China's Resource Risks

This article was originally published in The Diplomat today https://thediplomat.com/2026/05/russia-and-the-china-us-summit/ Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet with China’s top leader Xi Jinping in Beijing soon after the China-U.S. summit on May 14-15. Do these back-to-back visits indicate a new phase of triangular diplomacy? Unlike Nixon-era China-U.S. summits, where U.S. and Chinese leaders sought to use their rapprochement to further isolate the Soviet Un

Photo: https://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/25/c_138009515.htm On April 12th, Viktor Orbán—Hungary’s strongman leader for the past 16 years—was defeated resoundingly at the polls. A thorn in the side of the European Union, Orbán also was China’s most important friend in Europe and the first European country to sign a Belt and Road Initiative agreement. One week later, the election in Bulgaria of Rumen Radev as prime minister—typically portrayed as “pro-Russian” and a “

Days after the US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28, 2026, the Chinese government published the draft of its 15 th Five-Year Plan for the PRC economy, which outlines key economic benchmarks for the next five-year economic cycle. Building new energy infrastructure is a key priority and among the projects listed there was a intriguing sentence about “advancing preliminary work” on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline from Russia to China. Gi

Days after the US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28, 2026, the Chinese government published the draft of its 15 th Five-Year Plan for the PRC economy, which outlines key economic benchmarks for the next five-year economic cycle. Building new energy infrastructure is a key priority and among the projects listed there was a intriguing sentence about “advancing preliminary work” on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline from Russia to China. Gi

The Xue Long Polar-Capable Research Vessel. Photo : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese_icebreaker_Xue_Long.jpg In January we visited the Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia which exhibits the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Arctic patrol vessel, the St. Roch , the second vessel to transit the Northwest Passage (in 1940-42) after Roald Amundsen’s pioneering voyage (1903-06). The RCMP St. Roch in the Vancouver Harbour; Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org

Massive anti-regime protests in Iran and recent diplomacy concerning North Korea provide an opportunity to revisit the “axis of authoritarians” argument. Supporters of this argument see the consolidation of an anti-Western axis in the deepening ties among the world’s top non-western autocrats, especially China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, especially since Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine. The reality is more complex. On North Korea, there’s no doubt that