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Diplomacy

Diplomacy
Latest news, features and analysis on global diplomatic relations, with a focus on China’s international ties – especially with the US, its Asian neighbours and the European Union.
Open Questions series

Zheng Yongnian on what US’ ‘neocolonialism’, Venezuela operation mean for China

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Illustration: Victor Sanjinez

Liu Qian on Chinese innovation, the US rivalry and women holding up half the sky

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Illustration: Victor Sanjinez Garcia

Fuchsia Dunlop tells how she fell for China’s cuisine and names her perfect dish

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Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

80 years on from WWII, China’s interests lie in peaceful Asia-Pacific: Mitter

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Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

‘Delusional’: Jeffrey Sachs on why Western hegemony has ended

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Illustration: Henry Wong

Scholar Jing Qian on right-sizing China’s economy in the age of Trump

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Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

Zheng Yongnian on what US’ ‘neocolonialism’, Venezuela operation mean for China

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15
Illustration: Victor Sanjinez

Liu Qian on Chinese innovation, the US rivalry and women holding up half the sky

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Illustration: Victor Sanjinez Garcia

Fuchsia Dunlop tells how she fell for China’s cuisine and names her perfect dish

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5
Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

80 years on from WWII, China’s interests lie in peaceful Asia-Pacific: Mitter

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18
Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen

‘Delusional’: Jeffrey Sachs on why Western hegemony has ended

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93
Illustration: Henry Wong

Scholar Jing Qian on right-sizing China’s economy in the age of Trump

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40
Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
MORE FROM THIS SERIES
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Iran

Video | Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader

The 56-year-old will succeed his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed by US-Israeli air strikes on Iran.

US, Israel war on Iran

Macron to visit Cyprus, French warships deployed as war in Middle East rages

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Two Sessions 2026

Is Trump’s China trip still on? Despite Iran, Wang Yi sees potential

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Two Sessions 2026

Abandon the lonely attic, join the China gym: Wang Yi to Europe

Foreign minister’s comments come at closely watched press conference on ‘two sessions’ sidelines.

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Some analysts see China’s approach in Europe as increasingly focused on engaging national governments and broader public audiences rather than Brussels. Photo: AP

Video | Beijing lays out its views on world order

Wang Yi answers questions on US ties, the Middle East, the South China Sea, Japan and Taiwan.

US, Israel war on Iran

Sri Lanka hospital discharges 22 Iranian sailors rescued after warship sinking

The sailors were treated at Karapitiya Hospital in Galle after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.

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Two Sessions 2026

Trump’s trip, Iran, G2, Japan, Taiwan: Beijing lays out its views on world order

Beijing’s top diplomat elaborates on US ties as well as issues such as the Middle East, Japan and the South China Sea.

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the press conference on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress in Beijing on March 8, 2026. Photo: Reuters
US, Israel war on Iran

Trump says he’s told Kurds not to join Iran fight: ‘war is complicated enough’

The US president says he has ruled out such action despite Kurdish forces indicating they were ‘willing to go in’.

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US, Israel war on Iran

Israel hits Iran oil facility, as PM Netanyahu warns of ‘many surprises’

This appears to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war.

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Americas and the Caribbean

Trump offers Latin American leaders US missile strikes to hit drug cartels

The US president launched a 17-nation ‘counter cartel’ coalition at his ‘Shield of the Americas’ summit.

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US President Donald Trump attends the “Shield of the Americas” summit in Miami, Florida, on Saturday. Photo: Reuters
Indonesia

Indonesia’s US trade deal faces a sovereignty reckoning at home

Nearly 80 civil groups and 65 academics have signed a petition urging parliament to block ratification of the ‘shameful’ deal.

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto (left) and US President Donald Trump at a summit in Egypt last year. Photo: AFP
Australia

Australia complains to China after encounter between military helicopters

Australia says the Chinese aircraft made an ‘unsafe’ manoeuvre, while China called the statement ‘distortions of facts’.

