Nadya Yeh is a Senior Editor at The China Project. Nadya got her Master’s degree at the Global Thought program at Columbia University and her Bachelor’s at Williams College. She has previously done research at the China Institute.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is in Beijing on his first foreign trip of the new year. He is expected to ink a slew of trade and agriculture deals, and even a memorandum of understanding over the disputed South China Sea.
China is sending a high-level delegation to attend the inauguration of Brazil’s former President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is known to be an “old friend” in Beijing. But the world has only gotten more tense since Lula’s pro-China policies of the 2000s.
Much to the relief of Chinese gaming giants like Tencent and NetEase, China’s industry regulator has approved dozens of foreign and domestic gaming licenses in yet another thaw in Beijing’s sweeping technology crackdown.
In the latest move made by Beijing to dismantle its COVID-zero policy, inbound travelers no longer need to quarantine, while some foreign visas and domestic passport processes have been resumed. But some still fear the wave of infections sweeping over China.
The port of Gwadar is once again the scene of protests against Chinese-funded infrastructure. Locals say they are not seeing any benefits and have to endure too many security checkpoints to get around their own town.
Two high-level exchanges between China and Australia have signaled a thaw in yearslong tensions. The Australian foreign minister says she also brought up human rights and the cases of two Australians detained on apparently trumped-up charges.
After the latest skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control, Delhi has responded to renewed Chinese activity with a military buildup and road construction on its side of the contested border.
The two deaths in Beijing are the first official fatalities China has reported since relaxing COVID zero, as a wave of cases strain its healthcare system and its economy. But no one believes that only two people have died from the virus.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi expressed his “dissatisfaction” with China’s joint statement with Gulf states while meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhuan.