torsdag 20. februar 2025
Report: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army in 2025
As a “partial power,” China will have significant limitations on its ability to project economic, military, and ideational power outside Asia and to force major changes in international rules and norms on a reluctant United States by 2025, even under the most optimistic assumptions about alternative futures. The ability of the U.S. to maintain its own economic growth, continue technological innovation, support a capable modern military, and continue to play its post-World War II international role will have a major influence on China’s international opportunities and constraints.
China’s foreign investment sank in January. Can Beijing turn things around?
Inbound investment in China plummeted to a four-year low in January, as the world’s second-largest economy grapples with a flurry of headwinds. The Ministry of Commerce reported on Wednesday that 97.6 billion yuan ($13.4 billion) in foreign direct investment was utilized last month, a 13% drop from the same period last year.
The weak start to the year came after a steep plunge of 27.1% in total annual foreign direct investment (FDI) last year to 826.3 billion yuan ($113.4 billion). It was the lowest figure since 2016. “The decline has narrowed compared to last year, but it is still on a downward trend,” Ling Ji, China’s vice commerce minister, said at a Thursday press conference, where multiple government departments unveiled a 20-point action plan to attract foreign capital.
The weak start to the year came after a steep plunge of 27.1% in total annual foreign direct investment (FDI) last year to 826.3 billion yuan ($113.4 billion). It was the lowest figure since 2016. “The decline has narrowed compared to last year, but it is still on a downward trend,” Ling Ji, China’s vice commerce minister, said at a Thursday press conference, where multiple government departments unveiled a 20-point action plan to attract foreign capital.
What China fears most about Trump’s turn toward Russia
US President Donald Trump’s push to end the war in Ukraine appears poised to hand key concessions to Russia, leaving Kyiv and its European supporters on the sidelines as they face the prospect of a peace deal made over their heads. But they aren’t the only major players grappling with the fallout of Trump’s pivot to Russia that has upended years of US foreign policy in a burst of rapid-fire diplomacy.
In Beijing, too, the breakneck turn of events is seen to be raising questions about how the US peace drive will impact Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s carefully wrought partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin – and China’s precarious relations with the Trump administration. Just weeks ago, China appeared set for a key role in Trump’s Ukraine peace efforts. The US leader had repeatedly suggested he could work with Xi, using China’s economic sway over Russia to help end the conflict – important leverage for Beijing as it aims to avert a trade war with the world’s largest economy.
In Beijing, too, the breakneck turn of events is seen to be raising questions about how the US peace drive will impact Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s carefully wrought partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin – and China’s precarious relations with the Trump administration. Just weeks ago, China appeared set for a key role in Trump’s Ukraine peace efforts. The US leader had repeatedly suggested he could work with Xi, using China’s economic sway over Russia to help end the conflict – important leverage for Beijing as it aims to avert a trade war with the world’s largest economy.
Inside the 48 hours that Trump turned on Zelensky
As the long-fraught relationship between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky ripped apart Wednesday, a question that lingered among allies of both men was whether the fight would dash hopes for a US-brokered peace — or, potentially, help it along.
Firing off an angry message on his social media platform, Trump labeled Zelensky a “dictator without elections,” blaming him for strong-arming the United States into spending hundreds of billions of dollars “to go into a War that couldn’t be won.” It turned into a daylong series of taunts, which Trump amplified during a speech Wednesday night in Miami, where he declared: “Zelensky better move faster. He’s not going to have a country left.”
Both accusations parroted Moscow’s own irony-laden talking points about the war and Ukraine’s president, who declared martial law at the onset of Russia’s invasion, which prevented scheduled elections. Trump’s post was hardly an isolated attack. For years, Trump has viewed Zelensky skeptically, questioning his decisions and — in an episode made famous during Trump’s first impeachment — pressing him to open an investigation into his then-rival Joe Biden.
Firing off an angry message on his social media platform, Trump labeled Zelensky a “dictator without elections,” blaming him for strong-arming the United States into spending hundreds of billions of dollars “to go into a War that couldn’t be won.” It turned into a daylong series of taunts, which Trump amplified during a speech Wednesday night in Miami, where he declared: “Zelensky better move faster. He’s not going to have a country left.”
Both accusations parroted Moscow’s own irony-laden talking points about the war and Ukraine’s president, who declared martial law at the onset of Russia’s invasion, which prevented scheduled elections. Trump’s post was hardly an isolated attack. For years, Trump has viewed Zelensky skeptically, questioning his decisions and — in an episode made famous during Trump’s first impeachment — pressing him to open an investigation into his then-rival Joe Biden.
'We will unite with Kim Jong Un': Conspiracies grip South Korea
On a cold January afternoon, a young pharmacy student, Shin Jeong-min, waited restlessly outside South Korea's Constitutional Court, as the country's suspended president arrived to fight his impeachment. While Yoon Suk Yeol testified, she chanted along with hundreds of his incensed and worried supporters, who have rallied around him ever since his failed attempt to impose martial law. "Release him now. Cancel his impeachment," they shouted.
"If the president is impeached and the opposition leader is elected, our country will become one with North Korea and Kim Jong Un," Jeong-min said, citing a theory popular among President Yoon's most fanatical followers: that the left-leaning opposition party wants to unify with the North and turn South Korea into a communist country.
"If the president is impeached and the opposition leader is elected, our country will become one with North Korea and Kim Jong Un," Jeong-min said, citing a theory popular among President Yoon's most fanatical followers: that the left-leaning opposition party wants to unify with the North and turn South Korea into a communist country.
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