Category: China

Xi’s ‘dictator-for-life’ move could harm China’s sharp power

     

The surprise disclosure on Sunday that the Communist Party was abolishing constitutional limits on presidential terms — effectively allowing President Xi Jinping to lead China indefinitely — was the latest and arguably… Read more »

Rights activists mourn death of Li Baiguang, Chinese democracy advocate

     

A well-known Chinese rights lawyer died suddenly in hospital of liver failure on Monday (Feb 26), Reuters reports: Li Baiguang, a Christian human rights lawyer who had met regularly with high-level officials… Read more »

Democracies need bipartisan, holistic response to Russian ‘full spectrum’ operations

     

Vladimir Putin doesn’t tweet and he claims he doesn’t have a smartphone. But he has something likely more important than gadgets — long experience in the KGB and its post-Soviet… Read more »

China’s digital totalitarian state enjoying a ‘golden field for propaganda’

     

  A “shocking new report” from Canada’s intelligence service cites China’s domestically-focused propaganda as an example of the “total” information warfare posing an existential threat to Western democratic pluralism. Ever… Read more »

China’s ‘next ideological front’: democracies need joint strategies to counter Beijing’s sharp power

     

US Republican senator Marco Rubio has called on Malcolm Turnbull and Donald Trump to work together to develop joint strategies to counter China’s growing political interference, The Australian reports: Senator… Read more »

West must address vulnerabilities to China’s authoritarian influencing

     

China’s rapidly increasing political influencing efforts and the self-confident promotion of its authoritarian ideals present a fundamental challenge to western democracies, analysts Thorsten Benner and Kristin Shi-Kupfer write for The… Read more »

Tibet ‘From All Angles’

     

Tibet remains one of the most sensitive issues in U.S.-China relations, according to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China: Inside Tibet and Tibetan autonomous areas, Chinese officials have increased restrictions on… Read more »

Vatican ‘capitulates’ to China – a sign of Beijing’s growing sharp power?

     

China and the Vatican will establish formal diplomatic relations sooner or later because Pope Francis has the “wisdom” to resolve problems between the two sides, a state-run Chinese newspaper said… Read more »

Authoritarian Advance: Responding to China’s Growing Political Influence

     

Two new studies suggest that Europe’s embrace of China, even as it warns against Russian meddling, might benefit from a certain degree of wariness. When it comes to Beijing, they argue,… Read more »