Kerry Boyd Anderson A draft of a new EU Strategic Compass was recently presented to senior European officials, with plans to approve a final version in the first half of 2022. The document seeks to help Europe better adapt to a changing global security environment. However, the EU’s foreign policy challenges run deep, including its […]
Read MoreChris Doyle It is a fair bet that Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron will be scrubbing each other off their respective Christmas card lists this year. With both in full-on clash mode, every other day brings yet another Punch and Judy-style spat. The Entente Cordiale has been peppered with insults and accusations hurled across the […]
Read MoreDing Gang On the morning of November 16, Beijing time, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden held a video meeting. The press briefings released by the two countries after the meeting showed a positive tone in general. Biden used a word in the meeting called “guardrails”. The word is widely used in […]
Read MoreHu Xijin Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton this week replied to my warning to his threat toward China. He said, “They’re words of a bully, not an international player.” I would like to respond to him again: The US, which Australia is preparing to follow when a war breaks out in the Taiwan Straits, is […]
Read MoreHafed Al-Ghwell The story of the last barrel of oil has gained traction in recent years as nations across the world, including parts of the Middle East and North Africa, scramble to curb emissions and transform entire societies in order to avert a crisis resulting from a warming planet. It is a fascinating exercise to […]
Read MoreAndrea Meza Costa Rica is celebrating 200 years of independence this year. It is an opportunity to honor our ancestors and think about our descendants, and we invite the world to celebrate with us. Those who cannot visit in person should do so by protecting the Earth’s land and oceans, the source of all life. […]
Read MoreHu Xijin I have read the notice about the quarantine of pet dogs in Shangrao, East China’s Jiangxi Province. Killing a pet dog with no evidence of being infected by COVID-19 and displaying the video clip of the process clearly lack of the basis of rules. The official notice released after the case said that […]
Read MoreDing Duo On November 14, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with diplomatic envoys of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries in Beijing. Noting that next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), Wang Yi expressed hope that the […]
Read MoreKerry Boyd Anderson Partisan political identities have long played a major role in US politics, but partisanship has increased in recent years. Identifying with one political party or ideology has come to define much of American life, even outside the traditional realm of politics. Partisanship often now defines how Americans view themselves, their communities and […]
Read MoreSara Al-Mulla One of life’s greatest blessings is to be taken under the wing of an illuminating, caring and wise teacher. Time and time again, people have recounted compelling stories of how their teachers transformed their lives in profound ways. This truth has never been more potent and palpable than during the COVID-19 outbreak, where […]
Read MoreHu Xijin The US has reopened its borders to people from 33 countries. Travelers must be fully vaccinated and provide results of a negative coronavirus test. The purpose is to promote economic recovery and boost the tourism industry. Most countries on the list are those in Europe, yet the continent is once again back at […]
Read MoreHu Xijin China is holding the sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The outside world is very concerned about China’s self-evaluation of the past nine years. I have read the relevant interpretation from the Chinese state media, and found them to be very comprehensive. I would like […]
Read MoreKerry Boyd Anderson Remote work is going to be a major trend around the world well beyond the end of the pandemic. Any company that proactively considers how to create a work environment that benefits from new opportunities and expectations while mitigating challenges will be far ahead. Many businesses that try to return to a […]
Read MorePeter Harrison For as long as I can remember, there has been talk of saving the planet — it is nothing new. Now, in a cold, gray and rather damp Glasgow, the world’s leaders are yet again speaking about the same subject. So far, there have been pledges to end deforestation, reduce methane emissions and […]
Read MoreHu Xijin With regard to several acute issues about the Taiwan Straits, I would like to make some comments. First, has the mainland’s military deterrence against the island worked? Of course it worked. Both the US and the island of Taiwan are nervous about the prospect of a military attack from the Chinese mainland taking […]
Read MoreHu Xijin In recent days, there have been increasing voices on the internet that criticize China’s strict implementation of pandemic prevention measures. Western media have collectively targeted China’s zero-COVID-19 policy, slandering the sustainability of China’s anti-pandemic approach. The complaints on the internet are more complicated. Many of them are about the impact on normal life, […]
Read MoreMohamed Chebaro In normal times, inspections by the French and British of each other’s vessels, fishing or otherwise, is usually a routine activity that is in the interest of both countries. These are historic allies and neighbors who are linked by geography and a shared ethos that values democracy, respect for the rule of law, […]
Read MoreNadim Shehadi Saudi Arabia, followed by Bahrain, the UAE and Kuwait, cut their ties with Lebanon last week because it had fallen under the control of the resistance axis of Hezbollah and Iran. Thirty years after the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991, the region is still divided along a fault line that is principally defined […]
Read MoreHu Xijin The Tsai Ing-wen authority has said that the island will defend itself “to the very last day” if the Chinese mainland attacks. Most people know they are bluffing. A recent Wall Street Journal report quoted several experts as assessing that Taiwan’s military has “poor preparation and low morale”. Also, “adult men in Taiwan […]
Read MoreWang Wen On the last page of his famous book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Paul Kennedy quotes Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of the German Empire, saying that, “all of these Powers are traveling on the stream of Time, which they can neither create nor direct, but upon which they […]
