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
Read MoreRecent reports
Recent reports by Humphrey Hawksley for the BBC, YaleGlobal Online, Asian Affairs, and Nikkei Asian Review.
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.
Read MoreUK’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
Read MoreVietnam’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
Read MoreOn 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 […]
Read MoreTea
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
Read MoreSlavery
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 […]
Read MoreCan 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 […]
Read MoreVietnam 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 […]
Read MoreUkraine 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 […]
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