https://www.scmp.com/rss/148556/feed Lanxin Xiang is Ngee Ann Kongsi Professor in International Relations at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technology University in Singapore. He is also Professor Emeritus at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Zijiang Chair Professor at East China Normal University, Shanghai, and Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Centre in Washington, DC. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Lanxin Xiang Lanxin Xiang Beijing is probably sighing with relief following US President Donald Trump’s postponement of his visit to China for “a month or so”. Initially, Trump had tried to threaten China for not joining a proposed naval escort campaign in the Strait of Hormuz, but quickly changed his tone after recognising the absurdity of such a demand. Not even the United States’ closest allies are willing to lend a hand. However, Beijing is even more frustrated with Washington’s lack of clarity and Trump’s hazy... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3347597/taiwan-trump-reimagines-strategic-ambiguity-suit-his-own-ends?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3347597/taiwan-trump-reimagines-strategic-ambiguity-suit-his-own-ends?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 26 Mar 2026 21:30:08 +0000 Lanxin Xiang Lanxin Xiang Convergence theory has long been a Western fantasy in conquering the world with liberal democratic values. It proposes that societies, especially as they industrialise, tend to become more alike in various aspects of social organisation, including work, class structure, family patterns and culture. However, convergence theory oversimplifies the complexities of social change and ignores the unique cultural and historical contexts of different societies. It does not adequately account for power... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3326764/trump-era-could-herald-end-ideology-us-china-relations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3326764/trump-era-could-herald-end-ideology-us-china-relations?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Sep 2025 01:30:09 +0000 Lanxin Xiang Lanxin Xiang The summit between the European Union and China has turned out to be a non-event, the worst so far. The reason for this is not too difficult to understand. After US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, the EU has found itself falling between two stools, torn between Washington and Beijing. Europeans were surprised when Trump won the US presidential election in 2016 but viewed it as a one-off aberration. Without the challenge posed by Trump, though, EU leaders might not see the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3319552/how-eu-has-marginalised-itself-global-stage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3319552/how-eu-has-marginalised-itself-global-stage?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Jul 2025 21:30:08 +0000 In his inauguration address, US President Donald Trump delivered two important messages – that he will start a “common sense” revolution and that the US’ decline is over. Many consider these more rhetorical than practical. However, if we seriously examine his rhetoric, it’s possible to find deeply rooted US philosophical traditions. At the same time, the premature notion about the decline of US power and its international status under the Trump administration should give us pause. For sure,... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3296334/how-trumps-use-kayfabe-could-unlock-new-era-us-china-ties?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3296334/how-trumps-use-kayfabe-could-unlock-new-era-us-china-ties?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Jan 2025 12:30:08 +0000 US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s speech last month praising the Biden administration’s China policy was remarkable not because it offered outstanding strategic vision, but rather because of the lack of it. Under Biden’s China policy, the bilateral relationship became a contest of “democracy vs autocracy”. More than a way to define the nature of great power relations in the 21st century, it became a framework for policymaking. This misguided approach has actually restrained policy... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/world/article/3252218/bidens-china-policy-tweak-welcome-its-still-based-fantasy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/world/article/3252218/bidens-china-policy-tweak-welcome-its-still-based-fantasy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Feb 2024 08:30:14 +0000 With the election of a staunch MAGA Republican to take the gavel of the House of Representatives in Washington, the end game of Ukraine counteroffensive might have come. House Speaker Mike Johnson is against continued aid to Ukraine, and the Republican-controlled House could simply kill US President Joe Biden’s demand for aid both to Israel and Ukraine. The Western alliance’s military aid is the only lifeline for Ukrainian efforts to continue the war. If the United States drops out, it is hardly... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3239380/ukraine-war-stalemate-makes-ceasefire-only-realistic-option?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3239380/ukraine-war-stalemate-makes-ceasefire-only-realistic-option?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 27 Oct 2023 21:30:20 +0000 Beijing is no longer keen on holding high-level talks with the US government, because it has pretty much given up on the Biden administration, which is widely seen by China’s political elite as incompetent, ignorant about Chinese culture and history and extremely arrogant. Instead, Beijing may well be betting on the next presidential election to produce anyone but Joe Biden. Even Donald Trump, it would appear, can be dealt with because the former president put his cards on the table, disliked... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3223432/us-china-war-risks-grow-beijing-sees-little-point-talking-bidens-team?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3223432/us-china-war-risks-grow-beijing-sees-little-point-talking-bidens-team?