October 08, 2009

China and the US in Afghanistan

It's good to put yourself into the shoes of others from time to time. For a while now, I've been trying to imagine the conversations that the Central Committee of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:08 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

October 02, 2009

IPS piece on global power shifts and Iran

It's here. Also archived here. One bottom line is here: In 2003, Russia and China were unable (both in strictly military terms, and in terms of global power equations) to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:21 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

October 01, 2009

Happy 60th birthday, China!

China's 1.3 billion citizens have today been celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic. Of course, much remains to be done to ensure that China's people...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:56 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

May 01, 2009

The Year of the Ox II

First, going back to the year of the Golden Snake (nothing personal, George) -- April 26, 2001: REPORTER: Do we have an obligation to defend the Taiwanese? GEORGE W. BUSH:...
Posted by Don Bacon at 01:07 AM | Fulltext link (7 comments)

April 27, 2009

China Hand on the bleak prospects for the US in Afghanistan

Longtime JWN readers will know I'm a fan of the analysis that a blogger called China Hand produces on Pakistan and Afghanistan. (He doesn't, as it happens produce much on...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:44 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

March 10, 2009

A good one-stop shop for Palestinian-Israeli news

... is this info-packed and well-organized and portal page provided by Xinhua. Notice the tabs across the top, then scroll down to where the contents of these categories are also...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:02 AM | Fulltext link (38 comments)

March 05, 2009

The Year of the Ox

The Chinese new year of the Ox began on January 26th, and it portends to be a year of change for China-Taiwan relations. The Ox is thought to be the...
Posted by Don Bacon at 02:00 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

February 11, 2009

Great blog posts on Afghanistan, China, from China Hand

I'm in Egypt, I really am, even though I haven't blogged about it much yet. Let's just say logistical challenges and other concerns have reduced my blogging productivity and immediacy...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:08 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

December 22, 2008

China and its 'netizens'

I've been seeing quite a lot of references in the official Chinese media to what the reactions of Chinese "netizens" has been to one or another development. Most recent example:...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:38 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

December 18, 2008

Somalia and an international community in disarray (again)

So here we are, sixteen years on, and we once again have a major crisis of governance, civil chaos, and human suffering in Somalia; an international "community" that's completely incapable...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:43 PM | Fulltext link (8 comments)

December 04, 2008

Paulson fails to melt Chinese hearts

Time was, when there was a problem of any size in the global economy, the countries affected would send their finance ministers running to Washington to get help from the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:17 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

November 30, 2008

US-China: A good Bush record

Thomas Christensen, who was deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs in Condi Rice's State Department from 2006-08, has an informative little piece in today's WaPo lauding the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 05:08 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

November 07, 2008

First big global challenges for Obama

While Ahmadinejad and Hamas are making nicey-nice in their first overtures to President-elect Barack Obama, leaders in Russia and China have sent their first rhetorical "shots" across his bows. The...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:41 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

October 27, 2008

Differential effects of the financial crisis

I've been arguing for a while now that the present crisis of the western world's "casino capitalism" will have much less of a total impact on China, India, and other...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:03 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

September 22, 2008

China's condition to bail out the US: Taiwan?

China's President Hu Jintao has now explicitly linked his country's readiness to show good cooperation in resolving the US financial crisis to the question of Taiwan. Beijing's official Xinhua news...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:50 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

September 01, 2008

More on China in Iraq

Last week we learned that China has 'beaten' all those bit-champing western oil companies, and has signed a $3 billion deal to help develop Iraq's al-Ahdab oil field. It turns...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:26 PM | Fulltext link (12 comments)

China and Iraq

I've been doing a bit of background research for a post I'm planning on China's growing presence in Iraq... I hope to have a pretty interesting post about that topic...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:33 AM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

August 30, 2008

China buys in to Iraqi, Afghan end-games

I've been thinking more about the recent announcements of massive new Chinese investments in both Afghanistan and Iraq. These announcements really do signal the beginning of a completely new phase...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:35 PM | Fulltext link (15 comments)

August 29, 2008

China's way of 'Emerging'

In the opinion piece I had in the CSM on August 22, I described the Olympic opening ceremony held in Beijing on August 8 as China's "stunning coming-out party as...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:00 PM | Fulltext link (6 comments)

April 25, 2008

China to resume talks with Dalai Lama rep-- great!

