Recent reports by Humphrey Hawksley
Democracy fights back
In a business district a couple of miles from Vilnius’ Medieval Old Town, an office block sign lists organisations and companies working there. Nestled between a company called BaltCap and the big accountancy firm Price water house Coopers is the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania, a building which has lit a spark, pitting tiny Lithuania […]
If you want giant glaciers, wondrous wildlife and the adventure of a lifetime, Alaska is waiting for you
Riding in a high-speed catamaran along an Alaskan fjord, the captain asked: ‘See that glacier ahead? How far away do you think it is?’ A dozen of us on a boat tour were travelling under a cloudless blue dome of a massive sky with ice floes knocking the hull and waterfalls tumbling down hillsides on […]
Asian countries must restrain hawkish AUKUS parties
Since leaving the European Union last year, the British government has decisively pursued two strands of policy that cement its tilt toward Asia. Without much fanfare, it has applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Japan-Australia led free-trade grouping with its market of half a billion people over 11 countries. […]
Alaska’s growing global trade hub highlights booming US-Asian trade
For a few months last year, the prize for the busiest airport in the world slipped away from those great hubs of Atlanta, Hong Kong and London. The highest volume of air traffic flew in and out of the remote American city of Anchorage in southern Alaska, with a population of less than 300,000. Almost […]
Global rules against cyberattacks must be updated
The cyberattack that shut down an American East Coast pipeline underlines a global security challenge that needs urgent attention. When ransom-seeking hackers breached the pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline last Friday, they claimed they were only after money. But their success and ease of operation exposed, yet again, the fragility of civilian infrastructure to hostile forces. […]
The Cat Warrior’s Feline Diplomacy
I first met Hsiao Bi-Khim on a sidewalk during Taiwan’s 2008 election campaign. Sitting on a low plastic yellow stool, wearing a stylish white trouser suit, she was stuffing leaflets into envelopes. An elderly couple came up and greeted her. She gave them a pile, set them to work, then turned her attention to my […]
Clarity, communication… and caution
As dust settled from last month’s discordant US-China summit in Alaska, the People’s Daily published two photographs side by side. One showed the 1901 Boxer Protocol meeting in which Western powers forced their way onto Chinese soil after quelling an anti-foreign uprising. China regards those sanctions imposed on the corrupt Qing dynasty as the beginning […]
Acclaimed Chinese-born writer tackles feminism and sex
I first met the Chinese writer Hong Ying many years ago in a fashionable bookstore in London’s upmarket Chelsea district. She was surrounded by literary stars and critics, looking a little tense, yet somehow pensive, elegant, patient. A blend of curiosity and bewilderment creased her face while, just beneath, there was an expression best described […]
Striking a balance
As Donald Trump was heading out of the White House, China’s Xinhua news agency did not mince its words: ‘Good riddance to the current US administration and its final madness,’ it declared. President Xi Jinping has called for a ‘healthy and stable’ relationship with the Biden administration, one that upholds principles of ‘no conflict’ and […]
Asia could give UK the post-Brexit win it needs
The United Kingdom’s full separation from the European Union, due to begin on Jan. 1, is bound to be bumpy. But by shining a spotlight on Asia, London could address accusations that its foreign policy is adrift while underpinning its interests in a region where it has a chance of early success. With care, the […]
Europe’s Cultural Curtain
David Foster hosted Humphrey on a TRT Roundtable discussion together with Marcin Zaborowski (Editor-in-chief of Res Publica Foundation) and Agnieszka Legucka (Polish Institute of International Affairs). […]
United States of Asia
Dust had barely settled on the American presidential election when 16Asian leaders signed a trade deal encompassing a third of the world’s population in an area that accounts for 30 per cent of the global economic output. Although promoted as a pan-Asian initiative, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is regarded as being Beijing-led. With […]
The Quad – Is this the alliance to check Chinese expansion?
