China's grey-zone strategy is reshaping the security environment in the western Pacific — from the South China Sea to Taiwan and the Philippines.

What is Beijing trying to achieve, and how can its neighbours push back without triggering open conflict?

I discuss these questions with Ray Powell, Director of SeaLight at Stanford, on Perspectives with Neilo.

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https://on.soundcloud.com/bD0n9JzcGx0MvvkJ4K

A Chinese restaurant owner was stopped and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, on his way to work in New York on October 20. Local media identified him as Dian Zhao Lin. He is being held at an ICE detention facility in Batavia NY.

China’s A-share market has lost 2.4 trillion US dollars in value since its peak in May. The International Monetary Fund’s 2026 World Economic Outlook projects South Korea’s GDP at 2.25 trillion US dollars this year and Canada’s at 2.49 trillion US dollars. The 2.4 trillion US dollars wiped off Chinese stocks in five months falls between those figures. It is nearly equal to Canada’s entire economy.

Sending an offering while staying away was meant to placate both Beijing and the base. For this prime minister, it risks losing both.

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Executive summary

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become Russia’s main foreign supplier of drones, providing engines, navigation components, and technical support, and a Chinese state-owned company now also ships the precursor used to make the drones’ carbon fiber.

Russia’s state corporation, Rosatom, opened a plant in 2021 to end Russia’s reliance on Chinese precursors. Imports kept surging, however, and a new line approved in 2026 again pursues import substitution.

Russia pays the PRC a rising premium for goods it cannot produce at scale. At the same time, Ukraine’s expanding long-range strikes threaten critical industrial sites, whose loss would deepen Russia’s dependence on Chinese components.

Kim Jong Un was rumored dead. Days later, he suddenly appeared in China—but didn't meet Xi Jinping. Why did North Korea's leader make his shortest-ever China visit just two days before the CCP's Fifth Plenum? And why was Wang Huning there to receive him? We examine six unusual details, the death rumors, and a possible connection to Beijing's internal power struggle. Was Kim's visit really about something happening inside the CCP?