Categories
All posts

The West Courts Central Asia as New Cold War Intensifies

In April, British foreign minister and former prime minister David Cameron travelled to all five Central Asian republics – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan – plus Mongolia, with the goal of reinforcing Western influence in the region. While in Britain much of the coverage has focused on Cameron’s decision to burn £42 million in […]

Categories
All posts

The US military has used illegal spy balloons for decades

On Feb. 4th the United States shot down a Chinese high-altitude balloon after it sailed over the United States over the course of several days. The Biden administration claimed it was a surveillance balloon, while the Chinese government called it an “unmanned civilian airship used mainly for meteorological research purposes” that had strayed off course […]

Categories
All posts Interviews

How China escaped shock therapy in the 1980s. Interview with Isabella M. Weber

Note from LeftEast editors. This article was originally published in Czech language on June 2, 2022, on Alarm. We publish it as part of a cooperation among Eastern European leftist media platforms in ELMO (Eastern European Left Media Outlet). Interview with political economist, expert on China and author of the award-winning book about debates in 1980s when the […]

Categories
All posts Protests

Rio Linglong: Eco Uprising in Serbia

Note from LeftEast editors: We translate this article by Nenad Glišić, which appeared in Bilten on November 24, 2021. It is the first text in a series of interventions LeftEast will publish on developments Serbia since last week. The article was republished as part of a cooperation between Eastern European leftist media platforms in ELMO (Eastern European Left […]

Categories
All posts Insert Solidarity Call

Foreign workers in Zrenjanin forced to live in extremely poor accomodation

We repost Marko Miletić’s article published by Mašina. In Serbia, near Zrenjanin, local journalists recently found out that about 500 workers from Vietnam were hired to build the Linglong tire factory in that town. These migrant workers were housed in barracks, under inhuman circumstances, lacking heating, warm clothes, and potable water. Suspecting that these construction workers […]

Categories
All posts

How to understand Chinese investments in EE beyond the “China threat” narrative

Note from LeftEast editors: This article is published in a collaboration with Eastern-European leftist media platforms ELMO – East Left Media Outlet. A panel discussion organized by the Transnational Institute will address aspects of Chinese investments in Eastern Europe which are not grasped by mainstream accounts Experts will discuss key political-economic issues regarding Chinese investments […]

Categories
All posts

The role of Chinese capital in the present Hungarian regime of accumulation: A context to the present political controversy over the Fudan University

Recent Chinese investments in Hungary have made waves in the international liberal press as part of Transatlantic narratives of hegemonic anxiety. These see Hungary’s “democratic backslide” and “flirtation” with Russia and China in the context of a new Cold War imaginary, defined through Huntingtonian characteristics of politico-cultural belonging. These interpretations have recently found their perfect […]

Categories
All posts

Questioning dominant accounts of Chinese investments in Eastern Europe and Eurasia

I am no expert of Chinese infrastructure investments in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. I have only been systematically going through existing research on the topic lately to find, much to my disappointment, that most of academic discourse on the topic (let alone media and political narratives) is devoid of critical approaches (exceptions apply, see: Gambino, […]

Categories
All posts

Albania and China: the reemergence of an old friendship?

  Note from the LeftEast editors: this piece has been published in cooperation with the Serbo-Croatian Left portal Bilten.Org. Nobody could have expected before the sixties that a tiny and a large country, 7000 thousands kilometers apart, the Popular Republic of Albania and the People’s Republic of China would forge a strong political alliance based […]

Categories
Interviews

Struggle in Nepal. Interview with Bikkil Sthapit

Mattia Gallo: Has the international financial crisis of 2008 had an impact on Nepal? What are the social economic conditions of Nepal? What are the main economic and social problems of the country? What are the major economic and social problems of the city of Kathmandu? Bikkil Sthapit: Nepal has not faced any direct impact, […]