David Foster hosted Humphrey on a TRT Roundtable discussion together with Jagannath Panda (Manohar Parrikar Institute) and Francis Lun (CEO of GEO Securities).
Impact Journalism – Holding government and business to account
TVE Difficult Dialogues: Hidden Stories, Impact Journalism – talking about reporting human rights abuse in global supply chains such as chocolate, textiles and tea.
Foreign powers back in Asia
The array of nations lined up behind the US sends an unequivocal message that China’s time has not yet come.
The Indo-Pacific: British and Vietnamese Perspectives […]
Define China
Humphrey Hawksley on a new book that plumbs the historic foundations underlying China’s distinct identity and current conduct. Polarising rhetoric between Beijing and Washington is expected to heighten in these months leading up to November’s US presidential election. Already there is a plethora of books by experts delving into China’s military, its modern communism, its intent […]
China and its Challenge to Liberal Democracy
The terminology used to encapsulate China’ expansion is increasingly revolving around scenarios for a new Cold War. On the surface, with anti-China naval deployments to the Indo-Pacific, gulag style camps in the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang and a crackdown against political dissent in Hong Kong, comparisons to the 20th Century Cold War may seem […]
1958 – The Year America Planned to Nuke China
Did you know America was once one presidential signature away from nuking China?
A little known nail-biting story from Asian Waters in this video explainer. […]
The Genius and Flaws of the Founder of Bangladesh
Had he lived, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would have turned 100 this year and proudly seen his daughter Sheikh Hasina at the helm of his country, navigating it impressively through the complexities of the 21st century. But Mujib survived barely four years from his independence victory in 1971 to his horrific assassination, together with most of […]
Will China follow Japan’s 20th Century rise and end up destroyed? My interview with Iftikhar Gilani
Dragon Fire, a novel by British author Humphrey Hawksley, written 20 years ago depicted a war erupting between China, India and Pakistan, drawing many other countries and then escalating into a nuclear catastrophe. In the wake of the recent India-China border standoff that resulted in the killing of 20 Indian soldiers, Hawksley, a former BBC […]
A Divided World Struggles With Covid-19
Crisis often helps to lift the fog of bureaucratic process and shows institutions in their true light. That has been the case with the World Health Organization, the leading arm of the United Nations to fight a global pandemic. The Covid-19 crisis has exposed the weakness not just of the WHO but other institutions. At […]
Europe must abandon muddled thinking about China
With its unusually blunt warning to China, accusing it of exploiting COVID-19 to undermine European democracy, the EU has shown a long overdue change of mindset after years of jumbled, divisive and largely reactive policies in dealing with Beijing. The European Commission said that China, together with Russia, was responsible for an unprecedented wave of […]
US-China rivalry: Cold War 2
David Foster hosted Humphrey on a TRT Roundtable discussion together with Clete Willems (Former US Trade Negotiator), Jean-Pierre Cabestan (Political Science Professor), and Sir Simon Fraser (Former Head of UK Diplomatic Service).
