The CIA has concluded symptoms suffered by US diplomatic personnel were not the result of a deliberate global campaign by a hostile foreign power, making it likely the cause or causes were internal or domestic.

If genocide is going on in China, the West should be ashamed of what it is NOT doing. But if there isn’t one, it should be even more ashamed for what it IS doing.

Official probe should answer whether the inability of some crews to abide by pandemic rules amounted to failure of management, but the government of Carrie Lam is hardly blameless.

When it comes to President Xi Jinping’s use of the phrase, ‘engineers of the human soul’, Western critics often approach the subject from a fixed perspective and use their own terminology to interpret it, creating an unnecessary and sinister image.

The two sides ironically see eye to eye as a new US Senate bill proposes banning defence contractors from buying Chinese-sourced rare earths. Meantime, Beijing has been mulling putting restrictions on rare earth supplies crucial to those same manufacturers.

With less than half a year to go as chief executive, she wants to restructure the entire government, something you do at the start rather than the end of your time in office.

Beijing has been accused of lying or manipulating Covid death statistics; the same can be said about some of its fiercest critics, however impressive their academic or scientific credentials.

Too many people have ignored or denied the dangers and instabilities that come with regime transition, especially to full democracy

Members of the political elite have been trying to deflect public attention away from Witman Hung’s ill-fated birthday party and on to Cathay Pacific, whose crews have been blamed for starting the fifth wave of the highly contagious Omicron outbreak

Huge party gathering of the local political elite exposes their hypocritical sense of entitlement when the government is reimposing tough restrictions with the outbreak of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

The United States didn’t start out as a democracy and it is no longer a democracy, at least according to one widely used data series funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. The democratic backslide can lead to widespread civil strife.

There are many names being touted for Hong Kong’s chief executive election but it could come down to incumbent Carrie Lam and her predecessor Leung Chun-ying.

According to a Taiwanese academic, if the island isn’t sure that the US will come to its defence or about its own capacity to fight back an attacker alone, the island should develop its own nuclear weapons to create a deterrent ‘balance of terror’

The United States and some of its allies, and Taiwan and Ukraine, have been pushing each other into confronting Russia and China, and finding it increasingly difficult to back down. But in time, Washington is likely to realise only ‘limited sovereignty’ for Ukraine and limited government for Taiwan can avoid war.

Sculptor Jens Galschiot has admitted the faces on the infamous statue were not even Chinese and it was not specifically created for the June 4, 1989 crackdown. That adds another myth to the many others surrounding the ‘Tiananmen Square massacre’, starting with the name itself

By becoming popular and big, the web-based operation had painted a target on itself once Hong Kong’s national security law came into effect last year

Despite some similarities, Taiwan’s dispute with mainland China and Nicaragua over its former assets is a storm in teacup, whereas the case of the Venezuelan state-owned gold in Britain cuts to the heart of the US-led sanctions that have caused untold sufferings for ordinary people in that country

To the extent Beijing breached or did not follow the spirit and/or letter of World Trade Organization rules, such instances were often counterproductive. If Washington really wants to contain China’s rise, it should encourage the Chinese to commit more of those alleged breaches

Regardless of public opinion as represented by the contrasting stances of outgoing ambassador Dominic Barton and former envoy David Mulroney, Canada will always be a faithful ally in America’s growing rivalry with China

Human rights doctors have warned the founder of WikiLeaks could die in captivity. That may be exactly what Washington wants while its Western allies turn a blind eye.

The US has perfected the practice by covering up its own discretions, ignoring others when it’s convenient while exaggerating or even making up the misdeeds of rivals.

I would never have guessed that reading Marx’s Capital would help me understand China’s rise and its two corollaries: how it worked to maintain the profitability of the capitalist West, especially the American economy, and then its survival after the 2007-08 financial crisis

Rather than enjoying the wonders of freedom and democracy, most Americans have no idea Russians suffered a harsh period after the Cold War worse than the Great Depression in the US and are still living with its aftermath. Never humiliate a proud and resourceful people unless you can be sure they will never come back

Many Western governments and media have incessantly tried to discredit Hong Kong’s new election system. The local government and the newly elected lawmakers now need to do the work to show them the new framework functions better than the old

A lender like China can end up with nothing, rather than the assets desired. A new government or a change of leadership in the borrowing country can renege on a deal and there is not much Beijing can do.

Given the long history of America’s hegemonic dominance and extensive support for cruel dictatorships and military juntas in the region, it makes perfect sense for those countries to seek alternative sources of aid, funding and economic development.

Either China is committing genocide, in which case the West’s response so far has been inept and inadequate, including the diplomatic boycotts of the Winter Olympics; or if it is not, and in that case, Western propaganda is disgraceful and risks rendering meaningless a term for the gravest of crimes.

A worker turned amateur translator and philosopher, Chen Zhi’s story became an overnight internet sensation on the mainland. But the real story is about how much migrant workers such as Chen are exploited and discriminated against in contemporary China.