The drawdown of the American-led NATO forces from Afghanistan in December 2014 has resulted in the stepping-up of Chinese interest and investment. This time, the investment and interest are more diplomatic, political, and geared toward restoring peace in Afghanistan.
Pro-Beijing factions in Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party see an AIIB membership as a way to improve Sino-Japanese relations but those who oppose it may be worried about rivalry with the Asian Development Bank.
This essay examines the apparent “failure” of the US’ China policy through the lens of moral relativism, and argues that if looked through China’s historical and cultural identity, the West has been successfully in engaging China economically, though not necessarily politically.
In September 1981, Ye Jianying of the CPC laid down the famous nine-point proposal. The fifth point states that “The Taiwan authorities and representatives from all walks of life may serve as leadership positions in the national political institutions and participate in state administration.”
The outlines of the Trump administration’s policy toward China and the South China Sea are emerging from a fog of confusing and contradictory statements and actions. It is beginning to look more or less like a continuation of that of the Obama administration, with some new twists.
Within the Asia-Pacific, there are opportunities for China’s role to grow, for example, by contributing to the region’s connectivity through the Belt and Road Initiative and the multilateral Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
In a surprising move on May 12, 2017, just a day before the opening of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, Nepal signed the framework agreement in Kathmandu. However, this has raised strategic apprehensions in India.
With deepening cooperation between China and countries along the Belt and Road, more needs to be done in institutional arrangement, policy chains, risk assessment and control as well as communication at different levels.
When world leaders gathered in Beijing for the first Belt and Road Forum in May 2017, they were greeted by clear blue skies. However, five days after the conclusion of the Forum, Beijing residents braced for another round of polluted days caused by photochemical smog.
Opponents of the Belt and Road Initiative see it as part of China’s grand strategy to assert its power and influence. A counternarrative embedded in the BRI’s developmental approach to be pursued multilaterally is that it is instead restoring globalization.
