China
Thinking strait
After Hong Kong, is Taiwan China’s next target?
Farewell, dear Hong Kong
There was no way to know that the last trip I took to Hong Kong just a few years ago…
Empires strike back
From ancient times, empires have risen and fallen, driven by war, territorial acquisition, trade, plunder, religion, ideology, technology, culture and…
Portrait of the Week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said he was ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’ and did press-ups to prove…
Should we be afraid of this new swine flu?
Imagine if a vaccine for Covid-19 was approved tomorrow, and that within weeks we had all been vaccinated. Would life…
The Spectator’s Notes
Why is it wrong, some ask, for senior British businessmen, former civil servants etc to work for Huawei UK? After…
Letters
Hong Kong’s success Sir: Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson are right to compare the UK’s Covid-19 response with Hong Kong’s…
Border line
China is testing the limits of India – and the world
Seoul survivors
What’s behind South Korea’s Covid success?
The Spectator’s Notes
The government’s promised ‘pathway to citizenship’ to Hong Kong people is wonderful, but has the Foreign Office arranged a get-out…
The Spectator’s notes
This week in 1989, the Chinese authorities massacred protestors in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. I was editing this paper. It struck…
Containing freedom
How Xi is using fear of Covid to crush Hong Kong
Out of the dragon’s den
Boris Johnson’s plan to reduce Britain’s dependence on China
Portrait of the week
Home Open-air markets and car showrooms will be allowed to open from 1 June and other ‘non-essential’ shops from 15…
The UK is preparing for a major Huawei U-turn
The UK has made a strategic choice to get ‘off the trajectory of ever-increasing dependence’ on China, I revealin the…
Pompeo: Hong Kong autonomy statement made with ‘great sadness’
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said during a press call Wednesday afternoon that his decision to declare Hong Kong no…
The Spectator’s Notes
Last month, writing elsewhere, I quoted the website of the China Centre at Jesus College, Cambridge: ‘Under the leadership of…
Contagious behaviour
What if the virus had started somewhere other than China?
Let’s blame China
This article is in The Spectator’s June 2020 US edition. Subscribe here to get yours. Is Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to…
Taiwan’s balancing act is becoming ever more precarious
After a landslide victory in January’s election, Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen was re-inaugurated on Wednesday at a scaled-down ceremony in…
Is Trump more left-wing than Biden?
Just when it seemed that Donald Trump had finally committed political suicide — his notion of injecting disinfectant to cure…
Boycotting China is not that easy
China’s various human rights abuses, their treatment of women, their savagery toward religious people and their chokehold on Taiwan and…
Where is Britain’s China strategy?
The UK doesn’t have a China strategy. We have not had one since George Osborne declared a ‘golden era’ of…
Still, the Global War on Terrorism goes on
I can think of only a single positive thing to say about World War One: it ended. Yet in addition…
Letters
Jobs for all Sir: Charles Bazlington championed Universal Basic Income in last week’s magazine (Letters, 9 May). It is welcome…