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jun 2023 00:15:09 +0000 French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to China exposed a fundamental dilemma in the European Union’s China strategy, between its much-publicised strategic autonomy and its concerns about being seen as a US vassal. When EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen came to office in 2019, she declared that she wanted to lead a “geostrategic commission” to pursue “strategic autonomy”, implying an EU desire to pursue a foreign policy independent from the United States’. But earlier that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3218153/why-eu-should-never-have-tried-paint-china-strategic-rival?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3218153/why-eu-should-never-have-tried-paint-china-strategic-rival?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Apr 2023 17:00:11 +0000 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to visit China early next month, but the prospect of any serious progress being made remains pretty dismal. As expected, Blinken has already styled his trip as part of US efforts to uphold the “rules-based international order”, with China as its chief strategic rival. At the same time, White House official Kurt Campbell, the “Indo-Pacific tsar”, has been trying to convince Beijing of the necessity of building security “guardrails” to avoid a war... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/united-states/article/3207366/us-talk-defending-rules-based-order-fooling-no-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/united-states/article/3207366/us-talk-defending-rules-based-order-fooling-no-one?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 20 Jan 2023 17:30:10 +0000 The US-China haggling over the one-China policy is a red herring. The clash of the US and Chinese defence chiefs at the Shangri-La Dialogue indicates how dangerous the situation is when a confusing word game could end in war. The US insists China has shifted the foundation of the policy with its sabre-rattling military actions. China believes the US is adopting a “salami-slice” approach to abandon the “one-China principle” and push for Taiwan independence. Confusingly, both sides claim to agree... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3181798/one-china-policy-fewer-word-games-more-clarity-needed-washington?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3181798/one-china-policy-fewer-word-games-more-clarity-needed-washington?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jun 2022 01:15:18 +0000 Ecumenical peace is a powerful Christian movement emphasising Christian unity all over the world. As part of Christian civilisation, Russia deserves a place in it. Unfortunately, today’s ecumenical peace has been replaced by a “democratic peace” that Russia is in effect excluded from. China, of course, was never part of it. Thus, China has good reason to see the war in Ukraine as an internecine conflict as its cause has nothing to do with Chinese history and culture. Western civilisation has... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3173871/ukraine-war-failure-wests-ecumenical-peace-could-spill-over-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3173871/ukraine-war-failure-wests-ecumenical-peace-could-spill-over-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Apr 2022 16:30:18 +0000 Oswald Spengler, the prophet of the decline of the West, left a terrible question for the West more than a century ago. If the decline of the West is caused by its own doing, then it has no one to blame. But if the rise of non-white people causes the West to decline, should the West eliminate them? The crisis in the West is racial war by nature. The Western angst about China echoes the “Yellow Peril” sentiment as well. We are again living in a Spenglerian world. The Yellow Peril theme was... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3117720/china-need-not-fear-challenge-racist-crumbling-west?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3117720/china-need-not-fear-challenge-racist-crumbling-west?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Jan 2021 17:00:07 +0000 The US-China relationship is in free fall. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Nixon Library speech signals the de facto, if not de jure, end of the so-called communique framework for maintaining stability between the two countries. The framework that has supported the bilateral relationship for almost five decades consists of three documents: the Shanghai Communique of 1972, driven by the countries’ common fight against the Russians; the communique on establishing diplomatic ties in 1979; and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3101220/china-us-relations-are-tatters-can-both-sides-cool-their-hostile?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3101220/china-us-relations-are-tatters-can-both-sides-cool-their-hostile?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Sep 2020 17:30:15 +0000 The 19th congress of the Communist Party of China will be held later this year. Most observers are interested in personnel changes in making predictions about China’s future. But for President Xi Jinping (習近平), that future hinges on the success of no less than China’s cultural restoration. Xi has never liked the phrase popular in the West: “the rise of China”. He prefers “China’s restoration”, to explain the country’s spectacular rise after a free fall following the Opium Wars. His idea is to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2104286/why-xi-jinping-must-tackle-myth-princeling-legitimacy-rule?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2104286/why-xi-jinping-must-tackle-myth-princeling-legitimacy-rule?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Jul 2017 10:00:41 +0000 Addressing the Valdai Club in Russia in October, I compared the Trump phenomenon and widespread popular protests against established powers to 1848, a year of revolution in Central and Western Europe. I also wrote a commentary in Chinese on “Trump’s November Miracle”, but none in the mainland press carried it as the Beijing policy establishment firmly believed in a victory for the Democratic nominee, Hilary Clinton. President-elect Donald Trump recently said he considers America’s adherence to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2056841/why-trumps-blunt-approach-will-put-us-relations-china-surer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2056841/why-trumps-blunt-approach-will-put-us-relations-china-surer?