Xu Zhangrun has grown increasingly critical of President Xi Jinping in a series of essays in the past few years and recently taken aim at the Communist Party leadership’s response to coronavirus.
The death sentence handed down to Australian Karm Gilespie in China sends a clear message: Beijing will use its legal system to warn off other nations from challenging its government.
China’s attempts to promote its actions and model of governance while discrediting the EU are not a short-term response to the pandemic, but part of a long-term strategy to build its international power.
Relations between the two nuclear states were already tense before China and India skirmished in the Galwan River Valley. There is no simple path ahead for India’s leader.
It’s not just the coronavirus that is upping the ante, but tensions over Huawei and other technologies that are threatening to create a new cold war. And Australia will be caught in the middle.
Under Xi Jinping, China has tied its national rejuvenation to an aggressive diplomatic stance toward the world. This may come at a cost economically, but politics is paramount in Xi’s new China.
China has embarked on ambitious reforms to modernise the People’s Liberation Army to be able to defeat the US in a potential conflict. But many challenges remain.
In the coming months, China will have the power to appoint or nix global UN investigators on freedom of speech, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and health.
Australia’s call for an inquiry into the origins of the pandemic has been met with a rebuke from Beijing. China is ramping up its own narrative about the virus, making greater transparency impossible.
An analysis of the expressions used by Donald Trump to designate Covid-19 sheds light on his political calculations and on the evolution of his relationship with China in recent weeks.
Emmanuel Véron, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) et Emmanuel Lincot, Institut catholique de Paris (ICP)
By providing assistance to many countries affected by the pandemic, the People’s Republic of China is seeking to create a diversionary tactic to quietly put increasing pressure on Taiwan.
Emmanuel Véron, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) et Emmanuel Lincot, Institut catholique de Paris (ICP)
China is seeking to present itself as a model in the fight against the coronavirus – even if it means rewriting the history of the crisis and discrediting the governance of liberal democracies.
China’s leader is facing one of the greatest challenges of his presidency. But the extent of China’s controls almost rule out monumental change – or Xi taking accountability for his mistakes.
Yun Jiang, Australian National University et Adam Ni, Macquarie University
The Chinese government is accused of reacting too slowly to the health crisis and silencing its critics. Now, the public is angry and wants party leaders to be held accountable.
For decades nations have worked to curb international sales of endangered plants and animals. But in countries like China, with high demand and speculative investors, that strategy fuels bidding wars.