India’s Red Corridor – Poulomi Basu’s visually gritty Centralia
In Centralia, the writer and photographer Poulomi Basu gives us a panorama of Chhattisgarh, a little-known area of central India, through photographs, poetry, biographical portraits and snatches of dialogue. Chhattisgarh is one of the states that make up what is known as the Red Corridor, a region running up the east of India in which Maoist insurgents […]
Set sail for the lost world of Nusantara
Lost kingdoms, stunning scenery, incredible creatures and centuries of intertwined cultures and religions … Humphrey Hawksley discovers them all on Indonesia’s islands. […]
Expelled from Sri Lanka, Death Threats in the Philippines and Cold War Espionage Thrillers
Humphrey Hawksley’s work as a BBC foreign correspondent has taken him to crises on every continent. He has been expelled from Sri Lanka, had death threats from several extreme regimes and traced Graham Greene’s footsteps in Sierra Leone. His passion for borders has influenced his writing with the Cold War and espionage prominent themes in […]
Ten of the World’s Most Enticing Borders
Borders have always fascinated me. With just one step, you can cross culture, language, food, politics and much more. Some are tense. Some are awash with welcome. Sometimes, there’s the swipe of a biometric code. Sometimes, a creaking pole across a dusty road, miles from anywhere. Here is my random list of ten unusual borders, […]
New narrative in the Indo-Pacific
Europe’s navies are returning to Asia in a move that could either inflame or help keep tensions under control. Britain and France have deployed warships to the contested South China Sea and announced that more are on their way. For the West it is a natural culmination of Donald Trump’s trade war, the European Union […]
Go Wild with the Huskies
Since childhood, I have had a fascination for borders – the more remote, strange and romantic, the better. And for years, I have wanted to speed across an expanse of snow on a sled drawn by a team of Alaskan huskies. When work took me far into the Arctic, I discovered a small company, Birk […]
China – A Less than Happy Birthday
China’s October commemoration of the Communist Party’s 70 years in power was extravagant, artistic and disciplined. It ushered in the next decade with verve reminiscent of that displayed at the 60th anniversary ten years earlier, but with one significant difference. Back then, Beijing had just hosted the lavish 2008 Olympic Games with panache and style, […]
Taiwan holds lessons for ‘good’ and ‘bad’ dictatorships
In 1979, not long after America’s Jan 1. recognition of Beijing’s Communist regime as the legitimate government of China, former U.S. President Richard Nixon returned to China and was feted as a hero for his groundbreaking visit to the Chinese capital in 1972. […]
The Arctic is Melting
Once frozen wasteland, the wild, inhospitable Arctic is becoming a contest across new frontiers. Melting ice is opening shipping routes and releasing energy resources, prompting a scramble for control and access. Competing businesses race to secure their advantage while rivals prepare for what could become a new theatre. President Vladimir Putin in his quest to […]
Beijing’s Achilles’ heels
When the Chinese leadership maps out its long-term regional and global policies, the territories of Hong Kong and Taiwan take special position. While the United States, Europe, the Belt and Road Initiative through Asia and Africa are all vital to China’s continued growth, these two cosmopolitan wealthy, educated societies represent its emotional side. Beijing regards […]
Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy is decreasing its reliance on China
Long menaced by its larger neighbor, Taiwan’s efforts to shift away from its reliance on China by increasing trade instead with other regional partners are beginning to pay both economic and political dividends. Known as the New Southbound Policy, the government of President Tsai Ing-wen is encouraging and subsidizing Taiwanese companies to move out of […]
China could display global leadership by being pragmatic, confident and relaxed and allow Hong Kong its democracy
The ongoing protests in Hong Kong offer insights into China’s flexibility of governance and its patient ability to challenge the current world order. Much has and will be written on this issue. But for an answer on how governance may unfold, consider Taiwan, which for 70 years has stood in the storm’s eye of a […]
In New York’s Chinatown, don’t mention politics
The streets in New York’s Chinatown are narrow. Packed with humanity, loud conversations and small businesses — noodle restaurants, laundries and foot massage bars — they spill out the sounds and smells of East Asia. Some 100,000 people live in this part of Manhattan Island, which lies between fashionable Tribeca and the Lower East Side, […]
Playing the long game
The re-election success of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi comes at a unique time for his country because Western democracies are continuing their inward naval-gazing and the world stage is crying out for new players with bold ideas. In his first term, Modi blazed an international trail through the sheer force of his personality and […]
How small nations can stand up to China
Beijing and Moscow haven’t always seen eye to eye. But, assisted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s belligerence, they are putting aside old suspicions and finding new opportunities for cooperation. The vast expanse of the Arctic Ocean is a case in point. Among the most significant practical achievements of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia […]
Nationalism endangers global security
Recent elections in India and Europe, societies with a range of cultures and levels of wealth, have provided further proof that the concept of a global society, with shared values, is retreating into one dominated by sovereignty and the nation state. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on his Hindu nationalist ticket, won an even bigger […]
East Asia’s weakest link
The American-led pushback against Chinese expansion has exposed a critical vulnerability in the Asia-Pacific which Washington believes needs urgent resolution. Security analysts argue that the failure of its two staunchest Asian allies, Japan and South Korea, to resolve historical grievances puts at risk long-term US regional power-projection.Until this is settled, there can be no creation […]
A window into old Southeast Asia
There is much swirling debate at the moment about the rise of China, the cohesion of Asia and the writing of an alternative world order. Whether the threat comes from North Korea’s nuclear weapons or stealth espionage through the Chinese tech giant Huawei, the global commentariat is having a field day. Their arguments range from […]
Should the West trust Chinese technology?
