The Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Thursday released a key publication titled "The CPC: Its Mission and Contributions."
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris just closed her trip to Southeast Asia,her second foreign visit since taking office. Following several high-level engagements with Southeast Asian countries in the past two months – including Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s travel to Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand; Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines; as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s participation in ASEAN-related ministerial meetings – Harris’ visit is so far the most high-profile demonstration of the United States’ commitment to “stay” in the region.
Fine words will accompany the G7 summit this week. Much will be promised. And little will be delivered. It has long been like this. The G7 is no longer fit for purpose. Comprising the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan, in the 1970s the G7 was the overlord of the global economy. Today, the G7 is but a pale shadow of what it once was, reduced to the role of a declining faction within the global economy. It still talks in grandiose terms about its intentions, but the world has learnt to discount them. It is entirely appropriate that this week's summit will be chaired by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a grandmaster of verbal exaggeration and empty gestures.
The COVID pandemic in the US is rapidly worsening again. This is in striking comparison to China. As this trend develops the dominant sections of the US media are becoming more strident in their attempts to conceal this situation. Looking at both the comparison of the COVID-19 situation situation in the US and China, and US media reactions to this, shows the threat to the US own people, other countries, and to China from US policy and propaganda.
The US is confronted with a historic defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of the Taliban. America's longest war, which began in 2001, is ending in complete humiliation. The Taliban has captured the countryside, every major city and now Kabul has effectively fallen. This is Saigon in 1975 all over again, except the US withdrawal from Vietnam took place in 1972 and its puppet government managed to survive another three years. America's puppet government in Kabul has fallen only four months after the announcement in April that the US would withdraw. It tells us that the Kabul government, and the American occupation, had only a tiny sliver of popular support: The condition for the former's survival was America's troops and airforce. In contrast, the Taliban clearly enjoys considerable backing amongst the people.
What exactly did the terrorist attacks in the US two decades ago bring to the world? The recent withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan is only part of the answer.
When a conspiracy theory started circulating in China suggesting that the coronavirus escaped from an American military lab, it had largely stayed on the fringe. Now, the ruling Communist Party has propelled the idea firmly into the mainstream.
As Taliban take steps to stabilize the situation and pursue international recognition, Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private firms are employing different investment strategies in the war-torn country, with the former exercising extreme caution in carrying out new projects and the latter eager to tap into a market where "a thousand things wait to be done."
While the shock over the US' astonishing failure in Afghanistan continues, global attention has been shifting to the newly empowered Taliban's plan to rebuild the country from the ruins left behind by the US military invasion, with Taliban officials vowing to start rebuilding the country. Considering all the profound uncertainty and difficulties the country faces, China has emerged as arguably the best partner that could help the country's reconstruction endeavors going forward.
U.S. President Joe Biden has been severely criticized from all fronts in recent weeks as the United States’ supposedly peaceful and orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan turned into a classic fiasco in front of the whole world. As a consequence, Biden’s approval rating has dropped to its lowest level since his inauguration, with increasing numbers of both Democrats and Republications disapproving of his handling of the Afghanistan situation. Internationally, Biden has not received much support from the publics in many U.S. allies either. For example, half of Britons believe that Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan is wrong. U.S. allies and partners in Asia have expressed similar concerns as to the U.S. commitment to the region, particularly as China’s influence is rapidly increasing.
With the arrival of Guillermo Lasso to the presidency of Ecuador in May, the South American country is seeking to open up the economy to attract investors and turn black the red numbers inherited from past governments.
Editor's note: Djoomart Otorbaev is the former prime minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, a distinguished professor of the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University and a member of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.
The US has just suffered a significant defeat in Afghanistan – weakening its position in central Asia. A second region where the US is engaged in a serious foreign policy struggle is in Latin America – where there has been a new rise of forces pursuing a path of national independence instead of subordination to the US. The immediate focus in this struggle has become the US economic attack on Cuba. But because, on Cuba, the US is going against the positions of the overwhelming majority of countries in the world, against the great majority of the Cuban people, and in violation of the US’s own declared goals in terms of the global order, these is serious risk to the US that it will also suffer a significant foreign policy defeat on this issue. This therefore makes it important to carefully analyse the unfolding of the situation around Cuba.
Editor's note: Djoomart Otorbaev is the former prime minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, a distinguished professor of the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University, and a member of Nizami Ganjavi International Center.
When G7 leaders convene this week to discuss Afghanistan, they should be clear about the core goals: extricate their nationals and Afghan partners, and then work constructively with China, Russia, and other interested parties to end the country's 40-year downward spiral. Enough of destruction; it is time to build.
Liu Zhiqin, senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China(RDCY), was interviewed by CRI every Friday, discussing about China's economy.
Editor's note: Afghanistan, a country that has suffered decades of war, is trying to rebuild itself from the ruins. Reconstruction will take concerted efforts from within the country as well as from the international community. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and president of the International Schiller Institute, shares her thoughts on the possibilities for future cooperation of great powers in Afghanistan. The opinions expressed in the video are her own and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
From Vietnam to Afghanistan, from Iraq to Syria... the U.S. sent its troops overseas time and again, yet almost every time it failed to change the other country for the better but left it in despair and turmoil. History always repeats itself, but why doesn't the U.S. learn from it? What is driving the U.S. behind all of these?
The magnitude of the United States' failure in Afghanistan is breathtaking. It is not a failure of Democrats or Republicans, but an abiding failure of American political culture, reflected in U.S. policymakers' lack of interest in understanding different societies. And it is all too typical.
India's attempts to revive the Colombo Security Conclave have garnered media attention. On Tuesday, the South China Morning Post argued that the revival of a trilateral grouping between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, shows New Delhi's wariness of Beijing's growing influence in the Indian Ocean region.