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.”
President Joe Biden on Friday announced he’s nominating one of his top national security aides as ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, aiming to underscore his administration’s commitment to the Pacific region.
Recently, the central government of China has issued a new policy on the “Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a Large Unified National Market (hereafter referred to as ‘Opinions’)”. The Opinions propose to speed up the establishment of a large unified national system as well as rules to promote smooth domestic demand. The capital market is very concerned with the creation of an “efficient market” and an “effective government”, particularly on how the “unified”, “efficient” and “effective” are defined and executed. There are different understandings and views on various aspects in this regard. As part of the national unified market, the capital market is generally confused about the future direction and possible trends. To ANBOUND researchers, this raises the question of balancing between an “efficient market” and “effective government” to form a unified capital market structure.
China’s economic growth targets and macroeconomic policies formulated at its annual parliamentary meetings the “Two Sessions” face the challenge of policy adjustment in just one month later.
Russia has a nuclear doctrine known as “escalate to deescalate” or, more accurately, “escalate to win,” which contemplates threatening or using nuclear weapons early in a conventional conflict.
It cannot be a good sign that Russia, China, and North Korea at the same time are threatening to launch the world’s most destructive weaponry.
Contrary to its claim to be an organization defensive in nature, The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has wantonly launched wars against sovereign countries
During the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) briefing on Ukraine held on Thursday, Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, ratified that his country is firmly opposed to NATO provocating bloc confrontations around the world.
Recently, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), together with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and other relevant departments have drafted the “Financial Stability Law of the People’s Republic of China (Draft for Comment)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Financial Stability Law”), which has attracted the attention of the society and the market. The PBoC pointed out that the enactment of the law is an institutional consideration, aiming at establishing institutional arrangements for preventing, resolving, and dealing with risks, improving the long-term mechanism for maintaining financial stability, enhancing China’s financial legal system, further fine-tuning the financial safety net, and firmly guarding against systemic risks.