China has backed itself into a diplomatic corner. In order to achieve its ambitious goals, Beijing must balance its reputation, relations with potential investees in the Global South, and relations with the United States. In terms of the U.S., Beijing wants to project power, mainly by winning the trade war through strategic leveraging of counternarcotics […]
Tag: Belt and Road Initiative
Southeast Asia is Rebalancing the Scales
At the height of the Cold War in the 1960s, much of anti-communist Southeast Asia aligned itself with the United States, entrenching U.S. hegemony around North Vietnam and its close allies in communist China. These countries regarded ties with the U.S. as a way to maintain and develop their economic and political strength in a […]
Is China Dismantling Democracy in Latin America?
“After all, who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country to the benefit of its citizens?” After visiting Beijing in 2017, former President Trump made a statement that may accurately reflect China’s contemporary foreign policy. Deemed the “Chinese miracle,” China has lifted 850 million people out of poverty since […]
China Picks Up Where the West Has Failed
Nobody said democracy was easy, but the concept of a liberal democracy championed by the US and democratic European nations has taken a massive blow in the last year with its two biggest projects. Afghanistan and Myanmar are known as major sources of opium, and now also as failed Western experiments to try and bring […]
The Chinese Government Greets Its 70th Anniversary with Anxiety Rather Than Jubilation
In June 1949, a few months before emerging as the victor in a trailing civil war, Mao Zedong articulated the two pillars that would embody the new system of governance: a “domestic united front under the leadership of the working class” that would lay a foundation for “people’s democratic dictatorship” and an international alliance with […]
Is China Trying to Conquer the World?
BPR writers Marcus Tan & Abdullah Khan discuss the Belt and Road, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, and China’s growing capabilities and ambitions in the Indian ocean.
The Malacca Dilemma: A hindrance to Chinese Ambitions in the 21st Century
“This man may look intelligent but in fact is stupid.” As evident from the quote above, Deng Xiaoping had a rather low opinion of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the USSR. Xiaoping did not believe in imitating the western model of success. While Gorbachev had tried to reform the USSR through westernized political reform […]
Misstepping in a Multi-Polarizing World: Trump Stumbles in Pivot to Asia
Following President Trump’s visit to China in his 2017 Asia-Pacific tour, both Xinhua News, the official press agency of the People’s Republic of China, and Trump himself touted his rapport with President Xi Jinping. Yet no sooner had Xi and Trump waxed their platitudes than they were advocating opposing stances on regional trade and leadership […]