No ‘absurd’ offer to buy the Spratlys?

  Recently, US President Donald Trump, in one of his careless (which many Americans call “mindless and insane”) outbursts, said he wanted to buy Greenland, a large island-territory in Denmark. To which many Danes and their Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen riposted: “It is absurd! Greenland is not for sale!” Buying a country’s territory may indeed […]

EDITORIAL: China’s sinister anniversary parade

Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Tuesday held a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Redolent of Cold War-era mass parades, a tightly choreographed procession of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s latest hardware — including tanks, intercontinental ballistic missiles and deep-sea drones — rumbled through […]

China-Australia Rift Deepens as Beijing Tests Overseas Sway

  CANBERRA – Australia’s ban on Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s involvement in its future 5G networks and its crackdown on foreign covert interference are testing Beijing’s efforts to project its power overseas. In its latest maneuver, China sent three scholars to spell out in interviews with Australian media and other appearances steps to mend the […]

World Opinion On China Becomes More Negative

  The Pew Research Center has released an update on its Global Attitudes Survey, which tracks opinion of China on a yearly basis. The changes show a general downward trend since last year: Canada and Sweden had some of the biggest drops in favorable opinion on China, with each country’s favorable rating on China 17 […]

Pressure is mounting for Australia to get involved in the South China Sea conflict.

Pressure is mounting for Australia to get involved in the South China Sea conflict. President Putin may have become the unwitting meat in a South China Sea sandwich. His cash-strapped oil company is drilling there for Vietnam. But Beijing’s getting pushy. Chinese Coast Guard vessels have been harassing the Russian-owned oil rig near Vanguard Bank, […]