Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, speaks during the Quad summit with President Joe Biden, right, as well as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, in the East Room of the White House, on September 24 in Washington. Photo: AP Photo South China Morning Post
VILNIUS, Lithuania — It was never a secret that China tightly controls what its people can read and write on their cellphones. But it came as a shock to officials in Lithuania when they discovered that a popular Chinese-made handset sold in the Baltic nation had a hidden though dormant feature: a censorship registry of 449 terms banned by the Chinese Communist Party. Lithuania’s government swiftly advised officials using the phones to dump them, enraging China — and not for the first time. Lithuania has also embraced Taiwan, a vibrant…
Advertisement Beijing is in overdrive to respond to the news that Australia will build nuclear-powered submarines, thanks to technology being shared by the United States and the United Kingdom. No event since China’s 2016 loss to the Philippines in an international arbitration case over disputed waters in the South China Sea has evoked such a howl from Chinese officialdom. Designated AUKUS, the security pact between Australia, the U.K., and the U.S. delivers Australia an exponentially more powerful submarine force than its originally planned purchase of conventional submarines from France. Frances’s own…
But after Beijing brought in new rules to control the amount owed by big real estate developers, Evergrande started offering its properties at major discounts to ensure money was coming in to keep the business afloat. Now, it is struggling to meet the interest payments on its debts. BBC
This is a hallmark of great power competition: Competitive initiatives like AUKUS provide visible ways to counter or balance or complicate China’s military activities but don’t necessarily help allies meet defined objectives. More often, competition becomes an end in itself — an open-ended imperative that assumes everything an opponent dislikes must be good policy. Another common feature of competitive policies is that officials tend to overlook their costs. For one thing, AUKUS carries significant diplomatic costs at a time when the United States is in desperate need of credibility with…
Huawei’s logo seen outside its main UK office in Reading, west of London, on January 28, 2020. Former head of BBC news programmes Gavin Allen became the latest high-profile overseas hire for the Chinese tech giant as it looks for new business opportunities that are not hindered by US sanctions. Photo: AFP South China Morning Post
Then came the Delta variant. Despite keeping their countries largely sealed off, the virus found its way in. And when it did, it spread quickly. In the summer, South Korea battled its worst wave of infections; hospitals in Indonesia ran out of oxygen and beds; and in Thailand, health care workers had to turn away patients. With cases surging, countries quickly shifted their vaccination approach. Sydney, Australia, announced a lockdown in June after an unvaccinated limousine driver caught the Delta variant from an American aircrew. Then, Prime Minister Scott Morrison,…