https://www.scmp.com/rss/13501/feed Kevin Rafferty, a journalist for 50 years, started writing about cricket and football for The Observer when at Oxford University. He joined the foreign staff of the Financial Times, was in charge of the FT’s Asian coverage, and opened the paper’s first Hong Kong office. He has lived and worked in Delhi, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, and Washington, and edited daily papers in 30 major cities during IMF and multilateral development bank meetings. He was professor in the Institute... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Anyone who imagined that President Donald Trump’s impeachment acquittal would allow American politics to return to more civilised ways of discussing polity and policy calmly can surely stop dreaming. Far from being chastened, Trump has gone on the warpath to cleanse the White House of non-loyalists, to bring “his” Justice Department under control, and pursue those who began the impeachment “witch hunt”. He is seeking to crush his opponents in presidential and congressional elections in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3051198/trumps-disruptive-behaviour-threatens-us-and-world-will-no-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3051198/trumps-disruptive-behaviour-threatens-us-and-world-will-no-one?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:00:12 +0000 Wanted: a bold, honest, imaginative leader to rescue an old, respected business. The enterprise was renowned internationally, but has fallen on hard times under wooden, unimaginative managers. It now stands on the verge of bankruptcy with open fighting between shareholders and stakeholders involving security guards and regular demonstrations by disgruntled workers. The problems are compounded by a controlling shareholder who does not understand local sensitivities and the inequality between... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3041966/protests-show-carrie-lam-should-offer-her-resignation-and-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3041966/protests-show-carrie-lam-should-offer-her-resignation-and-beijing?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Dec 2019 00:15:12 +0000 Japanese media featured smiling shots of Shinzo Abe, who has just broken all records to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, at 2,887 days and still going strong, striding atop Japan’s political scene like a real-life colossus. For all the celebrations of Abe’s record-breaking past, the real questions are for the future: what is Abe doing with his power and how is he preparing an ailing Japan for the challenges of an uncertain future. If you take a simple snapshot of Japan today, life... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3038522/shinzo-abes-legacy-stagnant-economy-loyalty-donald-trump-deepening?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3038522/shinzo-abes-legacy-stagnant-economy-loyalty-donald-trump-deepening?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 Nov 2019 22:00:09 +0000 Without fanfare, Kristalina Georgieva was anointed to succeed Christine Lagarde as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. I am sure she will be brilliantly successful. But her finest hour will be in leaving the IMF in five years if she manages to smash and replace the system through which she took the job. It is time global financial institutions chose the best candidate in a transparent way. Sadly, Georgieva came to the job though a sham, the opposite of the fund’s executive... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3031085/new-imf-leader-must-smash-system-gave-her-job-if-she-wants-truly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3031085/new-imf-leader-must-smash-system-gave-her-job-if-she-wants-truly?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Oct 2019 17:00:10 +0000 Should every woman who has survived breast cancer wear a sign announcing the fact when going through airport security scanners – or should it merely be mandatory at German airports? No, it is not a joke, but a seriously angry question about the wretched behaviour of airport security goons. Why can’t other places be like Hong Kong, and why can’t Hong Kong remember its genius? At Frankfurt airport recently, my wife went through a millimetre wave scanner: feet on yellow markings, hands in the air.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3028106/hong-kong-airport-offers-lessons-passenger-dignity-airport-security?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3028106/hong-kong-airport-offers-lessons-passenger-dignity-airport-security?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Sep 2019 05:00:12 +0000 Conservative Party members have duly anointed Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson as their leader and thus prime minister of the United Kingdom. Johnson immediately promised an end to the Brexit circus games in which British politicians have played the clowns for three years, making the UK a laughing stock. Within minutes of gaining Queen Elizabeth’s blessing and before entering 10 Downing Street, Johnson promised a magical revolution, in which Britain will be transformed by increased spending on... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3020122/welcome-boris-johnsons-theatre-absurd-no-one-should-laugh?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3020122/welcome-boris-johnsons-theatre-absurd-no-one-should-laugh?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jul 2019 21:00:06 +0000 Phew! Osaka and the G20 – and the rest of the world – survived the passage of the “Trumphoon”, although it left a bill running to millions of dollars for costs, disruption of lives, closure of schools, traffic dislocation and general chaos visited on Japan, not to speak of important structural damage to the pretence of global governance. Surely, it is beyond high time for sensible leaders – if there are any – to come together to replace this costly, wasteful showpiece with something that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3016926/osaka-g20-summit-takes-back-seat-donald-trump-show?