What makes Ai Wei Wei so powerful? Critics say if he didn’t exist, he’d need to be invented: an artist who’s combined his life and art into a politically charged performance that helps define how we see modern China.
The Chinese have helped build more than 300 dams in Africa, like this one on the Congo River.
Reuters
China’s economy has continued to slow despite efforts by its leaders to give it a boost, which is very bad news for an increasingly dependent Africa.
The US-led TPP and Obama’s ‘Asia pivot’ will face certain challenges against Xi Jinping’s ambitions of a new order established through the Chinese-led AIIB.
Bloomberg Pool/EPA
The US and China may have competing ambitions for the Asia-Pacific in the shape of the TPP and AIIB, but they may not be as incompatible as we have first believed.
Turns out the movement of women after marriage can help explain why humans cooperate beyond the household.
Du Juan
There is a tension between the UK’s national security strategy and a new nuclear deal with China.
Qiu Xiaolong’s nine novels give excellent insights into China from the time of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution to the present.
Reuters/David Gray
Struggling to get a handle on modern-day China and all its complexities? Looking to have fun while doing so? The Detective Chen novels could be just the ticket.
Coal no more? The rise of renewables and climate action will spell an end to Australia’s coal industry.
Coal image from www.shutterstock.com
Australia’s failure to reassess its commitment to coal will have serious negative consequences, not only for Australia’s economy, but for the health and well being of millions of people and the global environment.
Golden era: Xi Jinping and Queen Elizabeth.
REUTERS/Yui Mok/pool
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has arrived in the UK on an official state visit and it seems that he will largely be welcomed in most quarters. Indeed, the British Conservative government’s approach to…
China didn’t get a seat at the TPP table (even in Beijing).
Reuters
Some say the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership was designed specifically to exclude or even encircle China. So do its leaders mind being on the outs?
China’s not happy. Normally that sort of phrase is pretty meaningless. Clearly not everyone in China has the same view on anything – with the possible exception of its territorial claims in the South China…
The public debate has shifted from a discussion about invading foreign investors to a discussion about foreign rule breakers.
A billboard campaigning against crude oil theft. Nigeria is under pressure from falling oil prices and China’s economic slowdown.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
How should Nigeria weather yet another episode of oil price shock? This time it’s likely to be worsened by two events of significant global effect.
Locations such as Queensland’s Gold Coast have been nominated as at risk of money laundering by international criminals targeting real estate.
Flickr/Adam Foster
The “national interest”, at least as far as economic policy is concerned, has always been a contested compromise and a consequence of the relative political influence of domestic forces.