militancy in China, carrying out bombings in […]
India Seeks to Escape an Asian Future Led by China
Although India embraced globalization at the turn of the 1990s, there was little domestic support for liberalizing trade. Opposing free trade agreements united the left and the right; even more powerful was the resistance from an Indian capitalist class reluctant to open its captive market for foreign producers. But if […]
Putin’s Calculus Over Ukraine
While Russia has for decades chafed against NATO’s eastward expansion, Putin appears to have identified a potential opening—when the West is beset by its own crises and divisions, and Russia’s financial resilience seems at an all-time high—to force a change in Europe’s post-Cold War security order. But it is not […]
Mali’s Military Doubles Down as Junta Ousts Burkina Faso’s President
If you would like to receive Africa Brief in your inbox every Wednesday, please sign up here . The highlights this week: Burkina Faso ’s president is detained in a coup, Ghana moves to review licenses following an explosion in a gold mining town, and the Islamic State-West Africa Province […]
Biden’s 2022 Foreign-Policy To-Do List
But since it’s the holidays, let’s start on an upbeat note and take one potential flash point off the table. Although the issue of Taiwan will continue to complicate Sino-American relations, I’ll go out on a limb and say we won’t see a serious crisis or military confrontation over Taiwan […]
‘You’re Very Vulnerable’: Afghan Diplomats Fear Violent Taliban Reprisals
On Monday, Afghanistan’s top diplomat in China, Javid Ahmad Qaem, announced his resignation with a detailed note that hinted at deep-seated personal and professional frustrations. The Taliban had sought to undermine Qaem by tapping their own replacement, another former Afghan diplomat, Mahyuddin Sadat, as the embassy’s first secretary. Just a […]