Introduction On July 23, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) published the “Notification on the ‘Children Speak in Unison’ Plan” ( [关于实施儿童普通话教育 ‘童语同音’ 计划的通知], Guanyu shishi ertong Putonghua jiaoyu ‘tongyu tongying’ jihua de tongzhi, hereafter ‘Plan’) to implement Mandarin Chinese... MORE

In Soviet times, Russian writers habitually referred to what many now call Central Asia as “Central Asia and Kazakhstan” as a way of signaling that, from Moscow’s perspective, Kazakhstan was closer to Russia. Kazakhstan stood out from the other Soviet republics of Central Asia by... MORE

The political crisis in Belarus seems to have entered the stage of unstable equilibrium both inside the country and along its perimeter. A system in this position accelerates away from steadiness if displaced even slightly. As Yauhenii Preiherman, who heads the Minsk Dialogue platform, opined,... MORE

As the United States military completes its retreat from Afghanistan, Russia, despite its own humiliating 1989 exit from the war-torn country, has been gloating (see EDM, August 19), apparently hoping to expand its influence in the region and fill the power vacuum left by the... MORE

Following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan, local and international observers have raised concerns about the future of women in the renamed Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. While the Taliban has a known history of oppressing women, this record is showing signs of change based upon... MORE

Introduction The Chinese President Xi Jinping has masterminded a major policy shift for the world’s second largest economy by underscoring the imperative of “common prosperity” (共同富裕, Gongtong fuyu). At a recent meeting of the Central Finance and Economic Affairs Commission (CFEC), which he leads, Xi... MORE

On August 2, Irma Inasvhili, one of the founders of the Georgian pro-Russian political party Alliance of Patriots, posted her faction’s open letter to “Your Excellency,” Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking for his assistance in repairing cooperation between their two countries. The Alliance of Patriots... MORE

Introduction The new Biosecurity Law ([生物安全法], Shengwu anquan fa, hereafter “Law”) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) went into effect on the country's sixth National Security Education Day on April 15 (Xinhua, April 15). Adopted by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in October 2020,... MORE

On August 9, 2021, exactly one year since the ill-fated last presidential election, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka conducted a press conference that lasted more than eight hours. On online social networks, the favorite though overused joke of his detractors has been: Did they all (meaning the... MORE

Each August witnesses some critical and usually unhappy events for Russia, and this year is particularly rich with round anniversaries. Sixty years ago, on August 13, 1961, the Soviet leadership ordered the construction of a wall to separate West Berlin from the Socialist East Germany,... MORE