Protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally gather around the statue of former British prime minister Winston Churchill at Parliament Square on June 21. While Churchill is remembered for leading the country through World War II, critics have highlighted some of his disturbing comments on race and decisions that had devastating consequences in British colonies. Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally gather around the statue of former British prime minister Winston Churchill at Parliament Square on June 21. While Churchill is remembered for leading the country through World War II, critics have highlighted some of his disturbing comments on race and decisions that had devastating consequences in British colonies. Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally gather around the statue of former British prime minister Winston Churchill at Parliament Square on June 21. While Churchill is remembered for leading the country through World War II, critics have highlighted some of his disturbing comments on race and decisions that had devastating consequences in British colonies. Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Philip Bowring
Opinion

Opinion

Philip Bowring

Outside the US, Black Lives Matter movement is devoid of context and perspective

  • The protests after the death of George Floyd in the US rightly raised attention to the high rate of police killings of blacks compared to whites. The copycat protests elsewhere, however, require greater attention to the specific historical context

Philip Bowring
Philip Bowring

Updated: 3:22am, 28 Jun, 2020

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Protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally gather around the statue of former British prime minister Winston Churchill at Parliament Square on June 21. While Churchill is remembered for leading the country through World War II, critics have highlighted some of his disturbing comments on race and decisions that had devastating consequences in British colonies. Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally gather around the statue of former British prime minister Winston Churchill at Parliament Square on June 21. While Churchill is remembered for leading the country through World War II, critics have highlighted some of his disturbing comments on race and decisions that had devastating consequences in British colonies. Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Protesters at a Black Lives Matter rally gather around the statue of former British prime minister Winston Churchill at Parliament Square on June 21. While Churchill is remembered for leading the country through World War II, critics have highlighted some of his disturbing comments on race and decisions that had devastating consequences in British colonies. Photo: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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Philip Bowring

Philip Bowring

Philip Bowring has been based in Asia for 39 years writing on regional financial and political issues. He has been a columnist for the South China Morning Post since the mid-1990s and for the International Herald Tribune from 1992 to 2011. He also contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal, www.asiasentinel.com, a website of which he is a founder, and elsewhere. Prior to 1992 he was with the weekly Far Eastern Economic Review, latterly as editor.