Dirk Struan

"An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship. This is unacceptable." ... "We renew our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians held hostage." ~ @iascch principals, including @FilippoGrandi, calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Full statement: interagencystandingcommittee.org/about-inter-ag…

@JustinTLogan Wait. No Tom Friedman?

Biden sought "outside-the-box thinking" on the state of democracy so the WH convened Michael McFaul, Richard Haass, Fareed Zakaria, Ian Bremmer, Fiona Hill, James Stavridis, Jon Meacham, Anne Applebaum, Sean Wilentz and Michael Beschloss, and Allida Black. washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…

"America's national security elite came prepared to talk about how to push back on Russia without triggering World War III, but the Chinese ambassador wanted them to know that it wasn’t Moscow who would bring that thunder, it was Beijing." My latest. puck.news/aspens-world-w…

@RTPerson3 Incidentally, all of the above is likely one of the reasons for why this is happening now. If not now then when?

This means that Russia will have to face increasing costs for pensions, elderly health care, etc. in years to come while relying on fewer current workers to fund social welfare. Or, they can cut benefits and face a bunch of angry babushki in the streets. Terrifying thought. 19/

How long can Russia endure Western sanctions? A THREAD based on my research on the political economy of Russian grand strategy. Data from @WorldBank, @IMFNews and Russian Ministry of Finance. 1/

@RTPerson3 The ruble barely matters at this point. If the banks are sanctioned and they cut the banks from Swift they won’t be able to intervene in the markets to anyway.

Moscow will need to spend heavily from these monetary reserves in order to prop up a ruble in freefall (as happened in 2014). Or, they'll have to give up and let the ruble slide. Ordinary Russians will be able to buy much less with a weak ruble - this could hurt pretty badly. 11/

People digging up lots of old Jimmy Lai and Apple Daily content given this week's news. In English, this is one of the most interesting pieces I've seen. A very early look inside the Apple Daily newsroom: facebook.com/TheBritishHong…

@SCMPNews No.

Could China’s digital yuan replace smaller Asian currencies? #Echobox=1624580281-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">scmp.com/economy/china-…

"Japan is America’s only reliable security partner in Northeast Asia. Together, these two allies must assume the leading role in creating a deterrent sufficient to protect the region from a cross-strait conflict." Must read piece by Nobukatsu Kanehara. nippon.com/en/in-depth/a0…

@limlouisa @AMFChina What. So more dancing Uyghurs and Tibetans?

Brace for happy Chinese propaganda... positive energy incoming!

@bill_hayton Implication being that flights shouldn’t fly over PRC client states like Cambodia...?

Also seems to have avoided Laos for some reason...

“The best China policy really is a good Asia policy.” Kurt Campbell's very insightful and no-nonsense comments on the harsh *realities* of US-China relations. Very much the opposite of dreamy WAPO Op-Ed writers. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Have you ever wondered how the Chinese Communist Party's censorship regime works at home and abroad? What follows is a short thread 🧵 /1

@primroseriordan The Church is just another big corporate doing what they all do. Trading silence and complicity for market access. Think of the potential 1.4bn souls to convert...

Pope Francis has appointed Jesuit priest Stephen Chow Sau-yan as the new bishop of the Hong Kong, passing over both auxiliary bishop Joseph Ha as expected, who was a supporter of the HK protest movement & conservative candidate Peter Choy

It appears there's quite a bit of interest in China's population trends nowadays. I also saw a call for resurrecting the Far Eastern Economic Review. I am thus pleased to share my old article on how Chinese demographic trends might affect Chinese governance,

@crampell This is the survey I need today.

"Compared to women, men feel most able to take on medium-sized dogs and geese" today.yougov.com/topics/lifesty…

In response to China declining to accept Chinese removed by the US, US suspends student visa issuance to children of senior Chinese gov officials and police officers. Hua Chunying says the US "disrupts normal exchange of people from the two countries for political reasons"

A new report shows almost the entire global solar panel industry is linked to #UyghurForcedLabour. We're calling for the #solarindustry & governments to act now so that the global transition to clean energy doesn't rely on Uyghur forced labour. Read more: antislavery.org/solar-panel-in…

@inloveamaze @Rover829 @BaldingsWorld Same way they come up with the GDP figures...

@Rover829 How do they come up with this numbers lol ? @BaldingsWorld

China 2020 Census, Reuters: -Mainland China population +5.38% vs 2010 to 1.41 bln people (there was reporting prior to this that the population shrank) -17.95% of Chinese piopulation was 14 or younger vs 16.6% in 2010 -13.5% of population was 65 or older vs 8.87% in 2010

Op-ed for @asiatimesonline: "Europe’s crusade to fend off Chinese interference falls short" asiatimes.com/2021/05/europe…