https://www.scmp.com/rss/11422/feed 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. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com As part of SCMP’s commitment to providing comprehensive coverage of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s death and legacy, this story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Jiang Zemin, China’s top leader in the 1990s and the early 2000s, has left behind a country with a much higher global standing and an economy far more integrated with the world than Communist rulers before him knew. Jiang, who ruled the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3201571/jiang-zemin-president-who-took-china-tiananmen-pariah-rising-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3201571/jiang-zemin-president-who-took-china-tiananmen-pariah-rising-power?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Nov 2022 12:00:17 +0000 Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will be sworn in today for a second term in office at an inauguration ceremony that has been streamlined due to the coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging large parts of the world. Tsai’s second term begins amid a triumphant atmosphere, with opinion polls showing her approval rating hitting a record high of 70.3 per cent in April, due to her deft handling of the coronavirus outbreak. The inauguration also comes on the heels of the meeting of the World Health... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085041/why-tsai-ing-wens-success-containing-taiwans-coronavirus-outbreak?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085041/why-tsai-ing-wens-success-containing-taiwans-coronavirus-outbreak?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 May 2020 22:30:08 +0000 Like many catastrophes in the history of mankind, the novel coronavirus will do much to reshape global geopolitics. But while some form of overhaul is inevitable, the key question is whether China will emerge stronger or weaker in its great power struggle with the United States. Thus far China is, predictably, doing better than any other major economy. This should not be surprising as Beijing has outperformed its rivals in controlling the virus. While its record 6.8 per cent contraction in the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3084655/theres-hidden-cost-coronavirus-and-china-about-pay-dearly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3084655/theres-hidden-cost-coronavirus-and-china-about-pay-dearly?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 May 2020 03:15:12 +0000 Often, the biggest catastrophes come with a silver lining. Throughout history, disasters have forced us to learn painful lessons that have spurred significant change and helped humanity to progress. The coronavirus pandemic will be no different. Thus it is only reasonable and sensible that when the pandemic subsides the world will want to conduct a serious scientific study into it, to investigate how the virus spread and whether the actions governments took against it worked. Given the damage... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3083559/coronavirus-scientific-inquiry-could-prevent-us-china-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3083559/coronavirus-scientific-inquiry-could-prevent-us-china-war?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 May 2020 03:30:05 +0000 The harshness of the language used and antagonism shown in the war of words between China and the US over the coronavirus outbreak is reminiscent of the Cold War confrontation in the 1950s and 1960s, when Pacific powers were engaged in war in the Korean peninsula and Vietnam. Indeed, the finger-pointing and name-calling has escalated steadily as the pandemic continues to ravage the world. US President Donald Trump and his top lieutenant, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have both publicly floated... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3082887/us-move-seek-coronavirus-pandemic-damages-china-might-well-trigger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3082887/us-move-seek-coronavirus-pandemic-damages-china-might-well-trigger?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 May 2020 19:00:13 +0000 One of the more worrying consequences of the coronavirus is that it looks likely to become a catalyst for deglobalisation. At the centre of this will be the decoupling of the Chinese economy with developed economies and the US in particular. The world’s three largest free economies – the European Union, the United States and Japan – are all drawing up separate plans to lure their companies out of China. European Union trade commissioner Phil Hogan has called on companies to consider moving away... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3082444/coronavirus-china-faces-economic-reckoning-covid-19-turns-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3082444/coronavirus-china-faces-economic-reckoning-covid-19-turns-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 May 2020 03:00:07 +0000 The Chinese economy’s plunge into negative growth is its first since it began its meteoric rise four decades ago. However, even with its record 6.8 per cent contraction in gross domestic product in the first quarter of this year, the world’s second-largest economy still might outperform its developed peers, such as the European Union, the United States and Japan, all of which are expecting their greatest economic crises since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Indeed, the Chinese collapse is... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3081465/coronavirus-think-worst-over-chinas-economy-not-so-fast?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3081465/coronavirus-think-worst-over-chinas-economy-not-so-fast?