MANILA, Philippines — Senior officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China have agreed to move forward with consultations on the proposed Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC). The officials recently met in China’s Hunan province for the 15th Senior Official’s Meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration of Conduct […]

n December 2015, thousands of tech entrepreneurs and analysts, along with a few international heads of state, gathered in Wuzhen, in southern China, for the country’s second World Internet Conference. At the opening ceremony the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, set out his vision for the future of China’s internet. “We should respect the right of […]

For decades, China’s presence in Africa has largely focused on economic, commercial and peacekeeping activities. Now, Beijing is building on that by establishing greater military links to protect its national assets on the continent and gain greater geopolitical influence. The People’s Liberation Army conducts regular joint training exercises across the region and, in certain countries […]

Arriving in Beijing last month, I knew I would not be able to connect to Google, Facebook or Uber. As strange as it was to go without these staples of online life in the West, it was even stranger to find that local Chinese didn’t seem to feel deprived at all. They search through Baidu, […]

Beijing will reduce tariffs on thousands of products from India and South Korea, as well as the smaller economies of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Laos, China’s commerce ministry said Thursday. The reductions are due to take effect on July 1. They’re part of an agreement between the six countries called the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement […]

The hard financial confrontation between the US and China now moves to black gold. In fact, from the upcoming November 4 the United States plans to ban Iranian oil purchases and all transactions with the Central Bank of Tehran and financial institutions that violate these sanctions will lose access to dollar-based payment systems. Beijing are […]

Silence on China As early as September 2016, there has been a pending resolution calling for an inquiry into Duterte’s “conflicting” foreign policy. There are also at least 3 resolutions calling for an investigation into China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea. Yet until now, nearly two years after and with China being more hostile, […]

BEIJING, CHINA: Chinese President Xi Jinping stiffly defended his country’s claim to disputed islands in the South China Sea after US Defense Secretary James Mattis questioned the militarisation of the region in a day of meetings in Beijing Wednesday with top officials. The two sides held firm to their stances on a hot-button issue which […]

China secured valuable allies and partnerships by pouring US$45.8 billion into infrastructure investment in the East Asia and Pacific region from 2000 to 2016 While China secured valuable allies and partnerships by pouring US$45.8 billion into infrastructure investment in the East Asia and Pacific region through the first 16 years of this century, the influence […]

China spent more than $48 billion across East Asia and the Pacific between 2000 and 2016 to reward countries that consume its products and support its foreign policy positions, a new report has found. Infrastructure investment dwarfed other arms of Chinese public diplomacy over the period, according to a study by US research lab AidData […]