I’ve finally tracked down a copy of Sun Bigan’s article that refers to unavoidable conflict between China and the United States in the Middle East. The article was published in the Chinese-language “Asia and Africa Review”. The quote was first referred to in an editorial by Lebanon’s Daily Star and, later, in article by Robert [...]
Gallery Archive
China’s Riyadh and Tehran challenge
I earlier referred to a proposal by the Obama administration for Saudi Arabia to increase its oil exports to China in place of Iran’s exports, and thus reduce Iran’s leverage over China. The proposal has received some coverage in the Chinese media over the past week as the result of a Wall Street Journal article [...]
Q&A: Egyptian trader and 20-year China veteran
I recently met with Mohammed, an Egyptian trader and a 20-year veteran of China. He studied Chinese in Ein Shams University in the early 1980s, before finally settling in China permanently. It was that or become a policeman. Mohammed made a few comments that are worth noting. First, trade between China and the Middle East [...]
James Yeager’s report on China’s bid for an Afghanistan copper mine
I’m reading James Yeager’s excellent report on China’s bid for the Aynak copper mine. Most importantly, the report’s starting point is the tendering process itself. Only later does it examine the reasons for China’s success. I find this extremely useful as it puts China’s bid into context. Too many reports assume China’s purchase of foreign [...]
A New “Great Game”
I expect to read a lot more about China’s presence in Afghanistan in the coming weeks. And it will be the type of discussion that gets politicians hot under the collar. Geologist James Yeager, who served as an advisor to the Ministry of Mines in Afghanistan, will host a news conference on Thursday describing how [...]
Robert Fisk, oil, and the dollar
This Robert Fisk article has caught a lot of attention today. In the article, titled “The Demise of The Dollar”, he argues that the Gulf Arabs along with China, Russia, Japan, and France, are planning to end dollar-denominated oil contracts. And instead move to a basket of currencies. The article first caught attention in Asia’s [...]
A World Divided
Scrap that idea. I was recently in the United States, and was arguing for a need for policy to start thinking of China and the Middle East as the same policy challenge. What I learnt is that this isn’t going to happen anytime soon. It seems that the financial sector can look beyond geographical divides. But [...]
The five “Ma”s and relations between Chinese Muslims
China’s policy towards its Muslim population is often misunderstood. The mistake lies in the assumption that the Uighur population, in Xinjiang, represents all Muslims in China. That simply isn’t true. The Uighur make up only 8 million of an official 20 million population. The Hui make up the largest share at 10 million. The Hui [...]
“China cheat sheet helps investors survive”, Bloomberg, September 1, 2010
“No more silver bullets for Beijing”, Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2010
“China’s historic return to the Gulf”, Foreign Policy, April 2, 2010