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Dec 2016 09:27:55 +0000 A US-China war over the South China Sea was, just a few years ago, dismissed as being absurd. Today, however, such a scenario can no longer be laughed away. The old cliché was that only three issues could trigger a Sino-US war - Taiwan, Taiwan and Taiwan. That danger is still there, but it's on the back burner now. Meanwhile, the maritime dispute has thrust itself to the fore and each player is under pressure to throw down the gauntlet. We miss the good old days of tacit understanding between... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1814868/crossed-wires-between-china-and-us-raise-risk-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1814868/crossed-wires-between-china-and-us-raise-risk-war?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jun 2015 10:22:24 +0000 The annual parliamentary gatherings in Beijing were, as usual, a parade of poker-faced who's-who with little substance. In today's digital world, such bland dress rehearsals prompt most Chinese to walk away from their television sets. Instead, they cast anxious eyes on the drama about catching corrupt officials, both "tigers" and "flies". A poker face is supposed to represent authority and respectability, but it does not work. Despite the public calls for a "cultural restoration", the leadership... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1740036/poker-faces-chinas-npc-sessions-fail-hide-leaders-eroding?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1740036/poker-faces-chinas-npc-sessions-fail-hide-leaders-eroding?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Mar 2015 07:00:45 +0000 Amid increasing signs of a Sino-Vatican rapprochement, Beijing should ensure this goes far beyond the foreign policy arena. It could open a window of opportunity for a historic compromise between Western culture and that of China, a window that has been beyond reach since the Enlightenment. Some 400 years ago, the Vatican was a pioneer in China-West relations and cultural understanding. Since a liberal democratic ideology had yet to obtain a sacred position in Europe, it was not relevant at... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1709220/chinas-anti-west-campaign-betrayal-its-tradition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1709220/chinas-anti-west-campaign-betrayal-its-tradition?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Feb 2015 05:46:07 +0000 The arrest of former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang on corruption charges has been received with widespread scepticism in the West. Time magazine called it a "purge" and the US government implied that it is politically motivated, perhaps on a par with Stalin's purge in the 1930s. This argument is bordering on the absurd. But the fact that Western policymakers fail to comprehend what is going on in China is not surprising, given their cultural and historical prejudices,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/66479/logic-behind-chinas-anti-corruption-drive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/66479/logic-behind-chinas-anti-corruption-drive?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Dec 2014 10:29:06 +0000 Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws has for more than 200 years led many in the West into believing that the tension in the Chinese political system is created by the lack of "democratic legitimacy" and the suppression of individual freedoms. This is a common misunderstanding based on ignorance of Chinese political history. Western observers tend to make a distinction between the "rule of law", Western-style judicial justice, and "rule by law", dictatorial rule by legal provisions, for example,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1631224/china-law-and-morality-must-work-tandem-contain-party-elite?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1631224/china-law-and-morality-must-work-tandem-contain-party-elite?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Nov 2014 09:30:00 +0000 The Chinese saying, "playing music to an ox", describes the phenomenon of two people talking past each other. It's apt imagery for the recently held Sino-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which ended as expected, with no serious progress and hardly any improvement in bilateral understanding. During the 6½ years of the Obama administration, bilateral relations have sunk to their lowest point since the Nixon- Kissinger period of the 1970s. Leaders in Beijing and Washington have not only... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1557457/sino-us-relations-game-defensive-play?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1557457/sino-us-relations-game-defensive-play?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Jul 2014 07:30:15 +0000 China has just published its first national security blue book. Although official media labelled it "the most authoritative" report on national security since the establishment of the super-secretive National Security Committee, it presents such a panicky psychology that one has to wonder who wrote it. The fact that the authors are from the University of International Relations, a well-known training ground for Chinese civilian intelligence officers, but not from the new security commission... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1516132/chinas-national-security-blue-paper-worrying-throwback-cold-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1516132/chinas-national-security-blue-paper-worrying-throwback-cold-war?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 May 2014 10:45:45 +0000 Not so long ago, China's policy elite were still debating whether the nation's relationship with the US would remain "the most important among all important bilateral ties". As early as 2003, I was among the first to put forward the idea that China should start pursuing a westward geopolitical strategy, a Eurasian "continental strategy", and downgrade its heavy reliance on the geopolitical structure in the Asia-Pacific region. Almost all policy elite in Beijing were sceptical of this proposal at... