You can’t understand the world without understanding China. No country has had a less predictable, more dynamic impact on the world in the past 40 years — and the next 40 will be no different.
After two decades, U.S. troops are finally fully leaving a country bordering China. Beijing appears to have mixed feelings about the development, taking advantage of opportunities to increase regional influence while warning about the possibility of instability.
A U.S. State Department official described China’s Xinjiang region as “an open-air prison” and reiterated the Department’s view that Beijing is committing genocide against Uyghurs. Meanwhile, several more reports have detailed how the Chinese government is chipping away at Muslim culture and life in Xinjiang.
Beijing, casting itself as the victim of “insane suppression” from Canberra, suspended its participation in one of the few remaining high-level diplomatic forums between Australia and China. Relations between the two countries still might not have hit bottom.
The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment is on extremely thin ice, and may be suspended entirely because of Beijing’s counter-sanctions over Xinjiang. But that is far from the only area of increased EU-China friction.
After a month of lodging repeated diplomatic protests against the presence of Chinese fishing boats in disputed waters, the Philippines foreign minister took a less diplomatic approach on Twitter. He was gently rebuked by President Rodrigo Duterte for being “rude and disrespectful” to the Philippines’ “benefactor.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping told his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, that he is “very concerned” about the surge in COVID-19 cases in India. China is supplying India with oxygen and other critical supplies to deal with the crisis, but bilateral tensions remain high with a still-unresolved border standoff.
Chinese students are allowed to return to classes in the U.S. — but do they want to?
After Canada and the Netherlands, the U.K. has become the third country to pass a nonbinding motion in parliament declaring China’s treatment of Uyghurs as “genocide.”
Security risks remain high for Chinese interests in Pakistan: The Tehreek e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group claimed responsibility for a car bomb attack on a hotel where the Chinese ambassador was due to stay. Five were killed as Chinese officials were minutes away from the location.
Nicholas Burns and Qin Gang, both experienced diplomats, are widely expected to be named by Washington and Beijing to be ambassadors in the other capital. Their jobs will not be easy.