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Apr 2020 03:30:16 +0000 “Deglobalisation” and “decoupling” were buzzwords that dominated the global media amid the escalating US-China trade war, before the coronavirus outbreak began in January. The worldwide spread of Covid-19 has only strengthened the arguments against globalisation and convinced many in the developed West that the process of decoupling is imperative. As the pandemic spreads and its epicentre has moved from China to Europe and the US, such voices have only become more prominent and, indeed,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3080741/world-waking-risks-relying-china-its-critical-medical-supplies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3080741/world-waking-risks-relying-china-its-critical-medical-supplies?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Apr 2020 23:00:16 +0000 The most-feared outcome of the economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic is mass lay-offs, as job creation and employment are key policy objectives for any government under any political system. This is all the more so for China’s ruling Communist Party, as its legitimacy of rule is largely based on its capacity to deliver growth and raise people’s living standards under an undemocratic system. However, the leadership will soon have to deal with its most severe challenge as China... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3080487/what-might-affect-more-people-coronavirus-unemployment-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3080487/what-might-affect-more-people-coronavirus-unemployment-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Apr 2020 03:00:14 +0000 There is a Chinese idiom, “food is the god of the people”, that speaks volumes about the utmost significance of feeding the world’s most populous nation. Since ancient times, China’s rulers have seen the stable and sufficient supply of food as the most critical issue in maintaining political, social and economic stability in the Middle Kingdom – and thus their legitimacy of rule. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the global food supply and could bring about a food crisis if governments... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3079365/coronavirus-disrupts-food-supply-chains-who-will-feed-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3079365/coronavirus-disrupts-food-supply-chains-who-will-feed-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Apr 2020 03:00:20 +0000 The coronavirus outbreak has already taken a great toll on the Chinese economy, with all headline readings pointing towards a record slowdown in growth during the first two months of the year. But there is an even greater danger for what was once the world’s fastest-growing major economy: that Covid-19 will become the catalyst that will bring its many long-simmering problems to the boil. At the centre of these problems is a rising systemic risk in its banking and financial systems caused by a... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3078018/coronavirus-has-lit-fuse-time-bomb-chinas-economy-debt?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3078018/coronavirus-has-lit-fuse-time-bomb-chinas-economy-debt?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Apr 2020 03:30:08 +0000 Economic planning, like economic forecasting, is predicated on a certain degree of visibility, predictability and certainty of an economic outlook. This is why China’s state planners and macro managers are perplexed, confused and struggling to amend its delayed annual economic plan: never before has the economy been faced with such a great number of uncertainties, until the Covid-19 pandemic. Usually, on or around March 5, the Chinese premier unveils the country’s annual economic plan in his... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3077714/coronavirus-china-should-stop-unrealistic-planning-and-start?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3077714/coronavirus-china-should-stop-unrealistic-planning-and-start?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Mar 2020 22:00:06 +0000 The central truth to emerge from the Covid-19 outbreak is that all human beings share a common destiny, as it is the first time the whole world has been ravaged by a single catastrophe since World War II. Never before has a pandemic or natural disaster had such a wide and deep impact on human life. Normal activity in the vast majority of nations has come to a halt, with massive school shutdowns, major events suspended or cancelled, most airlines grounded, many metro systems closed, cities locked... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3077321/coronavirus-china-cant-suppress-it-us-military-cant-kill-it-covid?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3077321/coronavirus-china-cant-suppress-it-us-military-cant-kill-it-covid?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Mar 2020 03:30:07 +0000 OF all the harm the coronavirus has inflicted, it is the effect on human health that is the most tragic and the most visible. But it is the unfolding economic catastrophe that truly marks this out as different from any natural disaster or pandemic in living memory. Even now, the final toll can barely be guessed at. Yet some things seem certain already. One of them is that the economy in China, where the novel coronavirus was first identified and which for weeks had been the epicentre of the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3076175/coronavirus-china-economic-pain-has-only-just-begun?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3076175/coronavirus-china-economic-pain-has-only-just-begun?