David Foster hosted Humphrey on a TRT Roundtable discussion together with Dr Tim Stevens lecturer in global security at King’s College London, Mary-Ann Russon technology journalist, and joining them from Taiwan, Ross Darrell Feingold, an Asia political risk analyst.
Is the West wrong about Russia?
What are we to make of Russia? A major player on the world stage undoubtedly, but what really is Putin power? And is he being unfairly painted as the bogeyman of the east? David Foster hosted Humphrey on a TRT Roundtable discussion together with Ben Nimmo, who investigates Russian disinformation campaigns at the Atlantic Council, Alexander […]
Brexit weakens Europe and is against US interests
In 1884 Commodore Stephen Luce founded the United States Naval War College arguing that the one and only way to avert war was to be fully prepared for it. A century later, Ronald Reagan took up a similar argument with his ‘peace through strength’ catchphrase that gave the West victory over Soviet communism in the […]
Asia must learn from the Brexit chaos
Once a confident nation that ran an empire on which the sun never set, Great Britain is today a fractious place, split within families, villages, Parliament and from cabinet post to cabinet post. Meanwhile, many in Asia are shaking their heads, wondering what is going on and how much they should care about or plan […]
The Currency of Power – The Future of East Asia
Asia has a geographical reach and cultural diversity unlike any other continent. It stretches east from Turkey’s Bosporus to the shores of Hawaii and south from the Russian Far East to the southern tip of East Timor, or to Antarctica if we want to take in Australia and New Zealand. Unlike with Europe, there is […]
ABC Australia interview on Late Night Live
China’s rapid expansion into the South China Sea has been a global flashpoint since 2012, after a confrontation with the Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal fishing reef. However, tensions over the disputed territories extend well into the previous century. And China’s expansion is rooted in its understanding of its 5000 year old history. As China […]
Indo-Pacific will be no pushover for China
Pity China and how swiftly the glittering beacon of its world vision has dimmed! Barely a year ago, the Beijing bankrolled Belt and Road Initiative to modernise the world with new infrastructure was capturing a global imagination. Every country, however weak and corrupt, could dream of its own cityscape skyline and high-speed railway, as long […]
Asian Values
A quarter of a century ago, an 18-year-old American student living in Singapore was sentenced to six strokes of the cane for writing graffiti on cars and stealing road signs. The United States protested the sentence’s severity, arguing Michael Fay’s punishment was too harsh for a teenage prank with no violent crime committed. Fay’s case […]
Pushback against China is on
Humphrey Hawksley tells Beverley O’Connor some smaller countries are starting to push back against China when it comes to its South China Sea ambitions. […]
A US-led Indo-Pacific alliance against China is an outdated idea
The scheduled visit by the U.S. secretaries of defense and state to India on Sept. 6 highlights Washington’s latest attempt to create a strategic Asian alliance strong enough to counter the growing influence of China. But is the unformulated plan for a “free and open Indo-Pacific” — promoted by officials from President Donald Trump down […]
Harrowing and beautiful Northeast India
Sanjoy Hazarika is a frustrated and restless native of the tea-growing state of Assam, and a highly respected human rights activist who wrestled for years over how he should write a book about his homeland. The result is a captivating analysis of a critically important area, not only of India, but also of Asia and […]
The West’s failure to reform threatens world order
Two years ago, China and Russia issued a joint declaration with the aim of throwing out an open challenge to the current US-led world order. Coming after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and a court ruling against Beijing’s claim to the South China Sea, the two governments announced bluntly in June 2016 that they would enhance […]
Europe must resist the lure of Chinese money
The attempt by China’s Three Gorges to take control of Portugal’s energy group, Energias de Portugal, highlights Beijing’s accelerating campaign to invest in Europe — and a growing push from the European Union to hold back the financial onslaught. The state-owned conglomerate, which is already the largest EDP shareholder with a 23% stake, had its […]
India’s role in reshaping the Commonwealth
After months of planning that required the most choreographed of diplomatic skills, Britain hosted a lavish visit in April for the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, followed by a summit for the 53-member Commonwealth, a large international grouping that comprises a bygone colonial power and those it had once colonised. At first glance, not much […]
Is the Commonwealth still relevant?
