China could beat the world in the robotics frontier of technological competition – by solving the hardest problem in the industry – making human-like robotic hands. The hand is one of the most complex parts of the human body. That complexity, comprised of nimble, nerve-filled appendages, has turned out to be a great problem in […]
On 17 June 2026, I represented the Development Watch Center at a Seminar on commemorating 70 years of China-Africa and China-Arab Diplomatic Relations: Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future. Organised by the government of China, this was a high-level gathering reflecting on the diplomacy that has aged seven decades, and also charting a […]
Historical imagery is filled with cinematic circumstances around the surrender of a global power by a contending new hegemon. Great Britain became the foremost global empire following the Napoleonic Wars, having obtained naval supremacy and colonial prominence over France. Having ruled from 1878 to 1918, the Ottoman Empire surrendered to European powers at the Berlin […]
At the recent celebration of Africa Day on 25th May, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hosted African diplomats and envoys in Moscow. Beyond its ceremonial trappings, this meeting carried weight worth the thought of every keen foreign affairs mind. At the event, Lavrov delivered a message on behalf of President Vladimir Putin directed to […]
China is leading the invention of non-Western international relations theories. With the expansion of its international influence and the growth of its national potency, it is transforming from the traditional Western experience that shaped most of the international relations discipline worldwide. Beijing recognises the preponderance of developing an independent knowledge production system as it charts […]
It is 2022. France makes military withdrawals from one West African country to another. This expulsion of a former colonial power is against its terms. First, Mali, then Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad. France faced a cascading termination of military agreements in all. Before Paris could catch its breath, the Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, […]
Almost going unnoticed to the unkeen Ugandan journalistic eye, there is a diplomatic routine between the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It happens every few years, when senior government officials of the ruling NRM welcome a delegation of high-ranking members of the CCP. Sometimes the reception is reciprocated in Beijing. […]
In the global governance discourse, Western epistemological colonisation has led us to believe, unquestioningly, that electoral democracy is the only process through which a political system can gain legitimacy. I disagree. China is one country whose political leadership challenges the applicability of democracy in a universal fashion, as an obvious truism. The Chinese Communist Party […]
As I write this, one country is leading the world in application of robotics, not just on earth, but also on the moon. China’s robots are currently scrubbing the surface of the moon, harvesting and returning materials of scientific experiments. China is still the only nation to have performed robotic rendezvous and docking at the […]
China's Qinghai Province hosts the world's largest solar power plant, Gonghe Talatan Solar Park. Experts claim that at full capacity, it can power a country such as Norway. Sprawling across China’s deserts is not just sand but also vast solar and wind projects. Both the world’s largest solar plants and wind farms are all located in China. China invests an average of $940 billion in clean energy technology per year. In comparison, China invests almost as much in renewable energy……
