27 articles
40% of global maritime commerce and 35% of seaborne oil transit the Indian Ocean. How China, the US, and India are contesting its future.
By Thoughtful India Staff||4 min read
US tariffs on Indian goods went 26% to 50% to 18% between April 2025 and February 2026. Where India's real opening lies amid the chaos.
· 4 min read
Oil at $110, China's demographic collapse, the India-US AI talent corridor, an unplanned soft power moment, and why the rupee at 87 is not the real problem.
· 3 min read
China's population fell for a fourth straight year in 2025, births hit a record low, youth unemployment sits near 17%, and the property sector is unwinding.
· 4 min read
A 28-year-old Chinese man diagnosed with terminal cancer held a wedding ceremony with a life-size inflatable doll — and the photos went viral around the world.
· 1 min read
Saudi Arabia posted job ads for eight new executioners in 2015 as beheadings surged — 85 executions by mid-May, nearly matching the whole of 2014.
· 1 min read
In January 2015, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told Maria Bartiromo that oil would 'never' see $100 a barrel again — history had other plans.
· 1 min read
By 2013, China's leaders faced a shrinking workforce, 360 million elderly by 2030, and a 118-to-100 gender skew — and reformers said the one-child policy's
· 3 min read
In 2013, with growth halved and scandals mounting, the dragon-versus-elephant debate looked settled. A decade later, the race had a different leader.
· 2 min read
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak warned of 'horrible problems' as computing moves to the cloud: 'With the cloud, you don't own anything.
· 3 min read
Apple paid $60 million in July 2012 to settle with Shenzhen Proview over the iPad trademark in China, clearing the way to sell the tablet in a key market.
· 2 min read
No living writer knows censorship like Salman Rushdie. His decades-long argument: censorship protects the powerful, never the weak — and it has only
· 1 min read
Blind activist Chen Guangcheng's 2012 escape to the US Embassy in Beijing put Hillary Clinton at the center of a human-rights versus geopolitics crisis.
· 1 min read
In 2012 China tightened visa enforcement for foreigners — and Americans in Beijing found renewals, paperwork, and work rules suddenly much harder.
· 2 min read
China's 'Interviews Before Execution' put death-row prisoners on prime-time TV for 40 million viewers. The show, its host Ding Yu, and why it vanished.
· 1 min read
In 2011, historian Thant Myint-U argued Burma would be the hinge of 21st-century Asia — the new crossroads of China and India. His case, revisited.
· 2 min read
In 2011, World Bank economist Justin Lin forecast China would be twice the US economy by 2030. The forecast's hit-and-miss record is instructive.
· 2 min read
Groupon's China arm Gaopeng imploded months after launch — mass layoffs, a viral employee revolt, and 5,000 local clones. What the China debacle revealed.
· 2 min read
In 2011, The Economic Times reported that Chinese executives in India — some 60,000 strong — were choosing to stay. Warmth, it turned out, was the pull.
· 1 min read
Stephen Elop's leaked 'burning platform' memo of February 2011: the most brutally honest corporate memo ever, and the prelude to Nokia's Microsoft deal.
· 1 min read
In January 2011, reports that China issued stapled visas to Arunachal residents sparked debate: a policy shift, or just another obstacle? History answered.
· 1 min read
In 2011, China was pushing yuan trade settlement and 'dim sum' bonds. Would the renminbi displace the dollar? Fifteen years on, the answer is instructive.
· 1 min read
In November 2010, Wen Jiabao and Vladimir Putin agreed that China-Russia trade would be settled in yuan and roubles instead of dollars.
· 1 min read
Chinese acquisitions of Western firms make geopolitical headlines — but inside the acquired company, the experience is cultural and human before anything else.
· 1 min read
On 11/11 — four singles — China celebrates singlehood with self-gifting. How Alibaba turned a joke holiday into a retail juggernaut.
· 1 min read
While Obama toured Asia, David Cameron raced to China with Britain's largest-ever business delegation. The great powers were all courting the same customer.
· 1 min read
At the 2010 Seoul G20, leaders chanted 'global rebalancing' — less reliance on American shoppers, more on China's. Luxury carmakers had already moved.
· 1 min read