Israel

Academic Fan Hongda says that the Gaza-Israel war is dividing the world on the lines of whether or not they are on the side of the G7. Although there has been no large-scale military spillover yet, the political spillover of the Gaza-Israel war is obvious. For China, a stable and peaceful Middle East is what it wants most. Thus, it has a great stake in pushing for an end to the war.

Amid China's diplomatic efforts such as a visit to Beijing by Arab and Islamic countries this week, the Israel-Hamas war is bringing about a much-needed reality check on China's ambitions in the Middle East, says Jean-Loup Samaan, a senior research fellow at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore.

The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden concluded on an upbeat note, with many issues discussed albeit with no real consensus at the moment. However, this opens the door to future dialogue and communication between both sides.

As the leaders of two largest world economies meet in San Francisco this week, Fan Hongda, a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, explains why there are good reasons for the US and China to cooperate, both in the interests of international relations and bilateral ties.

China would seek to prevent a wider escalation in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. It is also monitoring whether US involvement in the conflict will affect Washington’s focus on constraining Beijing in Asia.

While the US focuses on the competitive dimension of the relationship and emphasises the need to manage competition responsibly, China stresses a win-win outcome of the relationship through cooperation, says US academic Zhu Zhiqun. Will it be “never the twain shall meet” for the US and China?

Political infighting within and between parties, a ballooning federal debt and a widening income gap; these are just some of the multitude of challenges that the US is dealing with now. However, commentator Jin Jian Guo says that even amid the chaos, the US environment that supports innovation and diverse values is what helps it thrive globally.

With the world divided on being for or against Israel or Hamas, Chinese academic Zhang Tiankan looks at why the weak are not necessarily in the right during a conflict against the strong, as some would assert.

The emerging war fatigue and the twin crises in Ukraine and Gaza have analysts weighing up the implications for Taiwan. Ultimately, the US can afford Ukraine’s failure or even let the conflict in the Middle East continue, but it will do everything possible to keep Taiwan separate from China, says US academic Zhu Zhiqun.