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.
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.
President Joe Biden has nominated former State Department diplomat Nicholas Burns as US ambassador to China and Rahm Emanuel, former mayor of Chicago and chief of staff to President Barack Obama as US ambassador to Japan, the White House announced on Friday.
A senior US senator, also a member of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on his social media revealed that the US has 30,000 soldiers stationed in China's Taiwan island.
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.
While the US has its problems, future global Chinese supremacy won’t be one. Far from being in a position of overwhelming strength, China and its Communist leadership face imminent multifront domestic crises that will threaten the existence not only of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) but the existence of the Chinese state as a unified whole.
U.S. technology companies are still supplying China’s surveillance state with equipment and software for monitoring populations and censoring information, including in the Xinjiang region, despite damning revelations that have led to genocide accusations against Beijing, according to researchers.
