The EU puts Ukraine at the centre of its China policy
If Beijing was in any doubt that its 12-point peace plan for Ukraine has gone down badly in Europe, those…
Taiwan’s voters face a big decision at the upcoming election
‘We must peacefully strive to rejuvenate the Chinese nation. This is an unshirkable duty for Chinese people on both sides…
Michelle Yeoh and Britain’s invisible East Asians
This week Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian to win Best Actress at the Oscars – and not by playing…
Beijing is likely to react badly to Sunak’s Integrated Review
It was only last summer that Rishi Sunak declared China ‘the largest threat to Britain’, but in today’s refreshed Integrated…
Who will salvage China’s spiralling relationship with the US?
When China’s ambassador to Washington, the bookish-looking old hand Qin Gang, was appointed to be China’s next foreign minister in…
Why China is courting Hollywood again
Until a few years ago, Hollywood dominated Chinese cinemas. In the People’s Republic, Marvel’s superhero romps were the people’s favourite. In 2019, Avengers:…
Biden’s muddle on Chinese arms for Russia
Will China send arms to support Russia? That was the possibility that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised at…
Joe Biden puts America First on electric vehicles
A trade war is brewing between the United States and its closest allies. When Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal markets…
Has China admitted failure for zero Covid?
Why did China end its zero Covid policy so abruptly? This question has confounded China-watchers and even the Chinese people…
China is paying a high price for opening up
Beijing’s roads are busy once more. Though zero Covid had ended in December, cities across China emptied out again over…
China is obscuring the scale of its Covid wave
One University of Hong Kong model has forecast that there could be up to a million Covid deaths in China over the…
China’s battle with Omicron is just beginning
Zero Covid seems to be ending in China. After three years of pushing this policy, the message from the state…
I was wrong about the CCP
I’ve always loved the Chinese national anthem. I used to think I was the loudest Communist Youth League pioneer as…
China’s zero-Covid anger is erupting
Protests seem to be breaking out in several major Chinese cities in what has been a week of horrors for…
Is Xi drifting away from Putin?
There’s been none of the wolf warriorism we’ve become used to from Chinese diplomats as President Xi met world leaders…
Is China finally easing its zero Covid strategy?
China’s president Xi Jinping has shaken hands with more world leaders over the last two days than he has met…
Does China’s WeChat show Twitter’s future?
Twitter today, WeChat tomorrow?
Xi Jinping has zombified the Chinese Communist party
In the run up to China’s National Party Congress, there were whispers that a high level official in state security…
An outcast in Xinjiang: The Backstreets, by Perhat Tursun, reviewed
Like Dostoevsky’s Underground Man, Perhat Tursun’s unnamed protagonist is an outcast. A young Uighur in an increasingly Han city (Urumchi,…
It’s wrong to ban China from the lying-in-state
Unlike some Americans, China’s communists have no problem getting their heads around hereditary monarchy. Last week, President Xi sent his…
What Xi wants from Central Asia
President Xi Jinping hasn’t stepped outside his country since the pandemic began. For almost three years, China’s elderly leaders have…
What happens if Liz Truss designates China as a ‘threat’?
Early on in the Tory leadership campaign, Liz Truss was the only contender to say that she wanted to sit…
I’d be the perfect communist shill
Could I be the model communist shill? Consider these facts: I was born and raised in China. I speak and…
The closing of the Chinese mind
I was born in Nanjing five years after the Tiananmen Square protests. By then, records of the demonstrations and the…
Even the WHO has turned on China's zero-Covid strategy
Covid infections are finally falling in Shanghai. The city reported just over 2,000 cases on Tuesday, down from over 27,000…
