Taliban rule is unstable, illegitimate and falling apart

The Taliban recaptured power in 2021 and established a monopoly on violence. Although the Taliban have quashed competition and projected themselves across the country, the regime has not consolidated power, gained domestic legitimacy or shown that it can protect itself from high-profile assassinations. Despite holding a sizeable all-male gathering of about 3,500 clerics and tribal elders in late […]Continue Reading

Sanctions on Russia boosting, not reducing, its revenue

The European Union has just approved new sanctions against Russia, including a price cap on oil sales, following the United States’ September 30 announcement of new economic sanctions. Both announcements are in response to Russia’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine. The goal of sanctions against Russia is to cripple Russia’s capacity to wage war […]Continue Reading

Kamikaze drones fly in Putin’s unjust war

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that he “has no regrets” regarding his special military operation in Ukraine. This statement was part of another attempt to justify his invasion of Ukraine. On Tuesday, General Sergei Surovikin, Russia’s new commander of the so-called special military operation, proclaimed that “Russians and Ukrainians are one people” and “we just […]Continue Reading

China dangles cash to recruit ex-UK fighter pilots

China has recruited retired British fighter pilots to train its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) pilots, giving Beijing’s rapidly modernizing air force deep insights into Western air combat tactics, techniques and procedures. Britain’s Defense Ministry has acknowledged that China had recruited as many as 30 former Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter pilots to train their Chinese […]Continue Reading

Russia-China ties strengthen as global recession looms

The much-vaunted economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic was short-lived. The global economy is now once more in the midst of a slowdown – the sharpest after any post-recession recovery since 1970. In this context, there is a growing recognition in Europe that the burgeoning Chinese economy can be seen from two angles. From a […]Continue Reading

Iran’s kamikaze drones no game-changer in Ukraine

Many Ukrainians are facing the prospect of a winter of power outages after about 30% of the country’s power stations were knocked out in just over a week. The deputy head of the president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, has warned that the country needs to be prepared for “a hard winter.” It has been reported that […]Continue Reading

China is falling but Japan is already down-and-out

TOKYO – With Xi Jinping’s coronation in full swing in Beijing, few eyes are on Japan’s down-and-down economic trajectory. That includes Tokyo’s top leaders as the plunging yen signals the last gasp of national ambitions to take on China.

One of the less appreciated undercurrents this week as Xi’s Communist Party plots out China’s next five years is avoiding the lost-decade pitfalls with which Japan is still grappling.

There again – between default risks in the property market, excessive bureaucracy, an aging population, and self-inflicted headwinds like “zero-Covid” – economists haven’t been shy about pointing out the Japan parallels and potential pitfalls as China regroups.

It’s clear, though, that Xi’s party can set out their strategies knowing that there is little fight left in a humbled and increasingly downbeat Tokyo.

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ASEAN bracing for US-China rivalry to explode

Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping’s fiery address before the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress has dominated recent headlines, not least regarding his comments on Taiwan. Despite Xi’s vow to pursue “peaceful unification” with the self-ruling island, the Chinese leader expressed his willingness to use force and flex muscles amid “stormy seas” in an increasingly volatile […]Continue Reading

China wants patriotic scientists to fight US chip ban

China aims to recruit and groom a new team of strategic scientists and engineers in an inward-looking reaction to new US sanctions that will force American experts to quit working at Chinese semiconductor fabs. On October 18, the Ministry of Industrial and Information (MIIT) suggested in an opinion document that China should encourage top graduates […]Continue Reading

How Vietnam can win even more from China decoupling

People move past a clothing boutique selling locally made products in downtown Hanoi on October 29, 2014. A EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement promises to boost Vietnamese exports and growth. AFP / Hoang Dinh Nam

In late August 2022, news broke that Apple was in talks to manufacture its famed Apple Watches and MacBooks in Vietnam for the first time. Some view this as a move by transnational corporations and their core suppliers to diversify their production away from China, buffering themselves from intensifying US-China geoeconomic competition. Others interpret this as a sign of […]Continue Reading