Central Asia is at the centre of two new initiatives by China and Russia that run against a longstanding economic vision of the US.
Ambassador of China to Canada Lu Shaye is photographed at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Ottawa on May 24, 2018, following the announcement that Canada had turned down China’s takeover bid for Aecon.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
In the wake of the Canadian government’s rejection of a Chinese takeover bid for construction company Aecon, Canada must drop the ‘Red Scare’ rhetoric and figure out how to engage with a rising China.
Canada has reportedly committed more than $1 billion to a Chinese investment bank. Is Canada unwittingly serving as a ‘useful idiot’ in Xi Jinping’s grand plans to restore China’s lost greatness?
US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
Reuters/Thomas Peter
China is stepping into a soft power vacuum created by the new US administration. Since Donald Trump was elected president, the country has eschewed soft power.
A Chinese road-building corporation felling rainforest in the Congo Basin.
Bill Laurance
Chinese investment is driving an unprecedented investment boom in global infrastructure. But despite its claims to be pursuing green development, China’s building bonanza is harming the planet.
China’s road to global influence runs through Europe.
EPA/Wojciech Pacewicz
If Beijing can bring its neighbours to accept its regional leadership, China would have successfully achieved a dramatic reduction of US influence.
US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama on tour by Grand Imam Ali Mustafa Yaqub at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta in 2010.
Adek Berry/Reuters