China on Monday continued its unprecedented military drills around Taiwan, extending the schedule of war games launched in retaliation to the visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the breakaway island which Beijing claims is part of its territory.
Doggedly persisting with its much-criticised zero-Covid policy, China has slipped deeper into the coronavirus quagmire as it reported a record 31,444 infections on Thursday with many of its cities, including Beijing, resorting to community lockdowns to stem the virus amid worsening wintery weather.
China is spending billions of dollars to improve infrastructure in Tibet and other parts of its border with India. Claude Arpi explains why New Delhi can't afford to ignore Beijing's plans.
Pakistan should also be accorded the same 'privilege', the Global Times said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday had his first meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who said that China is looking forward to the Indian leader's maiden visit to Beijing.
Three Chinese journalists based in India representing the state-run Xinhua news agency were denied permission for extended stay in the country.
'Chinese leaders rarely receive their foreign guests in cities other than Beijing. Such respect for India!' 'Does it mean that Modi could replicate "the warmth and unconventional way" by sending Indian troops into Tibet, as Xi did in Chumur (Ladakh) when he arrived in India? Of course, Indians are far too polite to do so,' says Claude Arpi.
'When you look at the border -- from Ladakh to Arunachal -- which is called the Sino-Indian border, but in effect it is actually the Indo-Tibet border.' 'Since the borders are still not secure, it has resulted in transgressions in Galwan, Dokalam etc.'
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un ordered a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the Communist Party's -- and his own family's -- rise to absolute power. It's not just any parade: It was apparently the biggest in North Korean history.
Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to demonetise high value currency notes as "startling and bold", Chinese official media has said it is "far from enough" and India may "look at ideas" from China's crackdown against corruption which has shown "efficiency".
India lost fastest growing major economy tag to China in the March quarter with a GDP growth of 6.1%
The unalloyed truth about the Ukraine-Russia conflict is that it is a war that Russia cannot lose and Ukraine cannot win, observes Colonel Anil Athale (retd).
The Summit for Democracy seems to have done more harm than good, notes Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'Seen in the context of world turmoil in face of the pandemic and the Chinese 'miracle' of being the only country in the world to control it, this is not merely a 'Sputnik' moment, but a 'Sputnik Plus' moment,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Statesmanship requires that the prime minister himself reaches out to those amassed at the Singhu and Ghazipur borders. Modi should be able to win over this domestic front with sheer compassion, observes Virendra Kapoor.
'Tibetans will participate in future conflicts with India (in all probability, some were already present in Galwan).' 'As nobody in India would like to have a deadly fight with Tibetan soldiers and officers, the issue needs to be closely followed,' observes Claude Arpi.
The Chinese military on Thursday said it has conducted precision strikes over the Taiwan Strait and 'expected results' were achieved, in apparent retaliation to the United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei disregarding Beijing's vociferous warnings.
Disgraced Chinese Communist Party leader Bo Xilai sprang a surprise on the first day of his high profile trial on Thursday by defiantly going back on his earlier testimony, calling a witness a "mad dog" and describing his wife's evidence against him as "laughable".
'The numbers of troops on both sides are enormous.' 'They are about 50,000-60,000 soldiers facing each other in that sector -- that's about the total number of troops that both sides had in the 1962 War in all sectors.'
China's ruling Communist Party has cracked down on Tibetans who planned to attend the Kalachakra Puja in Bodh Gaya. But the Tibetan people have dared the Communists by listening to the Dalai Lama's sermons on the Internet and sharing videos on social media.
People in a Beijing district with some 2 million residents were ordered Sunday to undergo mass coronavirus testing following a series of infections as China tightened anti-disease controls ahead of the Winter Olympics.
It said that the transit was "ongoing" and that there had been "no interference from foreign military forces so far."
India's stiff labour laws were one key issue that Apple CEO Tim Cook discussed with Prime Minister Modi on his recent visit.
The first priority for the new Tibetan administration in Dharamsala should be to look at Tibetan recruitment in the PLA, suggests Claude Arpi.
'If you behave like a nail, the adversary will behave like a hammer.'
'The China opportunity, the digital opportunity and the end of geography opportunity are the three pieces of luck India got due to Covid.'
An agreement was reached in Islamabad during a meeting between Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Xu Ziqin, President of state-owned China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Company Limited -- the trade arm of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation.
If you are serious about countering the Chinese threat, then the best weapon is investing in real freedom, plurality, elections and democracy. Unfortunately, it isn't an approach all Indians currently seem to agree on, asserts Shyam G Menon.
Pence accused the Chinese government of orchestrating an aggressive military, economic and political campaign to expand its influence inside the US and across the world.
Gao Yu was found her guilty of leaking an internal Communist Party document to a foreign website.
India needs to take note of China's assertiveness in implementing its national security law as also its recently exhibited sensitivity to criticism of Xi Jinping by the Indian media, says former senior R&AW officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade.
'The military aim in a future conflict, if it can't be avoided, should be to cause maximum damage to the adversary's war waging capability and capture limited amount of territory as a bargaining counter,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
In an interview, Biden reiterated a previous pledge to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion.
'...he had to take his exams in Hindi at IIT-Kharagpur.' 'You wouldn't have got someone like Sundar Pichai because Hindi is not a friendly language for a person from Tamil Nadu.'
Narendra Modi will turn 64, playing host to the visiting Chinese leader in Ahmedabad on Wednesday
'The missile mounted near Kailash-Mansarovar is called DF-21. It is a medium-range, 2,200 kilometres ballistic missile. Its advantage is that it can cover all cities of north India, including New Delhi'
The Kerala Story is among a long list of films that invited bans and censorship.
Grieving relatives of those on board the ill-fated cruise ship that capsized in the mighty Yangtze were on Thursday barred from reaching the site as rescuers pulled out more bodies, taking the death toll to 77 amid assurances from China of "no cover up" in the probe into the tragedy.
'Xi's emphasis on enhancing conventional military deterrence capabilities, joint operations and power projection are likely to increase friction points with India as with other nations,' points out China expert Srikanth Kondapalli.
China is expected to boost its nuclear arsenal after President Xi Jinping's remarks at the key Congress of the ruling Communist Party in Beijing for the first time that Beijing will establish strong strategic deterrence, experts have said.
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