Politics
Being clear-eyed about China’s power
Author: Editors, East Asia Forum There are many anxieties and uncertainties out there in the world about China and its future. In this year’s Pew polling, almost 90 per cent of those surveyed in Japan are anxious about growing Chinese power with only 11 per cent having a favourable view of China.
No country has trod the path of economic advance before without presuming to use its economic power to carve a greater slice of global political power. Japan — the second time around — is perhaps the exception, with the adoption of its ‘peace constitution’ and its constrained position within the US–Japan alliance. Every move China makes in the political sphere, whether in the South China Sea or in setting up the AIIB, seems open to the interpretation that China is aiming to overthrow the established order. Exacerbating this is that China’s own regional and global ambitions remain unclear. Hence, China’s behaviour in the South China Sea and elsewhere is being used as a proxy for how China might behave when it becomes even more powerful.
Politics
US Navy Carrier Conducts Exercises in South China Sea
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A US Navy aircraft carrier conducted exercises in the contested South China Sea on Friday, the US navy said in a statement. –
A strike group led by the USS Ronald Reagan conducted flight operations and high-end maritime stability operations and exercises, the statement said, Reuters reported.”Integration with our joint partners is essential to ensuring joint force responsiveness and lethality, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific,” US Navy Commander Joshua Fagan, Task Force 70 air operations officer aboard USS Ronald Reagan, was quoted as saying.The drill comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and China.
Washington has criticized Beijing over its novel coronavirus response and accuses it of taking advantage of the pandemic to push territorial claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere.The United States has long opposed China’s expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea and has sent warships regularly through the strategic waterway.China has objected to such exercises and said the US rejection of its claims in the South China Sea has raised tension and undermined stability in the region.China claims nine tenths of the resource-rich South China Sea, through which some $3 trillion of trade passes a year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims.
Politics
How China is using tourism for geopolitical goals
The Chinese government has a degree of leverage over its tourists that other governments do not enjoy. Many Chinese tourists are new to international tourism and have limited international language abilities
Decades of astonishing economic growth have given China new tools for extending its influence abroad and achieving its political goals.
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