China Belt and Road Initiative is expanding to reach all 16 nations of Central and Eastern Europe. New agreements being signed with Estonia, Slovenia and Lithuania bring “the total number of foreign countries included in the Belt and Road program to 70,” reports Fran Wang for Caixin. “Chinese...
Thousands of people across Europe have marched in protest of free-trade agreements promoted by the European Union with Canada and the United States. Activists caution that the proposed deals – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the United States and the Comprehensive Economic...
Tens of thousands of people protested in European cities on Saturday against planned free trade deals with the United States and Canada they say would undermine democracy and lower food safety, environmental and labor standards.
Organizers – an...
India banned the sale of electronic cigarettes and warned of an “epidemic” among youth. India and China, emerging economies with more than 1 billion people, represent the largest potential markets. “The ban cuts off a huge future market from e-cigarette makers at a time when the number of people...
The China Ocean Shipping Company, the country’s biggest, state-owned shipping company, invested billions in the Khorgos Gateway, located in the arid terrain of Kazakhstan. “The gamble is not only reshuffling global transport routes, but also shaking up Kazakh and global politics as China inserts...
India opened to the world in 1991 with its New Economic Policy that embraced economic liberalization and privatization. The policies lifted India’s GDP, but also widened the gap between rich and poor, explains Dilip Hiro, author of 36 books including “The Age of Aspiration: Power, Wealth, and...
From the edge of disaster: Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, left, and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh revived India's economy with market reforms in 1991, top; later, software exports by companies like Infosys and its Bangaluru campus shown here...
Monitoring and surveillance by corporations and government will be the norm by 2060 if not now. “The internet is a tracking machine,” writes Kevin Kelly. “Everything that can be measured is already tracked, and all that was previously [unmeasurable] is becoming quantified, digitized, and trackable...
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The South China Sea quandary continues. In summer of 2016, the international Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague issued a ruling in a case brought by the Philippines, rejecting China’s claims to most of the sea along with construction of artificial islands. The Philippines, under Rodrigo...
Friendship this way, please: ASEAN members hold hands, in a 50th anniversary ceremonial photo at the April meeting, and Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomes Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in October 2016
MIAMI: The Association of Southeast...
By joining its voice with the US condemnation of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Russia is making a mid-course correction of its policy toward the Korean peninsula that is designed to preserve its influence. Russian scholar Alexander Lukin posits four reasons why Moscow is in a good...
President Bush meets President Putin in St Petersburg: Putin is standing by Bush to exercise restraint on Washington's unilateral impulse. (Photo: White House photo by Eric Draper)
MOSCOW: Following his meeting in St...