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1461732/china-sees-europe-political-and-cultural-partner?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1461732/china-sees-europe-political-and-cultural-partner?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Mar 2014 11:00:30 +0000 It seems ironic that China, the former lead opponent of the Soviet Brezhnev Doctrine, should have supported the Russian position in Ukraine. The former Soviet Union utilised the doctrine to launch military action in other socialist "brother" countries, such as Czechoslovakia in 1968, and the West did nothing. Mao Zedong was frustrated and began to call the Soviet policy "social imperialism". Today, the world has changed fundamentally, and Beijing's rationale for supporting the Russian position... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1446127/new-eurasian-entente-forms-over-ukraine-isolating-america?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1446127/new-eurasian-entente-forms-over-ukraine-isolating-america?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Mar 2014 10:30:30 +0000 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's sensational statement at Davos claiming that the current relationship between Japan and China was akin to Anglo-German alienation in 1914, on the eve of the first world war, provoked an angry response from China. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said such a statement was "incomprehensible" and a "confusion of time and space". But the Chinese are mistaken. Abe has a clear message in his claim. The idea comes from a long-standing US theme, the "China threat", promoted... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1421925/china-and-japan-must-learn-right-lessons-history?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1421925/china-and-japan-must-learn-right-lessons-history?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Feb 2014 04:15:45 +0000 The recent EU-China summit - the first between the European Union and the new Chinese leadership - indicates the beginning of a new, ambitious relationship. Although it has been labelled a "strategic partnership" for a decade, relations have always been on a more ad hoc basis, dealing with specific issues, mostly related to the economy and human rights. Now, finally, a clear road map has emerged in an unprecedented joint document charting bilateral co-operation through to 2020. Trade and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1371089/cultural-compromise-can-help-eu-forge-new-relationship-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1371089/cultural-compromise-can-help-eu-forge-new-relationship-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Dec 2013 09:30:45 +0000 Xi Jinping presided over a key conference recently on China's relations with neighbouring countries, or its "periphery policy" (zhoubian zhengce). The level of attendance, including all Politburo members working in Beijing, was the highest in recent memory. Most important was Xi's tone-setting speech, calling for improved relations with all neighbours through a long-term strategic vision, summarised through principles expressed in four Chinese characters: intimacy, honesty, benefaction and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1348345/china-waking-benefits-good-diplomacy-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1348345/china-waking-benefits-good-diplomacy-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Nov 2013 10:30:30 +0000 Of late in the Chinese media, party ideologues and officials have launched seemingly brave campaigns to reject the existence of any "universal values". It stems from President Xi Jinping's speech at a national conference for propaganda chiefs in August, in which he stressed the need to step up ideological work to maintain Chinese characteristics in development and domestic governance. Xi never mentioned "universal values", but many commentators seem to be interpreting his speech to benefit their... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1324499/chinese-ideologues-wrong-tilt-universal-values?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1324499/chinese-ideologues-wrong-tilt-universal-values?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Oct 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, made a speech to a Japanese audience earlier this year, in which he claimed that if the Chinese government should decide to use non-peaceful means to take the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, it may lose the world. The statement apparently irked the Chinese a great deal, albeit belatedly. The nationalistic paper Global Times made a big fuss of it some two weeks ago. But Lee's argument is not entirely wrong. The tensions between China and Japan over these... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1303362/sino-japanese-relationship-too-brittle-comfort?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1303362/sino-japanese-relationship-too-brittle-comfort?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Edward Snowden seems to have opened a Pandora's box. Unlike WikiLeaks, which has released official documents - often banal conversations between government bureaucrats - Snowden has exposed the operation of the world's most powerful state-sponsored cyberespionage of a community that most prizes individual freedom. Hero or not, Snowden will go down in history as a whistle-blower who triggered a moral earthquake which few individuals in the world can escape. This is the cyberversion of George... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1274720/thanks-snowden-chance-reset-sino-us-relations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1274720/thanks-snowden-chance-reset-sino-us-relations?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Jul 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The Chinese leadership may have good reason to regret taking bad advice from its ideological team. The idea of declaring a new political slogan, the "China Dream", at the outset of the new regime has backfired so badly that one wonders if the catchphrase can outlast Hu Jintao's "harmonious society", which survived for more than two years. It would have been a good catchphrase, except for one crucial detail overlooked by the new leadership: the China Dream as an all-embracing slogan can no longer... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1225360/no-time-dreaming-xi-needs-crack-cleaning-party?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1225360/no-time-dreaming-xi-needs-crack-cleaning-party?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 A new fashion is gaining ground in Beijing: interpreting a dream. The trendsetter is not a Chinese Freud, but the nation's new top leader Xi Jinping, who first elaborated on the "China dream" after visiting a history museum in Beijing in November. Now, the dream has intoxicated the Chinese media as well as the two red-carpet shows of politics in Beijing. A school of explanation has been fully appropriated by the official propaganda machine, and not a day goes by without some state TV news... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1193849/chinas-dream-transformation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1193849/chinas-dream-transformation?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:00:00 +0000 For years, China's leaders have been struggling to find a new concept to reset, if not redefine, the Sino-US relationship. So far, they has come up with only vague ideas such as "peaceful rise" and, more recently, "a new type of international relations between major countries". With the re-election of Barack Obama as US president and the transfer of power in China to a new generation, one of the biggest challenges facing Obama will be finding a strategic and economic role for the United States... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1143257/china-must-leave-its-foreign-policy-experts?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1143257/china-must-leave-its-foreign-policy-experts?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 After assuming power at the 18th party congress, the "fifth generation" leaders in Beijing seem to be obsessed with the idea of reading history. First, the new anti-corruption tsar Wang Qishan started his job immediately with a book recommendation, and his choice was a foreign work. The Old Regime and the Revolution is a relatively obscure book by French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, whose work on democracy is far more well known. Wang trained as a historian, and his interest in this work... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1123129/chinese-leaders-search-middle-path?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1123129/chinese-leaders-search-middle-path?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:00:00 +0000 The way a party presents itself can either enhance or undermine a regime's legitimacy, and China is no exception. The regime currently faces a legitimacy crisis, partly because the Communist Party presents itself in such an ugly way that it has eroded the traditional Confucian moral basis of the state. There is no doubt the one-party system is responsible for China's economic success, and that it will remain the dominant force for years to come. But the topic of republicanism remains relevant... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1086794/chinas-political-reform-must-combine-modern-ideals-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1086794/chinas-political-reform-must-combine-modern-ideals-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Populist nationalism is rising rapidly in China. Much of the official media has found nationalism a very lucrative commodity. Papers like the Global Times, a self-styled quasi-party paper specialising in international affairs, offers striking proof. But nationalistic papers are increasingly a hazard not only for Beijing but also for China's national interest. What is the secret of the success of papers such as the Global Times, which was founded in 1993 and launched its English-language version... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1047092/danger-mainland-medias-rabid-nationalism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1047092/danger-mainland-medias-rabid-nationalism?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Hugh White, a leading foreign affairs expert in Australia, has made a daring proposal for establishing a Sino-US condominium - that is, joint sovereignty of a territory - of some sort in Asia and the Pacific. His argument is both old and new. On the one hand, it is clearly based on a realpolitik concept derived from traditional theories on international relations. On the other, it reflects the obvious power shift that is taking place in the region. The existing hegemon in the region is still the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1018579/strategic-reset-sino-us-relations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1018579/strategic-reset-sino-us-relations?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Aug 2012 16:00:00 +0000 As the 18th Communist Party congress fast approaches, the leadership in Beijing is trying to do everything possible to stimulate popular enthusiasm and public spirit. But nothing seems to be working. The Bo Xilai affair continues to haunt the process of the upcoming power transition. Few party members deny that this affair has done equal, if not more, damage to the image of the Communist Party as the 1989 Tiananmen affair. But in 1989 the students merely protested against price inflation and... https://www.scmp.com/article/1007168/panic-top?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1007168/panic-top?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Many analysts expect a Francois Hollande presidency to bode ill for relations between France and China. That may not come to pass. It is true that Hollande's campaign rhetoric did hurt relations. He listed three issues that bothered him most: the trade deficit caused by China's 'dumping' practice; the renminbi exchange rate; and the idea that China could come to the rescue of Europe amid the euro crisis. The last point was particularly irksome, for that would mean China's help in perpetuating a... https://www.scmp.com/article/1001358/back-frame?