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Americas and the Caribbean

Trump says Cuba is going to ‘fall pretty soon’

The president has said it is ‘just a matter of time’ before the US turns to Cuba after finishing its war in Iran.

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China-Middle East relations

Opinion | US-Iran conflict puts China’s pragmatism to the test

For Beijing, the danger is less about losing Iran as a partner than losing stability in the energy-rich Middle East.

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
US-China relations

Trump sued in bid to undo approval of TikTok’s US sale

The lawsuit is the first legal challenge to the deal with China’s ByteDance, but does not seek to force a US ban on the short-video platform.

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The lawsuit argues that US President Donald Trump’s approval of the TikTok deal violates requirements ​set out in a 2024 divestiture law. Photo illustration: Reuters
United States

24 US states sue to stop Trump’s latest global tariffs

The lawsuit argues that the president cannot sidestep the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated his previous sweeping import duties.

US, Israel war on Iran

Ukraine military drone experts ‘due in Gulf soon’

There is said to be interest in anti-drone warfare not only from the US but from private and public channels in Gulf nations too.

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United States

US won’t let India become rival like China, Trump official says

Washington will not ‘make the same mistakes’ as it did with Beijing 20 years ago, the State Department’s Christopher Landau says.

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India has avoided taking sides in the widening US-Iran conflict, as it finalises a trade deal under negotiation since US President Donald Trump took office. Image: Shutterstock
US, Israel war on Iran

Trump demands Iran forces surrender or die, wants say on next leader

US president dismisses Khamenei’s son as a ‘lightweight’ and orders Iranian forces to lay down arms or face ‘guaranteed death’.

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US, Israel war on Iran

European states move to secure Red Sea navigation, protect Cyprus

Italy, ‌Spain, France and the Netherlands will send naval assets to protect Cyprus in the coming days.

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US, Israel war on Iran

US submarine strike on Iranian warship near Sri Lanka rattles the region

Experts say the strike highlights the risk of the conflict spreading into Asian waters and tests India’s careful diplomatic balancing.

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Iranian warship IRIS Dena is seen in the Bay of Bengal during the International Fleet Review held at Visakhapatnam, India, on February 18. Photo: AP
US-China relations

Opinion | China waits and watches as the US fights all its tigers at once

Far from freeing up resources to focus on China, Trump’s administration finds itself fighting fires on several fronts, sapping its resources.

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Security forces fire tear gas to disperse a protest against US and Israeli attacks on Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located, in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 2. Photo: AP
US, Israel war on Iran

US Senate rejects bid to curb Trump’s Iran war powers despite growing concerns

The bipartisan resolution, which failed by 52-47 votes, was aimed at stifling Donald Trump’s authority to continue military strikes on Iran.

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China-Germany relations

Opinion | Merz’s China visit shows pragmatic diplomacy still matters

The German chancellor’s trip to Beijing suggests that Europe can de-risk from China while still pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation.

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Russia

Russia may halt gas supplies to Europe amid Iran energy spike, Putin warns

The leader says the chaos triggered by the Iran crisis has led to the emergence of other buyers willing to pay top dollar for fuel.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday. Photo: Sputnik via EPA
War and conflict

Opinion | Pakistan’s forever war and the politics of exhaustion

What Pakistan needs is not war with Afghanistan but urgent efforts to fix its economy, security and divided society after disruptive decades.

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People gather around the coffin of an army soldier, killed in the border clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces, during a funeral prayer in a village in Lakki Marwat, a district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on February 28. Photo: AP
Pakistan

Pakistan aims to walk tightrope between Saudi Arabia and Iran as war flares

Islamabad has to navigate a tricky regional environment and manage the domestic blowback of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

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Britain

3 arrested in UK on suspicion of spying for China, including MP’s husband

They are the latest in a number of arrests in the UK of people accused of spying or causing political interference on behalf of China.

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