East Asia

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Laura Zhou at the South China Morning Post reports that Zhao Lijian, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, on Wednesday called on the United States not to sanction the Taliban in Afghanistan and to cease sequestering $9.5 billion in Afghanistan government funds that Washington is withholding from the Taliban. Zhao […]

China

“We are on the way to a right-wing coup:” Milley secured Nuclear Codes, Allayed China fears of Trump Strike

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As a historian, I am fascinated by the practical appeals to history that appear throughout the story of Gen. Mark A. Milley’s struggles with Trump in the last months of the latter’s presidency. Milley believes that Jan. 6 was just an initial skirmish, sort of like the failed 1905 revolution […]

Afghanistan

The Winner in Afghanistan: China

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com) – The collapse of the American project in Afghanistan may fade fast from the news here, but don’t be fooled. It couldn’t be more significant in ways few in this country can even begin to grasp. “Remember, this is not Saigon,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a television audience on August 15th, […]

Afghanistan

Minerals, drugs and China: How the Taliban might finance their new Afghan government

The Conversation

By Hanif Sufizada | – Now that the Taliban have reportedly taken full control of Afghanistan and begun forming a government, a looming challenge awaits: How will they keep their country and economy afloat financially? For the past 20 years, the U.S. government and other countries have financed the vast majority of the Afghan government’s […]

Afghanistan

Taliban seek China as Silk Road reconstruction Partner

Middle East Monitor

Ali Hussein Bakir | – ( Middle East Monitor) – In an interview conducted recently with an Italian newspaper, the Taliban movement spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid, pointed out that the movement was ready to rely on China economically in its bid to manage the country following their swift takeover after the US troops withdrawal from the […]

China

Beijing in the Mideast: China’s Asian Infrastructure Plan and Turkey’s Black Sea Ambitions

Global Voices

By Emre Demir | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – Despite mounting opposition from political and civil society groups due to potential environmental and political issues, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is determined to proceed with the controversial Kanal Istanbul project, an artificial, 45-km long shipping canal that will connect the Sea of Marmara to the Black […]

China

The Drawbacks of a Cold War with China in a Hot World

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com ) – In recent months, Washington has had a lot to say about China’s ever-expanding air, naval, and missile power. But when Pentagon officials address the topic, they generally speak less about that country’s current capabilities, which remain vastly inferior to those of the U.S., than the world they foresee in the 2030s […]

Japan

The Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Near-Meltdown is a Lasting Tragedy

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – In 2011 the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami devastated northeast Japan, taking the lives of more than 18,000 people and triggering one of the worst industrial accidents in history: the crippling breakdown of the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear power plant. Three of the plant’s six reactors suffered […]

China

On China, Biden is continuing Trump’s Zero-Sum Vision of the World when our Crises demand a Win-Win Approach

Martin Powers

Ann Arbor (Special to Informed Comment) – Regarding China, Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy Team has embraced the zero-sum rhetoric of the Trump administration. That approach could bifurcate the globe politically and technologically along racial lines, but instead of race, the project has been marketed as a contest of values. Zero-sum rhetoric didn’t begin with Trump. […]