Chinese officials have been repeatedly calling for closer cooperation with Europe, but the era of Covid-19 has made China-EU relations sour to an unprecedented low level since the two formally established diplomatic relations, 45 years ago.
India and China are once again involved in a military incident over disputed borders.
On 20 June 2020, the National People’s Congress released a draft Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Law on the Preservation of National Security (NSL). The NSL, which will be imposed on Hong Kong by incorporation into Annex III of the territory’s Basic Law (its constitutional instrument), will likely provide legal authority to Mainland state security entities to operate openly within Hong Kong, and provide for the specific designation of certain judges to act as “national securit
Only 37 days after municipal authorities downgraded Beijing’s public health emergency response to level three, a new cluster of coronavirus cases forced China’s capital to switch back to level two on 16 June.
One of the many side effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has resulted in a world where racial tensions and xenophobia have been reinforced. In the past few months, we have witnessed xenophobic attacks on people of Asian descent in Europe and America, and mistreatments of Africans in Guangzhou, China.
The G7 summitry is in serious doubt. As is widely reported, German Chancellor Merkel declined the invitation by US president Trump, currently holding the G7 presidency, to attend the meeting, and in turn Mr Trump announced that the meeting would be postponed until September, with its membership expanded to Russia, Australia, India and South Korea.
The expression ‘economic reforms’ is back in the governance lexicon of India. With the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19) bringing nations to a physical slowdown if not a complete standstill, and jobs and GDP growth becoming collateral damage, the mere announcement and phraseology of reforms seems to have become a solution. Unfortunately, and perhaps its early days, communication rather than action, words rather than deeds, and tactics rather than strategy seems to be dominating the discourse.
As conflict escalates in western Myanmar amid the rise of coronavirus cases in the country, there is growing concern of a deepening humanitarian crisis. As of May 26, Myanmar has recorded 206 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 6 deaths. Clashes between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA), an armed group seeking greater autonomy for ethnic Rohingya people, have displaced hundred thousand people since conflicts started over a year ago.
On May 23rd, the Taliban announced a rare three-days ceasefire to mark the holiday of Eid al-Fitr that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and the Afghan government responded by announcing plans to release up to 2,000 insurgent prisoners, as “a gesture of goodwil
Many readers have heard of China’s northwesternmost region of Xinjiang for the first time through the governmental documents leaked by The New York Times and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism last spring. Since then, people around the world have come to know of China’s Muslim minorities and their difficult co-existence with the Han majority. Ethnic grievances have shaped life in Xinjiang for decades.
