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Cary Huang
Cary Huang
Hong Kong
@caryhuangscmp
Columnist
Cary Huang is a veteran China affairs columnist, having written on this topic since the early 1990s. He joined the Post in 2004, and was based in Beijing between 2005 and 2013, first as a correspondent and then as bureau chief. He was previously China editor at The Standard from 1992 until 2004.

Jiang is hailed for mending ties with the West, the handover of Hong Kong, modernising the Communist Party at home and a successful bid to host Olympics.

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Taiwan’s effective management of Covid-19 and its ‘mask diplomacy’ have raised its global profile, but it comes amid Beijing’s rising distrust of the island’s president and her party.

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An investigation could clear Beijing’s name; without one, the whole world will be doomed to repeat history.

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Mounting calls in the US to demand compensation for perceived Chinese missteps over Covid-19 have the support of both political parties and public opinion. If Washington gave in, it would spell the end of 40 years of normalised diplomatic relations.

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Trump, Brexit, trade war … the forces against globalisation have been gathering pace since 2008. Worryingly for China, the coronavirus threatens to deal the final blow.

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Covid-19 has left China’s state planners scrambling to amend the delayed economic plan. Amid uncertainty about how long the pandemic will last, it makes more sense to work out a rescue plan than to set a unrealistic growth target.

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During the Sars outbreak and after the Sichuan earthquake, US administrations reached out to China. During the Covid-19 crisis, however, the two countries have been playing the blame game as hawks push for economic decoupling.

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The Covid-19 epidemic is disrupting the global economy, supply chains and diplomatic events. Beijing likes to say that any event within its jurisdiction is an internal affair, but that clearly doesn’t apply in this case.

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Economically speaking, Covid-19 is far more deadly than 2003’s Sars. This time around, a worst-case scenario threatens financial collapse, foreign exodus and large-scale bankruptcy.

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Authoritarianism has made this outbreak worse, not better. The state’s strength in controlling information and suppressing dissent is a weakness in fighting disease.

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Beijing’s pressure on Taipei gave the Democratic Progressive Party a boost in the island’s polls, on its way to a landslide victory over the Kuomintang.

High-profile summits between Kim and Trump have ended in failure, with Pyongyang lifting its moratorium on nuclear testing. China, an acknowledged partner of influence in the region, should embrace its role as peacemaker.

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China’s trade and tariff war with the US is its biggest economic threat with growth now expected to slip below the psychologically important 6 per cent figure. Yet the possibility of comprehensive US-China trade deals also underpins Beijing’s hopes of returning to sustainable growth.

Decoupling has started but the signing of a phase-one US-China trade deal holds out hope that Washington is not ready to fully unfurl protectionism even as Beijing is unprepared for complete self-reliance.

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