China’s cautious quest to draw Afghanistan back into the fold

Written by Sarah Godek

By increasing relations at a slower pace, China’s government makes a safer long-term bet on Afghanistan that forgoes short-run gains to ensure greater security that could protect longer-term benefits in the future.

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Tusk’s Chinese crossroads: Sino-Polish engagement in the post-PiS era

Written by Matthias van Herel

Whether Beijing will find a partner in the new Polish government will heavily depend on Beijing’s capacity to reinvent the BRI, as its current incarnation is losing momentum in Europe.

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Which way for the Belt and Road?

Written by Francesco Giovanni Lizzi

Taking stock of the international context surrounding the summit, it is apparent that the BRI has been confronted by a number of challenges. President Xi's keynote speech coincided with mounting scepticism, especially from Europe and North America, concerning the prospective viability of the initiative.

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Putin’s war and a world in crisis: Beyond democracies and autocracies

Written by Eva Seiwert

The EU and allies should scrap the framing of ‘democracies vs autocracies’ not just with regard to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, but also when speaking about China’s increase in power.

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China’s water security dilemma

Written by Zenel Garcia and Phillip Guerreiro

The current approach has resulted in a water policy that has had a detrimental impact on regional water security and social stability, thus heightening tensions in the region.

Alignment without alliance: China’s growing ambivalence to Putin’s war

Written by Lunting Wu and Kamil Matusiewicz

Functional, strategic and normative factors have shaped Beijing’s growing ambivalence towards the war, and despite the absence of outright condemnation, a subtle shift and distancing can be discerned.

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Samarkand 2022 — the ‘China Dream’ of SCO Summits

Written by Giulia Sciorati

As the SCO opens to other Asian sub-regions and even the African continent, Central Asia risks losing its centrality and becoming a minor geographical area compared to the Gulf or Southeast Asia, where the national interests of SCO member states (and China, above all) are prominent.

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Going global: Beijing’s bid to rewrite the rules of international security

Written by Sam Bresnick

If Beijing succeeds in impelling Global Security Initiative partners to revise existing security norms and arrangements (certainly a big ‘if’), the United States and its allies could find themselves increasingly constrained.

The Belt and Road Initiative in China’s western frontier and Central Asia

Written by Zenel Garcia

The need for continued Chinese investment and market access ensures that Central Asian leaders will continue to relegate the question of Uyghur diasporas or the treatment of other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang to the periphery.