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Belt and Road

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Rajapaksa raj ends

Chinese loans crucial as Sri Lanka melts down
Jul 15, 2022 (WiC 593)

Sri Lanka is home to one of the world’s highest concentrations of leopards. However, the country’s people seemed to overlook the old maxim about the big cats not being able to change their spots when they voted the Rajapaksa family back into ...

China to build a new railway through Kyrgyzstan
Jun 10, 2022 (WiC 588)

When a new railway line through Kyrgyzstan last came up for serious discussion five years ago, the plan was an ambitious one. The idea was to connect Kashgar in China with Tashkent in Uzbekistan, traversing high altitudes via nearly 50 tunnels ...

The ‘iron brothers’

Beijing sanguine over Pakistan leadership change
Apr 22, 2022 (WiC 581)

When pollsters measure international approval levels for China there is one country which consistently takes the number one slot – Pakistan. In the most recent Gallup survey in 2018, 73% of Pakistanis had a positive view of the Beijing ...

Neighbourhood watch

How did China react to the recent political unrest in Kazakhstan
Jan 21, 2022 (WiC 570)

On January 2 fury at a massive hike in petrol prices in Kazakhstan spilled over into street protests. The demonstrations began in Zhanaozen, an oil producing city near the Caspian Sea, and quickly spread to the country’s largest city, Almaty, ...

The Vientiane Express

Who benefits most from China’s just opened $6 billion train line in Laos?
Dec 10, 2021 (WiC 567)

Buddhist monks, a lucky gong and a video call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping were all part of the celebrations as Laos formally launched its $6 billion rail link with China last week. Timed to coincide with the 46th anniversary of the Lao ...

Sino-Aussie ties worsen further over BRI deal
Apr 30, 2021 (WiC 538)

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is inspired by the ancient Silk Road, which stimulated trade and cultural exchange for thousands of miles between China and Europe. Quite whether the merchants of old ever reached Australia is open to ...

At the coalface

China blocks funding to coal power in Bangladesh but not at home
Mar 19, 2021 (WiC 532)

Bangladesh’s bet on coal-fired power is a contentious choice for a low-lying country prone to flooding. Perhaps that was why it said it was reconsidering the 29 coal power plants in the development pipeline last year, although there were also ...

The missing link

Slow progress for China’s ‘Pan-Asian’ railway
Nov 6, 2020 (WiC 517)

Will China’s new railway through Southeast Asia learn much from its African predecessor, the Cape to Cairo railroad championed by nineteenth century businessman Cecil Rhodes? Policymakers in Beijing won’t welcome the comparisons to the ...

Not quite to plan

Covid-19 chaos puts the brakes on BRI projects
Jul 10, 2020 (WiC 503)

Lending for infrastructure projects in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is so opaque that there is no real consensus on the total loans outstanding. Best guesses start at $200 billion and often head sharply upwards. What’s clearer is ...

Foreign affairs

Study buddy programme proves controversial
Jul 26, 2019 (WiC 461)

In the Practical Chinese Reader – a textbook commonly used to teach Chinese – there are three main characters: Gubo, Palanka and Ding Yun. Gubo and Palanka are international students said to have arrived in Beijing in the 1970s. ...

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