Stora tråden om Kina

On 2 March 1969, Chinese troops ambushed and killed a group of Soviet border
guards on Zhenbao Island, one of the many disputed islands on the Ussuri River. As
Sino-Soviet tensions heightened in the 1960s, ownership of these tiny, uninhabited,
and strategically meaningless river islands along the Ussuri, which was designated as a
boundary line between China and the Soviet Union by the 1860 Treaty of Peking,
became an issue of contention. According to Beijing, ownership of the river islands
were emblematic of broader Russian efforts, dating back hundreds of years, to expand
its territory by forcing a weak China to sign “unequal” treaties that bequeathed large
segments of Chinese territory to tsarist Russia. The Soviet Union, however, argued
that China had no legal claim to the river islands. According to Moscow, the Treaty of
Peking clearly identified the boundary line between China and the Soviet Union in
this area as running along the Chinese riverbank.

For China, the attack on Zhenbao was designed to deter future Soviet provocations.
The sharp downturn in Sino-Soviet relations, a significant Soviet military buildup in
the border region, and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and subsequent
announcement of the Brezhnev Doctrine all convinced Mao of the need to forcibly
demonstrate China’s courage, resolve, and strength in the face of what was perceived
to be a looming Soviet threat. By initiating a limited attack, flexing some muscle, and
killing a few Soviets, China sought to forcibly demonstrate that it could not be bullied,
and that a future Soviet attack would be fiercely resisted. Mao, according to this view,
wanted to teach Moscow a “bitter lesson.”

Nicaragua bryter sina diplomatiska förbindelser med Taiwan till förmån för Peking. I ett uttalande säger landets utrikesminister att ”det bara finns ett enda Kina”. Nicaragua motiverade inte beskedet närmare, men enligt AP kan det största incitamentet helt enkelt vara Kinas ökande ekonomiska och politiska makt.

Sedan 2016 har Taiwans internationella allierade sjunkit från 21 till 14.

Hong Kong's trade office in London has warned the UK's Sunday Times that its article may be illegal under Hong Kong law which forbids the incitement of an election boycott. The letter says the law is applicable internationally.

"This week was the first time we saw direct Chinese pressure on a supplier to drop Lithuanian-made goods," Vidmantas Janulevicius, the Confederation president, told Reuters. "Previously, we only had threats it could happen, now they became reality."

"We will not bend to this pressure," he said. "What we decide to do, by calling Taiwan Taiwan, is up to Lithuania, not Beijing."