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3016926/osaka-g20-summit-takes-back-seat-donald-trump-show?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jul 2019 17:00:17 +0000 As a striking symbol of the changing politics of India, Rahul Gandhi, scion of the once ruling Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and his Congress party earned a drubbing in the recent general elections. In contrast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party confounded critics and crushed the opposition in sweeping back to power. Modi and the BJP are so predominant and the opposition so weak that most commentators predict they will win the next elections due in 2024. Their triumphant return... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3012927/will-modi-unleash-indias-economic-potential-or-destroy-its-future?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3012927/will-modi-unleash-indias-economic-potential-or-destroy-its-future?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Jun 2019 02:49:46 +0000 A bareheaded middle-aged man in black morning suit with tails and white tie setting off a gold chain and sashes and stars of four orders of chivalry walked into the room, followed by another middle-aged man and an elderly man in a wheelchair, both with sashes and stars. The first man walked onto a small platform with a single chair with a gold chrysanthemum embossed on it. The two other men flanked him but did not go onto the dais. Several men in black morning suits followed, two carrying... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3009490/japan-under-new-emperor-still-cant-put-rest-its-wartime?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3009490/japan-under-new-emperor-still-cant-put-rest-its-wartime?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 May 2019 04:00:10 +0000 For two years, US President Donald Trump was beleaguered by the “WITCH HUNT” and “fake news” of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether he or his campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Now, on the basis of his attorney general’s four-page summary of Mueller’s almost 400-page report and decision not to prosecute him, Trump has rebounded, with a vengeance. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon warns that a rejuvenated Trump is set to “go full animal” on... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3004629/behold-all-damage-wrought-donald-trumps-rule-tweet?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3004629/behold-all-damage-wrought-donald-trumps-rule-tweet?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Apr 2019 17:00:11 +0000 When I was editor of The Universe, one conversation was inscribed indelibly on my memory. The monsignor who was the paper’s religious adviser told me that there is one crime that cries to Heaven for vengeance – the abuse of children. The announcement of Cardinal George Pell’s conviction on a charge of sexually penetrating a child and four other charges of an indecent act with a child are surely crying to Heaven for Pope Francis and the leaders of the Catholic Church to do public penitence. Pell,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2187924/what-geroge-pell-conviction-reveals-about-pope?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2187924/what-geroge-pell-conviction-reveals-about-pope?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Feb 2019 14:02:47 +0000 An awful lot of wishful thinking has been pedalled about the need for the new president of the World Bank to be the best qualified person for the job. Depressingly, the so-called leaders responsible for choosing the successor to Jim Yong Kim show few signs of caring about who runs the bank or its role. Kim’s unexpected resignation should have helped concentrate minds on the impending challenges facing the world. They include the continuing fracturing of the global economic order – but without a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2184680/world-bank-still-has-role-play-if-its-next?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2184680/world-bank-still-has-role-play-if-its-next?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Feb 2019 19:00:15 +0000 Theresa May made an extraordinary appeal this month: Britain’s prime minister wrote to the people of the UK, appealing to them to support the Brexit deal that she had made with the European Union to leave next March. The letter and subsequent debates and political chicanery leading up to the key House of Commons vote on the deal must leave all Britons and anyone who cares about the country gravely worried about the future of the UK, whichever way the vote goes. If Brexit goes ahead, as May has... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/world/article/2177219/people-need-second-brexit-vote-time-theresa-mays?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/world/article/2177219/people-need-second-brexit-vote-time-theresa-mays?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Dec 2018 08:33:18 +0000 When Pakistan’s highest court acquitted Aasiya Noreen, also known as Asia Bibi, of a false charge of blasphemy, some naive commentators hailed the judgment as a harbinger of hope for a freer Pakistan. The judges ordered that Bibi, a poor Catholic farm labourer who had spent eight years on death row, be released immediately. But Muslim extremists reacted to her acquittal by threatening to bring Pakistan to a bloody halt and demanding that she be put to death, whatever the evidence. Imran Khan’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2175220/populism-religious-zealotry-social-media?