China: New ‘bad guy’ for the West & Indian unrest (E371)

Over the last few years, everyone has grown accustomed to Russia being portrayed as the bad guy, looking under our beds for the caricatured man with snow on his boots, wearing a fur hat. But Russia is getting a break these days, having been overtaken by China. Many had hoped to make their post-Brexit fortunes in China, seeing it as the perfect partner in trade and fellowship, but Beijing is once again a bad actor when viewed through the prism of Western media. We invited Shen Shiwei from the Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University, onto Sputnik to tell us how it is viewed from the other side.

A bitter harvest is being reaped in India as the farmers’ insurrection takes hold and attracts international celebrity support. Stars such as Rihanna and Greta Thunberg have been subjected to much trolling on social media for giving their support to what is being represented by the authorities as a local issue. But the strike may be rooted in the Indian farmers’ struggle against globalization as the pandemic continues to destroy their livelihood as well as the global food supply chains which perpetuate inequalities and poverty. Some 250 million workers demonstrated a few weeks ago, and Vijay Prashad from the Institute for Social Research came onto Sputnik to tell us about it (with international news outlets being slow to pick up the story). So, being ahead of the curve again, we invited him back to get an update on the farmers’ fight.

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