China announced today it would resume talks with an envoy of the Dalai Lama that have been broken off since July 2007. This is great news. McClatchy's Tim Johnson reports...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 09:26 PM | Fulltext link (0 comments)

March 16, 2008

Tibet as Gaza?

China Hand has an informative post on his blog about the current disturbances/uprising in Tibet. Talking about the Tibetan Popular Uprising Movement which seems to have coordinated the pro-independence activities...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:19 PM | Fulltext link (16 comments)

December 29, 2007

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Asia

Nearly all eyes in the western media have been on Pakistan. (And in the US media, most of the concern has been of a cloyingly US-centric nature: Should "we" continue...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:57 PM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

November 08, 2007

Pakistan in world politics

"China Hand" has a truly great post on "The China Factor in Pakistani Politics" over at her/his China Matters blog. I had noted it briefly toward the end of (the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 03:00 PM | Fulltext link (32 comments)

September 18, 2007

'Super-typhoon' approaching Shanghai

The very best of luck to our friends and readers in eastern China as they brace for the arrival of Typhoon Wipha. Xinhua tells us that, East China, including the...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:07 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

December 09, 2006

China and its 'rise'

The NYT's Joseph Kahn has an intriguing piece in today's paper, about how China's main national t.v. network has been airing what looks like an important new 12-part series, "describing...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:23 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

July 19, 2006

Chinese Commentary on Iran Nuclear Case

If you've only been briefed by American MSM sources about the latest page in the saga over Iran's nuclear program, you might be thinking that finally, the great powers, including...
Posted by Scott Harrop at 10:55 AM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

June 21, 2004

Mainly about China

Yesterday, I drove to DC for two great reasons: to launch our 19-year-old toward her summer job in Philadelphia, and to attend the wedding of an old friend. Mazel tov,...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:23 PM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

May 05, 2004

Xian, history, mass tourism

In the very center of the ancient Chinese city of Xian there is a sturdy and imposing Bell Tower which today has traffic swirling all around it. The base of...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 11:32 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

Beijing: Summer Palace and Bei-Da

I'm back home in Virginia. I have two further "China travelogue" posts I want to write as soon as I can, but things are pretty crazy in my life right...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:39 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

May 01, 2004

Notes from Shanghai (and China, generally), part 2

We've been having an incredibly busy, informative, and fun time here in China. Just before I introduce the things I've been writing here so far, I want to apologize to...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 04:38 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

April 26, 2004

Notes from Shanghai, I

So what about China meanwhile, since I've now been here for five whole days... We've been in Shanghai, hosted by East China Normal University, which has a beautiful, large campus...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 08:14 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

December 23, 2003

Beijing-- the photos

Bill (the spouse) entrusted me with his digital camera.... This was the first time I had ever used it without him standing by to give advice, encouragement.... Yikes!! As it...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 12:26 AM | Fulltext link (3 comments)

December 20, 2003

The (Great) Wall that Failed

So yesterday I finally got to see, and climb along, a section of the edifice of which Richard Nixon memorably said after seeing it, "Why, it sure is a great...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 02:23 AM | Fulltext link (1 comments)

December 18, 2003

First explorations, Beijing

Yesterday I managed to get out of our conference hotel here on Jianguo Men Nei Da Jie [that's a street name], for a couple of great, if short, excursions. At...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 01:06 AM | Fulltext link (2 comments)

December 16, 2003

The UN, Palestine-- and Beijing

The UN and Palestine--view from Beijing I'm here in Beijing as an Expert Speaker at the "UN Meeting for Asia and the Pacific on the Question of Palestine". The UN's...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 07:24 PM | Fulltext link (4 comments)

December 10, 2003

Beijing, here I come

I'm really rushed this week. This weekend, I'm leaving for a quick trip to China, to take part in a UN conference on Palestine that's being held there. I've never...
Posted by Helena Cobban at 10:40 PM | Fulltext link (2 comments)