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Mar 2020 03:00:20 +0000 Viruses and epidemics are enemies of the entire human race, and nations should be making joint efforts and cooperating to fight them, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, ideology or political belief. Covid-19 is obviously one such enemy, given the pain and suffering it has so far inflicted on people across the globe. World powers like the United States and China have a clear opportunity to unite and fight the coronavirus pandemic – while also overcoming the escalating rivalry between... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075282/between-trade-war-and-coronavirus-us-china-relations-are-becoming?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3075282/between-trade-war-and-coronavirus-us-china-relations-are-becoming?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Mar 2020 12:00:08 +0000 Rarely has a natural disaster or pandemic had bigger health, economic, social, diplomatic and geopolitical consequences than Covid-19 – and the impact of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus is now growing exponentially. Covid-19 has already brought almost all the world’s major economies to their knees. The worst-case scenario is that it might bring about a global recession, as it has spread to more than 100 countries, and the human casualties and economic losses are still... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3075123/coronavirus-fatal-economic-globalisation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3075123/coronavirus-fatal-economic-globalisation?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Mar 2020 03:00:20 +0000 The novel coronavirus outbreak has become a major test of just how much China has and hasn’t changed since the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) crisis in 2003. Admittedly, Beijing has generally done a better job of handling the current outbreak. The extraordinary measures it has taken in response to the coronavirus and Covid-19, the disease it causes, have been in sharp contrast to its indecisive actions 17 years ago. China has changed a great deal since then, at least in terms of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3051831/coronavirus-chinese-democracy-what-chernobyl-was-glasnost?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3051831/coronavirus-chinese-democracy-what-chernobyl-was-glasnost?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Feb 2020 03:00:12 +0000 Viruses and epidemic diseases might originate in one country, but they have neither nationality nor loyalty. Instead of confining themselves permanently to one breeding ground, they travel far and wide, crossing one border after another. And globalization helps them travel further, and faster. This is why we have seen the novel coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and causes the disease now officially known as Covid-19, spreading wildly across the globe. This is also why we... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/six-ways-coronavirus-crisis-will-change-chinas-relations-world/article/3051369?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/six-ways-coronavirus-crisis-will-change-chinas-relations-world/article/3051369?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Feb 2020 10:21:08 +0000 Viruses and epidemic diseases might originate in one country, but they have neither nationality nor loyalty. Instead of confining themselves permanently to one breeding ground, they travel far and wide, crossing one border after another. And globalisation helps them travel further, and faster. This is why we have seen the novel coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and causes the disease now officially known as Covid-19, spreading wildly across the globe. This is also why we... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3051118/six-ways-coronavirus-crisis-will-change-chinas-relations-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3051118/six-ways-coronavirus-crisis-will-change-chinas-relations-world?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Feb 2020 19:00:11 +0000 Given the rapid advance of medical science and globalisation of recent decades, the scale, spread and economic costs of human epidemics are rocketing up, even if fatality rates are starting to fall. Never before has China paid such an economic price for an epidemic as it has done already with the coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan and causes the disease now officially known as Covid-19. And the damage is spreading. It is too soon to assess the full impact of the virus as... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3050629/forget-sars-new-coronavirus-threatens-meltdown-chinas-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3050629/forget-sars-new-coronavirus-threatens-meltdown-chinas-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Feb 2020 03:00:16 +0000 Nature is unpredictable and sometimes vengeful. Different societies and political systems have different ways of managing it. Viruses and epidemics can occur in any country. But they have become more dangerous and challenging in modern times as globalisation means they spread faster and farther than ever. Thus the coronavirus, thought to have originated in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan, is spreading across the world. As it does so, it tests not only China’s health infrastructure and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3049589/coronavirus-threatens-chinese-communist-partys-grip-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3049589/coronavirus-threatens-chinese-communist-partys-grip-power?