U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently traveled to China in hopes of lowering tensions and reestablishing high level bilateral military ties between China and the United States. This comes on the heels of increasing border tension between China and its neighbors. One of those neighbors , America’s strongest ally in the region, is Japan. The […]
The story of China’s economic growth is well known and documented over the years. Following substantial renminbi (RMB) devaluation in 1994 and the subsequent opening of the economy to FDI, along with a number of incentives offered by the Chinese government, multinational companies started to relocate production to China. The Chinese export machine went into […]
It is NOT surprising at all, that Chinese authorities raised interest rates over the weekend of December 25/26 (the second such raise in 10 weeks) amid inflationary concerns. Analysts and experts, both domestic and foreign, have been predicting such a development due to the high levels of growth during the last three years (9.1% GDP […]
In December 14-15, Chinese officials met with their American counterpart in Washington DC for the plenary meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Committee on Commerce and Trade (JCCT). This was the 21st Session of the JCCT, high level talks between U.S. and Chinese government officials intended to address the more technical trade issues of the bilateral […]
Overview Although this year was China’s year of the “Diplomatic Misstep”, it is often overlooked that Beijing, likely because it is not a democracy, has a domestic audience it must cater to. Much of China’s contemporary foreign policy has it’s roots in smoldering nationalism, a beast which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not create, […]
It has to be, without a doubt, that the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of communism constituted the single most transformative event of the past 40 years. Since man walked the surface of the Moon, the collapse of communism signified the predominance of ‘one’ over the ‘other.’ A New World Order […]
Yeonpyeong Island After North Korean Attack Previously, this blog has examined the complex dysfunctional relationship , known as Sino-North Korean relations. Here is a quick recap: China is the top investor and subsidizer of North Korea, but the relationship is indirectly reciprocal. The Kim family mafia, rulers of North Korea, with Kim Jong Il as […]
Hat Tip to Vincent Wade… Lately, there has been much attention paid to China’s growing control over precious finite resources, with the focus being on China’s punitive export embargo on “rare earth” minerals against Japan as outlined here: Without naming China, 37 leading companies and business groups from the U.S., the European Union, Japan, South […]
Chinese PM Wen Jiabao and Japanese PM Kan Naoto; Photo credit should read ADRIAN BRADSHAW/AFP/Getty Images) Since the September Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands incident involving the Japanese coast guard and a Chinese fishing trawler in Japanese waters, the world’s 2nd and 3rd largest economies continue to experience strained relations On Monday October 25, Japan made […]
Update: Hat tip to Michael Turton… “The Japanese coastguard video of the encounter with the Chinese fishing boat and the two minor collisions has now been leaked to Youtube. It’s 46 minutes in all – not the 7 minute edited version shown to the 30 members of the Diet. The Government (or someone) had the […]
The Future This dispute could be settled with a classic “land swap”, such as China’s Western claim for India’s eastern one; which is already the international accepted status quo. In fact China has already proposed this twice, once in the the 1950s and again in the early 1980s. Russia struck a similar deal with China […]
It has been eight years since the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCPs) first peaceful transfer of power, an act which heralded Hu Jintao’s ascension to China’s highest positions of power. Xi Jinping Once again China embarks on a change of helmsmen. On October 18th of this year, Mr. Xi Jingping (习近平)was selected for the position of […]
In this second installment we will look at the Russian reaction to increased Chinese immigration into the Russian Fareast and Siberia. We will also speculate as to the future of the Sino-Chinese relations along the border. Russian Reaction Despite the benefits to trade, the increased number of Chinese in Russia has been a catalyst for […]
The Past Indo – Sino Border In this second installment of our three part series on the Indo-Sino border conflict, we examine the origin of the 190 years old dispute, in order to fleshing-out the historical twist and turns that have brought these two rising powers to their present situation. This conflict was engendered by […]
Since China’s border issues are a hot topic of late, I wanted to post an article by myself, that was previously published at Brooks Review Background The Chinese government declared 2006, The “Year of Russia”; and in turn, Russia celebrated 2007 as “The Year of China.” These mutual pronouncements were part of a decade long […]