https://www.scmp.com/rss/16398/feed Minxin Pei is professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is the author of China's Crony Capitalism. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com With China currently the only country capable of unseating America as the leading global power, many in Washington may wish that US president Richard Nixon had never made his historic trip to China 50 years ago this month. In their revisionist narrative, it was Nixon’s meeting with Communist Party of China chairman Mao Zedong, and the policy of engagement it initiated, that helped make China an economic superpower and a geopolitical threat to America. For these critics, the Nixon visit, far from... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3167507/nixon-was-right-gamble-china-despite-what-many-washington-think?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3167507/nixon-was-right-gamble-china-despite-what-many-washington-think?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Feb 2022 17:30:16 +0000 Beijing may be 6,500km (4,000 miles) from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, but the geopolitical stakes for China in the escalating crisis over Ukraine’s fate could not be higher. If Russia invades Ukraine and precipitates a drawn-out conflict with the United States and its Western allies (though a direct military confrontation is unlikely), China obviously stands to benefit. America would need to divert strategic resources to confront Russia, and its European allies would be even more reluctant to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3165258/ukraine-crisis-why-chinas-hands-are-tied-russia-and-west-face?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3165258/ukraine-crisis-why-chinas-hands-are-tied-russia-and-west-face?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Jan 2022 17:30:23 +0000 During the Cold War, Europe was America’s strategic priority. East Asia was largely a sideshow, even though the United States fought bloody wars in Korea and Vietnam while also providing security for Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. But in the unfolding new cold war between the US and China, America’s strategic priorities have flipped. US security strategy is now dominated by the China threat, and East Asia has replaced Europe as the principal theatre of the world’s defining geopolitical contest.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3162036/how-us-china-cold-war-could-lead-more-conflict-also-more-peace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3162036/how-us-china-cold-war-could-lead-more-conflict-also-more-peace?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Jan 2022 19:30:23 +0000 Despite their increasingly bitter rivalry, the United States and China have recently been sending the right signals regarding potential cooperation on fighting climate change. The joint statement issued after the mid-April meeting between John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua, indicates that the two governments might be trying to use collaboration on climate policy to prevent their relationship from devolving into outright enmity. The... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3132588/why-world-must-temper-hopes-us-china-climate-change-cooperation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3132588/why-world-must-temper-hopes-us-china-climate-change-cooperation?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 May 2021 21:45:13 +0000 For China, at least, US President Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving. His calamitous response to the Covid-19 pandemic has made China, whose government mishandled the initial outbreak in January, look like an exemplar of effective governance. Moreover, Trump’s “America first” foreign policy has alienated traditional US allies, making it difficult to build a broad coalition to counter China. To be sure, Trump has delivered painful blows to Chinese President Xi Jinping. His trade and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3107752/us-election-chaos-would-be-one-more-gift-china-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3107752/us-election-chaos-would-be-one-more-gift-china-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Oct 2020 19:30:12 +0000 Shinzo Abe’s unexpected resignation as Japanese prime minister last month for health reasons has raised many questions about the legacy of the country’s longest-serving premier. One is whether his successor, Yoshihide Suga, will be able to continue Abe’s geopolitical balancing act as tensions between China and the United States continue to escalate. The US and China are critical to Japan’s peace and prosperity. America is Japan’s security guarantor and second-largest trading partner, while China... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3102020/why-suga-will-struggle-sustain-japans-balance-between-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3102020/why-suga-will-struggle-sustain-japans-balance-between-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:30:11 +0000 Decoupling is central to the geopolitical duel between the United States and China. Conceived and promoted by hawks in US President Donald Trump’s administration, this strategy has now become America’s principal tool to weaken Chinese power.  The first act of decoupling – the US-China trade war that began in 2018 – has substantially reduced bilateral trade. A similar process is now in full swing in the technology sector, with the US pursuing an unrelenting campaign against Chinese tech giants... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3097945/why-cultural-decoupling-china-and-barring-chinese-students-will?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3097945/why-cultural-decoupling-china-and-barring-chinese-students-will?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Aug 2020 17:30:14 +0000 Some of the Chinese government’s recent policies seem to make little practical sense, with its decision to impose a national security law on Hong Kong being a prime example. The law’s rushed enactment by the National People’s Congress effectively ends the “one country, two systems” model that has prevailed since 1997, when the city was returned from British to Chinese rule, and tensions between China and the West have increased sharply.   Hong Kong’s future as an international financial centre... