China and Silk

Sam Kolitch February 14, 2022 Ambassador Chas Freeman is a retired career diplomat who served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1993-1994, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from 1989-1992 during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1986-1989 during the Cuban troop withdrawal from Angola and the US mediation of Namibian independence from South Africa, Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires in the American embassies at Bangkok from 1984-1986 and Beijing from 1981-1984, and Director for Chinese Affairs at the US Department of State from 1979-1981. In 1972, he was the primary American interpreter for President Nixon’s trailblazing visit to China. Ambassador Freeman is the author of America’s Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East, Interesting Times: China, America, and the Shifting Balance of Prestige, America’s Misadventures in the Middle East, The Diplomat’s Dictionary, Arts of Power: Statecraft...

Source: www.cambodia-roads.fr Sebastian Strangio, In the Dragon’s Shadow – Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2022. Peter PeverelliTFF Associate This text is a combination of a book review and a report of a visit to Cambodia in January 2023. Both texts were published earlier in Dutch on Chinasquare. It seems justified to compare the value of the ASEAN countries to China with that of South America to the US. Turned around, one could expect that the ASEAN countries regard China as a Big Brother that you cannot ignore, even if you want to. This book confirms that expectation, but also shows that any ASEAN member can build a win-win relationship with China in its own specific way. The author, an academic who has been stationed as a journalist in various ASEAN countries for years, builds his arguments on a solid historical foundation, combined...

January 28, 2023 Born and brought up in Scotland, David Ferguson moved to China to work and live in 2006. In 2008, he joined the Foreign Languages Press, covering major issues, including the Wenchuan earthquake, the Beijing Olympic Games and the Shanghai World Expo. “I spend quite a lot of my time writing about China. I’ve written six or seven books about China now, and I always take the opportunity to try to correct misperceptions when I’m writing.” Ferguson is also the English editor for President Xi Jinping’s Governance of China books, and says he is glad to have the opportunity to see how Xi Jinping Thought works as a whole. Watch one of a series on CGTN, China’s global TV Channel. In my view, we can do nothing more important but to build bridges, cooperate instead of confronting. That is, if it is peace we want. Jan ObergEditor

Photo: The Cradle Pepe Escobar January 23, 2023 As Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative enters its 10th year, a strong Sino-Russian geostrategic partnership has revitalized the BRI across the Global South. The year 2022 ended with a Zoom call to end all Zoom calls: Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping discussing all aspects of the Russia-China strategic partnership in an exclusive video call. Putin told Xi how “Russia and China managed to ensure record high growth rates of mutual trade,” meaning “we will be able to reach our target of $200 billion by 2024 ahead of schedule.” On their coordination to “form a just world order based on international law,” Putin emphasized how “we share the same views on the causes, course, and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape.” Originally posted on The Cradle on January 6, 2023, here Facing “unprecedented pressure and provocations from the...

Photo Credit: The Cradle Pepe Escobar February 1, 2023 As Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative enters its 10th year, a strong Sino-Russian geostrategic partnership has revitalized the BRI across the Global South. The year 2022 ended with a Zoom call to end all Zoom calls: Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping discussing all aspects of the Russia-China strategic partnership in an exclusive video call. Putin told Xi how “Russia and China managed to ensure record high growth rates of mutual trade,” meaning “we will be able to reach our target of $200 billion by 2024 ahead of schedule.” On their coordination to “form a just world order based on international law,” Putin emphasized how “we share the same views on the causes, course, and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape.” Originally published at The Cradle on 6 January 2023 Facing “unprecedented pressure and provocations from the west,”...

