Why was Blinken’s China visit so underwhelming?
It had been billed as an electrifying encounter – the US Secretary of State preparing to confront Beijing with a…
Why the EU is raiding Chinese companies
The target of Wednesday’s dawn raid has been on the radar of western security services for some time. There has…
The trouble with David Cameron’s China links
In the years following his resignation as prime minister, David Cameron appeared to become the poster child for elite capture by the…
The rusting Philippine ship raising US-China tensions
The rusting and disintegrating hulk of a former Second World War landing ship has become an unlikely but dangerous flashpoint in US-China relations. The…
US businesses are falling out of love with Xi’s Chinese dream
A US diplomat in Beijing once told me a story of an American businessman hospitalised in the city of Ningbo…
Hungary has become China’s useful idiot
This week a security deal was announced that could see Chinese police on the streets of Hungary. Despite this, there…
China calls the shots in its alliance with Russia
There has been a strange atmosphere at recent top level meetings between ‘best friends’ China and Russia. It is not…
Taiwan’s voters defy Beijing
Taiwan’s voters have defied Beijing’s threats and intimidation and elected as president the most independence-minded of the candidates for the…
Why has Xi Jinping purged his senior commanders?
The Chinese Communist party will no doubt throw a militarised tantrum should Saturday’s election in Taiwan be won by Lai…
How China weaponises its cuddly giant pandas
So Yang Guang and Tian Tian are on their way back to China. Rather like a pair of high-profile celebrities,…
Power shifts at the Biden-Xi summit
Perhaps the most important achievement of the summit between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden was that it was held at…
Can China contain Evergrande’s collapse?
The Chinese Communist party appears set to kill off its largest economic zombie, while gambling that it can control the…
The mystery of China’s missing ministers
Two down and who knows how many more to go. This week, Defence Minister Li Shangfu became the latest of…
China’s ‘standard map’ is a chilling reminder of its imperial ambitions
The Chinese Communist Party’s ‘standard map’ is updated each year to include Beijing’s ever-extending territorial claims. Neighbours see it as…
James Cleverly is clueless on China
At least James Cleverly had somebody to meet. The Foreign Secretary’s last effort to get to Beijing was postponed after…
Why is China purging its nuclear missile force?
The top commanders of China’s nuclear forces have been targeted by President Xi Jinping in his latest purge, adding an…
Will Italy leave China’s ‘atrocious’ Belt and Road Initiative?
For some time now the world has being growing increasingly wary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but rarely…
Where has Xi Jinping’s foreign minister gone?
Where has Xi’s foreign minister gone?
Tory floundering over China is a gift to Labour
The government’s floundering over China is a gift to Labour
The strange disappearance of China’s foreign minister
It is strange and surreal, even by the standards of the looking-glass world of the Chinese Communist party (CCP). Foreign…
China’s economic self-destruction
Mao Zedong had a big thing about contradictions. They were the basis of life, driving it forward, the old despot…
Britain’s China policy has been completely demolished
China is engaged in a ‘whole of state’ assault on the UK and the government’s approach has been ‘completely inadequate’.…
The secret life of China’s Banksy
The secretive life of China’s most controversial cartoonist
Gag order: China’s stand-up comedy crackdown
The crackdown on China’s stand-up comics
