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Fast Money & Foreign Objects
China Restores Coal Tariffs in Threat to Russian Exporters
China has restored import levies on coal from the beginning of the year, a move that could threaten Russian exporters dependent on the world’s largest market for the fuel.
www.bloomberg.com
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
‘Might get worse’: As Modi unveils Ram temple, Indian Muslims fear future
As a celebratory atmosphere envelops much of India, many among its 200 million Muslims wonder what’s next for them.
Wasn't there a partition so the Muslims keep Pakistan and Hindus get India? India will always be the birth place of Hinduism and they have an obligation to keep it that way for their children and future generations.‘Might get worse’: As Modi unveils Ram temple, Indian Muslims fear future
As a celebratory atmosphere envelops much of India, many among its 200 million Muslims wonder what’s next for them.www.aljazeera.com
Washington Post: Russia aims to create new world order via alliance with China
Russia is attempting to deepen its economic and diplomatic ties with China and the Global South to allow it to challenge the international financial system dominated by the U.S. and to undermine the West, the Washington Post (WP) reported.
Washington Post: Russia aims to create new world order via alliance with China
Sat, January 27, 2024 at 2:14 PM EST
Russia is attempting to deepen its economic and diplomatic ties with China and the Global South to allow it to challenge the international financial system dominated by the U.S. and to undermine the West, the Washington Post (WP) reported.
The Kremlin convened meetings in 2022 and 2023 to find ways to dismantle the post-World War II global financial system and undermine the U.S.' power over global transactions, documents obtained by the Washington Post showed.
“One of the most important tasks is to create a new world order,” one of the documents dated April 3, 2023, reportedly said.
“Western countries led by the United States have tried to impose their own structure, based on their dominance.”
While Beijing has supported Moscow diplomatically and economically despite the West's push to isolate Russia, although it has thus far appeared to refrain from providing direct military assistance.
Another document, reportedly written by a close ally of Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, advocated for more cooperation between China and Russia on artificial intelligence and cyber systems.
The document reportedly envisioned a new financial system and a Eurasian digital currency based on alternative payment systems between Russia and China to bypass the U.S. dominance of global financial transactions through the dollar.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russia aimed at undermining the U.S. dominance of the global financial system, but he admitted the Kremlin wanted to create an alternative.
Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a meeting in March that Russia planned to continue its war against Ukraine for “at least five years,” Nikkei Asia reported on Dec. 28, citing its anonymous sources.
The article follows media reports suggesting that Putin may be ready for a ceasefire in case Russia keeps the territories it illegally occupies in Ukraine, while the West's strategy on supporting Ukraine is leaning towards preparing conditions for Kyiv-Moscow talks.
Putin's statement likely meant to imply that a prolonged war would benefit Russia and warn Xi not to change his pro-Russian stance, the media outlet added.
Xi traveled to Moscow on March 20 at Putin's invitation for his first state visit to Russia since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Read also: Russia, China and North Korea have new dynamics. And it’s bad for Ukraine
We’ve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
Evergrande’s liquidation is a new low in China’s property crisis — The Economist
A judge in Hong Kong surprises the mainland
apple.news
India deploys unprecedented naval might near Red Sea to rein in piracy
Krishn KaushikJanuary 31, 20248:40 AM ESTUpdated 4 hours ago
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visits Tehran
Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian meets with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, in Tehran, Iran January 15, 2024. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
NEW DELHI, Jan 31 (Reuters) - India has deployed at least a dozen warships east of the Red Sea to provide security against pirates and has investigated more than 250 vessels as Western powers focus on attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis, Indian officials said.
India has not joined the U.S.-led task force for the Red Sea and does not have any warships there. But it currently has two frontline warships in the Gulf of Aden and at least 10 warships in the northern and western Arabian Sea, along with surveillance aircraft, the officials said.
This is India's largest deployment in the region, they said.
Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said India's growing capability, interests and reputation warranted its help in difficult situations.