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2175220/populism-religious-zealotry-social-media?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Nov 2018 08:45:15 +0000 President Xi Jinping told Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor that Hong Kong and Macau had played “irreplaceable” roles in the reform and opening up of China. “I hereby express my heartfelt thanks to you. The motherland and its people will never forget,” Xi said. The response, if any, of Hong Kong’s chief executive, is not recorded. If she really understood her job as leader of Hong Kong, she would have dared suggest to Xi that Hong Kong’s continuing contribution to the motherland is best made by being... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2173597/british-colonial-officials-fought-hard-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2173597/british-colonial-officials-fought-hard-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Nov 2018 07:30:00 +0000 Shinzo Abe has just been re-elected as president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which gives him a chance to become Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. With Japan all set to host the Rugby World Cup next year and the Summer Olympic Games in 2020, Abe’s star also seems set to shine brightly. But appearances can be deceptive, and Abe has a bad habit of being stronger on slogans than performance: think Abenomics and womenomics, both of which caught the popular imagination, but have... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2165140/so-much-shinzo-abes-womenomics-japan-inc-still?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2165140/so-much-shinzo-abes-womenomics-japan-inc-still?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Sep 2018 06:31:48 +0000 Bob Woodward, with Carl Bernstein, did more than anyone else to expose the misdeeds of US president Richard Nixon and bring about his downfall. Now, 45 years later, Woodward is in full spate with explosive claims against President Donald Trump in his book, Fear: Trump in the White House. His basic charge is that Trump is unfit to be president and is destroying America, democracy and any claims by the US to be a leader in global affairs. Then, an anonymous op-ed writer in The New York Times, who... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2163814/woodward-book-and-anonymous-white-house?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2163814/woodward-book-and-anonymous-white-house?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Sep 2018 07:00:30 +0000 In the heart of London’s Oxford Street, outside John Lewis department store, a man in his early 30s stood at an electronic organ under the shade of a large Chinese flag, playing China’s national anthem. Outside Selfridges, Oxford Street was jammed with cycle rickshaws and locally called pedicabs – many sporting Middle Eastern flags – seeking tourists, whom the unrestricted drivers charge up to £200 (about US$250) for a 10-minute ride. London is full of tourists, a babel of languages, a hustle of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/world/article/2159832/brexit-era-britain-donald-trumps-america-attempts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/world/article/2159832/brexit-era-britain-donald-trumps-america-attempts?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Aug 2018 05:15:30 +0000 Is President Donald Trump a traitor to the United States, a secret Russian plant, a duped puppet under the spell of Vladimir Putin or a businessman seeking a dishonest billion or so – or most of the above? It is hard to know after the meeting between Trump and Putin in Helsinki and the press conference where Trump suggested he believed Putin rather than his intelligence agencies about Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. Trump’s assertions brought outrage from all sides in America,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2155770/trump-dances-putins-tune-putting-us-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2155770/trump-dances-putins-tune-putting-us-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Jul 2018 08:00:45 +0000 Scorned as Britain’s worst leader since Neville Chamberlain misread power in Europe, Theresa May clings to the illusion of authority represented by her occupancy of Number 10 Downing Street and the trappings that go with it. Sadly, May, her colleagues and their powerful newspaper backers are suffering from delusions that are likely to see Britain crashing out of the European Union while left with a moth-eaten industry, a devastated financial system and a government deeply in hock. The prime... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2152947/brexit-will-only-work-britain-if-eu-breaks-apart-and-would?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2152947/brexit-will-only-work-britain-if-eu-breaks-apart-and-would?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 Jun 2018 06:30:45 +0000 Mahathir Mohamad returned in resounding triumph at the age of 92 to become the world’s oldest elected prime minister. It says a lot about the pernicious state of Malaysian politics that his slogan was his promise to clean up the corrupt government.  Prime Minister Najib Razak’s grand coalition government, Barisan Nasional, had all the advantages of 61 years of incumbency, backed by the resources of the state apparatus, including control of the media, choice of the election timing and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2145731/can-mahathir-redux-undo-his-own-legacy-and-build-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2145731/can-mahathir-redux-undo-his-own-legacy-and-build-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 May 2018 04:31:38 +0000 South Korean President Moon Jae-in was grinning as he greeted North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. They embraced, held hands, toasted one another and promised an end to war and – finally – peace on the Korean peninsula.  