On Monday, December 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discuss the maintenance and growth of relations between the two states. In just his second international trip since the global emergence of COVID-19, Putin’s arrival comes amid complex geopolitical developments throughout Asia.
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Thucydides’ Trap posits that when a great power’s hegemony is threatened by a rising power, there is a high likelihood of war between the two nations. This proposition is relevant when examining the relationship between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the United States. Allison coined this term precisely to characterize increasing U.S.-China tensions, worrying that it would eventually result in a war between the world’s two greatest powers.
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“We will bury this enemy with our blood and bones” is hardly a statement one might anticipate hearing from a Nobel Peace Prize winner, but Abiy Ahmed’s tenure as Prime Minister of Ethiopia has been far from what anyone has anticipated. On October 31, Ahmed sounded the alarm of a near state collapse when he urged citizens to take up arms and brace for a battle over the capital of Africa’s second most populous country, reports The New York Times. Now, with almost every global power keen on remaining influential in Africa, many remain baffled as to why the world has remained largely indifferent towards Africa’s second most populous nation.
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China’s Evergrande is facing a media crisis after missing several key payments in recent weeks, reports the New York Times. News outlets see the situation as paralleling the events that sparked Lehman Brother’s catastrophic default in 2008, a catalyst in the global financial meltdown. Despite the turbulence, Xi Jinping’s government may not bother to save the company from a fallout that has already sparked hysteria among investors.
Read MoreTaiwan’s defense minister, former Taiwanese general Chiu Kuo-cheng, made headlines recently when he stood before the Legislature Yuan and predicted that China would launch a full-scale invasion of Taiwan by 2025. According to ABC News, the Chinese government in the past few weeks has sent more than 150 military aircraft to fly through Taiwan’s air defense zone in an attempt at intimidation.
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Despite being the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, China’s swift and strict response to the pandemic allegedly led to a 2.3 percent increase in GDP in the year 2020, reports NPR. The pandemic posed a unique challenge for the communist government, but not an unmanageable one. Leaning into authoritarian tactics, the Chinese government was able to fight the virus while simultaneously building back its economy.
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The amicable, yet cautious, relationship between the Taliban and the Chinese Communist Party has been unmistakable in the weeks leading up to and following the contentious U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. According to Reuters, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with the political chief of the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, at the end of July. In this meeting, the two discussed Afghanistan’s sovereignty and independence, in addition to security and stability concerns within the nation.
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Xinhua News Agency, the media arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), announced further restrictions on youth gaming last week, according to tech magazine Wired. The New York Times reports that the punitive new regulations limit gaming for people under 18 to between 8 and 9 p.m., with access only allowed on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays.
Read MoreAs countries across the globe are racing vaccinate their populations, vaccine diplomacy has now become a key component of geopolitics. Several countries such as China, Russia, and India are engaging in vaccine diplomacy. This new diplomacy tool will have a substantial impact, given the unequal global distribution of vaccines.
Read MoreOn April 22, the UK Parliament unanimously declared that China has been committing genocide and crimes against humanity in the Xinjiang region, CNN reports. Xinjiang is home to the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group, and other minorities.
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