China waiving African debt isn’t about refinancing

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In mid-August, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs produced news with a series of announcements. Wang Yi, Beijing’s most senior diplomat, promised intensive debt relief for some from the world’s poorest nations. The announcement has been made at the ministerial meeting of the Forum for China Africa Cooperation. In addition to raising food assistance to the continent, […]

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On Labor Day, a mixed review of US unions’ role

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Anyone who has ever glanced at a dictionary sees that a word can have more than one definition. The English word “ labor, ” for example , evokes work in a few contexts (“ labor of love” ) and unions in others (“ labour leader” ). The particular American holiday called Labor Day demonstrates the word’ t fluidity. The holiday was created at the urging […]

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US ramps up China tech sanctions faster than expected

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In another step aimed at stifling China’s technological advance, the US Department of Commerce has decided to restrict shipments of advanced graphics processing units (GPUs) designed by American companies NVIDIA and AMD to China. The US government says it is worried about potential military applications of these products. GPUs are a type of integrated circuit […]

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China bond rally shows US Fed what’s at stake

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TOKYO – Naturally, US Federal Reserve officials act with the best interest of the American economy in mind. Yet the actions of US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and his team are playing into China’s hands in unexpected and impactful ways.

Case in point: The outperformance of China’s sovereign bonds, which in August grabbed the top spot in global performance rankings.

The immediate explanation is a widening policy divergence between the Fed and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). But between the lines are growing indications that the trajectory of Fed interest rates may be a short-term positive but a long-term negative.

Right now, the Fed’s war on inflation is sending the dollar soaring at the worst possible moment for economies from Latin America to Europe to Asia.

The yen’s transcending 140 to the dollar for the first time since 1998 is the most recent ominous milestone. That follows the euro’s return to 20-year lows. This chaos isn’t confined to the top-three currencies, as evidenced by the Indian rupee about to hit 80 to the dollar.

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US hanging fire on Australia’s nuclear subs

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In the latest blow to Australia’s ambitious plans to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, overstretched US and UK shipyards may not be able to supply Canberra with the boats within the decade as outlined in the three sides’ AUKUS agreement, according to reports in late August. At a recent Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies seminar, US Navy […]

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Russia weaponizing gas to turn Europe against Ukraine

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Russia is using its dominance of the European oil and gas market, where it accounts for 40% of EU gas consumption, to attempt to reduce support for Ukraine. To ramp up that pressure ahead of the winter, Russia has closed off the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany from August 31 to September 3 – […]

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Iraq heading for civil war; US must not take advantage

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Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was one of the big winners in the Iraq election. Photo: AFP/Haidar Hamdani

Ten months after Iraq’s pro-Iran bloc was soundly defeated in parliamentary elections, and less than a week after Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced his retirement from political life, a stalemate between Shiites who oppose Tehran and those who support it seems to be leading the country toward civil war. Yet this is only half the story. […]

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China spiking Indonesia’s offshore oil and gas risk

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JAKARTA – After unilaterally extending its territorial claims into Indonesia’s Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ), China has yet to respond to plans by British oil company Harbour Energy PLC to pipe newly-discovered natural gas from its Tuna block across the maritime border into Vietnam’s offshore network. Harbour discovered the Tuna field in 2014 and was in […]

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India needs Mandal 2.0 to become a global power

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A young Indian demonstrator holds a placard at a rally in New Delhi, in protest over a spate of assaults against Muslims and low-caste Dalits by Hindu vigilantes in India. Photo: AFP

“Every man who repeats the dogma of [John Stuart] Mill that one country is not fit to rule another country must admit that one class is not fit to rule another class.” These were the words of the father of the Indian constitution, B R Ambedkar. Social justice in India is a vast and ancient topic. In […]

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What Wolf Warrior II tells us about China & Africa

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The 2017 Chinese film Wolf Warrior II has been a runaway success – even though it contains controversial expressions of Chinese nationalism and racist stereotypes of Africans. It is one of the most commercially successful Chinese movies, having grossed over US$800 million at the Chinese box office. Only Star Wars: The Force Awakens has performed […]

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