CDT noted last month that recent Chinese naval exercises around Australia had sparked a spike in comments on Chinese social media advocating the conquest of Australia. While some may have been a joke, others appeared serious,...
Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in on Monday as the new president of Sri Lanka after the country’s national elections this weekend. The 55-year-old self-described Marxist ran as an outsider from humble origins who promised to...
On Thursday, Kiribati’s Ministry of Culture and Internal Affairs released the initial results of the Pacific island nation’s first-round parliamentary elections. For the citizens of Kiribati, the election hinged mostly on issues...
On April 17, the Solomon Islands held its first general election since Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare signed a controversial security pact with China in 2022. Under his administration, the country switched its diplomatic...
At the halfway point of the COP27 international climate-change summit, there are encouraging signs that China and the U.S. may put aside geopolitical tensions in order to collectively stave off existential catastrophe for the...
On Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will wrap up his ten-day tour of eight Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Having initially aimed for an ambitious multilateral pact on security and development, he has reluctantly...
New reports suggest that China has dramatically curtailed lending towards the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi Jinping’s flagship global infrastructure and trade program. First proposed in 2013, the BRI is a trillion-dollar...
Days after the Solomon Islands switched diplomatic allegiance from Taipei to Beijing, the island nation of Kiribati has severed ties with Taiwan–a move that China’s foreign ministry “highly commends.”...
China’s controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the world’s largest infrastructure...
The discovery of massive rare earth deposits on the Pacific floor could, claims Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, “end China’s virtual monopoly on the metals”. From The Wall Street Journal: The Japanese team found...
A new report from Australia’s Lowy Institute for International Policy critiques China’s foreign policy in the Pacific region, BBC reports: “China lacks a coherent strategy for its aid programme in the Pacific...
From the Guardian (link): Australia and New Zealand sent more troops to the troubled Solomon Islands yesterday as Chinese residents continued to flee violence sparked by claims of electoral corruption. The former British protectorate, with a population of little more than 500,000, was the scene of riots and looting last week that destroyed many Chinese-owned […]
From The Daily Telegragh (link): A TAIWANESE representative in Australia has denied any political interference by his island state in the political affairs of the Solomon Islands. Dr Gary Lin says the tensions in the Solomons which led to the looting and burning of Honiara’s business district this week are much more complex and deep-rooted […]
From the Financial Times (link): With determination and tact, China is steadily increasing its commercial, diplomatic and military influence, especially in the Asia-Pacific half of the globe. Wen Jiabao, Chinese premier, cheerfully accepted a roasted pig and whale’s tooth from his Fijian hosts last week to prove it. Hu Jintao, Chinese president, will make a […]
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