News Analysis Germany’s Angela Merkel is on the way out and a new government is coming—potentially the Greens, which takes a stronger stand against Beijing’s human rights abuses. A new coalition government is expected in Germany soon and the Greens might be taking the foreign policy portfolio. This is good and bad news for those…

Analysis Since 2013, the Chinese communists under the leadership of Xi Jinping have been diligently pursuing two strategic initiatives focused on building a worldwide colonial empire and restoring China to world leadership: the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as “One Belt, One Road”) and Made in China 2025. In the wake of the…

Commentary To counter Beijing’s growing belligerence in the South China Sea, Australia last week changed course: It canceled an order with France for conventional submarines that it feared were no longer adequate to protect its national interests, and entered into an alliance with the United States and the UK that involves acquiring a fleet of…

Commentary On Sept. 16, China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, submitted the country’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The CPTPP is the successor to the TPP, from which President Trump withdrew in 2017 due to concerns about China taking advantage of its state-run economy to wipe out American jobs…

Commentary Two well-publicized major strategic initiatives were announced with Xi Jinping’s ascension to power: the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also known as “One Belt, One Road”) and Made in China 2025. These initiatives subsequently spawned a mosaic of intertwined secondary efforts that together comprise a veritable, ever-expanding spiderweb aimed at entangling the rest of…

Commentary Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (AUKUS) just took a huge step in the right direction toward deterring China’s aggression. On Sept. 16, President Biden announced that the United States and Britain would assist Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered attack submarines. The submarines will be equipped with nuclear-capable cruise missiles, though not with…

Commentary Negotiated in secret and sprung on the world last week, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have created a new defense pact that is a direct if unspoken challenge to the growing Chinese military threat in Asia. Dubbed AUKUS (or, more awkwardly sometimes, AUUKUS), its immediate goal is to create a framework…

Commentary Iran presents the ideal conditions for the Chinese regime to execute its proven takeover strategy that has already enveloped Iran’s much larger and nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan and now possibly Afghanistan Client States, Not Partners A key pattern in Chinese alliance formation activities is a clear preference for asymmetric partnerships where Beijing serves as the…

Commentary The attack on 9/11 that killed almost 3,000 people in New York was a surprise to U.S. intelligence. Likewise, the rapid fall of Afghanistan over the last weeks has been a surprise, to the point where the United States and G7 allies, who meet Tuesday to discuss Afghanistan, are dependent upon Chinese, Russian, and…

Commentary George Orwell wrote, “The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.” The Biden administration tried that idea on for size in Afghanistan. But here’s the problem: losing a war rarely means you put the unpleasantness behind you and move on to things you’d rather deal with. Instead, lose a war and…