"We will not be considered a responsible country when bad things are happening in the surrounding country and we say 'I have got nothing to do with this',” he said at a public event on Tuesday.
Other countries have a naval presence in the region, including the United States, France and China, but Indian officials say India's presence is the largest.
Indian military and defence officials said that navy personnel, including special commandos, have investigated more than 250 vessels and small boats in the last two months, boarding more than 40, as piracy returns after a six-year absence.
At least 17 incidents of hijacking, attempted hijacking and suspicious approaches had been recorded by the Indian Navy since Dec. 1, they said.
Yemen's Houthis have since November attacked ships in the Red Sea, part of a route that accounts for about 12% of the world's shipping traffic, in what they say is an effort to support Palestinians in the war with Israel.
A U.S.-led task force is protecting vessels within the Red Sea and launched attacks across Yemen targeting Houthi forces this month.
But Indian experts said that the conflict is spilling beyond the Red Sea.
"Houthis and piracy are disconnected. But pirates are trying to use this opportunity as the West's efforts are focused on the Red Sea," a navy official said on condition of anonymity.
An Indian Navy spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The Indian Navy is doing classic police work, Harsh Pant, a foreign policy expert at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think tank, said.
It rescued two Iranian and helped rescue a Sri Lankan fishing vessels in the first two days of this week. In December, it helped two merchant vessels targeted by aerial strikes close to India's Exclusive Economic Zone.
Two Indian officials said that Iran-made Shahed 136 drones were used in the December attacks without blaming Tehran, which had immediately dismissed U.S. accusations linking it to those attacks. Jaishankar visited Iran this month and raised the issue of maritime security.
"As a regional security provider, (the Indian Navy) is increasingly showcasing the ability to be able to protect not only its interests but also give confidence to regional players that it is willing and able to shoulder regional responsibility," Pant said.
Reporting by Krishn Kaushik; Editing by Nick Macfie
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Russia, China and Iran could target UK via Irish ‘backdoor’, thinktank warns
Policy Exchange report highlights security threat and accuses Dublin of ‘freeloading’ on European defence
Ben Quinn
Warships from Russia's Black Sea fleet strung with flags
Russian warships. The report said the UK and Ireland were vulnerable to an ‘acute maritime menace’ from Russia. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Britain faces a “backdoor” threat to its security from a Russian, Chinese and Iranian presence in the Republic of Ireland, according to a report by an influential thinktank that accuses Dublin of “freeloading” when it comes to European defence.
The UK should also expand its air and naval presence in Northern Ireland, to counter a growing Russian threat on the UK’s western flank, according to the Policy Exchange report, which is backed by two former defence secretaries, Michael Fallon and George Robertson.
The UK and Ireland are at risk from an “acute maritime menace” posed by a Russian doctrine of targeting undersea networks and pipelines and the presence of Russian warships, they say in a foreword to the paper.
Concerns about Russian intelligence operations in Ireland and its vulnerability to cyber-attack are also highlighted in the report, which cites what it describes as an “inordinately large Russian diplomatic outfit in Dublin”.
The embassy had 30 members of staff in 2022, which was more than many other European states with which Russia had closer ties at the time.
Other evidence cited included Russian attempts to expand the embassy significantly, a move blocked in 2020 when the Irish government revoked planning permission on the grounds it was “likely to be harmful to the security and defence of the state”.
China is another significant concern due to its rapid technological advancements and global influence.
Meanwhile Ken McCallum, the director general of MI5, has said Iran stands out as the state that “most frequently crosses into terrorism”. UK authorities uncovered at least 10 potential threats last year related to kidnapping or harming UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the Iranian regime.
It was an “unavoidable fact” that Ireland had “freeloaded” off the investment of others who were part of Nato, said the report, which added that this “home truth” had been admitted last year by the then taoiseach, Micheál Martin, as a discussion about Irish neutrality deepened.
