Golden, serene, and its belly polished smooth by tens of thousands of hands. This Chinese-style statue — the Laughing Buddha — absorbed the touch of students before exams, brides before weddings, and ministers before late-night negotiations. For more than 30 years, the Buddha stood guard at the entrance of Sea King, Solomon Islands’ most famous…
In 1942 the ridges of Guadalcanal saw hand-to-hand combat between American marines and Japanese soldiers. On September 10th the island will host another geopolitical tussle—when leaders of Pacific island countries as well as Australia and New Zealand meet in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, for their annual summit. PREMIUM In this undated handout…
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday threatened action against Panama without immediate changes to reduce Chinese influence on the canal, but the country’s leader insisted he was not afraid of a US invasion and offered talks. On his first trip overseas as the top US diplomat, Rubio took a guided tour of the…
When Joe Biden arrives in Angola on Monday on his first African visit as US president, he is likely to land at a China-built airport and then be driven along a highway also built or financed by China. That goes to show how deep Chinese influence runs in Angola, where post-civil war reconstruction was largely…