Gavinsblog.com

Category: China

  • The Malacca Strait

    Perhaps the most interesting essay in the current issue of Foreign Affairs is about China’s energy strategy. David Zweig, Director of the Center on China’s Transnational Relations at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the author of Internationalizing China: Domestic Interests and Global Linkages and Bi Jianhai, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the…

  • China's "Peaceful Rise" to Great-Power Status

    I spent the morning reading essays in the latest issues of Foreign Affairs, as ever there lots, and all make very interesting reading. One that caught my attention in my particular was by Zheng Bijian, Chair of the China Reform Forum, a nongovernmental and nonprofit academic organization. He has also drafted key reports for five…

  • The end of the affair: Rupert Murdoch in China

    So Rupert Murdoch is criticising Yahoo for its policies in China. Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York during the UN summit, the Economist reports that Murdoch castigated Yahoo: FIERCELY independent media mogul and defender of democracy everywhere—that was the Rupert Murdoch on display at a Bill Clinton-organised conference in New York on…

  • Some questions for the Irish government

    Richard Waghorne recently noted the staggering statistics about China in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs: Consider this sobering information: the most recent influenza pandemic, of 1968-69, emerged in China, when its population was 790 million; today it is 1.3 billion. In 1968, the number of pigs in China was 5.2 million; today it is…

  • Poll: In wake of Iraq war, allies prefer China to U.S.

    A little disturbing: In Britain, almost two-thirds of Britons, 65 percent, saw China favorably, compared with 55 percent who held a positive view of the United States. In France, 58 percent had an upbeat view of China, compared with 43 percent who felt that way about the U.S. The results were nearly the same in…

  • Kaplan responds

    I meant to post this a while ago, but Atlantic journalist Robert Kaplan has responded to criticism of his recent cover story. He deals with some of the issues raised, that I mentioned here. It seems Kaplan was mostly responding to Thomas Barnett, as he deals specifically with issues Barnett raised. Kaplan notes: The article…

  • Death by a Thousand Blogs

    Nick Kristoff’s piece about China and blogging has been making the rounds on the blogosphere – it is a good piece, and well worth a read. To save you clicking the link, here’s the whole thing: The Chinese Communist Party survived a brutal civil war with the Nationalists, battles with American forces in Korea and…

  • Aircraft Carriers and Robert Kaplan

    Kaplan’s Atlantic cover story has stirred quite a hornet’s nest of discussion. It stems from a rather heated response by Thomas Barnett. This led to it being reproduced by praktike over at Liberals Against Terrorism. Matthew Yglesias then got involved in the ‘aircraft carrier’ debate, if you can call it that. He also points to…

  • May

    Another post, another month. I see Kaplan’s piece has appeared in the Atlantic. More soon.

  • China and future wars

    Robert Kaplan said some things that got my interest in an interview he did recently on BookTV. He recently spent an amount of time on a US missile cruiser in the Pacific, and believes that the next major military buildup may be in the field of naval power. His remarks are well worth reading: China…