The proxy war in Ukraine is heading to a denouement with the US and Russia dividing the spoils while the European powers stand bewildered by events they have been wilfully blind to, says KEVIN OVENDEN
China and the US: who's really in a 'vulnerable negotiating position'?
Despite the usual Western media refrain that 'China is in decline,' its position is getting stronger, alongside the rest of the global South — a good time to broker deals with the US then, writes KEITH BENNETT
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THE recent Apec summit in San Francisco was largely overshadowed by the meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that immediately preceded it.
The two men met for four hours on November 16, in a mansion once better known for the US soap opera Dallas having been filmed there. For what was almost certainly the most important diplomatic encounter of 2023 its actual results appear rather modest.
They featured an agreement on Artificial Intelligence, counternarcotics co-operation, the resumption of military-to-military communications, the expansion of direct flights, and the promotion of a range of bilateral exchanges, including a high-level dialogue on tourism and streamlining visa application procedures.
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KEITH BENNETT explains why, despite its present meagre economic outcomes, an honest and fruitful partnership with China is worth pursuing
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KEITH BENNETT surveys the People’s Republic’s first 75 years arguing that the vast changes rest on an essential continuity
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Far from being a formality, sneeringly referred to as a 'coronation' in the West, the five-yearly congress of China's ruling party will have serious consequences for the future of the planet, explains KEITH BENNETT