After the U.K. joined the EU, U.S., and Canada early this week in coordinated sanctions and condemnation over China’s abuses in Xinjiang, Beijing issued counter-sanctions on nine British individuals and four entities.
Beijing wants to play a bigger role in the Middle East and the region’s complicated geopolitics. It’s not just about oil: Saudi Arabia, for example, is supplying China with not just energy security, but also political cover for its policies in Xinjiang.
The Chinese and Russian foreign ministers condemned Western nations for “politicizing human rights issues” with sanctions. Beijing separately lashed out at “the West,” accusing at least half a dozen nations of hypocrisy and saying they had no right to lecture China.
Today, the European Union issued its first sanctions on China since 1989, condemning Beijing’s abuse of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Canada, Britain, and the U.S. also issued new Xinjiang-focused sanctions. Beijing immediately retaliated against the EU with sanctions of its own.
In a high-level meeting in Alaska, top U.S. officials confronted China about breaking international rules, saying Beijing was making the world “far more violent and unstable.” China shot back by accusing the U.S. of hypocrisy on a range of issues, including human rights.
In 2020, loans from Chinese policy banks in Latin America fell to historically low levels. In the last days of the Trump administration, Washington agreed to lend Ecuador $3.5 billion, in what U.S. authorities considered a novel approach to confront China in the region. But does the region stand to benefit?
As senior diplomats from the U.S. and China prepare to meet in Alaska tomorrow, expectations are extremely low. Meanwhile, the U.S. sanctioned 24 officials for having undermined Hong Kong’s autonomy, and the EU reportedly approved sanctions in response to human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
In the last 20 years, Beijing has turned healthcare into a national priority. But the country's history of counterfeit drugs and weak regulation casts a lingering shadow. The topic is particularly pertinent now, with Beijing's COVID-19 vaccine diplomacy in full swing.
In the most violent day in Myanmar since the military coup d’état six weeks ago, dozens were killed and Chinese factories were attacked in the suburbs of Yangon on Sunday. Beijing walked a fine line in its response.