February 25, 2008
BLOGACTIV CYPRUS Congratulations President Christofias! The easy part is over. Now you have to face the difficult, very difficult, part. A huge weight rests on your shoulders as another failure to settle the inter-communal dispute will surely be the end of the reunification story. “The Annan Plan is dead: Long Live the Annan Plan”. The… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
February 21, 2008
The 366 page report of the Party School entitled “Storming the Fortress” was delivered shortly after the Party’s Five Year Congress in October 2007 but is only now being sold in bookshops. This is not the first Party School report pointing to systematic governance problems and grassroots anger at corruption. It reflects an ongoing debate… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
February 4, 2008
Brussels, February 2008 Rats make leaders and are fair in their dealings with others and expect the same from others in return. The Year of the Rat is a time for hard work, activity and renewal. The Earth Rat adds solidity. All these characteristics are needed if China is going to maintain… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
January 17, 2008
Reproduced below are the Contents and the Epilogue of book, edited by Etienne Reuter and myself, which has just been published. “China-EU: A Common Future“, available at amazon, contains a series of original contributions by 35 European and Chinese experts, sometimes joint and sometimes twin, discussing the key issues that are relevant to the EU-PRC… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
December 23, 2007
A two hour China-EU Summit in Beijing on 28 November was followed by a five day (and part night) negotiation between officials before the Joint Statement could be agreed. Why a 47 paragraph statement has to be issued when very little of its contents were discussed at the summit is hard to comprehend. Neither the… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
December 17, 2007
Perhaps I’m missing something, but to me Bali was a failure although not a disaster. I’m no expert on climate change but two questions bug me: What has Kyoto really achieved, after several years of negotiations and the 10 years which have since elapsed? What will the new treaty achieve at the end of a… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
December 15, 2007
European officials breathed a collective sigh of relief when they returned to Brussels after the 10th China-EU Summit on 28 November. European expectations were low and many saw damage limitation as their top priority. Frustration had increased over the trade deficit, which is rising at the hourly rate of €15m; the fall in the value… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
November 23, 2007
The implications of what happened at the 17th five-year Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will not be fully known until after the National Congress in March 2008, when the new government will finally be in place and all the new members of the State Council (ministers) appointed. Contrary to what many believe, the… » read more
Posted by admin
November 14, 2007
I commend to you Tom Friedman’s op-ed piece in today’s International Herald Tribune. Let me just offer some quotes: “Two dates – two numbers. Read them and weep for what could have, and should have, been. On Sept. 11, 2001, the OPEC basket oil price was $25.50 a barrel. On Nov. 13, 2007, the OPEC… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
October 23, 2007
The media have reported over the last couple of days on the new leadership which emerged at the end of the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, held every five years. The focus of the comments was on the nine-man (still no women) Standing Committee of the Politburo. There are differences of opinion as… » read more
Posted by Stanley Crossick
Rated 6th most influential EU blog by Waggener Edstrom. European of British nationality, for nearly 30 years Bruxellois. Deep believer in the principle of 'mutuality' and Monnet's axiom "Thought cannot be divorced from action", equivalent to Wang Yangming
