The musician and actress Selena Gomez has twice as many followers on Instagram — over 298 million — as Russia has citizens. Yes, Vladimir, I can hear you laughing from here and echoing Stalin’s quip about the pope: “How many divisions does Selena Gomez have?” She has none. But she is an influencer with followers, and there are thousands and thousands of Selenas out there on the World Wide Web, including Russian celebrities who are posting on Instagram about their opposition to the war. And while they cannot roll back…
Day: February 25, 2022
A story of a trafficked bride shocks China
Feb 26th 2022 IF ALL GOES to plan for Communist Party leaders, the year 2022 should show the world that China represents the future. State television kicked off the lunar new year with greetings from the crew of the country’s first space station, the Tiangong, beamed to over a billion viewers. February saw the capital, Beijing, safely host a Winter Olympics during a global pandemic. Athletes were secluded in high-technology quarantine bubbles, before competing on slopes of artificial snow. In a sign of the country’s allure as a sporting power,…
Xi Jinping drew closer to Russia on the eve of war in Ukraine
Feb 26th 2022 SOME SAW it as a pivotal moment in China’s relationship with Russia, and indeed in the crisis over Ukraine. On February 19th Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, speaking by video link to a conference in Munich, declared that the “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity” of countries should be protected, adding, lest anyone misunderstand, “Ukraine is no exception”. It sounded like an affirmation of international norms, just as Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, was about to shatter them. Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.…
From a China frenzy to casual transphobia, PM is on the hunt for disaffected but highly motivated voters | Katharine Murphy
If you watch politics closely, you’ll recall this moment. In 2018, Scott Morrison draped his arm around Malcolm Turnbull and declared: “This is my leader and I’m ambitious for him!” Two days later, Turnbull was out and Morrison was prime minister. That moment popped into my head this week as I watched Morrison out on the hustings in Tasmania. The more recent circumstances were quite different, but the vibe was similar. Morrison was flanked by Bridget Archer, the moderate Liberal, who has made a name for herself in Canberra by…
Hong Kong’s refusal to live with covid-19 is causing chaos
Feb 25th 2022 HONG KONG HONG KONG in the past week has been under greater stress from covid-19 than ever before. First came the shocking photographs of elderly patients on beds, lined up in the cold in the car parks of overflowing hospitals. Then the reports of foreign domestic helpers—who are forced by law to live in their employers’ houses—being abandoned to the streets after testing positive. Next, a raft of announcements: schools are to be closed to become testing venues, while disused tower blocks are to be converted into…
China’s Investment Setbacks in Panama
Advertisement Since the 2013, China has made major infrastructure investments worldwide as part of President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). One significant recipient of Chinese investment has been Panama, which under former President Juan Carlos Varela switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the People’s Republic of China in 2017, resulting in a windfall of increased support from Beijing and a December 2018 visit to Panama by Xi. Proposed Chinese investments in Panama in recent years have included bridges, a rail line, commercial ports, and a cruise ship…
War in Ukraine is a severe test of Beijing’s new axis with Moscow | Yu Jie
President Vladimir Putin’s full military escalation in Ukraine has unsettled his seemingly best friend in international affairs, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who has invested in the bilateral relationship personally and politically. Beijing’s axis with Moscow was recently strengthened during the 2022 Winter Olympics, with their joint declaration to proclaim “their cooperation with no limit”. The western foreign affairs community then rushed to conclude that Moscow and Beijing were forming – if one had not already been formed – a “strategic alliance” aimed at destabilising the liberal, rules-based world order.…
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Tests China’s ‘Sovereignty’ Rhetoric
As Russian troops have poured into Ukraine, officials in Beijing have fumed at any suggestion that they are betraying a core principle of Chinese foreign policy — that sovereignty is sacrosanct — in order to shield Moscow. They will not even call it an invasion. “Russia’s operation” is one preferred description. The “current situation” is another. And China’s leader, Xi Jinping, says his position on the crisis is perfectly coherent. “The abrupt changes in the eastern regions of Ukraine have been drawing the close attention of the international community,” Mr.…
China ponders how Russia’s actions in Ukraine could reshape world order
The news came as a surprise to many in Beijing. Barely 24 hours ago, Chinese pundits predicted that a war in Ukraine was not inevitable. In New York, as Russia geared up for a full-on assault on its neighbour, China’s UN envoy, Zhang Jun, urged in a security council meeting that “the door to a peaceful solution to the Ukraine issue is not fully shut, nor should it be shut”. But when people in Kyiv woke up to sound of bombs in what the Nato chief called a “deliberate, cold-blooded”…