East Asia

India, 3rd biggest CO2 Emitter, will Pause new Coal Plants for 5 Years in favor of Batteries, New Solar

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sibi Arasu at the Associated Press reports that the Indian government is going to pause new coal plants for 5 years in favor of concentrating on new battery power. This step is a huge about-face for India, and it matters. Some 73% of Indian energy still comes from coal, and […]

Bangladesh

Iran leads charge for De-Dollarization at Asian Banks Meeting

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Asian Exchange Union is not a famous international organization, but its meeting on Tuesday in Tehran may have started the ball rolling on a momentous change in global finance, since it dealt with the possibility of de-dollarization. According to the Iranian press, banking representatives from Iran, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan, […]

China

China’s Solar Power Installations Skyrocket by 36.6%, may install 100 Gigs of New Solar this Year

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In the first four months of 2023, China’s solar power installations increased by an incredible 36.6 percent year over year, to a total of 440 gigawatts.And no wonder. China’s major power firms’ investments in solar energy skyrocketed by 156.3% over those four months in the previous year, to $10.6 billion. […]

China

Goodbye to the American Century: China India and the Emerging New World Order

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – Not so long ago, political analysts were speaking of the “G-2” — that is, of a potential working alliance between the United States and China aimed at managing global problems for their mutual benefit. Such a collaborative twosome was seen as potentially even more powerful than the G-7 group of leading Western […]

China

China and the Axis of the Sanctioned: How America’s Divide-and-Rule Strategy in the Middle East Backfired

Juan Cole

( Tomdispatch.com) – A photo Beijing released on March 6th of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s foreign minister Wang Yi* delivered a seismic shock in Washington. There he was, standing between Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and Saudi National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban. They were awkwardly shaking hands on an […]

China

Can China broker Peace in Yemen – and further Beijing’s Middle East Strategy in the Process?

The Conversation

By Mahad Darar, Colorado State University | – After nearly a decade of grinding conflict, Yemen looks to be inching toward a peace deal. Talks between the Houthi movement controlling much of the country’s north and Saudi Arabia, the regional power backing an anti-Houthi coalition in the war, are ongoing and being encouraged by international […]

China

Can the U.S. Adjust Sensibly to a Multipolar World?

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink) – In his 1987 book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, historian Paul Kennedy reassured Americans that the decline the United States was facing after a century of international dominance was “relative and not absolute, and is therefore perfectly natural; and that the only serious threat to the real interests […]

China

Does the Rise of China in Eurasia mean the Fall of the United States as the Global Power?

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com) – From the ashes of a world war that killed 80 million people and reduced great cities to smoking rubble, America rose like a Titan of Greek legend, unharmed and armed with extraordinary military and economic power, to govern the globe. During four years of combat against the Axis leaders in Berlin and […]

Batteries

Kerry is Right that US must Cooperate with China to fight Climate Crisis, and CATL’s new Sodium Ion Battery Proves it

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A startling new development in battery technology underscores why John Kerry is right that the US needs to cooperate with China on combating the climate crisis. The Washington Blob, the combination of lobbyists, permanent bureaucrats, national security professionals and think tanks, is always looking for an enemy to demonize. China […]