Posts published in April 2016

GENEVA — A prominent Uighur scholar who is serving a life sentence for separatism in a Chinese prison was named on Wednesday as a finalist for a prestigious human rights award for trying to promote dialogue in the troubled Xinjiang region of China. The scholar, Ilham Tohti, was chosen by the Martin Ennals Foundation, based in Switzerland, as one of three candidates for its annual prize recognizing the work of human rights defenders. The group,…

By GEETA ANAND and TENZIN TSERING NEW DELHI — The current political leader of Tibet’s exiled government, Lobsang Sangay, won re-election by a decisive majority, the election commission announced Wednesday, and he pledged to push harder for a dialogue with China to resolve the future of Tibet. “My principal objective will be to resolve the issue of Tibet through the middle way approach,” Mr. Sangay said in a telephone interview. The “middle way” approach was…

Instead of China fixing a corporate zombie problem threatening to overwhelm the world’s second largest economy, Beijing may be about to create a bigger one. That is the implicit warning in a new paper published by the International Monetary Fund late Tuesday. Authorities in China are just starting to tackle the systemic build-up of two decades of credit-fueled and state-directed growth. The IMF estimates bad corporate debt in China—obligations owed by firms whose profits can’t…

A Chinese city’s push to ban construction workers from publicly protesting unpaid wages has drawn disapproval from the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, signaling official discord over efforts to curb rising labor unrest. Criticism from the People’s Daily came after lawmakers in the central city of Zhengzhou deliberated this month proposed changes to construction-sector rules that would proscribe a range of methods commonly used by workers to claim backpay. In a Wednesday commentary, the newspaper targeted…

The writer is a postdoctoral researcher in the UK, working on cybersecurity, next-generation voting systems and virtual currencies Oil prices still hover well below the $50 mark. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is still broken. Oil producers are trying to cobble together a deal to freeze output at current (already excessively high) production levels but it seems highly unlikely to materialise. To anyone who’s been following the news, it isn’t surprising that the…

The Islamic State is expanding its reach around the globe, and its latest focus is on Bangladesh. In the newest edition of its glossy magazine, Dabiq, the head of Islamic State operations in Bangladesh, Sheikh Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, discussed the group’s goals for the country. The group has carried out some small attacks in Bangladesh, but it wants to conduct a large attack to boost its credentials among local jihadists and promote the interests of…

The writer is a retired lieutenant general of the Pakistan Army and a former federal secretary. He has also served as chairman of the Pakistan Ordnance Factories Board Pakistan is a land of sharp contrasts. General Raheel Sharif captures moral high ground by his bold actions against senior officers who have been found to be perpetrators of mega corruption. In sharp contrast, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been rather evasive in establishing an effective commission…

The writer is a Pakistani investigative journalist and academic based in Doha and Istanbul. The Afghans bled profusely last Tuesday when terrorists attacked the NDS office, the country’s intelligence agency. It was a massive security breach claiming over 64 lives and leaving dozens injured. While Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah-Abdullah was absent from the Parliament’s joint session, President Ashraf Ghani’s rare address was directed at Islamabad, alleging Pakistan played a double game. “But we want Pakistan…

Afghanistan has rarely been tidy or indeed at peace either with itself or its neighbours for most of the time it has existed as a state. It has been the victim of endless meddling by external forces and agencies for centuries, and in 2016 it once again finds itself mired in conflict, saddled with an unstable and ineffective government that was formed around an externally evolved model, and moving towards failed statehood. The Taliban insurgency…

It is unfortunate that last week’s attack in Kabul finally drove that long hovering right through the QCG (Quadrilateral Coordination Group). Ghani clearly went the extra mile to salvage matters, but pressure from the opposition, the Abdullah Abdullah faction of government, and now senior members of his own party made it impossible for him to sell the talks back home any longer. Yet it is difficult to quantify what his detractors might have achieved by…