From the moment that the U.S. re-imposed sanctions in earnest on Iran late last year, Pakistan has been looking at ways to resuscitate a deal that had been agreed in principle before the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last May. This deal involved moving as much gas as Pakistan needs from Iran’s Asalouyeh into Pakistan’s Gwadar and then on to Nawabshah for further transit if required. At the same time, China has been in long-running discussions...
Read More »Weekend Reading — China edition [Updated]
Alternatives to the reporting in conventional media. MediumXinJiang: Facts Vs. Fiction He Zhao China Rising (July 2019)Confucius, Laozi and Buddha are humbly winning against the imperial West, in troubled Hong Kong. Jeff J. Brown As Jeff Brown forsaw.Moon of AlabamaWhy The Hong Kong Riots Are Coming To An EndThe GrayzoneHong Kong’s opposition unites with Washington hardliners to ‘preserve the US’s own political and economic interests’ Ajit SinghBill Totten's WeblogFrom Idlib to...
Read More »America’s War on Chinese Technology — Jeffrey D. Sachs
In the run up to the Iraq War, then-US Vice President Richard Cheney declared that even if the risk of weapons of mass destruction falling into terrorist hands was tiny, say 1%, we should act as if it were certain by invading. The US is at it again, creating a panic over Chinese technologies by exaggerating tiny risks.... With all respect due, Professor Sachs is simply wrong about the logic here. The logic for attacking Iraq had to do chiefly with control of the Middle East, the center of...
Read More »Sputnik International — China Announces Development of 6G Network Less Than Week After 5G Rollout
On a tech roll. Copier no more? Sputnik InternationalChina Announces Development of 6G Network Less Than Week After 5G Rollout See also Asia Times5G policy ‘biggest strategic disaster in US history’ David P. GoldmanZero HedgeAs US Moves To Ban Huawei 5G, CEO Says Good Riddance Ahead Of Great DecouplingTyler Durden
Read More »China’s growing presence on the Russian market and what it means for the European Union — Alicia García-Herrero and Jianwei Xu
Russia doesn’t just look West, it looks East – and increasingly so. China’s economy has developed very rapidly over the past two decades, becoming the world’s largest exporter from a low base. Its goods have flooded Russia, eating into the EU’s export share. The changing global environment has helped re-orient Russia’s economic relationships eastwards, especially towards China. Chinese-Russian ties are also developing in the context of China’s massive Belt and Road Initiative. This raises...
Read More »Russia, China, and the European Peninsula — Godfree Roberts
Backgrounder.The Vineyard of the SakerRussia, China, and the European Peninsula Godfree Roberts
Read More »Sputnik — Huawei Sets Record Share of China’s Smartphone Market Beating Apple
Huawei’s smartphone shipments surged 66% year-on-year in the third quarter, according to research published Wednesday by research firm Canalys, capturing a record 42% of China’s overall smartphone market.... Sputnik InternationalHuawei Sets Record Share of China’s Smartphone Market Beating Apple
Read More »Nikkei Asian Review misleading headline? “Pay with your face: 100m Chinese switch from smartphones”
Apparently misleading headline at Nikkei. There is nothing in the article that reflects what the headline asserts. To the contrary, in the last paragraph the article states the opposite. The situation in China apparently heralds an era of ubiquitous facial recognition, when greater tech-supported convenience comes at the cost of privacy. In China, however, the name of the game is "ease to use." There is no particularly strident criticism in the country, at least for now, about the use of...
Read More »Vladimir Putin signed dozens of MOUs with African countries this week but can’t match China — Joe Penney
By the time the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit closed on Thursday afternoon in Sochi, Russia, president Vladimir Putin and his administration had signed dozens of memorandums of understanding (MOU) and other agreements with the African countries that attended. The agreements include military cooperation, agricultural development, biotechnology, and oil and gas. They range from the minor, like Democratic Republic of Congo’s deal to sign data storage software, to more ambitious, like...
Read More »Asia Times — ‘You can never be China’s friend’: Spengler
Useful but written from written from an idealized Western point of view. For example, the author is either unfamiliar with Aristotle's analysis of friendship or else purposefully truncates it, essentially misrepresenting it. Aristotle distinguished three types of "friendship" — friendship based on pleasure, friendship based on use, and friendship based on "brotherly love" (φιλία philía). Most relationships fall into the first two categories, and true friend — those whose only wish is to...
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