Korean ramen, Thai food and Japanese sushi

Edible Geopolitics: How Asian Cuisine is Leveraging Soft Power to Wield Cultural Influence

At a time when global consumers are increasingly drawn to wellness-oriented and sustainable diets, South Asian culinary traditions, particularly those rooted in India’s Ayurveda, offer significant potential. However, without institutional backing, this remains diffused cultural capital rather than strategic influence.

The Rise of the E-Dragon: China’s Dominance in an Electrified World and Lessons for India

The China tale offers important lessons. China’s rise in the renewable sector is not just fuelled by demand for clean energy, but by a broader strategy, linking energy policy with manufacturing, technology development and global trade. India now seems to have begun taking steps in this direction. Policy measures such as the production-linked incentives scheme for solar manufacturing and efforts to expand domestic battery production are intended to strengthen the country’s clean energy ecosystem.

China Tightens a Strategic Arc Around India's Northeast - With Expanding Leverage in Myanmar and Bangladesh

China’s expanding influence in Myanmar and Bangladesh does not operate in isolation. It is reinforced by Beijing’s long-standing strategic partnership with Pakistan, frequently described by both sides as an “all-weather” alliance. In recent years, Islamabad has sought to revive and expand diplomatic engagement with both Dhaka and Naypyidaw, reflecting a broader effort to re-establish its presence along the eastern arc of the Bay of Bengal. While Pakistan lacks China’s financial scale or infrastructure capacity, its diplomatic signalling complements Beijing’s presence

Galwan’s Lesson For India: When Restraint Fails, Deterrence Must Be Restored

Officially, India maintained that no territory was lost. Strategically, however, many analysts described the situation as a shift in the status quo—an altered operational environment in which access, patrolling patterns and tactical depth were recalibrated.

More on Indo Pacific - China Watch

Chinese Embassy says US official’s speech to defame Sino-Pak ties

The Chinese Embassy in Islamabad termed the speech of US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells totally baseless and attempt to defame Sino-Pak relations and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

Maldivian MP calls for loans from China for economic resurgence

MP for Maradhoo Ibrahim Shareef has called on the government to obtain loans from China to repair the damage caused to the economy of the country and the financials of the state due to COVID-19

Concerned nations must ally to contain China

Action against China can be on the economic front and/or military front. Action on the economic front primarily means to stop all imports from China to the extent possible, writes Vinod Aggarwal for South Asia Monitor

Nepal Army procures essential medical equipment from China

A wide-body aircraft of Nepal Airlines carrying 18.84 tons of medical equipment arrived in the capital from Guangzhou of China, on Tuesday morning

Chinese company donates PPEs, other equipment to Maldives

China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), on Thursday, donated PPEs and other protective equipment to several Maldivian institutions involved in efforts to curb the spread of the new coronavirus in Maldives

Indian forces accuse Chinese troops of blocking patrols

Indian armed forces have accused the Chinese People's Liberation Army of blocking patrols and unnecessarily erecting tents and deploying forces at Sikkim and Ladakh inside Indian territory on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two countries

Xi offers Hasina Chinese experts to fight COVID-19

Chinese President Xi Jinping has offered Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a team of coronavirus experts as COVID-19 cases and death toll from the disease continue to surge in Bangladesh

Chinese power scams under CPEC cause loss of $630mn to Pak

In an effort to explore the causes for the steep cost of electricity in Pakistan, the Imran Khan government has unearthed a scam of over $630 million involving power projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

Pompeo hailed for asking China to release Tibetan holy monk

Tibet's self-declared government-in-exile President Lobsang Sangay on Tuesday thanked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for making a strong call to China for the release of the second-highest holy monk, the Panchen Lama

Trump threatens to pull top funder US out of WHO over China

Accusing the World Health Organisation of “alarming lack of independence from” China, US President Donald Trump has threatened to pull out of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and end its financing if it did not institute reforms within a month and end its subservience

274 students brought back from China

As many as 274 Pakistani students stranded in the Chinese city of Wuhan arrived at Islamabad International Airport (IIA) on a special flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Monday

PLA muscle-flexing part of exercise to shape the environment in China’s favour

A major aim of China’s aggressive actions is to derail demands at the United Nations for independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. This has led to muscle-flexing all over,  writes Lt Gen P. C. Katoch (retd) for South Asia Monitor

'Wuhan Diary' releases in India in ebook format

The much-talked-about 'Wuhan Diary: Dispatches from a Quarantined City' by well-known Chinese literary writer Fang Fang, has released in India in the ebook format

China rejects India’s objection to dam in Gilgit-Baltistan

China on Friday rejected India’s objection to the construction of Diamer-Bhasha dam in the Gilgit-Baltistan region - whose sovereignty is contested by India - saying that the economic cooperation between China and Pakistan was aimed at promoting development and improving the well-being of the local population

Time to strengthen Quad to counter China’s influence

There is a geopolitical dimension to the COVID-19 tsunami that continues to leave in its wake thousands of deaths across the world