Tag: Opinion

Anxiety in China stems from the CPC’s insecurity
17Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Anxiety in China stems from the CPC’s insecurity

China has handled the COVID-19 outbreak better than most countries. Also, it has quickly cranked up its industries and global public diplomacy to offer testing kits and protective gear to countries across the world, including to its arch-rival, the United States, as well as to India.At the same time, Chinese territorial assertiveness continues without letup in the east, the South China Seas, and along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India. It is almost as if even a disruption like COVID-19 that has the rest of the world scrambling to manage public health, economic growth and political fallout, is insufficient to knock China off its stride.And yet, the Chinese people are anxious. The Communist Party of China (CPC) that governs them, even more so. Anxious that the rest of the world not...
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China pillages Balochistan
17Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

China pillages Balochistan

In 2011, the celebrated Irish journalist Declan Walsh wrote about a 70-year-old conflict about Balochistan, which has been under Pakistani occupation since March 1948. It was a topic that only a few in the West had heard off.Headlined as ‘Pakistan’s Secret Dirty War,’ Walsh, in his piece, lifted the lid on atrocities being committed by the Pakistan Army and its jihadi death squads inside Balochistan.He wrote: “In Balochistan, mutilated corpses bearing the signs of torture keep turning up, among them lawyers, students and farm workers … The bodies surface quietly, like corks bobbing up in the dark. They come in twos and threes, a few times a week, dumped on desolate mountains or empty city roads, bearing the scars of great cruelty. Arms and legs are snapped; faces are bruised and swollen. F
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Watch China’s actions, don’t listen to its words
16Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Watch China’s actions, don’t listen to its words

At the moment, one of the most complex situations is the changing nature of nation-to-nation relationships with China. The words China wants us to use are telling.In the case of the US-China relationship, the Chinese Communist Party has been very keen to use words (both positive and negative) that create an impression of equality between Beijing and Washington.A few years ago, Beijing promoted the idea of China and the US being the “G2” - two equal governments, with primacy over the rest. The G2 construct allowed Beijing to imply that the world should be divided into two colonial-style spheres of influence, one for the US, and one for China.In 2008, US Navy Admiral Timothy J. Keating told the Senate Armed Services Committee about a comment a senior Chinese officer made to him: “As we devel
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China leverages Tibetan Plateau’s water wealth
12Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

China leverages Tibetan Plateau’s water wealth

While the international attention remains on China’s criminal activities in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, Beijing is also quietly focusing its attention on the waters of rivers that originate in the Chinese-controlled territory of Tibet.For a long time now, China has pursued a broader strategy to corner natural resources. This has driven its expanding presence in places like Africa and Latin America. China’s newer obsession is freshwater, whose growing shortages are casting a cloud over Asia’s economic future.Peace and security in Asia both hinge on China’s willingness to embrace rules-based cooperation, which includes ceasing activities that threaten to turn internationally shared river-water resources into a Chinese political weapon.Most of Asia’s great rivers originate on
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China is so fixed on the US, it may lose India
12Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

China is so fixed on the US, it may lose India

Mid-June witnessed two significant events related to China's foreign relations: a deadly clash between Indian and Chinese soldiers along the disputed border killing soldiers on both sides, and a special meeting in Hawaii between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Foreign Affairs Commission.Indian news and public discussions have been dominated by the border clash since it happened but it barely made headlines in China. Meanwhile, the meeting between Pompeo and Yang garnered significant attention by Chinese official media and social media. This is telling of China’s diplomatic priority.China is obviously of paramount importance to India's foreign policy. China's every move is scrutinized by Indians, and every is
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Is China weaponizing the free press?
10Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

Is China weaponizing the free press?

The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a recent report has claimed China has built its discourse power beyond borders and engineered a change in the global news landscape.The new report, titled, “The China Story: Reshaping the World’s Media” was launched on June 25, by IFJ, the world’s largest voice for journalists.In its report, the IFJ did not hesitate to say that Red Republic’s media-warriors is increasing its global footprint in the world’s media and its strategy showed clear signs of targeting journalists to “outsource its influence” in developing countries with ineffective or repressive governments, yet also clearly cut across both the developed and developing world.Journalists from 58 countries were asked whether they received overtures from Beijing. The
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‘Steele Dossier’ law firm peddles misinformation for JamaatIslami linked charity
9Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

‘Steele Dossier’ law firm peddles misinformation for JamaatIslami linked charity

India has been on the hot-seat ever since it revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and the subsequent security measures taken to fight jihadi groups.Members of Congress, prominent media outlets, and even senior State Department officials are suddenly tasked with trying to understand complicated situations with little or no background in the history or politics of South Asia.This is a situation ripe for abuse by rivals who would seek to use this lack of information to manipulate policymakers through disinformation.Last year, a US Congressional hearing on Kashmir went poorly for India. This is in significant part due to the fact that US franchises of Jamaat-e-Islami (recently banned in Kashmir for working with terrorist groups), mainly the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a...
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CCP using pandemic as cover for expansionist agenda
8Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

CCP using pandemic as cover for expansionist agenda

As coronavirus continues to threaten millions of lives across the world, there has been plenty of discussion among China observers about how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has sought to use the pandemic to its advantage.Would the CCP use the country's control of a large proportion of the medical supplies market to hold the world to ransom over personal protective equipment (PPE)? Will it miraculously discover a vaccine sold to the world at a sky-high price, while simultaneously claiming credit for vanquishing the disease?The answer is simple and much more serious. The pandemic has provided the perfect cover for Xi Jinping’s regime to pursue its expansionist agenda more aggressively than ever before.The Communist Party’s National People’s Congress recently passed a controversial piece of
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How China eats the World
8Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

How China eats the World

China’s economic miracle, of the last 15-20 years, built on the back of debt and liquidity, and investing for an export driven economy have defined commodity prices, and global geopolitics. As per some estimates, China's total debt in the 21st century tops 300% of its GDP, and at an estimated US$40 trillion accounts for 15% of all global debt.But arguably, between the year 2006 and 2019, the export miracle never really materialized with net exports accounting for only about 2% of the total rise in Gross Domestic Product (GDP).However, there is yet another aspect of the China story which is not as appreciated as one believes it should be - Chinese investments in other countries, a strategy that appears to be driven by foreign policy, than economic considerations. As per data compiled by the
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2Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Opinion

New domicile law in Jammu & Kashmir

In view of the removal of Article 370 of Indian constitution by the Indian parliament on August 5 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs recently issued an order that substitutes the term “permanent resident” with “domiciles of UT of J&K” (new Kashmir domicile law). This has become a matter of concern in both Jammu region and Kashmir valley, which are now constituent parts of the newly created Union Territory of J&K.The new Kashmir domicile law, effectively speaking, takes the power of defining “permanent resident” from the erstwhile assembly of the state of Jammu & Kashmir, and introduces a new category of “domiciles” of the Union Territory of J&K.The new law allows entry of nonresidents (defined by the now revoked Article 35A) into the state along with giving them access to t
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