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Global Affairs Session 81 20 August 2026 CHINA AND TAIWAN: THE SIMMERING VOLCANO The unfinished legacy of the Chinese Civil War China–Taiwan tensions are rooted in the unresolved division created in 1949. Beijing seeks reunification and reserves the use of force, while Taiwan functions as a self-governing democracy. Military pressure, defence preparations, American support, semiconductor dependence and great-power rivalry keep the Taiwan Strait exposed to coercion, blockade pressure, miscalculation and sudden escalation.

Global Affairs Session 57 23 June 2026 CHINA VS US: THE EPIC AI CLASH China cracks cheaper and open-source The contest between the United States and China for AI supremacy has hardened into a full-stack rivalry running from chips and data centres to models, applications and global standards. Washington leads at the frontier with closed, premium models built on the world's best compute and capital, while Beijing has turned chip restrictions into an advantage, flooding the market with cheaper, open-source alternatives. What began as a race for better products is fast becoming a contest for control of the next computing platform, and for military, economic and geopolitical power.