Copper is all around us. The metal is both ever-present and invisible in our world. Copper makes reading the words on this screen possible. And the global spread of artificial light, electric power and telecommunications all required ever-increasing quantities of copper. Where does all of this copper come from? How was it produced, distributed, controlled, […]Continue Reading
The situation in the South China Sea is far from stable. Chinese vessels engaged in dangerous and escalatory encounters with those of other states regularly throughout 2022. But for the first time in a decade, Beijing’s control over disputed waters did not appreciably advance. The China Coast Guard (CCG) and maritime militia were deployed at […]Continue Reading
BEIJING: Chinese players of roleplaying epic “World of Warcraft” bade a sad farewell to the land of Azeroth on Monday (Jan 23), with the game set to go offline after a dispute between US developer Blizzard and local partner NetEase. Massively popular worldwide, particularly in the 2000s, “World of Warcraft”Continue Reading
The Chartpattanakla Party has proposed a tax restructuring under which people earning 40,000 baht or less a month as a salary or for freelance work would enjoy an income tax cut.Continue Reading
December 2022 highlighted how much US trade policy has changed in recent years. It is tempting to blame the changes on former US president Donald Trump, whose protectionist views were strongly held and clearly stated. Many observers have been surprised by the Biden administration’s continuation of many Trump policies, albeit with different rhetoric, which culminated […]Continue Reading
JAKARTA – On the surface, Indonesia’s decision to divide the Co2-heavy East Natuna gas field into three separate blocks is an effort to revive it as an economic proposition employing new carbon capture technology. Beneath the surface, the move may also be aimed at resisting China’s efforts to enforce its illegal nine-dash line of territorial […]Continue Reading
China’s population has started to decline and this has set off a Pavlovian negative reaction – via the news media – of the sort that we have seen before in the case of Japan. Reuters warns that the news “sounds alarm on demographic crisis.” CNN predicts that the “impact will be felt around the world”, […]Continue Reading
The consensus among climate-change activists and many commentators is that the decision to put the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in charge of this year’s COP28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates is akin to appointing a fox as head of security on a chicken farm. There is, however, an alternative perspective […]Continue Reading
China’s export performance is clearly important for the world, and certainly Europe. To start, global inflation not only depends on commodity prices but also on China’s export prices and its own cost dynamics. Second, the European Union is the other major export machine, together with China, so developments in China’s export capacity and competitiveness are […]Continue Reading
Bolivia is rich in a metal vital for electric cars, and a Chinese battery maker will mine it.Continue Reading