The Kazakhstan Dimension To Unrest In Urumqi

My thanks to my correspondent (as always e-mails welcome, but please also share with all via comments) who pointed out that Tuesday’s post, Uighurs, Repression, Assimilation And The Han Islanders, gave too little weight to the question of regional instability on China’s western borders and beyond. And in particular, in Kazakhstan.
Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Manchuria are [...]

BRICs and Brickbats Over The Dollar’s Reserve Currency Role

Brazil, Russia, India and China meet on Tuesday in Yekaterinburg for the first summit of the so-called BRICs, the four leading emerging economies.
They see themselves as a leading voice for the developing world and as a counterweight to the developed world’s dominance in international economic matters as represented by the G-7. As such they want [...]

China, Cuba, Russia and Latin America

Not that he is likely to foreclose but Hu Jintao has some debt restructuring to do with Raul Castro. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, China kept Cuba afloat with soft loans. Many of those are now falling due. Renegotiating them is on the agenda of the Cuba leg of Hu’s Latin [...]

China And Russia Settle Their Border

It has taken 150 years on and off but China and Russia have agreed where their border lies. The deal settles the ownership of two disputed islands in Russian hands since 1929 — Heilongjiang province will get back one and a half of them — and will help put relations between the two countries on [...]

Russia’s Medvedev Heads To Beijing, By Way Of Astana

Russia’s new president, Dmitry Medvedev, arrives Friday. Notable as it is that he is making China the destination for his first official trip abroad, the route he is taking is even more so.
He will arrive via Kazakhstan, the energy rich former Soviet republic that is both playing an increasingly pivotal role in Central Asia and [...]

Beijing Looking To Lease Foreign Farmland

China has already gone abroad to secure supplies of energy and minerals by investing in mines and oil fields, so why not do the same for food? The Beijing Morning Post quotes Xie Guoli, a senior trade promotion official with the agriculture ministry, as saying that China is looking at leasing farmland in Russia, South [...]

No 4 as No 1. Some Mistake, Surely?

Just ran across this Gallup Poll from earlier this month, asking Americans which of China, the U.S., the E.U., Japan, Russia and India is the world’s leading economic power, now and in 20 years. China easily tops both lists, a contrast to when Gallup asked the same questions in 2000 and the U.S. was the [...]