Showing 1 - 9 of 9
China poses threat to the environment
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 27/08/2018
» Asia's future is inextricably tied to the Himalayas, the world's tallest mountain range and the source of the water-stressed continent's major river systems. Yet reckless national projects are straining the region's fragile ecosystems, resulting in a mounting security threat that extends beyond Asia.
The world according to Trump, Xi
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 25/05/2018
» The world's leading democracy, the United States, is looking increasingly like the world's biggest and oldest surviving autocracy, China. By pursuing aggressively unilateral policies that flout broad global consensus, President Donald Trump effectively justifies his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping's longtime defiance of international law, exacerbating already serious risks to the rules-based world order.
A new front in Asia's water war
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 13/10/2017
» China has long regarded freshwater as a strategic weapon -- one that the country's leaders have no compunction about wielding to advance their foreign-policy goals. After years of using its chokehold on almost every major transnational river system in Asia to manipulate water flows themselves, China is now withholding data on upstream flows to put pressure on downstream countries, particularly India.
A water war in Asia?
Asia focus, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 05/12/2016
» Tensions over water are rising in Asia -- and not only because of conflicting maritime claims. While territorial disputes, such as in the South China Sea, attract the most attention -- after all, they threaten safety and freedom of navigation, which affects outside powers as well -- the strategic ramifications of competition over transnationally shared freshwater resources are just as ominous.
Water woes taking an increasingly hard toll on Asia
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 28/04/2016
» Asia's water woes are worsening. Already the world's driest continent in per capita terms, Asia now faces a severe drought that has parched a vast region extending from southern Vietnam to central India. This has exacerbated political tensions, because it has highlighted the impact of China's dam-building policy on the environment and on water flows to the dozen countries located downstream.
Dalai Lama lineage faces uncertain future
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 08/07/2015
» On the 80th birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama, who has been in exile in India since 1959, Tibet's future looks more uncertain than ever. During his reign, the current Dalai Lama has seen his homeland - the world's largest and highest plateau - lose its independence to China. Once he dies, China is likely to install a puppet as his successor, potentially eroding the institution.
Modi spin can't hide harsh realities of Sino-India ties
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 20/05/2015
» China and India have a fraught relationship, characterised by festering disputes, deep mistrust, and a shared ambivalence about political cooperation. Booming bilateral trade, far from helping to turn the page on old rifts, has been accompanied by increasing border incidents, military tensions, and geopolitical rivalry, as well as disagreements on riparian and maritime issues.
Friendless China mourns loss of North Korea
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 16/02/2014
» At a time when China's territorial assertiveness has strained its ties with many countries in the region, and its once-tight hold on Myanmar has weakened, its deteriorating relationship with North Korea, once its vassal, renders it a power with no real allies. The question now is whether the US and other powers can use this development to create a diplomatic opening to North Korea that could help transform northeast Asia's fraught geopolitics.
China's stealth wars threaten stability
News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 12/06/2013
» China is subverting the status quo in the South and East China Seas, on its border with India, and even concerning international riparian flows _ all without firing a single shot. Just as it grabbed land across the Himalayas in the 1950s by launching furtive encroachments, China is waging stealth wars against its Asian neighbours that threaten to destabilise the entire region. The more economic power China has amassed, the greater its ambition to alter the territorial status quo has become.