China
Chinese belts and roads stir mixed reactions in Europe
In February, in his last formal speech as foreign affairs minister of Germany, China’s biggest European trade partner, Sigmar Gabriel repeated an earlier warning…
China: the party, the state, and the new anti-graft body
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese state are two distinct although intertwined entities, with different types of power. For example, the Politburo (a high…
Leslie – 15 years on
I first heard Leslie Cheung’s voice when I was five years old, sitting in the passenger seat of my parent’s car. A Cantonese song came on the radio: “Let me hide from the bustle…
Deterrence under the dragon’s shadow: Vietnam’s military modernisation
On 5 March the USS Carl Vinson made a port call to Danang, in central Vietnam. It was the first time since the War (the Vietnam War to Americans, and the American War to…
Hot take: what does Kim Jong-un’s trip to China mean?
So it’s now confirmed that Kim Jong-un went to China in the past few days to meet Xi Jinping. And apparently Xi will now go to Pyongyang.
Breaking: Photos of secret talks between…
South China Sea: the Philippine fissure
A new normal is evident in the South China Sea disputes.
Last week, Philippine Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana revealed that China continues to exchange radio challenges…
Happiness and the “China Dream”
In his report delivered at the 19th Party Congress, Xi Jinping declared that it was the Chinese Communist Party’s aspiration and mission to seek happiness for the Chinese…
Cross-strait tensions rising, but Chinese aircraft carrier poses no threat
Measured in terms of Chinese rhetoric, the temperature of cross-strait relations has risen sharply this week. Addressing China’s National People’s Congress, President Xi Jinping…
Q&A: China’s mounting great wall of debt
In his new book, China’s Great Wall of Debt: Shadow Banks, Ghost Cities, Massive Loans, and the End of the Chinese Miracle, Dinny McMahon, a former Wall Street Journal…
What next for the anti-whale hunters?
Japan’s whale hunters are expected home any day, carrying up to 300 minke whales killed in the Southern Ocean. A harpoon ship, Yushin Maru No. 2, quietly slipped into Shiogama…