Hong Kong
PANNIER: Who’s killing Chinese workers on the Afghan-Tajik frontier?
Beijing, among others, wants answers.
LONG READ: De-dollarisation gathering momentum, driven by geopolitics and ballooning debt fears
De-dollarisation is gathering momentum, but the process of switching to settling global trade in multiple currencies is going at a glacial pace. The problem is that once glaciers start moving, they are impossible to stop.
Japan’s Koizumi to head to Washington for defence talks amid China spat
Tokyo and Washington have been exploring an accelerated timetable for co-producing the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, a system central to both countries’ air-defence posture.
Surging US and Russian LNG exports push gas prices to 18-month low
LNG prices in Europe have dropped to their lowest levels in 18 months, thanks to surging supply and subdued demand across the continent.
Beijing and Tokyo trade barbs after maritime standoff
The islands are, however, Japan held and Tokyo has long rejected China’s territorial claim and a lesser claim by a Taiwanese county in the east of the self-governing island nation.
China once more moves to escalate tensions with Japan
China has escalated its diplomatic confrontation with Japan by issuing a further formal complaint to the United Nations over remarks by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi concerning Taiwan.
Cambodia reaffirms one-China policy support amid Taiwan tensions
Cambodia has restated its support for the One-China Policy, declaring its opposition to any form of “Taiwan independence” as tensions rise between China and Japan.
COMMENT: China’s choreographed fury at Japan is backfiring
Beijing, with every threat pushes Japan further out of China’s orbit and deeper into a security posture Beijing will one day wish it had not provoked.
Catastrophic blaze strikes Hong Kong housing development
A huge conflagration tore through numerous elevated residential towers in the Tai Po district of northern Hong Kong on November 26, resulting in the deaths of at least 44 people and causing injuries to scores more.
ADB follows World Bank in revising policy on support for nuclear power financing
The Asian Development Bank has revised its energy policy to allow direct support for nuclear power, signalling a notable shift in how multilateral lenders approach baseload generation in emerging Asian economies.
COMMENT: Xi’s call to Trump smacks of a leader whose bark is worse than his bite
That Japan’s Takaichi – a known fan of Britain’s Iron Lady of the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s, Margaret Thatcher – has refused to bend, break or back down under a barrage of Chinese abuse speaks volumes.
Asian utilities locked into coal as long-term contracts slow transition
Asia’s shift towards cleaner energy is being hampered by decades-long coal power agreements that continue to bind utilities to fossil-fuel generation, even at times when cheaper renewable supplies are readily available.
China blocks Japanese film releases in latest anti-Tokyo moves
China has postponed the release of at least two Japanese films as political tensions between Beijing and Tokyo intensify over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent comments on Taiwan.
COMMENT: Head-to-head – China vs Japan. Who wins?
With the latest China – Japan spat having been blown up exponentially by Beijing in recent days, many in East Asia are asking what would happen if hostilities break out between Beijing and Tokyo.
China’s LNG tanker shadow fleet – reality or fiction?
China appears to be constructing a discreet fleet of LNG tankers capable of moving sanctioned Russian fuel in what is an emerging tactic that would allow Moscow to preserve export revenue while tightening the energy relationship between the two.
Tokyo refuses to kowtow to China’s latest round of anti-Japanese bullying
China has once more escalated a minor diplomatic skirmish with Japan, by urging its citizens to avoid travelling to the country and hauling in Tokyo’s ambassador over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks about Taiwan.
COMMENT: Japan and Europe come together in support of Taiwan
Over the past week, two moves in East Asia and Europe clearly signal that the handling of the Taiwan question is entering a new phase - one in which neither Tokyo nor Brussels is prepared to abide by a Beijing-centric diplomatic equilibrium.
China’s green capital powers Indonesia’s 100-GW solar ambition
Indonesia’s vision to build 100 GW of solar energy is gathering real momentum, fuelled by growing Chinese investment under the Belt and Road Initiative.
Indonesia faces fiscal dilemma over $7.27bn high-speed rail debt
The operator, PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia - China, now faces mounting pressure to service both principal and interest payments.
The US now sees China as an equal - it is time for Western media to wake up and do the same
China was long filed under “too foreign, too dangerous, too different” in many Western newsrooms. Not anymore. Beijing is now impossible to ignore as American leaders have realised. Western media outlets need to wake up to this reality too.