The Commonwealth comprises 53 nations and makes up a third of the world’s population. But what does it do and is it relevant? David Foster hosted Humphrey on a TRT Roundtable discussion together with Rita Payne of the Commonwealth Journalist Association, David Martin Jones of the School of Political Science and International Studies at Kings […]
Russia and China test Arctic boundaries
OSLO: In 2016, two seemingly unrelated incidents unfolded in remote and vulnerable parts of Europe. One view might suggest the events, efficiently swept away with quiet diplomacy, counted for little. Another considers the incidents as demonstrating Russia’s and China’s determination to test the outer boundaries of European and American resolve. There may be nothing new […]
The Jaipur Literary Festival
During avisit to the world renowned book event, Humphrey Hawksley finds a refreshing antidote to growing global concerns about threats to freedom of speech and thought For five days every January, hundreds of thousands converge on the elegant old Diggi Palace in Jaipur for the world’s biggest literary festival. A half-hour flight from Delhi, Jaipur […]
The ‘Polar Silk Road’
With a lot of fanfare, China has expanded its flagship Belt and Road Initiative to a vast swath of new territory far removed from the Middle Kingdom — the Arctic. A detailed white paper last month outlined plans for a “Polar Silk Road” that would link Asia to Europe across the frozen far north. As has […]
Brexit Britain’s troubled quest to ‘Asianize’ the Commonwealth
As the U.K. reaches a critical phase in its negotiations to leave the European Union, Theresa May’s government is engaged in a desperate hunt for alternative partners. London has seized on the Commonwealth of Nations, formed out of the British Empire, as one way of strengthening its political and economic alliances outside the EU. On […]
Democracy in Kurdistan and Catalonia
In the early 1990s, as remnants of the Berlin Wall were transformed into a tourist attraction, there was a near-unchallenged presumption that governance, through the democratic will of the people, would underpin our future. Germany, once divided by two opposing ideologies, united under the democratic banner and countries that had mostly lived under Soviet control […]
Islamist radicalisation
Humphrey Hawksley asks why Islamist radicalisation has impacted some countries more than others. When President George W Bush ordered troops into Afghanistan after the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, the word ‘radicalisation’ was rarely, if ever, mentioned. Bush argued simply that terror was evil and needed to be stopped at source to […]
Fast, Furious or Fake News
LONDON: Disasters dominate the news agenda, with recent dystopian images of hurricanes raging in the Atlantic, earthquake-fractured streets in Mexico, apocalyptic flooding in South Asia and burning villages of Rohingya Muslims in scenes reminiscent of Cambodia’s killing fields. Advancing technology has changed how disasters are reported, but what attracts attention and how we react remain […]
Lessons of the opium wars
Humphrey Hawksley reports from the Opium War museum in southern China on the impact that Britain’s invasion in 1989 has on Beijing’s foreign policy today. Lessons of the opium wars
Taiwan-China
How China handles it’s renegade province of Taiwan will not only determine its own ambition of reunification but will also be watched closely by the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Humphrey Hawksley reports from the once heavily militarised Taiwanese island of Kinmen. China Has Chance to Undercut US by Wooing Taiwan
America’s Naval War College
Humphrey Hawksley reports from America’s Naval War College which is preparing for possible wars with China and Russia and working out a strategy that might avoid them.
