STWR - Share The World's Resources

Beijing's heavy rural investment has led commentators to see hope for global recovery in the Chinese countryside. Yet allocating funds to boost rural demand will fail to reverse China’s long-standing subordination of the poor to export-oriented industrialization, says Walden Bello.

The global financial crisis could ignite social unrest in Asia and the Pacific as the region is hit by the 'triple crunch' of a worsening poverty, food price instability and climate change, according to a report by ESCAP.

The reliance of Asian countries on debt-financed middle-class spending in the US has left many vulnerable to the financial crisis. Now, Asia's slide into recession may signal the 'end of the export era' and herald unprecedented social revolution, argues Walden Bello.

China is rapidly forming trade, investment, technology, security and cultural links with Latin America. As ties expand rapidly, not all is positive from the Latin American perspective - the region must develop its own expertise in order to deal with the multiple challenges China will present, writes David Shambaugh. 

The North dominated world trade and power for two centuries, disrupting the pre-1800 international distribution of wealth and power. Now, the global balance is shifting to the East, and to primary producers of commodities worldwide. By Philip S Golub.

A large part of China’s remarkable economic development has been achieved at the expense of the basic rights of millions of former state-owned enterprise workers, says a new report released by Rights & Democracy and the China Labour Bulletin.