China Suffers Sales Drop as COVID-19 Affects its Largest Apple Market 

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in South-East Asia, China’s apple exports are suffering poor sales and a drop in prices. South-East Asia is the largest market for China’s apples. Li Guoping, a manager with Qixia Lewang Vegetable and Fruit Company in East China’s Shandong Province, says export orders from Southeast Asia have dropped 60 percent […]

US Sends Warning Signal to Russia, China, N’Korea with Successful Test of Hypersonic Rocket Motor

The United States is up-scaling its missiles stock in readiness to rise to the challenge of Russia, China, and North Korea. These countries are said to be in possession of dangerous missiles. As part of its Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) offensive hypersonic missile development and the army’s Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), therefore, the US […]

IMF Executive Board Concludes Review of Chile’s Performance Under the Flexible Credit Line Arrangement

Washington, DC: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded on Friday its review of Chile’s qualification for the arrangement under the Flexible Credit Line (FCL) and reaffirmed Chile’s continued qualification to access FCL resources. The current two-year FCL arrangement for Chile was approved by the IMF’s Executive Board on May 29, 2020 in […]

Mixed Sight: New Zealand, the Five Eyes and China

The Five Eyes arrangement between the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand has always resembled a segregated, clandestine club.  Focused on the sharing of intelligence between countries of supposedly like mind, it has shown that even its own citizens cannot be guaranteed protection from the zeal of surveillance. In recent years, the […]

Eyes on China: The Quad Takes Scattered Aim

The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue has had its fits and starts, but nothing encourages such chats than threats, actual or perceived.  In 2017, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono felt that it was time that a strategic dialogue between Japan, the United States, Australia and India should be revived.  The Quad, as it was termed, was on […]

China, Papua New Guinea and Australia’s Backyard Blues

Clever diplomacy rarely involves total commitment or unqualified fidelity to any one state.  Treacherous waters require careful navigation, an understanding of shifty and shifting allegiances.  The goal for the prudent statesperson is the pursuit of self-interest without alienation.  In that regard, Papua New Guinea is proving increasingly interesting, finding itself between playground thugs with varying […]

“We Produce Toothpaste, You Produce Anointing Oil”: Which Way Africa?

Recently, a white-woman identified as Tracy Zille took to her Facebook-Page to lambast Africans. She allegedly disclosed that Africans cannot produce anything apart from anointing oils, prayers and wealthy pastors. While stressing that rich men of God are “Made in Africa,” she boasted: “We produce toothpaste, you produce anointing oil and prayers. Don’t insult me […]

Beware! Fresh Virus Outbreak Raiding China 

Squash virus is currently troubling China, the Asian country where the rampaging COVID-19 pandemic originated. Already, the country has sealed off two cities south of Beijing, cutting transport links and banning millions of residents from leaving, as authorities move to stem the country’s largest COVID-19 outbreak in six months. The pandemic has so far broadly […]

Pfizer vaccine for the elite, but China vaccine for the rest of us?

One thing is constant in the human ecosystem – class struggle. According to Karl Marx: “The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.’’ There is perhaps, no other country where the fault lines of class are well accented like in Nigeria — where the rich secrete themselves in vulgar mansions […]

Think Tankers Against China: The Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Security think tanks are the leeches of industry.  Attached to their appropriate field, they compile analysis that is supposedly masterful, insightful and even useful.  Reports can recommend courses of action, from a troop surge in a failing war, to an increase of defence spending in bolstering cyber capabilities.  Bunkered in these institutes, the think tanker […]