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 09 Feb 2020 03:30:13 +0000 The signing of the long-awaited first trade deal between the United States and China brings the welcome hope that their trade relations might stop worsening after nearly two years of destabilising confrontation and costly tit-for-tat conflict. But the interim accord does not completely prevent a catastrophic, full-blown trade war between the world’s two largest economies, as their decoupling remains a concern. At this stage, both nations might shift the battleground from the negotiation table to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3047341/year-rat-us-china-trade-deal-will-not-usher-season-goodwill?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3047341/year-rat-us-china-trade-deal-will-not-usher-season-goodwill?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Jan 2020 03:00:08 +0000 When it comes to crucial elections for the highest office, there is no place in the world where outside factors take precedence over local issues – other than in Taiwan. Mainland China’s increasingly hawkish attitude towards the island, Hong Kong’s anti-Beijing protests, and Washington’s support of the democratic aspirations in those two Chinese communities have all contributed to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and her ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) landslide victory in the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3046595/taiwan-election-hong-kong-won-it-beijing-lost-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3046595/taiwan-election-hong-kong-won-it-beijing-lost-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Jan 2020 03:00:19 +0000 The signing of a US-China trade deal this week once again shows how history can change because of negotiations. This is why leaders, whether they are democratically elected or a dictator, prefer diplomacy to military means for settling disputes. Peace often means less cost and more benefits than war. This is also the reason US President Donald Trump is seeking diplomacy to resolve the wrangle with his North Korean opponent Kim Jong-un over the nuclear issue, despite the failure so far of their... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3045969/can-xi-jinping-plug-trust-deficit-stalled-us-north-korea-nuclear?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3045969/can-xi-jinping-plug-trust-deficit-stalled-us-north-korea-nuclear?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Jan 2020 18:00:13 +0000 America’s assassination of Iran’s second-most powerful commander, Major General Qassem Soleimani, has sparked fears of a war in the Middle East. But it is not just the United States that risks getting drawn into a conflict, given the emerging Moscow-Beijing-Tehran axis. Days before the US strike on January 3 – which also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the head of Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah militia group – China and Russia completed unprecedented joint military drills with Iran. Further evidence of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3045607/us-iran-crisis-middle-east-war-risks-drawing-china-and-russia-too?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3045607/us-iran-crisis-middle-east-war-risks-drawing-china-and-russia-too?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Jan 2020 03:00:20 +0000 The historic tales of China’s ancient Three Kingdoms can be used to explain the complicated rivalry between China, Japan and South Korea, which have often had troubled relations despite their geographical proximity, similar cultures and close economic ties. The three East Asian powers have taken turns at being the envy of the world with their miraculous growth after World War II, first seen by Japan, then South Korea and China. Today, China is Asia’s largest economy, Japan second and South Korea... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3044565/china-japan-and-south-korea-must-choose-history-or-economics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3044565/china-japan-and-south-korea-must-choose-history-or-economics?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Jan 2020 03:00:13 +0000 China’s economic growth fell to a multi-decade low of within a whisker of 6 per cent in 2019. But this will not be the worst level it will hit, as growth of the world’s second-largest economy looks certain to decelerate further in 2020, breaking the politically and psychologically sensitive 6 per cent benchmark as it is dragged down by sluggish domestic demand and the US trade war. The ruling Communist Party might yet achieve its hefty goal of doubling the size of the economy from 2010, thanks... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3043972/how-us-trade-war-brings-out-chinas-best-hopes-and-worst-fears-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3043972/how-us-trade-war-brings-out-chinas-best-hopes-and-worst-fears-its?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 31 Dec 2019 19:00:12 +0000 Chinese academics and intellectuals should not have been enraged by the communist leadership’s move to drop a written statement about academic freedom from the charters of a handful of universities. Not only has there rarely been such freedom in China since the founding of the people’s republic in 1949, this rarity is commonplace in communist-ruled nations. But when the government’s decision to drop the statement from the charter of Shanghai’s Fudan University came to light on December 17, it... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3043791/why-chinas-crackdown-academic-freedom-will-backfire?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3043791/why-chinas-crackdown-academic-freedom-will-backfire?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Dec 2019 03:00:18 +0000 The different approaches adopted by American and Chinese officials in dealing with the long-awaited first trade deal reflect their different sentiments and views on the result of the marathon deliberations. US President Donald Trump has been super proud of the accord, praising it as “a big deal”, “an amazing deal”, and “a historic deal”. In sharp contrast, Beijing has maintained a rarely seen cautious attitude, with its often superlatively upbeat state media muted and shying away from commenting... