Who Will Make It Onto China’s Top Leadership Body?

Advertisement The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is expected to hold its 20th Party Congress later this year. At that event, the promotions and retirements of a significant number of Chinese officials will be revealed, and if “personnel is policy,” we will get some inkling of China’s political future. One of the most important organizational entities in China is the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee (PSC).  Currently, the PSC has seven members: Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, and Han Zheng. What might the PSC look…

China’s Relationship With Argentina Goes Far Beyond the Falklands/Malvinas Dispute

Advertisement The Falkland Islands, also known as Islas Malvinas in Spanish, a small South Atlantic archipelago off the eastern coast of Argentina, have become the focus of geopolitical scrutiny following a recent Argentina-China summit. The Falkland/Malvinas archipelago has been officially occupied by the United Kingdom since 1833, despite Argentina’s claim to inherited sovereignty from the Spanish crown, dating back to 1767. The United Nations specifically acknowledged the territorial dispute in 1965 and set out Resolution 2065, encouraging urgent negotiations. However, tensions boiled over following several failed discussions and plans to…

The Kamila Valieva case shows yet again that the IOC is betraying teen athletes

A fish rots from the head. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the head of the Olympic movement, and it is rotten to the core. Long ago, this vile organisation abandoned its stated principles of “excellence, friendship and respect” to embrace greed, corruption and abuse. For many, the enduring image of Bejing 2022 will not be one of Olympic glory, but the tragic and bizarre spectacle attending the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva. Once again, the Russians got caught cheating: Valieva tested positive for a…

Interpreting China’s Policy Toward the Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Advertisement China and Russia came under increasing Western pressure in recent months for their domestic human rights abuses and attempts to forcibly revise the international order. In early February, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, issued a joint declaration opposing the U.S.-led alliances of NATO and AUKUS, which respectively threaten Moscow and Beijing’s security interests. However, as the Russia-Ukraine crisis deteriorated in late February, with Moscow on the precipice of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Chinese officials at the Munich Security Conference and U.N. Security Council…

‘Actively develop friendship’: China’s new ambassador to Australia strikes softer tone

China’s new ambassador to Australia has offered an olive branch in the intense diplomatic dispute between the two countries, saying they should “meet each other halfway” and “look into the future”. Xiao Qian, who arrived in Canberra in January after years of increasing tensions, said China attached “great importance” to the relationship and was willing to “actively develop friendship and cooperation with Australia”. The intervention comes just days after the prime minister, Scott Morrison, accused China of a dangerous “act of intimidation” over a Chinese warship’s shining of a laser…