Cold War chill sweeps through China and the US

Cold War rhetoric between China and the United States is threatening to freeze relations between the world’s two leading economies, triggering the risk of a military conflict. During the past three months, the manic hyperbole emanating from Beijing and Washington has chilled the diplomatic atmosphere amid the Covid-19 pandemic and rising tensions in the South and the East China seas. Read More

Curious revival of Myanmar’s rag-tag Rohingya rebels

As armed conflict rages between the insurgent Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, killing scores of civilians and displacing tens of thousands in incessant artillery and air strikes in Rakhine and Chin states, another largely forgotten armed group has re-entered the fray. Read More

China squeezes debt repayments from virus-hit nations

Amid the psychological rubble of the Covid-19 crisis, strands of China’s ‘New Silk Roads’ have been fused into a web of debt. What was a high-risk game of loans is now threatening cash-strapped countries as they struggle to combat the deadly coronavirus outbreak. In short, the Belt and Road Initiative has gone from the jewel in Beijing’s foreign policy crown to what many see as a poison chalice during a catastrophic world event. Read More

Korean entrepreneur has silver bullet for Covid-19

Romi Haan is a mini whirlwind of energy as she bustles about her showroom and talks about her latest product line, one that was years in development but precision-engineered for the Covid-19 era. The headquarters of Haan Corporation is set in a grim industrial suburb in southern Seoul, but the showroom is made up of a bright, modern kitchen-living room. Read More

Nationalism trumps cooperation in virus vaccine race

China has emerged as the leading contender to produce a Covid-19 vaccine as concerns grow that nationalism and commercial interests could frustrate efforts to ensure equal access to an eventual treatment. With three vaccine candidates approved for human testing — from consortia led by CanSino Biologics, Sinovac and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products — Beijing may have the biggest say in that process. Read More

India’s miserly response a path to viral collapse

Unlike the trillion dollar measures rolled out by the United States and Japan, India is putting forward a comparatively miserly US$25 billion in government support for its coronavirus-hit economy. It’s not clear to most analysts, however, that will be enough to stave off an economic collapse. Read More

Free rein for China’s navy as virus halts US ships

China’s navy has been flexing its muscles by conducting drills and sending its two aircraft carriers through the Taiwan Strait, into the South China Sea and the Pacific as the US and Taiwanese navies struggle with coronavirus outbreaks aboard their ships. Read More

From the archives

‘Monster germ’ threat comes under the microscope: With the outbreak of Covid-19, the time may be ripe to revisit the role of the UN Biological Weapons Convention.

Why Vietnam won and US lost their Covid-19 wars: America's Covid-19 death toll surpasses number of Vietnam War fatalities while its ex-battlefield foe reports no virus deaths to date.

China drops a Covid-19 gauntlet on Australia: Beijing threatens punitive trade measures to quiet Canberra's rising call for an independent probe into Covid-19's origin.

What Asia Times staff are reading

The subatomic age: Asia's quantum computing arms race: Huawei and Alibaba are among the tech giants pouring money into development.

Coronavirus Survivors Want Answers, and China Is Silencing Them: The police have threatened and interrogated grieving relatives.

In Rural Afghanistan, Taliban Gingerly Welcome Girls Schools: What’s different this time, villagers say, is many of the fighters’ own sisters and daughters are attending.