Dear China watchers,
Thanks again for continuing to tune in to our newsletter. This edition will be a little different from our past posts. But first, we’d like to take a few minutes to acknowledge the sprawling protests happening in China now. As one of us has personal ties to the Chinese people, we’ve both been watching the uprisings in agony. We hope for a positive result for the citizens and that everyone will be safe.
Now for a small announcement: We won’t be publishing anything in December during the holiday season. But we’re not going too far—we’ll still be active on our social media channels throughout the month. Give us a follow to stay connected :)
We started writing this newsletter about three months ago and are humbled by the support we’ve received. Our readership now spans from Ukraine to Japan to the U.S. and Canada where we are based. It’s also encouraging to see policy analysts, government workers, and fellow journalists reading our content. As always, if you have any feedback, please get in touch. You can drop us a message here. Our goal is to make the MiddlePowers a useful resource for you.
If you’re new here or you’d like to refresh your memory for some holiday-party talking points, we’ve got you covered. Here are some of our best earlier posts:
This is a world roundup from early November where we shared what we learned from an information request we filed to the Canadian government. Access to Information and Privacy or ATIP gives people the right to access records of government institutions(most democracies have similar mechanisms.) Obtaining the information takes time and much back-and-forth with the government, but it’s really valuable. Why? It gives us a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a Westminster system. Other than the ATIP result, we also took a close look at how Beijing interacted with the middle powers in Africa at the global climate change summit, COP27.
In October, we spotted a tearful interview with Japanese pro-Beijing personality Inji Suzuki, who was imprisoned in China for six years. We also looked at one of many hallmark deals signifying closer China-Saudi Arabia relations.
3. Our long-time readers know that we monitor what Canadian politicians are saying about Sino-Canadian relations. In this earlier edition, we walk you through all you need to know about the Parliament’s vote on Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Organization last October, including who abstained, and the history of Canada’s stance on the issue.
Researchers and policymakers in the middle powers, are you wondering about what can be done to protect public discourse from China’s influence operations? In this Q&A, we had a great conversation with ASPI’s South Pacific analyst Blake Johnson. Click to read what he thinks democracies can learn from China’s disinformation campaign in the Solomon Islands:
For a look at our entire archive, click here.
We are planning a comeback in the new year with updated content formats. While we brainstorm, you can help us by answering this question: Would you prefer listening to or reading news? Let us know in the poll below.
Had we sent this email a couple of months ago, we would have also asked you to count on our Twitter for updates. But there’s no guarantee that our account, along with the rest of the Twitterverse, won’t disappear under Elon Musk’s care. We’ll leave our Instagram here so you can find us easily, just in case that happens. We’ll post updates there until we find a better platform. In the meantime, we hope Meta doesn’t get bought out by another wild billionaire.
See you in the new year.
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