Newsletter 29/March 2024

Contents: Guest post: Bringt China die Energiewende für den Globalen Süden?  +++ Guest post: What price for Africa’s digital development? +++ ‚Immer mehr ‘Out of area’-Einsätze der Bundeswehr +++ Strategische Partnerschaft mit der Mongolei +++ Wechselnde Allianzen, wachsende Spannungen in Südasien +++ Readings: China’s development cooperation system +++ Update Blogroll: Elements in Global China +++ The Arctic Institute +++ Quote: Advantage USA?

Newsletter 26/November 2023

Contents: Gastbeitrag: De-Globalisierung von oben? +++ Sri Lanka: Spiel über die Bande gegen China +++ Krieg um kritische Rohstoffe? +++ Unterrichtsmaterialien zu historischen und modernen Seidenstraßen +++ Ups and Downs: Beijing auf der Rutschbahn in Myanmar +++ Philippinen steigen aus BRI-Projekten aus +++ Lesehinweis: How the BRI Changed China +++ Blogroll Update: Belt and Road „gut erzählen“ +++ Der globale Fußabdruck von BRI +++ Quote: Whom to Trust?

Newsletter 16/October 2022

CONTENTS: Posts: Upgrade for Belt&Road to BRI 3.0? / The Dance Around China’s Overseas Projects // News: Russland und China bauen Brücken in Fernost / Mongolei: Kooperation mit Skylla und Charybdis // Countercurrents: China-Watch / Environmental Justice Atlas / Internationale Solidarität mit ‚Riders’ in China // Reviews: Redefining Asia as ‚Indo-Pacific’

USA-China: Striving for friends

Applying the principle ‘winner takes all’ to the competition between China and the USA would probably mean, according to widespread view, that the one of them takes over world hegemony, either ‘authoritarian’ or ‘free’. However, the situation is far from that point, and the battle between the two rivals is continuing to rage unabated.

Newsletter 12/April 2022

CONTENT: Blog posts: Ukraine-Russia: Those who are not with us … // News: Greenwashing the Junta in Myanmar / Go Game in the Pacific / China Pakistan Economic Corridor again top priority // Countermovements: Myanmar: Mining / Greece: Piräus / Pakistan: coal power plant // Readings: The complex relationship between China and India in light of Russia’s war in Ukraine / The Specter of Global China revisited.

Ukraine-Russia: Those who are not with us ….

For its answer to the war against Ukraine, the Western world is looking for partners all over the world. But after the unexpectedly widespread support in the United Nations for Russia’s condemnation, many countries of the Global South have since taken a rather more neutral attitude, because the escalation of the conflict goes against their own interests. There are signs of a new alliance emerging, which could benefit China in particular.

Newsletter 11/March 2022

CONTENTS: Blog Posts: Europe’s Global Gateway / Russia-Ukraine: Can China do mediation? / Merry-go-round in South Asia // News: Rückzug aus russischem Gas – und China? / Überraschungsgast aus Beijing in Delhi // Protests: Kampagne gegen Erdöl aus Ostafrika / Bananen für China aus Kambodscha // Literature: Russo-Ukrainian War and China’s Choice

Merry-go-round in South Asia

In the last week of March, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi was on a whirlwind tour in South Asia, where the relations of several countries with Beijing, and thus the geopolitical constellations, seem to be shifting. After talks in Pakistan, where a serious political crisis is darkening the future of a Belt & Road flagship, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC, and a fly-by in Kabul, which has already been interpreted as a first step towards recognising the Taliban government, he made a visit to Nepal after a sensational detour into India.

From free rider to engine driver in Afghanistan?

The pull-out of their armed forces by the U.S. and other NATO allies, the escalation of violence, and the spectre of Taliban rule have triggered a flurry of diplomatic activity by neighbouring countries, including India, Pakistan and Iran, Russia and China. Fuelling just as much speculation is how the new situation might unfold. After all, the withdrawal will make the country an epicentre for regional power struggles.

Militarization: Adventure Trip to the Pacific

The deployment of the frigate ‚Bayern’ to a cruise in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific in summer this year is intended to lend substance to the “Guidelines on the Indo-Pacific” adopted by the German government last September and to the pronouncements of Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Minister of Defense, that it “will expand its commitment to security policy to the Indo-Pacific”.