Illustration: Craig Stephens Li Xing 19 January 2023 – The West likes to argue that market capitalism and political liberalism go hand in hand; in reality, the former has proved far more powerful than the latter – Having made countries around the world economically interdependent, the West should not expect them to jeopardise their global links by taking political sides US President Joe Biden has framed the Ukraine war as a battle between “democracy and autocracy”, while also claiming that “the West is now stronger, more united than it has ever been”. During a recent visit to Taiwan, former Danish leader and Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that, when combined, the world’s democracies represent 60 per cent of the global economy, providing an overwhelming deterrence to Beijing’s ambitions regarding Taiwan. The irony is that, if we applied this logic to the Ukraine war, the US and Europe would have already...

• From China’s socialist path to Latin America’s left turn and Asean’s neutral stance, more countries are quietly but firmly spurning the Western world order • Instead, they seek to favour national interests, a more democratic form of international politics and mutual respect Wang Wen January 6, 2023 The global significance of 2022 has been grossly underestimated. Its importance to world history far exceeds that of 2001, when the September 11 attacks occurred, and 2008, when the global financial crisis broke out. Instead, 2022 may be comparable to 1991, when the Cold War ended. If there’s a keyword, it’s “de-Westernisation”. This is not just about Russia’s radical attempt, through the use of military power, to try to break the US-dominated international order. It is also about the unprecedented rising up of non-Western countries against the established order in search of a more independent stance. China, after the successful convening of...

Martin Jacques December 28, 2022 The West could learn a great deal from China’s system of governance. It is highly unlikely this will happen, at least anytime soon. On the contrary, the West believes that its governance system is the best in the world, cannot be improved upon, and is incomparably superior to that of China. Why then is the West in rampant decline? And why has China, in contrast, enjoyed a dramatic rise over the last four decades. Have these contrasting fortunes got nothing to do with their respective governing systems? Are national success and the system of governance utterly disconnected from each other? Is the system of governance little more than an ornament of decoration, with little bearing on the performance of a nation? This is obviously nonsense. The quality of governance is fundamental to the success or failure of a country. If a country is doing well, then...

Peter Peverelli, TFF Associate December 7, 2022 (The text is an adaption of an earlier article on Chinasquare.be) As one of the editors of chinasquare.be, the Dutch language site for neutral news about China, I recently set out to write about the possible prohibition by the Dutch government for ASML to export chip-making machines to China, based on a directive from Washington. The Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade has publicly stated about that directive that ‘the Netherlands will not copy the US policy completely’. It is heartening to see that an EU politician is at least willing to give the impression that she is not on an American leash, but I need to add to this statement that the Dutch government had already stopped ASML from selling its high-end Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) technology to China in 2020. This is already hurting ASML’s China business. Reportedly, the number of orders from...

Jan Oberg November 20, 2022 Perhaps you have no time to read thick analytical books, but you are interested in macro-history and how the world changes right before our eyes? If so, the two clips below from 2021 and 2022 are loaded with content that speaks volumes of history, conflict and world order change. And the decline of the West. Watch – and, in particular – listen carefully (here is The Guardian’s longer text with quotes): Something is happening, and we do know what it is, don’t we, Mr Jones…?

Erik Solheim October 21, 2022 A voice of reason and knowledge – an open mind based on a lot of international experience. Here is a short interview at China’s international broadcasting – CGTN’s – Channel on YouTube. Do visit CGTN itself and “See the Difference.” More about Erik Solheim

Trust among Chinese citizens in their government is a record 91 percent, the highest seen in a decade. The result is even more striking compared to the U.S., where trust in government is at 39 percent. By Deborah Lehr October 24, 2022 Fraught U.S.-China relations will continue entering 2022. This year, leaders of both countries will be focused on domestic politics, the ongoing pandemic and uneven economic recoveries — challenges that have further added to existing bilateral tensions. Originally published at Edelman on January 18, 2022 It is an important political year in both countries. U.S. President Joe Biden is facing midterm elections with the Republicans likely to gain seats in the House and potentially the Senate, complicating his administration’s ability to implement its policy agenda. By contrast, China’s Xi Jinping is on the verge of assuming a third term as President and is strongly positioned to ensure that his...