South Asia and Beyond

Covertly And Overtly, China Readies To Merge Taiwan With The Mainland

Tension across the Taiwan Strait has increased since Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidential elections for the third consecutive time in January 2024. The victory of the DPP’s Lai Ching-te clearly signalled that the people of Taiwan do not want to reunify, or more correctly, be merged with the communist People’s Republic […]Read More

Xi Jinping Begins Appointing Loyalists To Key Posts

NEW DELHI: The political situation in China is becoming volatile as the 20th Party Congress draws near and rumours of imminent purges circulating in Beijing gain momentum. The absence of a ‘Revolutionary’ veteran founding leader with unchallenged authority to decide on leadership appointments has added to the uncertainty. Surviving leaders like Song Ping are over […]Read More

Lessons From Leaked Video of Chinese War Preparedness Exercise

NEW DELHI: Regardless of whether the video of a ‘War Preparedness Mobilisation Exercise’ convened by the Guangdong Province Communist Party Committee on May 14, 2022 was deliberately ‘leaked’ as part of psywar, or was an unauthorised recording of the meeting by a disgruntled People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer, it reveals some interesting details. It will […]Read More

Implications Of Recent Developments In PLA’s Western Theatre Command

NEW DELHI: The Western Theatre Command (WTC) is the largest of China’s five Theatre Commands and exercises operational jurisdiction over the country’s currently ‘active’ borders with India and Afghanistan. Particularly since the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s military manoeuvre against India in early May 2020, which caught the Indian armed forces by surprise, and consequent onset […]Read More

Will China’s Ambitions With Iran Materialise?

NEW DELHI: Given rising bilateral tensions, Beijing and Washington are both trying to consolidate their relationship with other important countries. China receiving Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov just prior to the former’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, embarking on a tour to the Middle East exemplifies this. The efforts have gained momentum after the meeting between Chinese […]Read More

China’s New Western Theatre Commander

NEW DELHI: At a promotion ceremony at the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s Bayi Headquarters building in Beijing on 18th December 2020, four PLA officers were promoted to the rank of General. They included two Political Commissars, one from the People’s Armed Police Force (PAPF) and General Zhang Xudong, whose appointment as Commander of the PLA’s […]Read More

LAC Standoff: ‘China Probably Has A Larger Hidden Agenda’

NEW DELHI: Since the beginning of May this year, China has created an arc of sustained military pressure along India’s northern borders. This presently stretches from Daulet Beg Oldi in Ladakh, to Naku La over a thousand kilometres to the East in north Sikkim and possibly on to Bhutan. China’s action appears to blend military, […]Read More

‘Xi Jinping Shores Up Position To Fend Off Opponents’

NEW DELHI: CCP General Secretary & Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have been badly bruised by public criticism, which was accentuated by the initial mishandling of the Coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan. After an extended hiatus, which includes Xi Jinping’s unexplained disappearance from public view at the peak of the crisis […]Read More

‘China And The Post Covid-19 World’

NEW DELHI: In the midst of the black clouds of the Coronavirus, or Covid-19, spreading uncertainty around the globe and governments grappling to stop the immense loss to human life and damage to their economies, world leaders have begun assessing the possible contours of the post Covid-19 world. The U.S. and West particularly are trying […]Read More

‘Dissatisfaction With Chinese President Xi Jinping Mounts’

NEW DELHI: Expressions of popular discontent in China have increased and are mounting pressure on Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The widespread anger among Chinese citizens over the lack of transparency and attempt to withhold information about outbreak of the Coronavirus epidemic was the spark that fanned the latent discontent which, […]Read More