Author: china@strategy

Oct 7th 2021 SOMETIMES CHINA makes shrewd decisions. At other times it is capable of grave mistakes, even acts of wickedness. But the Chinese government is rarely silly. In particular, officials do not stake the prestige of their supreme leader, President Xi Jinping, on a whim. That makes it worth revisiting dismissive foreign reactions to a move that, though dry-looking, is important and revealing. Listen to this story Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. On September 16th China formally…

Advertisement In recent months, China’s Red Flag River Water Diversion Project Proposal (Red Flag River), an astonishing new inter-basin water diversion proposal, has gained much attention on social media in China and also in the downstream countries, especially in India. Named after the famous Red Flag Canal, the proposal aims to annually divert 60 billion cubic meters of water from the major rivers of the ecologically fragile Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, including three transnational rivers (Mekong, Salween, and Brahmaputra), to arid Xinjiang and other parts of northwest China. Chinese social media posts…

Ahead of the COP26 summit on climate change, the BBC’s Ros Atkins looks at the world’s biggest emitters of CO2 – what they’re promising, what they’re doing, and whether climate scientists think it’s enough. The first in the series focuses on China, the world’s biggest emitter. It is responsible for 27% of global CO2 emissions and has announced that it’s aiming to be carbon neutral by 2060. Experts agree that China plays a crucial role in global efforts to tackle climate change, but is it moving far enough – and…

Top of The World — our morning news roundup written by editors at The World. Subscribe here. China-TaiwanOver the last four days, the Chinese military has sent dozens of fighter jets and bombers hurtling toward Taiwan in a provocative daily show of force. China’s People’s Liberation Army flew a record 149 flights over international airspace, prompting Taiwanese defense forces to scramble in response. The move has raised fears of a misstep that could provoke an unintended escalation. The US has also stepped up naval maneuvers in the Indo-Pacific with its allies,…

President Joe Biden holds a meeting on infrastructure with labor and business leaders at the White House in Washington, D.C. July 22, 2021. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) President Biden sparked confusion last night when he referred to a seemingly nonexistent agreement between the U.S. and China over Taiwan. “China has . . . I’ve spoken with Xi about Taiwan. We agree, we will abide by the Taiwan agreement. That’s where we are and I made it clear that I don’t think he should be doing anything other than abiding by the agreement,”…