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3042819/us-and-china-have-trade-deal-only-washington-has-what-it-wants?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3042819/us-and-china-have-trade-deal-only-washington-has-what-it-wants?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Dec 2019 03:00:15 +0000 In the past couple of decades, nothing has been as prominent in remaking the global economy and reshaping global geopolitics as China’s rise and globalization. China’s accession into the World Trade Organization in 2001 – the landmark inception of the world’s most populous nation into the global capitalist system – drove both China’s explosive growth and economic globalization. In the past year, however, a completely different theme has come to the foreground: decoupling.  Many in Washington... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/consequences-us-china-decoupling/article/3042547?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/consequences-us-china-decoupling/article/3042547?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Dec 2019 10:12:47 +0000 In the past couple of decades, nothing has been as prominent in remaking the global economy and reshaping global geopolitics as China’s rise and globalisation. China’s accession into the World Trade Organisation in 2001 – the landmark inception of the world’s most populous nation into the global capitalist system – drove both China’s explosive growth and economic globalisation. In the past year, however, a completely different theme has come to the foreground: decoupling. Many in Washington fear... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3042132/us-china-decoupling-would-spell-end-globalisation-and-chinas-growth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3042132/us-china-decoupling-would-spell-end-globalisation-and-chinas-growth?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Dec 2019 21:00:15 +0000 Conflict between Western democracies and the communist Eastern bloc was the key reason behind the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) in 1949 and its rival opponent the Warsaw Pact in 1955. The alignment of nearly every European nation into one of the two opposing camps – the US-led Western Bloc and Soviet Union-led Eastern Bloc – formalised the global rivalry of the post-World War II period and involved an arms race that endured throughout the cold war. But since the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3041942/beijings-nightmare-coming-true-china-natos-new-communist-target?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3041942/beijings-nightmare-coming-true-china-natos-new-communist-target?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Dec 2019 03:00:12 +0000 Tariffs are the key weapon of US President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, and thus they are also the key to eventually unlocking the intractable problems of the marathon US-China trade negotiation. Any good deal should include the removal of punitive tariffs. But the latest inhospitable rhetoric over when and how much of these duties should be removed suggests the issue has become the main point of disagreement preventing Washington and Beijing from finalising their “phase one” deal on... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3040993/us-and-china-beware-trade-war-tariffs-are-double-edged-sword?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3040993/us-and-china-beware-trade-war-tariffs-are-double-edged-sword?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Dec 2019 03:30:07 +0000 China has moved far from its Mao-era command economy, following four decades of market-oriented reform. But in the Communist Party-led state capitalist system, state planning – a remnant of Stalinist economics – continues to play a critical role. China has annual, five- and 10-year economic programmes, which, in addition to being forward-looking economic plans, are used to measure the government’s performance. Faced with an uncertain economic landscape, China’s planners are preparing for a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3040309/hit-hard-trade-war-chinas-economic-outlook-uncertain-except-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3040309/hit-hard-trade-war-chinas-economic-outlook-uncertain-except-one?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Dec 2019 19:00:09 +0000 There has long been a question mark over the accuracy of Chinese statistics, especially when it comes to the economy. But Beijing’s latest move to revise up its GDP figures at a politically sensitive moment has only poured fuel on the fire. The National Bureau of Statistics’ recent decision to revise up its nominal gross domestic product figure by 2.1 per cent to 91.93 trillion yuan (US$13.08 trillion) following a census has stirred anxieties about the already gloomy outlook for the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3039987/chinas-miracle-economy-has-secret-ingredient-cooked-gdp-books?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3039987/chinas-miracle-economy-has-secret-ingredient-cooked-gdp-books?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Dec 2019 03:30:07 +0000 The association of the five major emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the BRICS bloc – was originally about recognising economic potential. All five were supposed to be on their way to becoming developed powerhouses of the global economy. Since 2001, when the Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill coined the acronym, the bloc’s combined share of the world economy has jumped from just eight per cent of global GDP to about a quarter. As the bloc accounts for some 40... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3038953/china-russia-challenge-us-led-west-has-hit-brics-wall?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3038953/china-russia-challenge-us-led-west-has-hit-brics-wall?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Nov 2019 03:00:05 +0000 The fall of the Berlin Wall was widely seen as having changed the trajectory of history in several ways. It marked democracy’s triumph over communist tyranny, ushered in an era of globalisation with free markets and open societies, and most importantly, ended the cold war. But 30 years on, the world is still far from what political scientist Francis Fukuyama called the “end of history”, as new barriers are built and new battlegrounds laid. The fall of the Berlin Wall helped to trigger the global... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3038004/30-years-after-berlin-wall-fell-chinas-digital-barriers-are?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3038004/30-years-after-berlin-wall-fell-chinas-digital-barriers-are?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Nov 2019 04:00:06 +0000 Inflation and economic growth tell us much not only about the health of an economy, but also about how effectively a government is managing its economy. Measures such as the consumer price index (CPI), producer price index (PPI) and gross domestic product (GDP) are among the most significant factors influencing the economic decisions of governments, investors and consumers. Inflation and economic growth are two different things, but they are often intertwined. Although inflation does not... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3037923/rising-pork-prices-hide-far-bigger-problem-chinas-economy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3037923/rising-pork-prices-hide-far-bigger-problem-chinas-economy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 Nov 2019 03:00:14 +0000 Given that China-bashing has dominated all US presidential campaigns since the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989, it’s no surprise that China hawks are in abundance in Washington these days. The Donald Trump presidency has only highlighted this trend. After all, he won the election on a platform promoted by authors like Peter Navarro, who wrote Death by China: Confronting the Dragon, and Michael Pillsbury, who penned The Hundred-year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3036977/when-us-hawks-call-chinas-communist-party-threat-world-peace-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3036977/when-us-hawks-call-chinas-communist-party-threat-world-peace-its?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Nov 2019 03:00:13 +0000 Hopes were high for a US-China detente following recent confirmations by both sides that a trade deal would soon be signed, and even the cancellation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ summit in Chile did not dampen the optimism. US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping were slated to sign the first instalment of the accord in Santiago, where riots and anti-government protests forced the authorities to call off the November 16 to 17 event. Diplomats... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3035985/dont-be-fooled-us-and-china-have-done-deal-its-not-real-deal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3035985/dont-be-fooled-us-and-china-have-done-deal-its-not-real-deal?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Nov 2019 03:00:13 +0000 Uncertainty is the No 1 enemy of investment markets. That is why indices devised by social scientists to measure and quantify uncertainty in the marketplace are highly sought after by investors and decision-makers. As uncertainty clouds the global economy, several such indices are at or near record highs. These include the World Uncertainty Index, World Trade Uncertainty index, and their sub-indices on global economic policy uncertainty and global trade policy uncertainty. Researchers and index... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3035226/us-china-trade-war-trumps-impeachment-inquiry-and-brexit-record?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3035226/us-china-trade-war-trumps-impeachment-inquiry-and-brexit-record?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Oct 2019 01:30:10 +0000 China’s third-quarter economic growth of 6 per cent is not only the slowest rate since Beijing began publishing such data in 1992, it also suggests the economy is right at the bottom of the central government’s full-year growth target of between 6 per cent and 6.5 per cent. The dim economic report for the July-September period came on the heels of gloomy forecasts by international institutions, with the International Monetary Fund citing US-China trade tensions as a driving factor for such... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3034638/chinas-economy-slowing-it-has-keys-future-growth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3034638/chinas-economy-slowing-it-has-keys-future-growth?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Oct 2019 03:30:08 +0000 Negotiation is all about give and take. The party more eager to get a deal done will give more. That is why Beijing made more concessions than Washington in the just-concluded first-phase deal after their marathon trade talks. Hopes were dim for any such deal in the weeks leading up to the 13th round of talks amid a number of controversies, including China’s quarrel over an NBA general manager’s support of Hong Kong protests and the passing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/us-china-trade-war-who-wanted-deal-most/article/3034216?