Read MoreYossi Mekelberg Back in 2018, when Theresa May was still clinging to her job as UK prime minister, she unveiled plans to hold a celebration of the country’s departure from the EU. It was instantly dubbed the “Festival of Brexit.” Since then, it has been renamed “Unboxed: Creativity in the UK.” According to its promoters, […]
Read MoreAndrew Hammond This week’s 10th anniversary of the fall of the Gaddafi regime in Libya exemplifies how much of the 2010s were a wild period for international politics, with a long wave of political turbulence following the 2008-09 international financial crisis. The fallout from that period, which left the global economic system teetering on the […]
Read MoreHu Xijin The three taikonauts onboard the Shenzhou-13 spaceship entered China’s space station core module Tianhe on Saturday. The entire nation was watching and felt a shared sense of national pride. One after another, the country’s major achievements are reshaping the feeling of being a Chinese. The latest off-world success is another showcase of China’s […]
Read MoreHu Xijin Beijing has proposed to suspend the city’s light show and shortened the time of the city’s landscape lighting at night. I believe it makes sense for Beijing to launch this initiative now, whether this is because of Beijing’s power supply shortage or a response to the power shortages in Northeast China and other […]
Read MoreChris Doyle No country can afford to wait until the global pandemic has ended before determining the proper lessons to be learned. The stakes are too high. That is why a UK parliamentary select committee report into the coronavirus published on Oct. 12 received so much attention. The findings are stark, describing it as Britain’s […]
Read MoreAndrew Hammond While much on the agenda this week in Brussels for the summit of Europe’s 27 government leaders will be familiar, there is a historic power shift underway that could bring about significant change in 2022. The summit will probably be the last for outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her close collaborator, French President […]
Read MoreHu Xijin After his visit to the island of Taiwan, former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott published on The Australian newspaper on Sunday an edited version of a speech he delivered in the island. The article has a provocative headline “My message to Taiwan: get ready to fight.” It advocates that “the best way to […]
Read MoreMartin Jacques There is growing interest in the West about the present wave of reforms in China, which began with the defrocking of Ant, then the regulatory moves against the anything-goes behavior of the tech giants, and the more recent criticism of the glaring inequalities in Chinese society. The initial Western reaction was predictably negative, […]
Read MoreIshtiaq Ahmad Afghanistan is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. The end of the 20-year war may have silenced the guns for a while, but the war-torn country is at serious risk of imploding due to the worsening conditions it faces. This could have grave consequences for regional stability and international security in the […]
Read MoreHu Xijin Beijing has proposed to suspend the city’s light show and shortened the time of the city’s landscape lighting at night. I believe it makes sense for Beijing to launch this initiative now, whether this is because of Beijing’s power supply shortage or a response to the power shortages in Northeast China and other […]
Read MoreHu Xijin Today’s Chinese people are more dignified than ever before, and one of the important reasons is that we are not as poor as before. I cannot remember how much Chinese nannies would earn in 1993, but their monthly salary was definitely very meager — I’d say less than 100 yuan ($15.5). I went […]
Read MoreFaisal J. Abbas Two events related to tech giant Facebook this week should force us to stop and reflect about how the rise of social media has impacted us as societies, especially in the Arab world. Two days of testimony to US senators by whistleblower Frances Haugen, and the six-hour outage of Facebook and other […]
Read MoreNidhal Guessoum With the growing digitization of various aspects of society and the exponential increase in the amount of data “exhaust” that most of us produce, data privacy has emerged as an important issue of our time. First, a brief reminder about the amount of data that we produce and that companies such as Google […]
Read MoreDing Gang Meng Wanzhou has returned to the motherland. This is a landmark event which carries significance for China’s integration with the world and the international order. No matter how China, the US and Canada communicated and negotiated, Washington and Ottawa agreed to release her. The result shows that the US long-arm jurisdiction could be […]
Read MoreJames Gomez China’s request to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, is no surprise. In November 2020, during an APEC summit, President Xi Jinping said that China would actively consider the possibility of joining the regional trade group. Developing countries would benefit from a rules-based international order that aids the […]
Read MoreNong Rong – Ambassador of China to Pakistan October first is a great and solemn day in the history of the Chinese nation, featuring the founding of the People’s Republic of China. On this special occasion, on behalf of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, I would […]
Read MoreChris Doyle After one of the closest elections in modern German history, the ultimate winners and losers may take some time to emerge. In 2017, it took more than four months for Angela Merkel to form a coalition, and who would bet against her making this year’s Christmas speech as caretaker chancellor? The results had […]
Read MoreDing Gang On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks, many academic institutions in China and the US held seminars to summarize the changes in the US, China and the world in the past two decades. There was an argument that after the 9/11 terror attacks, the US no longer saw China’s rise […]
Read MoreHu Xijin The Chinese mainland announced on Sunday suspension of imports of cherimoya and wax apples from the island of Taiwan due to the discovery of a known pest in recent shipments. This has led to bitter complaints from some politicians on the island. The leader of the Taiwan region Tsai Ing-wen pecked at the […]
Read MoreSofia Monsalve When I visited my parents in Bogota last month, I witnessed how people in their neighborhood went up and down the streets begging for help to survive. Since the end of April, Colombia has experienced one of its biggest waves of social unrest in recent times — and hunger is at the core […]
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