Discussions about neutrality among Ireland’s political classes have sharpened in the era of Russian aggression under Vladimir Putin, the arrival of Ukrainian refugees, incursions by Russian ships that are suspected of mapping underwater cables, and a 2021 ransomware attack by suspected Russian gangs on the health service.
Ireland’s president has rebuked the government for launching a debate about the country’s longstanding military neutrality and the possibility of joining Nato, saying ministers were “playing with fire”.
The report tried to sound an alarm bell about the consequences of Sinn Féin winning Irish elections in 2025.
“If Sinn Féin wins in 2025, the UK is therefore looking at many more years of an uncooperative, and likely hostile, neighbour in the face of growing external threats,” it said. While Sinn Féin had been on the rise in the Republic and now holds the post of first minister in Northern Ireland, it has slumped in polls south of the border.
Fallon and Lord Robertson, a former Nato secretary general, welcomed the fact that Ireland had been reviewing its defence outlook – as Sweden and Finland have also moved away from neutrality – and called on the UK to encourage its neighbour to strengthen defences and build on a UK-Ireland defence agreement signed in 2015.
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
China’s leaders are flailing as markets drop — The Economist
The government is not used to being bullied
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China, Russia and Iran to hold drills as Middle East tensions flare: admiral
Top Iranian naval official reportedly confirms joint exercise will be held before end of March as US-led coalition launches new strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
www.scmp.com
ADevilYouKhow
Rhyme Reason
ETHER 
Beijing’s Passive-Aggressive Middle East Policy
China doesn’t aspire to lead the world, much less to establish peace, but only to undermine the U.S.
Will China broker a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? It is a question nobody is asking, because the answer is obvious—not a chance.Yet after Beijing hosted Iran-Saudi talks that led those two rivals to re-establish diplomatic relations in March 2023, some observers wondered if China had supplanted the U.S. as the Middle East’s diplomatic broker. Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, China has put such illusions to rest: Beijing seeks not to be a leader, much less to establish peace and stability, but merely to undermine the U.S. 
As Beijing realized the benefits of wooing the Mideast’s most dynamic economy, it recognized that supporting the PLO was a liability.
While Chinese policy didn’t exactly become pro-Israel, it sought the safe ground of inoffensive diplomatic pablum. China’s 2021 four-point proposal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reads like a ChatGPT summary of every think-tank piece on the subject.
Beijing revealed its true goals, however, with its checkbook. In 2021 Beijing announced a donation of only $1 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza
—less than many Western businesses gave in the name of corporate social responsibility. That same year, China invested more than $2 billion in Israel. 
Yet with the rise of U.S.-China hostilities in recent years, Beijing’s tune on Israel has shifted—and vice versa. After initially touting its economic partnership with China, the Israeli government—prodded in part by Washington—began to install guardrails against Chinese investment in sensitive Israeli infrastructure projects as well as on the transfer of dual-use technology. Trade and investment between the countries has fallen as Jerusalem has come to see Beijing less as a backup great-power patron and more as a security threat.
At the same time, China began to regard Israel as collateral damage in its rivalry with the U.S. During the 2021 Gaza conflict, Beijing used its chairmanship of the United Nations Security Council to blast the U.S. for “standing on the opposite side of mankind’s conscience and morality” by supporting the Jewish state. Israel subsequently joined a statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council that condemned China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.
China has since doubled down on such actions. Beijing has allowed antisemitism to flourish in Chinese media,
especially social media, while declining to condemn Hamas outright or allow information on the Oct. 7 attacks to be freely disseminated within its borders. 
Meanwhile the Yemen-based Houthis have mounted attacks on commercial shipping through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea—which one might hope Beijing would see as a threat to its economic interests. Yet China’s naval vessels, present in the region as an “antipiracy” task force, sit idle. 
Its diplomats abstained from a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the strikes, 
and Beijing has paired its belated calls for the attacks’ cessation with criticism of the U.S.-led response.