It was tremendous theatre, but also heralded something which could change the face of Asia and the world. The two immediate questions are whether Kim can be trusted, and whether US President Donald Trump can live up to his responsibilities when he meets the North Korean... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2144372/what-happens-korea-peace-talks-when-smiles-have-faded?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2144372/what-happens-korea-peace-talks-when-smiles-have-faded?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 May 2018 03:06:48 +0000 US President Donald Trump is wildly thrashing about and tweeting furiously like a wounded wild elephant, so that I am surprised that he has not been renamed President Trumpeting. But it is no longer a mere laughing matter: the trumpeting Trump is increasingly becoming a danger to himself, to the United States, to the Western world, to democracy and to the safety and security of the world as we know it. We are still some way from a full-blown trade war or from the outbreak of conflicts that might... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2142560/donald-trumps-government-tweet-putting-world-danger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2142560/donald-trumps-government-tweet-putting-world-danger?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Apr 2018 04:53:43 +0000 When Mark Zuckerberg emerged to face questions about the harvesting of 50 million Facebook users’ personal information, he behaved like a sulky teenager. “This was a major breach of trust,” Zuckerberg said. “And I’m really sorry that this happened.” Of course he is: Facebook lost billions in market value after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, and Zuckerberg’s personal fortune took a hit. But he did not say sorry to those whose personal information has made him one of the world’s richest... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2140102/two-steps-we-can-take-break-facebooks-monopoly-our-data?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2140102/two-steps-we-can-take-break-facebooks-monopoly-our-data?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Apr 2018 01:15:15 +0000 The sporting games of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics are over, but the geopolitical games of the Korean peninsula go on. Indeed, the daring twists and turns on the ice are being matched by political manoeuvres that open fascinating, as well as troubling, prospects. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has embarked on a campaign to woo South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, as if Kim is a chubbier version of Pyeongchang’s smiling tiger mascot. But the United States, China, Russia and Japan are still... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2136232/defusing-nuclear-north-korea-will-take-cool-heads-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2136232/defusing-nuclear-north-korea-will-take-cool-heads-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Mar 2018 10:15:45 +0000 President Donald Trump is driving the United States towards a new and dangerous civil war. In the last week, he has destroyed the little lingering trust between Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives and attacked the integrity of America’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies. The worry is that these games are a smokescreen for a bigger battle: Dictator Trump against the Constitution, and against anyone who gets in his way. The Trump presidency is becoming a law unto... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2132532/battle-trump-vs-us-constitution-looming?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2132532/battle-trump-vs-us-constitution-looming?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Feb 2018 02:30:30 +0000 Proud patriotic Brexiteers heralded a major victory in their quest to rescue Britain’s sovereignty from the tyranny of Brussels and other malign foreign influences. Prime Minister Theresa May’s government announced that in 2019 the old bold British blue passport would replace Britain’s existing burgundy-coloured passports tainted with the heading “European Union”. Brandon Lewis, the immigration minister, boasted that the return of the “iconic blue and gold” British passport was part of “a unique... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2126394/brexit-backers-britain-tout-their-passport-which-looks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2126394/brexit-backers-britain-tout-their-passport-which-looks?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Jan 2018 09:10:53 +0000 An elderly Asian-Canadian woman gave a powerful acceptance speech at this year’s Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. Key passages from Setsuko Thurlow’s speech should be inscribed on the walls of the United Nations Security Council. Thurlow is a hibakusha, an atomic bomb survivor. On August 6, 1945, she was a 13-year-old girl working in a government office in Hiroshima as cheap labour. At 8.15am, she recalls, “I saw a blinding bluish-white flash from the window”. With immense effort, she emerged... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2125333/one-bomb-my-beloved-city-was-incinerated-hiroshima-survivor?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2125333/one-bomb-my-beloved-city-was-incinerated-hiroshima-survivor?