UK’s nuclear plant imbroglio fuels post-Brexit debate
Britain is putting down new markers on the global stage as it prepares to leave the European Union. But can it risk annoying China if it’s to succeed. Humphrey Hawksley – UK’s nuclear plant imbroglio fuels post-Brexit debate
Vietnam’s fishing war of the South China Sea
Vietnamese fishermen say they are being attacked by China with increasing regularity. Their boats have been rammed, equipment broken and crewmen beaten up. Vietnam accuses Beijing of trying to force them out of the South China Sea. Humphrey Hawksley and photographer Poulomi Basu went out on a boat with them. Beaten up by China for going fishing
On Little Diomede, American-Russian border
Two islands in the Bering Straits, one Russian, one American, are barely two miles apart. Only a few military observation posts remain on the Russian island, but a community of Eskimos lives on the US island. After the Cold War they hoped to resume regular contact with Russian relatives – but now the chances seem […]
Tea
The global tea industry is worth $20 billion a year, but on India’s tea estates millions of workers and their families suffer from hunger, disease, human rights abuse and exploitation. Marooned in an overgrown tea garden
Slavery
India’s economy is the 10th largest in the world, but millions of the country’s workers are thought to be held in conditions little better than slavery. One story – which some may find disturbing – illustrates the extreme violence that some are subjected to. They tried to escape and were punished with an axe. Punished by […]
Can Slavery End?
For the first time in 84 years, the International Labour Organization (ILO) will this week decide on reforms to its convention on forced labour. This is a global practice in which millions of workers live in a form of modern slavery. This is a global practice in which millions of workers live in a form […]
Vietnam is no easy target for China
China’s recent decision to force a showdown with Vietnam in waters around the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea tempers an argument that has gained momentum in recent months — that is, with the growing assertiveness of Russia in Ukraine and China in East Asia, a weakening U.S. is being challenged by increasingly confident […]
Ukraine crisis
Russia’s annexation of Crimea has led some to wonder whether any other former Soviet countries could follow. The separatist region of Trans-Dniester has already offered itself to Moscow – a request which Russia has promised to consider. “It’s been getting much worse in the past few months,” said a mother of two who didn’t want […]
Bricks
Humphrey Hawksley reports from the brick kilns of India where more than two million people feed the booming construction sector and economic miracle by working in conditions campaigners describe as ‘slavery.’ Their work goes into building the skyscrapers, offices and call centres, but the bricks they make are now being condemned as blood bricks. India […]
Sugar
Guatemala in Central America has one of the worst records of violence, corruption and treatment of workers. Humphrey Hawksley travels through the country asking why the European Union is now giving it new trade privileges. BBC’s Our World – Guatemala’s Sweet Deal
Gold
Humphrey Hawksley goes to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda to investigate the link between minerals, war and business. These are the raw materials used in our every day lives for computers, phones and household appliances. Humphrey asks if a little-known American law might force a change to how multi-national companies do business in […]
Cotton
Globalisation has brought the world’s goods to the west. But how can consumers be sure they are buying food and clothing manufactured without harming workers – especially children? Humphrey Hawksley travels to the cotton fields and factories of India and discovers rampant abuse and child labour. India’s exploited child cotton workers
Chocolate
For years, the chocolate industry knew their raw products were farmed in unacceptable conditions – using slavery and children. Humphrey Hawksley first exposed the cocoa scandal more than a decade ago. Returning again to the Ivory Coast, he finds children taken from their parents and forced to harvest cocoa with little evidence that chocolate makers […]