China
China wants robots to look after the elderly
An AI data centre – imagine a factory of buzzing wires and computing equipment cooled by industrial fans – can…
Will Alberta become the 51st state?
Albertans are very good at keeping things that damage their prosperity out of their province. Take rats, for instance. The…
Will the war in Iran really weaken China?
Analogies in international politics are tricky and easily abused, yet they remain irresistible because they can illuminate patterns that are…
The greater game: Trump’s ultimate target in this war is China
The United States and Israel killed Ayatollah Khamenei, and Xi Jinping’s decade-long project to build an alternative to the American-led…
Revelling in reading: The Enchanting Lives of Others, by Can Xue, reviewed
A group of young fiction enthusiasts and intellectuals channel their energies into devouring novels – and marvel at how enlightened it makes them feel
The deep state vs Nixon
Americans took a break from their partisan vituperation in February to mull over newly revealed testimony that Richard Nixon gave…
Trump’s America isn’t the outlier on greenhouse gases
Irresponsible Trump, responsible China: that is the message the BBC’s climate editor seemed to be sending us by juxtaposing the…
Why doesn’t the CDC care about Chinese biolabs in America?
If you rent a cheap Airbnb house in Las Vegas, you might not be altogether surprised to find dead crickets…
Where have all the graduate jobs gone?
It’s a relief not to have been pressganged into joining the Prime Minister’s plane-load of business chiefs and reporters bound…
Starmer has got nothing from his demeaning trip to China
Sir Keir Starmer told Xi Jinping it was time for a ‘more sophisticated’ relationship, yet there is very little sign…
The Chinese takeover of Britain’s public schools
Roedean is now known as ‘Beijing High’. Cheltenham Ladies’ College is ‘Hong Kong College’. In the country’s most elite boarding…
Who will rule the Arctic?
When it comes to icebreakers, the US pales by comparison with Russia in the growing struggle for control of polar shipping routes and mineral resources
Portrait of the week: Digital IDs ditched, unrest in Iran and an app to check you’re not dead
Home The government dropped plans to make digital ID compulsory to work in Britain. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister,…
Trump’s attack on the Fed is a pivotal moment of hubris
The phrase ‘trumped-up charges’ dates from the 18th century, I learn, and derives from the Old French tromper, to deceive.…
Donald Trump is confronting a reality that Europe has ignored
Donald Trump’s rendition of Nicolas Maduro was a brilliantly executed coup. It was also an exhibition of America’s hard power,…
Britain’s national security must not be sacrificed to net zero
Those who, like myself, experienced life behind the Iron Curtain understand instinctively that centrally planned economies beholden to an ideology…
What my pyjamas taught me about China
About seven years ago, I bought two pairs of pyjamas, one British, the other Chinese. At the time, they seemed…
China is holding the West to ransom over rare earths
China’s naked weaponisation of rare earths brings to mind Mao Zedong’s ‘four pests’ campaign, the old tyrant’s fanatical effort to…
The Chinese spy case you won’t have heard about
The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, handsomely housed in London’s Bedford Square, is responsible for trade relations between the…
The questions the government must answer over the China spying case
Exactly a year ago, this magazine warned that ministers were showing a dangerous naivety towards China. We revealed that the…
Here be dragons: the truth about Chinese espionage
On 3 July a Chinese man, Xu Zewei, was arrested in Milan to face extradition on nine charges relating to…
Portrait of the week: Gaza ceasefire, unemployment increases and a Gen Z uprising
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, praised President Donald Trump for the Gaza ceasefire agreement while in India accompanied…
In defence of Chris Cash
Can you be a spy by mistake? If, with no treacherous intent, without ever intending to disadvantage your own country,…
Did Jonathan Powell torpedo the China espionage trial?
The antics of Keir Starmer and his top security adviser over the collapsed China espionage case bring to mind the…
