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
NATALIA FALCHI WRITES — Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai recently shared a personal #MeToo experience on Weibo, accusing former Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. But her post was removed within minutes. Zhang Gaoli of course served on the Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee from 2012 to 2017. Ms.…
Full Article CHINA: A TENNIS STAR LOBS AN ASSAULT ALLEGATION AGAINST A FORMER POLITICAL PLAYER
NATALIA FALCHI WRITES — Months of energy shortages and power cuts to households in northeastern China have caused outages in factories across the nation. With this, while energy demand is soaring, so is the demand for Chinese exports, all of which affect the supply chain. The situation is expected to…
Full Article CHINA: WILL AMERICA’S ‘BEAT BACK’ ACT PUSH FORWARD OUR SUPPLY CHAIN?
ISABELLA LEE WRITES — China has been on the rise for the last several decades both in economic and political power. Other countries with shared interests have been trying to conceptualize foreign policy initiatives that can both contain and maintain their relationship with China while preserving their own interests. Recently…
Full Article AMERICA: HOW THE FREE AND OPEN PACIFIC SHAPED U.S. FOREIGN POLICY UNDER DIFFERENT ADMINISTRATIONS
ALEC FARMER WRITES – How does one explore the complexities of modern China? The answer for many would be to look at trends and statistics. Numbers quantify the largest country in the world from the macro. However, it is easy to forget that these figures represent the real lives of…
Full Article BOOK REVIEW: CHINA IN ONE VILLAGE (2021) – HOW TO ENCAPSULATE A COUNTRY
BRIEYA MOORBERG WRITES — The Covid 19 pandemic decreased the mobility of millions of people to shop in person. E-commerce websites have been increasing in popularity ever since, especially the Chinese online fashion store Shein. Founded by China’s Xu Yangtian in 2008, Shein has grown increasingly popular since the beginning…
Full Article CHINA: FAST ONLINE FASHION RACES AHEAD AT DIZZYING SPEED
JACKSON GROSSHANS WRITES — On August 31 of this year, China passed a law that forbids youths under 18 from playing video games more than three hours a week. The Chinese government claims it did this to prevent further addiction to video games. This new law, passed by the National…
Full Article CHINA: SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT TAKE OVER VIDEO GAMING AND PARENTAL RIGHTS?
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
NATALIA FALCHI WRITES — China’s technological advancement and dedication to innovative Artificial Intelligence systems is growing rapidly and robustly. Not only does this affect China socially, economically, and politically, but it affects the entire globe. In 2017, China’s ambition to become more advanced in the realm of Artificial Intelligence intensified…
Full Article CHINA: THE BRAINS BEHIND ADVANCES IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
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
TOM PLATE WRITES — In its quixotic quest for certainty about China – mortal threat or mere robust competitor? – the American consensus now claims to have taken the measure of China and is not in doubt. It would be better if it were. A fictive western mind may be creating…
Full Article CHINA: BUT HOW CERTAIN CAN WE BE?
TOM PLATE WRITES — Maybe the United Nations – fumbling, hopelessly bureaucratic, partly-corrupt – is in fact beyond redemption. Just forget about it: Let it career down the slippery slope of mediocrity and geopolitical irrelevance and splash ignominiously into New York’s East River — like some waterside condo with a…
Full Article UNITED NATIONS: PERHAPS CHINA, NOT THE U.S., CAN SAVE THE WANING ORGANIZATION
AIDAN SMITH-FAGAN WRITES — Japan’s Defense and Deputy Prime Ministers have both recently affirmed their government’s willingness to defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion from the Chinese mainland. Those statements also coincided with a recent report from the Financial Times detailing joint US-Japanese military exercises in the hotly…
Full Article DIRE STRAITS: JAPAN, THE U.S. AND THE FUTURE OF TAIWAN
TOM PLATE WRITES — Given the relentless Western media verdict about “China’s increasing assertiveness,” it might seem surprising that across Asia doubts about America’s own continental conduct proceed apace. Yet this goes little reported back in the U.S. Nonetheless, within some government and policy circles in Indonesia, Japan and Singapore –…
Full Article AMERICA’S KNEE-JERK REACTION TO CHINA: JUST SHOOT THE BAD GUY
EXECUTIVE EDITOR ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES — Legend has it that an apple a day keeps the lie away. That was the slogan of Apple Daily, the most vocal pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. But what happens when the apple tree falls? On Thursday, Apple Daily printed its last…
Full Article HONG KONG: UPROOTING THE APPLE TREE