A China that aimed to replace the U.S.-led international order with one of its own devising might see the Gaza conflict as an opportunity to act. The Brics bloc of emerging economies—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization could organize a peace effort.
China’s navy could escort container ships through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait after, say, a stern phone call from Beijing to Tehran. A China interested in being the region’s go-to diplomatic broker would be cultivating Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which is ideologically at odds with the Biden White House, in hopes that Jerusalem might turn to Beijing as an alternative patron.
But China is doing none of that.Its conduct shows that it is less interested in the success of its own initiatives than in the failure of Washington’s. The real threat to U.S. interests in the Mideast isn’t rising Chinese influence but the erosion of our own. What Beijing wants isn’t a world led by China, but simply one not led by the U.S. Washington shouldn’t accept that.
Beijing’s Passive-Aggressive Middle East Policy
China doesn’t aspire to lead the world, much less to establish peace, but only to undermine the U.S.
Will China broker a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? It is a question nobody is asking, because the answer is obvious—not a chance.
Yet after Beijing hosted Iran-Saudi talks that led those two rivals to re-establish diplomatic relations in March 2023, some observers wondered if China had supplanted the U.S. as the Middle East’s diplomatic broker. Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, China has put such illusions to rest: Beijing seeks not to be a leader, much less to establish peace and stability, but merely to undermine the U.S. As Beijing realized the benefits of wooing the Mideast’s most dynamic economy, it recognized that supporting the PLO was a liability.
While Chinese policy didn’t exactly become pro-Israel, it sought the safe ground of inoffensive diplomatic pablum. China’s 2021 four-point proposal on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reads like a ChatGPT summary of every think-tank piece on the subject.Beijing revealed its true goals, however, with its checkbook. In 2021 Beijing announced a donation of only $1 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza—less than many Western businesses gave in the name of corporate social responsibility. That same year, China invested more than $2 billion in Israel. Yet with the rise of U.S.-China hostilities in recent years, Beijing’s tune on Israel has shifted—and vice versa. After initially touting its economic partnership with China, the Israeli government—prodded in part by Washington—began to install guardrails against Chinese investment in sensitive Israeli infrastructure projects as well as on the transfer of dual-use technology. Trade and investment between the countries has fallen as Jerusalem has come to see Beijing less as a backup great-power patron and more as a security threat.
At the same time, China began to regard Israel as collateral damage in its rivalry with the U.S. During the 2021 Gaza conflict, Beijing used its chairmanship of the United Nations Security Council to blast the U.S. for “standing on the opposite side of mankind’s conscience and morality” by supporting the Jewish state. Israel subsequently joined a statement to the U.N. Human Rights Council that condemned China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.
China has since doubled down on such actions. Beijing has allowed antisemitism to flourish in Chinese media,
especially social media, while declining to condemn Hamas outright or allow information on the Oct. 7 attacks to be freely disseminated within its borders. Meanwhile the Yemen-based Houthis have mounted attacks on commercial shipping through the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea—which one might hope Beijing would see as a threat to its economic interests. Yet China’s naval vessels, present in the region as an “antipiracy” task force, sit idle. Its diplomats abstained from a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the strikes, and Beijing has paired its belated calls for the attacks’ cessation with criticism of the U.S.-led response.A China that aimed to replace the U.S.-led international order with one of its own devising might see the Gaza conflict as an opportunity to act. The Brics bloc of emerging economies—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization could organize a peace effort.
China’s navy could escort container ships through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait after, say, a stern phone call from Beijing to Tehran. A China interested in being the region’s go-to diplomatic broker would be cultivating Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which is ideologically at odds with the Biden White House, in hopes that Jerusalem might turn to Beijing as an alternative patron.But China is doing none of that.
Its conduct shows that it is less interested in the success of its own initiatives than in the failure of Washington’s. The real threat to U.S. interests in the Mideast isn’t rising Chinese influence but the erosion of our own. What Beijing wants isn’t a world led by China, but simply one not led by the U.S. Washington shouldn’t accept that.