CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – An unexpected invitation came via email last week that will prove either of no more import than any of the other stuff in my inbox, or instead a tea leaf to be read and analysed with care and an open mind. It was an…
Full Article CHINA-US RELATIONS: A THAW IN CHINA-US DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS? WE CAN ONLY HOPE
CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – Major participants in the Russia-Ukraine war, whether involved directly or by proxy, lack agreement about when and how it must end. These varying perspectives result in an unseemly policy scrum, adding more confusion to this humanitarian tragedy. This obscene war, despite the many ways…
Full Article RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: NO ONE, CHINA INCLUDED, WANTS TO SEE THE UKRAINE WAR GOING NUCLEAR
CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – It’s just possible that a favorable diplomatic wind is forming that could alter the trajectory of the storm of war raging over Ukraine, the second-largest country in Europe. Pushing this war out to sea might help clear the gathering clouds of world economic collapse.…
Full Article U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS: WHY U.S. ARROGANCE, NOT THE RUSSIA-CHINA RELATIONSHIP, IS THE BIGGEST BARRIER TO PEACE IN UKRAINE
CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – The topic of nuclear war is no joking matter, but I was rather tempted to cry out “Get me rewrite!” while dipping into my old book on the nuclear arms race. So much is changing now. My published tome had been premised on the…
Full Article THREAT OF RUSSIAN NUCLEAR ATTACK SHOWS WHY CHINA’S NO-FIRST-USE POLICY SHOULD BE GLOBAL STANDARD
CLINICAL PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES – I submit for your consideration an American political figure named Jerry Brown. He turns 84 this week but is somehow still flamboyant and relevant, if sometimes slightly annoying. I have not only grown to admire him but come to feel this lifelong politician is…
Full Article US-CHINA RELATIONS: NEED ‘PLANETARY REALISM’ TO AVOID GEOPOLITICAL AND ECOLOGICAL APOCALYPSE
TOM PLATE WRITES – It is imperative that the government of Xi Jinping of China continue to edge away from the bleak dark shadow of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine and re-settle itself geopolitically into a better moral place. While it would be presumptuous to offer instructions on how in…
Full Article UKRAINE: CRISIS CALLS FOR CHINA TO TAKE PART IN A DARING DIPLOMATIC INTERVENTION
PROFESSOR TOM PLATE WRITES — Suppose I stopped working so hard to stay on the sunny optimistic side of the street but instead defected to the dark side and always anticipating the worst? Consider the figure of Vladimir Putin. Just try to stay optimistic after reading the depressing but richly…
Full Article THE PUTIN SHADOW: DARKENING VISIONS OF OPTIMISM
TOM PLATE WRITES — The Chinese tilt towards Russia is understandable enough. It is immensely satisfying to be able to tell American leaders that China will do what it wants to do, whether the arrogant West likes it or not. China is the big deal now – or so goes…
Full Article UKRAINE CRISIS: IS CHINA’S TILT TOWARDS RUSSIA IN BEIJING’S BEST LONG-TERM INTEREST?
TOM PLATE WRITES — Power is not always angelic. When the power to do something exists, it often gathers like a storm, ready to be unleashed. Power is also agnostic; it can be used for evil as well as for good. One thing is for certain. Without concentrations of power, not…
Full Article POWER GAME: UKRAINE’S FATE WILL BE SHAPED BY DECISIONS FROM RUSSIA, CHINA AND AMERICA
TOM PLATE WRITES — Do dead sculptures tell no tales? Perhaps they still do. Recently the Pillar of Shame statue in Hong Kong, long displayed, was removed from the University of Hong Kong campus by the powers that be. The sculpture had shaped the famous Tiananmen Square incident in terms…
Full Article US-CHINA RELATIONS: CRUMBLING US HAS NO BUSINESS TELLING OTHERS WHAT TO DO WITH THEIR STATUES
TOM PLATE WRITES — If fine oratory is a valuable art form, it is nonetheless becoming a lost one. Beware the mere glitter of charisma alone. In a politician, it is often no more than wrapping paper around a thin gift box of costume jewellery, but true orators can move…
Full Article US-CHINA RELATIONS: HOW BARACK OBAMA CAN HELP AND HEAL THE RELATIONS
TOM PLATE WRITES — International peace and stability, more vital to survival than ever before in our enervating epoch of pandemic-proliferation and climate-deterioration, requires a collaborative community of responsibility. What is needed – urgently, obviously — is a global ethic of helping-out and digging-in for the common long haul rather…
Full Article US-CHINA RELATIONS: START BY RECOGNIZING ITS ANIMAL NATURE
TOM PLATE WRITES — US foreign policy since the September 11 attacks looks rather like an animal caught in the headlights of fast-moving contemporary history that won’t slow down for anyone or anything. If we can agree on this general picture, then we must also agree that no one American, whether…
Full Article UNITED STATES: FOREIGN POLICY NEEDS A SCRIPT REWRITE UNDER ANTONY BLINKEN AND JOE BIDEN
TOM PLATE WRITES — Frustrations come with any occupation, and writing columns about Asia and America, as I have without stop for 25 years, is no exception. Asia is powerful and dynamic, and one size does not fit all. But, for me, no one subject has proven more elusive and…
Full Article NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE: ONLY KOREANS THEMSELVES CAN FIND A WAY OUT OF THE IMPASSE
TOM PLATE WRITES — According to newspaper reports, on arrival in Washington Mr Qin Gang’s public tone seemed sort of chipper; and further, in the wake of his initial greet-and-meet with US officials, there surfaced simmering new communications between the US and China. Given the alarm with which many westerners…
Full Article SINO-US RELATIONS: IS THE EUPHORIA OVER CHINA’S NEW WASHINGTON AMBASSADOR JUSTIFIED AMID THE DREARY DIPLOMATIC REALITIES?
TOM PLATE WRITES — The agony in Afghanistan makes for many sorrows. Beyond the scenes of chaos at Kabul airport is the unseen anguish of all those US veterans back home who are dealing with various psychological and physical traumas and are now especially unproud of their country; of families…
Full Article AFGHANISTAN AND BEYOND: CHINA MUST LEARN FROM US HUBRIS AND BLUNDERS