As Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, questions about the economic and military relationship between China and Russia abound. With Xi's likely re-election in October approaching, what are the knock-on effects of his particular brand of authoritarianism, extreme even by the CCP's standards. When two concerned citizens and election researchers discovered US poll worker data being stored on an open database in mainland China, they brought it to the attention of the FBI. After 15 months of investigation, the case was handed to the FBI's D.C. office and suddenly the concerned citizens were the ones being investigated. Who is the FBI really protecting?

As the Solomon Islands recently denied a port call to US warships, Cambodia seems to be joining the Belt and Road initiative and Nicaragua has seized the Taiwanese Embassy and handed it to Mainland China. In this context, our team of China Watchers discusses what strategic acquisitions China needs most to assert its growing hegemony.

Join us as our team of China Watchers digs into the details of political tensions in the South China Sea and the South Pacific. Guam's significantly increasing its US military presence, the Solomon Islands are diverting away US warships, while Russia sells natural gas to China, that China then sells to Europe for a huge markup.