China's Resource Risks

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

Source: https://www.ft.com/content/541f8bcb-118a-419e-869f-3273fcc9ce92 Power of Siberia 2: Significant Shift in Global Gas Markets or...

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/russia-parade-world-war-ii-putin-china-xi-trade-deal-tariffs-rcna205534 ; Sergey Bobylev /...