Amidst all the embarrassment of the Commonwealth Games preparations in Delhi, a report by the National Intelligence Council and EU’s Institute for Security Studies placing India as the third most powerful country has brought in a much need boost to the spirits. The report, Global Governance 2025, puts India in the third position with eight […]
On Clean Energy, China Skirts Rules was a front-page story at the NY Times this past week. The gist: China is cranking up its exports of wind turbines and PV, eclipsing other leaders like the US and Germany. However, they’re doing it largely on the strength of subsidies illegal under international trade agreements, namely the […]
The world is watching in shock as Pakistan grapples with one of the worst floods in history. This week the UN estimated that the floods in southern Pakistan have displaced about a million people in a matter of two days. The massive floods began almost a month ago and have since displaced about 20 million […]
The bank, now a unit of Wells Fargo, leads a list of firms that have moved dirty money for Mexico’s narcotics cartels–helping a $39 billion trade that has killed more than 22,000 people since 2006. –Michael Smith, Bloomberg Markets Magazine, July7, 2010
11 Years ago, on July 20, 1999, a persecution against a meditation practice called Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) officially started in Mainland China. The persecution of Falun Gong was the brainchild of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, who saw Falun Gong’s enormous popularity among 100 million Chinese and simply wanted to crush it. I […]
As India and China battle it out in the Indian Ocean, human rights takes a back seat in South Asia.
Amid all the doom and gloom that the media and some of the major environmental groups promulgated before, during and after Copenhagen last December, some voices pointed out that there were important breakthroughs. One important group, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), noted that “… for the first time, all major economies, including China, India, […]
After all the pretty words, is the Obama Administration actually willing to walk the talk with some concrete policy choices when it comes to India?
U.S. administration officials arrived in Beijing today (Monday) for high-level talks between America and China, Beijing officials sought ahead of the newly formed annual strategic summit to avoid open disagreement on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) apparent sinking of a South Korean warship, exchange rates, currency reforms and other big issues that divide the two nations.
This week one of China’s former richest men, Huang Guangyu of Chinese appliance giant Gome Electronics, was sentenced to 14 years in jail for bribery and insider dealing. This follows rejection of the appeal of former Rio Tinto executives, who some believed had received unreasonably harsh sentences for bribing so-far unnamed government officials. Is China […]
SIPRI’s report in March 2010 highlighted China’s growing desire to develop its Arctic capabilities. Yet China is also collaborating with other countries to possibly expand its role in the Arctic. Two of those countries are North Korea and Iceland, neither of which have Arctic coastlines, but which are far enough north to give China greater […]
China’s ratcheting up their state secrets laws. That’s never a good sign. NYT article. There is an amusingly awful definition of state secrets being promulgated: they are “information that, if disclosed, would damage China’s security or interests in political, economic, defense and other realms.” Presumably the story that the Chinese had 14 year olds on their […]
By Sarah Rose Ch. 4: Shanghai to Hangzhou, September 1848 Robert Fortune was patient as the coolie attended to his new coif. A small blue and white tea bowl sat nearby on a dusty crate, and swirling its sediment of leaves, Fortune spilled the cooling liquid out onto the dirty deck. Floors were the place […]
Indonesia: Last week, this blog looked at the reality of Indonesia’s capacity to aid the United States in the Islamic world. Ahead of Obama’s June visit to the archipelago, it is also valuable to consider how the Indonesian – American relationship is viewed on the Indonesian street. Recently, some right wing Muslim groups have joined […]