China
Why you should worry about gallium
You will be forgiven for not having heard of, let alone given much thought to, a raw material called gallium.…
Why can’t China play football?
It would be tough for any country to lose 7-0 in a World Cup qualifier, but when the losing team…
Why are Chinese students giving up on architecture?
I recently convened an urban studies summer school in a top university in Shanghai and asked the assembled class of…
Xi speech warrior: Elon Musk’s love affair with China
Elon Musk revels in the role of ‘free speech absolutist’. Last week, for instance, he jumped to the defence of…
What China wants from Russia
On the face of it, the ‘no limits’ partnership between Russia and China declared weeks before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine…
The death of free speech in Britain
In Michel Houellebecq’s satirical novel Soumission, the French elite submits to Islamic rule rather than accept a National Front government.…
India radiates kindly light across the East
William Dalrymple describes how, from the 3rd century BC to 1200 AD, India illuminated the rest of Asia with its philosophies and artistic forms through unforced cultural conquest
Why China’s nostalgia industry is booming
Nostalgia is a thriving industry in China. I first noticed this while walking around Nanjing last summer. There were shops…
The rootlessness that haunts the children of immigrants
Edward Wong tries to connect with his Chinese heritage by retracing his father’s military postings before the Great Famine – but finds the country too changed to make comparisons
The plotting to find the next Pope
The Hollywood adaptation of Conclave, Robert Harris’s thriller about a conspiracy to rig a papal election, won’t be in cinemas…
China’s role in Soviet policy-making
Stalin and his successors’ struggle with the US and China reflected conflicting Soviet ambitions to be a superpower and to lead world revolution, says Sergey Radchenko
The moon matters to China
China’s Chang’e-6 moon mission was launched on 3 May. It reached lunar orbit a few days later and began waiting…
There’s trouble ahead for Taiwan’s new president
Not many inaugural ceremonies bring together dragons, dancers, rappers, and a 10-metre-high blue horse breathing steam out of its nostrils.…
A Chinese invasion of Taiwan remains unlikely
For a second day, yesterday, Chinese fighter jets and warships surrounded Taiwan for drills which the People’s Liberation Army said…
Gangs of Tehran: how Iran takes out its enemies abroad
‘It was Friday afternoon, around 2.45. I came out of the house and was going towards the car on the…
Be more tiger mum!
‘What’s it to do with me if your boyfriend wants to break up with you? Or if you cried, or…
Fools rush in: Mania, by Lionel Shriver, reviewed
In an alternative universe where the Mental Parity Movement holds sway, the ignorant and unqualified are deemed ‘just as good as anyone else’ – with predictable results
What Xi wants in Europe
On a quiet street in Belgrade, a bronze statue of Confucius stands in front of a perforated white block, the…
The traditional British hedge is fast vanishing
The best hedges teem with the biodiversity that plays such a vital part in our future. Yet, since the 1950s, farmers and developers have been destroying them at an alarming rate
Are all great civilisations doomed?
If plague, war or natural disasters don’t destroy our own, then ‘a cascading systems failure’ seems likely, on past evidence, says Paul Cooper
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…
The Xi files: how China spies
Most states spy. In principle there’s nothing to stop them. But China’s demand for intelligence on the rest of the…
After TikTok, there’s another app we should ban
The American House of Representatives has passed a bill ordering Bytedance, a Chinese company, to divest from TikTok or stop…