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1001358/back-frame?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Despite the media frenzy all over the world, the Bo Xilai affair may have opened a window of opportunity for Chinese leaders to build a consensus for launching serious political reforms. It has become clear that two critical aspects of the Chinese political system - central-local relations and decision-making at the top - need revamping. Top-down political reforms can no longer be postponed, as Premier Wen Jiabao unequivocally stated in his press conference in March. Unfortunately, he never... https://www.scmp.com/article/998699/open?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/998699/open?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0000 When Barack Obama campaigned for the US presidency in 2008, one of his most effective rallying calls was 'Change we can believe in'. A significant part of the change he proposed was in foreign policy, which he believed had been misguided by a neoconservative movement within the Republican party, leading to disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan which had also ruined America's economy and its world standing. Surprisingly, since assuming office, Obama has slowly transformed himself into a... https://www.scmp.com/article/996300/us-belief-american-supremacy-endangers-its-relations-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/996300/us-belief-american-supremacy-endangers-its-relations-china?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The American media reacted positively to Vice-President Xi Jinping's official visit to the US. Indeed, Xi's first major performance on the world stage has been impressive not only because he demonstrated the personable side of China's top leaders, a rare occurrence, but also because he stood firm and made clear China's position on key issues that have plagued Sino-US relations. The language he used was fresh, the analogies subtle and the logic of argument profound. Although most Chinese do not... https://www.scmp.com/article/993433/firmly-grounded?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/993433/firmly-grounded?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 China decided to cast its veto over the Syria question at the UN Security Council. The American ambassador, Susan Rice, was so outraged that she used the undiplomatic expression of 'disgusted' to criticise the veto by both Beijing and Moscow. Such a condescending tone has triggered widespread anger in China. Chinese bloggers, it is said, are 'utterly disgusted' by Rice's language. It is clear Rice was genuinely upset by this vote, for she has been a spiritual guru behind the Obama... https://www.scmp.com/article/992023/standing-firm?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/992023/standing-firm?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Chinese leaders have finally realised that they are facing a new cold war. Over the past few months, Washington has put together a 'containment' package in Asia that includes a new military doctrine of air-sea battle, a new economic game changer in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the rotation of US marines in Australia. For years, mainstream Chinese analysts have refused to see this coming. Now, President Hu Jintao has publicly called on the navy to 'prepare for future military... https://www.scmp.com/article/987891/playing-it-cool?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/987891/playing-it-cool?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 When the world financial crisis broke in 2008, I wrote several columns for the official mainland paper The Global Times, politely criticising China's central bank for its ignorance of international politics and its mistake in accumulating excessive amounts of US debt, and wondering whether, as I put it, 'the Chinese people's sweat and blood money' could be wasted. Now the official media, led by The Global Times, has initiated a heated debate over whether the central bank's foreign exchange... https://www.scmp.com/article/983439/blood-money?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/983439/blood-money?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The recent political scene in China is odd. First, we have two Politburo members publicly slugging it out over approaches to economic and social development. Guangdong's party secretary Wang Yang prefers 'making the cake bigger' to smooth over the problem of unequal income distribution, while the red-song-touting party secretary of Chongqing, Bo Xilai, wants to start a 'get rich together' project to divide the cake right away. Then, two premiers - one incumbent and the other retired - filled... https://www.scmp.com/article/979881/great-divide?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/979881/great-divide?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:00:00 +0000 It was most ironic that US Vice-President Joe Biden arrived in China at a time when the Chinese media was hotly discussing America's decline. Not too long ago, leading establishment intellectuals and foreign ministry officials - not to mention its central bankers - were still very cautious about this subject; now the mood has turned. The earlier debate about whether America is in decline has become irrelevant as the 'declinists' are taking over. Some important commentators are even talking... https://www.scmp.com/article/976918/dangers-fall?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/976918/dangers-fall?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000 It is extremely rare for an American administration to formulate a clear strategy for its China policy during the first presidential term. Richard Nixon is one exception, thanks mainly to the help of a world-class strategic thinker, Henry Kissinger, the architect of the rapprochement between the US and China in 1971. Now Kissinger, ever the optimist on this relationship, has become a pessimist, as his new book, On China, reveals. Kissinger has good reason to worry. Though the Obama... https://www.scmp.com/article/968703/cross-purposes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/968703/cross-purposes?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 May 2011 16:00:00 +0000