China
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…
The greed and hypocrisy of the opium trade continue to shock
Amitav Ghosh admits he found writing his history difficult because of the obscene profiteering and suffering he had to cover
Henry Kissinger saw his world fall apart
The leading advocate of world order died at a time when it all appeared to be coming undone. Henry Kissinger…
From the Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz: Praiseworthy, by Alexis Wright, reviewed
Everything blends into everything else as an Aboriginal knight errant sets out on a quest to save his scorched native bushlands
China is spying on us, so what?
That China is spying on us is hardly the revelation of the century. The Sunday Times broke the story that police have…
The FBI has a problem with Catholics
On board Aello She was built in 1921, a beautiful wooden ketch that is as graceful to look at…
