Author: Yusara Askari

While the elections in the United States (U.S) is under full swing, adversarial countries around the world are walking a thin rope between ensuring stability and preparing for potential changes in American policy. Electoral democracies inherently involve uncertainty, particularly when a country is unsure of how its relationship with the sole superpower might evolve. In this context, China appears to be betting on caution. Recent moves and actions by Beijing seem to suggest that it does not want to become a domestic electoral topic within American elections. Either rhetorically or policy wise, Beijing has understood that any mention of its country, especially due to its own doing, is going to harm long term interests of the US-China relations. More so than not, Beijing has ironicall...

After jailing potential rivals and isolating the Maldives from its traditional friends, former president Abdulla Yameen was put behind bars with his attempt at a political comeback thwarted. But Yameen is a free man again after a court ruling in the tiny Indian Ocean atoll nation Thursday that set aside his convictions for graft and money laundering. Yameen became in 2013 just the third leader of the upscale tourism hotspot since the introduction of multiparty democracy five years earlier. He had imprisoned or forced into exile nearly all his potential rivals by the time he had been voted out in 2018. When the Commonwealth threatened to suspend the Maldives over its repeated human rights violations, Yameen responded by taking his country out of the 56-member bloc. "I have a...

Campaigning in the Maldives’ fourth multi-party parliamentary elections has entered the final stretch. Voting will take place on April 21. The fracturing of the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) and the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), and the fraying of old loyalties, have thrown traditional voter allegiances into question, injecting unpredictability into the contest. In nearly 40 of the 93 constituencies, candidates from the PNC and the MDP face challengers from their respective breakaway factions, which appeal to the same vote blocs as their parent organizations. The outcome, and the fortunes of the new administration, will be shaped by how votes split in key races. The MDP defeat in last year’s presidential election was widely blamed on The Democrats, a s

China’s muted diplomatic stance – calling for de-escalation but stopping short of condemning Hamas – has also added to investors’ nervousness China’s already beat-up stock market is facing fresh trouble, with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas worsening investors’ jitters about their investments in the country. Investors have flooded listed companies ranging from fertiliser producers and oil companies to drone makers with questions around their exposure to the war. At the same time, Chinese stocks are seeing a broad sell-off, with infrastructure-related shares – especially those exposed to Belt and Road projects in the Middle East – being the worst hit. “Uncertainty was still high in domestic market despite improved economic data, facing t

Mohamed Muizzu’s election win is a setback for India, a boost for China and a sign of tensions in the Indian Ocean region, say analysts. The Maldives has a population of half a million people scattered across more than 1,000 islands. But last weekend, the picturesque archipelago delivered an electoral verdict that has sent shock waves around the world — and especially across the Indian Ocean region. Mohamed Muizzu, the opposition candidate, emerged victorious in the presidential run-off on Saturday and secured 54 percent of the vote, results released by the electoral commission showed. Muizzu, who backs closer ties between the Maldives and China, defeated the incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who is widely perceived as pro-India. “With today’s result, we have got the