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/us-china-trade-war-who-wanted-deal-most/article/3034216?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Oct 2019 11:37:39 +0000 Negotiation is all about give and take. And the party more eager to get a deal done will give more. That is why Beijing made more concessions than Washington in the just-concluded first-phase deal after their marathon trade talks. Hopes were dim for any such deal in the weeks leading up to the 13th round of talks amid a number of controversies including: China’s quarrel over a National Basketball Association general manager’s support of Hong Kong protests; the passing of the Hong Kong Human... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033940/us-china-trade-war-who-wanted-deal-most-just-look-concessions-made?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033940/us-china-trade-war-who-wanted-deal-most-just-look-concessions-made?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Oct 2019 19:00:04 +0000 China’s policymakers are well aware of the importance of soft power in shaping a nation’s standing in the world. Indeed, its leaders have often spoke admiringly of the concept first put forward by the US political scientist Joseph Nye in his 1990 book, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. The former dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University had theorised that in an increasingly complex and multipolar world the constraints of “hard power” – the use of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3033751/chinese-soft-power-carrot-being-undermined-stick?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3033751/chinese-soft-power-carrot-being-undermined-stick?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Oct 2019 05:30:58 +0000 China’s military parade on October 1 – one of the largest in human history – to observe the 70th anniversary of the communist republic’s founding was largely aimed at a domestic audience. But the bigger impact of the massive display of Chinese military hardware was on the world stage, particularly on its neighbors and the US-led West, whether it was intended or not. Beijing proclaimed that the parade was showing a “peace-loving and responsible China.” Nevertheless, the widely asked question is... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/chinas-show-military-might-risks-backfiring/article/3032979?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/chinas-show-military-might-risks-backfiring/article/3032979?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Oct 2019 10:55:30 +0000 China’s military parade on October 1 – one of the largest in human history – to observe the 70th anniversary of the communist republic’s founding was largely aimed at a domestic audience. But the bigger impact of the massive display of Chinese military hardware was on the world stage, particularly on its neighbours and the US-led West, whether it was intended or not. In the first place, the primary political message of the pomp and pageantry was to underline China’s fast rise to being a global... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3032544/chinas-national-day-show-military-muscle-risks-backfiring?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3032544/chinas-national-day-show-military-muscle-risks-backfiring?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Oct 2019 03:15:12 +0000 Taiwan’s back-to-back loss of diplomatic allies to mainland China last month was another major coup for Beijing and setback for Taipei in their long-running struggle since the early 1990s. The switch in official recognition by the Solomon Islands and Kiribati was further evidence of Beijing’s success in systematically cornering the self-ruled island with its “dollar diplomacy”. Taipei had 28 allies in 1990. That number is now just 15. Many of its remaining friends are small and impoverished... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3031623/beijings-pressure-will-only-push-taiwan-further-out-reach?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3031623/beijings-pressure-will-only-push-taiwan-further-out-reach?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Oct 2019 03:00:14 +0000 No other goods could be as economically, politically and diplomatically significant to China as pork and oil. China, the world’s most populous nation, is also the world’s largest consumer of pork, and its top importer of oil. Hogs are culturally, economically and politically important in China. That is why, while other nations keep reserves of petroleum and crops, China stockpiles pork on top of these basics. The Chinese produce and devour more than half of the global output of pork, and China’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3031084/shortage-pork-and-oil-raises-spectre-inflation-and-china-should-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3031084/shortage-pork-and-oil-raises-spectre-inflation-and-china-should-be?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Oct 2019 01:00:13 +0000 As China marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on Tuesday, Beijing’s communist rulers have much to celebrate.  In the past few centuries, the country has never looked as strong as it does today, a consequence of the four-decade economic boom ushered in by the late leader Deng Xiaoping’s free market reforms and opening-up policy. In those 40 years, China has witnessed something of an economic miracle.  Nevertheless, China is still neither an advanced nor a developed... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-70-still-isnt-superpower/article/3030900?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-70-still-isnt-superpower/article/3030900?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Sep 2019 10:46:25 +0000