China / 4 posts found
China is angry, but what can it do about North Korea?
Xi Jinping has few options to bring Kim Jong-un into line but he also has to contend with the unpredictable Donald Trump On Friday afternoon, the eve of North Koreas most powerful ever nuclear test, Chinas football-loving president received a gift from the worlds greatest ever player. Good luck, read the handwritten message from Pel on a canary yellow Brazil jersey the last round of UN resolution sanctions, textile products and clothing is now the most important source of foreign income for North Korea, says Zhao. Xi could also deprive Kim of another key source of revenue by agreeing to […]
Amazon land battle pits indigenous villagers against might of Ecuador state
Only a bridge separates the Shuar village of El Tink from threat of military and mining interests in high-profile dispute resulting in death and displacement Military drones and police helicopters circle above the Shuar indigenous village of El Tink, an Amazonian community in Ecuador where a high-profile dispute against a Chinese copper mine has become a standoff and a siege. Aerial surveillance is the only way the authorities can monitor this cloud forest enclave because residents have blocked the sole entrance to their home: a bouncing plank-and-cable bridge suspended 15 metres above the brown torrents of the Zamora river. Some […]
Globalisation: the rise and fall of an idea that swept the world
The long read: Its not just a populist backlash many economists who once swore by free trade have changed their minds, too. How had they got it so wrong? The annual January gathering of the World Economic Forum in Donald Trump, who vowed to withdraw from major trade deals, appeared to jeopardise the trading relationships of the worlds richest country. Forthcoming elections in France and Germany suddenly seemed to bear the possibility of anti-globalisation parties garnering better results than ever before. The barbarians werent at the gates to the ski-lifts yet but they werent very far. In a panel titled […]