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Beijing

Silent Balancing

Nepal’s new political establishment appears determined to redraw the rules of engagement with the outside world.

Fragile Momentum

China’s latest growth numbers offer reassurance at first glance, but they obscure a more uncomfortable reality: the world’s second-largest economy is increasingly reliant on external demand at precisely the moment when the global environment is turning hostile.

Last nail

Hong Kong had last year faced months of protests by those who seek greater freedoms, but the movement was sought to be stifled, first, by harsh police measures and, when they appeared to be failing, through a new security law that criminalised “secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces.”

China’s Games

A carrot-and-stick approach is needed one that would allow the Games to go forward on the condition that Beijing make specified compromises on key human rights issues involving the widespread detention of Uighurs and increasingly aggressive measures to bring its 60 million Christians to heel.

UN & Hong Kong

Its severity can be guaged from the fact that Hong Kong police arrested ten people in August in their largest operation yet under the legislation.