In today's polarised world, the situation in this hugely significant region of the Pacific is frequently portrayed as either Chinese expansionism or American imperialism. As ever, the truth of the matter is much more complicated.
The Chinese regime said the United States can’t simply walk away from the Afghanistan chaos, in its latest salvo directed at Washington amid an aggressive propaganda campaign leveraging the crisis.
Harris and the US administration has faced harsh criticism over her Asian tour, organised amid the problem-stricken withdrawal from Afghanistan and chaos at the Kabul Airport, as well as the failure to evacuate all of the Afghans who helped NATO forces.
In this election, it is imperative that leaders show they recognize the reality of China as a rising, antagonistic superpower with which we can no longer endeavour to be partners. Also crucial is that they articulate a well-designed plan to handle Beijing as it continues to make the international order more unpredictable.
In the course of hectoring the United States for its “bungled and embarrassing withdraw from Afghanistan” on Thursday, China’s state-run Global Times admitted Beijing has a rapacious interest in Afghanistan’s vast rare-earths mineral resources and snarled it was none of America’s business if China makes deals with the Taliban to get what it wants.
On Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in Antigua and Barbuda tweeted and then deleted a racially charged criticism of western officials who gathered in support of a Canadian national who faces the death penalty in China.
There is an old Soviet tale about Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. At lunchtime, he would retreat into his office and stare at the map of the world. The map was centered on the Soviet Union. The old Bolshevik would just glare at it as if it were a giant chessboard awaiting Moscow’s next move.
