US President Barack Obama recently sought to define a new foreign policy doctrine for America. In his much anticipated speech to graduates at the West Point military academy, he set a bar for US military intervention abroad that is the highest in recent memory - when America's interests are directly threatened.
Most experts in international relations seem to believe that the developments in Ukraine have put Beijing in an awkward position. With America's pivot to the Asia-Pacific, Russia has grown in strategic importance to China. However, Russia's actions in Ukraine and its absorption of Crimea seem to contravene China's long-held principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states.
This week, China celebrates the 120th birth date of the founding father of the People's Republic - Mao Zedong. No one looms larger in the narrative of modern China.
China's new leader, Xi Jinping , has identified corruption as an existential threat to the party-state. Many political commentators proclaim that corruption is inherent to China's one-party system and cannot be contained without fundamental change.