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Dec 2017 03:08:52 +0000 US President Donald Trump’s visits to five Asian countries ended with Trump full of himself, claiming that the trip proved “America is back” as a global power. “The days of the United States being taken advantage of are over”, he declared. In those few boasts, Trump laid bare his, America’s and, ultimately, the world’s failure to put together a credible policy for a fragile and fractured planet. No commentator worth a CNN sound bite could see the achievements Trump imagined. The rest of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2122128/who-americas-worst-enemy-its-not-north-koreas-kim-jong-un?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2122128/who-americas-worst-enemy-its-not-north-koreas-kim-jong-un?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Nov 2017 02:05:22 +0000 The media in Japan and abroad heralded Shinzo Abe’s “landslide win” in Sunday’s election. If you look at the numbers, the landscape has barely changed: Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito both lost seats and scraped through to a slender two-thirds majority in the lower house. However, the largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democrats, has a mere 55 seats and the next biggest has 50. More pertinently, these two parties bitterly oppose each other, and in many... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2116970/note-shinzo-abe-revising-japanese-constitution-wont-build?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2116970/note-shinzo-abe-revising-japanese-constitution-wont-build?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Oct 2017 03:18:33 +0000 Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has called a snap general election claiming he needs a mandate to solve problems, many of which exist because he did not use his last mandate more effectively. Media hubbub is swirling round whether Abe’s gamble may fail because he has underestimated Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike. The odds are long for Koike because Abe gave less than four weeks’ notice of the election and she is scrambling to find enough candidates to contest seats for the Diet. Furthermore,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2114515/behind-japans-election-right-wing-coup-against-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2114515/behind-japans-election-right-wing-coup-against-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Oct 2017 07:02:31 +0000 Advisers to US President Donald Trump promised he would take a “philosophical” approach in his speech to the United Nations. If it was philosophy, it was that of an adolescent schoolyard bully threatening to beat up any challenger. Of course, it is worse because Trump has an arsenal of several thousand nuclear weapons at his fingertips. Even so, it was stunning to hear Trump threaten “to totally destroy” North Korea if Kim Jong-un refused to cease his nuclear ambitions. Kim Jong-un brands Trump... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2112311/donald-trumps-bullying-un-speech-shows-he-not-leader-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2112311/donald-trumps-bullying-un-speech-shows-he-not-leader-world?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Sep 2017 02:25:54 +0000 Issues raised at the recent G20 meeting in Hamburg, from US President Donald Trump’s snub of Japan’s first lady to the failure of the summit in tackling any of the leading issues threatening the safety of the world, are alive and active, as North Korea and Trump demonstrate daily. New UN sanctions on North Korea merely illustrate how far we are from finding a peaceful solution. Potentially Earth-endangering volcanoes are bubbling dangerously: Pyongyang’s truculent nuclear weapons quest and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2106295/japan-fails-get-grips-north-korean-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2106295/japan-fails-get-grips-north-korean-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Aug 2017 01:47:13 +0000 What is wrong with Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister? He has huge majorities in parliament and economic growth is picking up, but he also has a host of difficult political, diplomatic, economic and social issues to sort out. Yet, he has added a new, more contentious and potentially explosive problem, which he has declared he will sort out by 2020. Supporters say he wants to claim “his place in history”, which is why he set so much store by winning the Olympics for Tokyo in 2020, and is getting... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2095668/shinzo-abes-2020-vision-new-japan-should-worry-japanese-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2095668/shinzo-abes-2020-vision-new-japan-should-worry-japanese-and?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 May 2017 01:19:36 +0000 What happened in the US on Tuesday was surely a rejected pilot reel for a B-grade TV reality show about an apprentice president playing at running the White House. Donald Trump abruptly fired James Comey, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with a four paragraph letter hand-delivered to his office. Either the president was badly informed about the whereabouts of the director or he wanted to deliver a petty humiliation in front of FBI staff, because Comey was not in his office in... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2093778/shock-firing-fbi-chief-james-comey-yet-another-episode?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2093778/shock-firing-fbi-chief-james-comey-yet-another-episode?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 May 2017 09:03:57 +0000 Dear Mr Munoz, after the debacle of Flight 3411 (in which Dr David Dao was dragged from a United Airlines flight), you kindly wrote a personal note to me (and no doubt to other frequent fliers) promising it would not happen again, and signed it “Oscar”. You wrote: “Our customers’ satisfaction must be the centre of everything we do and your opinion of our service is the measure of our success. We know we did not measure up, and for that we will redouble our efforts to earn your trust.” ‘Just... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2092941/if-united-airlines-really-means-earn-passenger-trust-it-must?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2092941/if-united-airlines-really-means-earn-passenger-trust-it-must?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 May 2017 02:22:23 +0000 A recent New Yorker cartoon shows the head and elbows of a leonine old man, a real Ancient of Days, appearing wearily through a cloud, addressing a small human with halo and wings, while below the Earth explodes in a profusion of nuclear mushroom clouds. The Ancient comments: “Pretty good. The ending was a bit predictable.” Has the Earth reached a tipping point, where its very future is in doubt? In the past few weeks, new threats have begun to grow: not merely a slow suffocating end because of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2087079/dont-just-blame-trump-world-nears-tipping-point?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2087079/dont-just-blame-trump-world-nears-tipping-point?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 13 Apr 2017 06:07:52 +0000 Perennially insecure security officials in the US, followed closely by the UK, recently introduced new restrictions preventing passengers on certain flights from taking any electronic items larger than a mobile phone into an aircraft cabin. If they were adopted worldwide, they would effectively kill the idea of being able to stay connected while airborne, and would make doing business when travelling almost impossible. The looming question is whether security officials are so terrified by the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2084976/us-and-uk-ban-electronics-flights-wont-shield-us-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2084976/us-and-uk-ban-electronics-flights-wont-shield-us-terrorism?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Apr 2017 04:35:36 +0000 Foreign Minister Wang Yi ( 王毅 ) advised Rex Tillerson, the visiting US secretary of state, to “stay coolheaded” in the face of increasing tension in Asia, particularly on the Korean peninsula. But the advice was too late and addressed to the wrong person. The worsening situation requires more than cool heads to avert disaster. On his first foreign trip, Tillerson expostulated in South Korea that US patience with the North was running out and a pre-emptive military strike was not off the table.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2081186/unstable-trump-and-kim-jong-un-can-china-stop-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2081186/unstable-trump-and-kim-jong-un-can-china-stop-tensions?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:56:26 +0000 Almost 48 years ago, I returned to cold, rainy London after three months travelling overland to and through India, an exhilarating, exhausting kaleidoscope of gracious ancient history jostling with greedy modern development. Above all, I cherished the boundless hospitality and endless energy of so many Indians. With their talents properly encouraged, they could be world-beaters. I came back to London, changed, energised, enthused. What if Britain could make its Commonwealth a global force... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2075523/britain-should-rethink-its-messy-divorce-eu?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2075523/britain-should-rethink-its-messy-divorce-eu?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Mar 2017 03:44:35 +0000 Is there an adult in the White House? Is there a single honest person in the swamp of Washington now presided over by President Donald J. Trump? These questions are real and serious, and driven by the ongoing farrago of half-truths, evasions, obfuscations, storytelling, spin and outright lies surrounding the resignation of retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as Trump’s national security adviser. Flynn’s undoing, supposedly, was not to tell the whole truth to Vice-President Mike Pence, who... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2071067/lies-half-truths-and-foggy-statistics-trust-trump-white?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2071067/lies-half-truths-and-foggy-statistics-trust-trump-white?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Feb 2017 07:54:00 +0000 Commentators and pundits, American and foreign, have sadly misunderstood US President Donald Trump. They expected him to calm down and become presidential, at least when he became the unlikely ­Republican candidate, or when he beat Hillary Clinton – or, at the very least, when he went through the solemn pomp and panoply of the inauguration and he took possession of the Oval Office. It is now clear that Trump must be taken both literally and seriously, however outrageous his demands, however... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2067436/who-can-save-world-being-trampled-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2067436/who-can-save-world-being-trampled-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 Feb 2017 09:02:28 +0000 Do you believe in The Donald, the almighty father, re-creator of the world? And in Don Junior and Eric, sons and heirs to the golden Trump Organisation, and daughter Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner, who, with The Donald, will be the holy trinity to renew the face of the Earth? For theirs is the presidency, and the power and the glory of the greatest nation on Earth. But maybe not for ever and ever, and certainly not Amen. I hope my Christian confreres will forgive my mishmashing of the creed... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2063233/world-must-beware-cult-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2063233/world-must-beware-cult-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Jan 2017 06:09:13 +0000 There are 10 weeks to go before Hong Kong faces the most critical election in its 20 years as a special administrative region of China, when it chooses a chief executive to succeed Leung Chun-ying. It is vital that the new leader has integrity as well as imagination, and is prepared to stand up against some dark and dangerous forces, or Hong Kong risks being relegated to a second-tier city in China, offering international shopping, spoilt harbour views and a few disappearing colonial... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2061173/hong-kongs-next-chief-executive-must-stand-people?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2061173/hong-kongs-next-chief-executive-must-stand-people?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Jan 2017 08:59:33 +0000 How long before Japan makes nuclear weapons? I’m not advocating it. There must be a better way, or Japan risks taking the world to the cliff edge of nuclear annihilation. But the election of Donald Trump as US president has thrown a potential bombshell into diplomatic, political and military relations that have been relatively stable for decades. His unpredictable interventions have surely raised the basic question in Tokyo, and in every world capital: bluntly, can we trust this guy? Trump’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2056065/will-trumps-defence-bluster-push-japan-go-nuclear?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2056065/will-trumps-defence-bluster-push-japan-go-nuclear?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Dec 2016 03:20:08 +0000 US President-elect Donald Trump has been laying down a whirlwind series of markers for his presidency. Supporters say they demonstrate that he is learning quickly and showing a statesmanlike attitude. Critics and cynics worry that he is trying to bring personal business deal-making into the White House. Trump, the businessman president, is a man of our time Trump released a two-minute-37-second YouTube video of himself declaring his plans for his first 100 days, promising to “make America great... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2050408/making-trump-house-how-us-president-elect-putting-his-brand?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2050408/making-trump-house-how-us-president-elect-putting-his-brand?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Nov 2016 09:20:49 +0000 Americans, especially the 47.3 per cent who voted for Donald Trump to become US president, may come to regret that day. The other seven billion of us who had no say in the election should brace for icy political and economic winds. If Trump fulfils even a few of his campaign promises, particularly on trade, immigration, terrorism, and repealing Obamacare, life will be tough for Americans. It will be far tougher for non-Americans, especially those in Asia, because Trump clearly does not... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2045114/can-apprentice-trump-rise-meet-stature-needed-oval-office?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2045114/can-apprentice-trump-rise-meet-stature-needed-oval-office?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Nov 2016 02:04:22 +0000 FBI director James Comey broke all precedent and threw a bombshell in the final stages of the US presidential election campaign, revealing that emails possibly involving Hillary Clinton were under ­investigation. It’s not clear whether this is a stink bomb, smelly and messy but harmless; or a ticking time bomb that may blow up in Clinton’s face, or Comey’s; or worse, something with the potential to devastate the US political system. Pressure mounts on FBI director James Comey to justify latest... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2042265/can-us-political-system-survive-farcical-presidential?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2042265/can-us-political-system-survive-farcical-presidential?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Nov 2016 09:34:05 +0000 The World Bank headquarters in Washington was festooned with a massive banner showing the cheerful faces of 10 people, Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and Pacific Islanders, with the large boast, “Together we can defeat poverty”. Jim Yong Kim, the bank’s newly re-elected president, pledged to step up efforts to defeat extreme poverty. He joined hands with Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and other world financial leaders this month to promise more energy... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2039490/why-global-fight-against-extreme-poverty-must-start-rich-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2039490/why-global-fight-against-extreme-poverty-must-start-rich-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Oct 2016 05:49:41 +0000 Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej was not merely respected and revered, but virtually adored. His picture has a place of honour in almost every home, shop, office, factory and airport, and rises larger than life on public highways. His anthem is played before every cinema screening. “Father of the nation” conveys the feeling of ordinary Thais for their king, who died on Thursday, aged 88. But for all the outpouring of grief, Thailand may come to rue the lost opportunities in a 70-year reign that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2028098/what-next-thailand-military-left-exposed-and-crown-prince?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2028098/what-next-thailand-military-left-exposed-and-crown-prince?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Oct 2016 06:08:14 +0000