By Jonathan Power September 17, 2019 The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has long been controversial. Back in the days of the Soviet Union, Moscow protected communist and ultra-socialist dictators around the world from any attack on their human rights abuses. At the same time routine attacks on Israel, even the extravagant ones, were given […]
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment September 9, 2019 Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is one of the world players who pushed Trump to breach the 2015 treaty with Iran. Trump then slapped the severest economic sanctions on Iran ever imposed on any country in the absence of war. Trump […]
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on August 26, 2019. Photo by IRNA. By Juan Cole September 9, 2019 Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was in Beijing recently for what turns out to […]
Riot police fire tear gas at protesters as they head towards the central government’s liaison office in Sai Ying Pun on Sunday. Photo: Sam Tsang in SCMS By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers Directors of Popular Resistance August 20, 2019 Hong Kong is one of the most extreme examples of big finance, neoliberal capitalism in […]
By Jonathan Power August 20, 2019 In 1995 in a little remembered event Li Ruthuan, a member of the Chinese Politburo (containing the top seven in the government), made a speech likening the Chinese take-over of Hong Kong to the case of a lady who had agreed to sell a 100-year-old Yi-Xiang teapot that was […]
By Jake Lynch August 19, 2019 A map of the Korean Peninsula showing the 38th Parallel where the DMZ was established in 1953. (Wikipedia) “Do not demonise North Korea. Demons do not negotiate. If there are no negotiations, there will be war.” The words of Chung-in Moon to journalists who gathered for the Korea Press […]
By Jonathan Power August 14, 2019 In her famous decree in 1767 Empress Catherine the Great proclaimed Russia to be a European power. She wanted Russia to be a major player in European politics. She compelled the Europeans to accept Russia as a great power as a condition for doing business. In 1815 Russia was […]
Illustration by Craig Stephens, South China Morning Post By Christopher Black July 26th 2019 On June 4th the Chinese government issued a travel alert for Chinese tourists thinking of visiting the United States, a day after it issued a similar advisory to Chinese students thinking of studying in the US over concerns for their safety […]
By Jonathan Power June 25, 2019 Xi Jinping, president of China, remains an enigma. You watched him on television this past weekend reviewing the dancing in Pyongyang in the company of Kim Jong-un and his face is near to expressionless when in repose. He doesn’t stand like an arrogant man and we recall that time […]
By Chandra Muzaffar May 16th, 2019 The Belt Road Initiative (BRI) also known as the One Belt One Road (OBOR) project could well emerge as the obor (the flame in Indonesian or Malay) that will blaze the trail in the evolution of a new epoch in history. Chinese President Xi Jinping must have sensed its historical significance […]
