China is gearing up for the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party to be held later this year, where, according to the consensus view, President Xi Jinping’s historic bid for a third term as the party’s general secretary is all but assured.
Over the past month, a series of violent episodes on Afghanistan’s borders have put the country’s relations with its neighbors in the spotlight. Some incidents involved Taliban fighters, such as clashes on the border with Iran.
How the Country’s Support for the Taliban Backfired
For the last two decades, conventional wisdom in Pakistan held that an Afghanistan ruled by the Taliban would be a boon to Pakistan’s security. Islamabad has long supported the Taliban with the understanding that the militants could help deny India—which many Pakistani officials see as an existential threat—any influence in Afghanistan. But since sweeping back to power last August, the Taliban have confirmed how misguided the conventional wisdom truly was. Pakistan has become less safe, not safer, after the Taliban’s victorious march into Kabul.
In 2022, there will be great interest in Asia’s summit season because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The annual East Asia Summit, ASEAN and APEC meetings always attract attention due to the proximity of many world leaders, but the less glamorous work of the multilateral mechanisms goes on throughout the year in efforts to drive cooperation as well as to prepare for the jamborees at the year’s end.
Liniștea dinaintea imploziei economice a Occidentului
Via Trenduri:
„În aproximativ 15 zile Rusia nu va mai avea bani să finanţeze războiul”. Asta spuneau toţi mâncătorii de rahat ai Occidentului, la comanda unor neica nimeni din armata SUA, acei mari militari care trimit tineri semi-drogaţi pe front în operaţiuni în care nu fac deosebirea între simulările de pe calculator şi viaţa reală. Acei mari generali ai SUA care, fără tehnologia militară asistată de computer, ar fi capabili să se auto-bombardeze întrucât, de cele mai multe ori, le e greu să facă diferenţa dintre Arizona şi Afganistan.
As their strategic rivalry grows, China and the U.S. are increasingly operating in close proximity in the Asia Pacific. An accident or misinterpreted signal could set off a wider confrontation. The danger level is low, but dialogue is needed to dial it down further.
What’s new? The risk of an unintended collision between U.S. and Chinese ships or planes has grown as the two sides expand military activities in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. Heightened political tensions increase the escalatory potential for such an incident and make crisis management more difficult.
On May 16, wheat prices reached a new high, as India banned exports amid a disastrous heat wave.
India, the second largest producer of wheat worldwide, conveyed growing concerns about the status of its own food supply amid skyrocketing prices and decreased harvests.
China has been unabashed about making its intentions known. Already in 1999, two colonels in China’s People’s Liberation Army, Qiao Liang and Wang Xiansui, wrote, “Unrestricted Warfare: China’s Master Plan to Destroy America.” In it, the authors “suggest the significance of alternatives to direct military confrontation, including international policy, economic warfare, attacks on digital infrastructure and networks, and terrorism. Even a relatively insignificant state can incapacitate a far more powerful enemy by applying pressure to their economic and political systems.” Ideally, “one might not even know that one is the target.”
The Taliban have dissolved Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission, and four other government departments, citing a budget crisis. The cuts were announced on Monday, days after the Taliban announced their first annual national budget.
On the morning of April 1, seven children were playing in the lush wheat fields of Afghanistan’s Marjah district, in the southern Helmand province, by tossing around a metal object. Moments later, it exploded. The blast claimed five of their lives, including the youngest in the group, a 5-year-old boy.
“My daughter has not only lost her three sons, but also her senses,” Haji Abdul Salam, a 55-year-old farmer who lost two children and three grandchildren in the explosion, tells me at his home while attending to visitors there for the funeral. “She neither sleeps nor eats.”