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3092529/trump-china-has-adversary-whos-not-afraid-push-back-even-if-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3092529/trump-china-has-adversary-whos-not-afraid-push-back-even-if-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Jul 2020 19:00:12 +0000 Chinese diplomats have long had a reputation as well-trained, colourless, and cautious professionals who pursue their missions doggedly without attracting much unfavourable attention. But a new crop of younger diplomats are ditching established norms in favour of aggressively promoting China’s self-serving Covid-19 narrative. It is called “wolf warrior” diplomacy – and it is backfiring. Soon before the Covid-19 crisis erupted, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi instructed the country’s diplomatic... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088462/chinas-wolf-warrior-diplomats-are-being-more-reckless-trump-thats?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088462/chinas-wolf-warrior-diplomats-are-being-more-reckless-trump-thats?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Jun 2020 17:00:14 +0000 It may seem preposterous to suggest that the outbreak of the new coronavirus, Covid-19, has imperilled the rule of the Communist Party of China, especially at a time when the government’s aggressive containment efforts seem to be working. But it would be a mistake to underestimate the political implications of China’s biggest public health crisis in recent history.  According to a New York Times analysis, at least 760 million Chinese, or more than half the country’s population, are under varying... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3065132/how-chinas-coronavirus-crisis-exposes-achilles-heel-communist-party?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3065132/how-chinas-coronavirus-crisis-exposes-achilles-heel-communist-party?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Mar 2020 16:30:07 +0000 An outbreak of a new coronavirus that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan has already infected over 6,000 people – mostly in China, but also in several other countries, from Thailand to France to the United States – and killed more than 100. Given China’s history of disease outbreaks – including of severe acute respiratory syndrome and African swine fever – and officials’ apparent awareness of the need to strengthen their capacity to address “major risks”, how could this happen? It should be no... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3047999/how-chinas-coronavirus-crisis-sars-epidemic-was-worsened-communist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3047999/how-chinas-coronavirus-crisis-sars-epidemic-was-worsened-communist?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Jan 2020 09:00:13 +0000 US President Donald Trump’s decision to order the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful military commander, has raised the spectre, albeit still distant, of all-out war between the United States and the Islamic Republic. There is only one winner in this situation: China.  With Trump’s latest blunder, history may not be repeating itself, but it is certainly rhyming. When George W. Bush began his presidency in January 2001, his neoconservative advisers identified China as the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3045302/george-w-bushs-disastrous-iraq-war-paved-way-chinas-rise-trump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3045302/george-w-bushs-disastrous-iraq-war-paved-way-chinas-rise-trump?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 Jan 2020 19:00:13 +0000 China’s strongman leader can’t seem to catch a break. From the trade war with the United States to the crisis in Hong Kong to international criticism of his human rights record, President Xi Jinping suffered major setbacks in 2019, and his prospects for 2020 appear even worse. China could have ended the trade war with the US last May, thereby giving its flagging economy a significant boost. Yet, at the last minute, Chinese leaders backtracked on a number of issues that American negotiators had... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3042392/xi-jinping-can-blame-his-centralisation-power-rotten-2019-and-maybe?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3042392/xi-jinping-can-blame-his-centralisation-power-rotten-2019-and-maybe?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Dec 2019 14:00:12 +0000 Although the rapid escalation of violence in Hong Kong seems terrifying enough, things may be about to get much worse. The communique of the recently concluded fourth plenum of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party indicates that Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to tighten his grip on the former British colony at any cost. He should prepare to rack up a formidable bill. The communique includes two ominous pledges. First, China’s central government will “control and rule” (管制) Hong... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037579/beijings-plans-tighten-its-grip-hong-kong-could-spell-end-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3037579/beijings-plans-tighten-its-grip-hong-kong-could-spell-end-chinas?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Nov 2019 14:00:14 +0000 The Chinese saying “lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s feet”, or its English equivalent, “to shoot oneself in the foot”, perfectly describes the self-defeating inclinations of dictatorship. And nothing exemplifies such inclinations so much as China’s effort to bully America’s National Basketball Association. The row began when Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted (and quickly deleted) support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters. The response was swift. China’s government... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033430/chinas-bid-intimidate-nba-great-example-how-lose-friends-and-make?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3033430/chinas-bid-intimidate-nba-great-example-how-lose-friends-and-make?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Oct 2019 19:00:05 +0000 On October 1, to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic, Chinese President Xi Jinping will deliver a speech that unreservedly celebrates the Communist Party’s record since 1949. But despite Xi’s apparent confidence and optimism, the party’s rank and file are increasingly concerned about the regime’s future prospects – with good reason. In 2012, when Xi took the party reins, he promised that it would strive to deliver great successes in advance of two upcoming centennials marking the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3029809/chinas-communist-party-looking-beginning-end-one-party-rule?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3029809/chinas-communist-party-looking-beginning-end-one-party-rule?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 22 Sep 2019 04:45:06 +0000 The crisis in Hong Kong appears to be careening towards a devastating climax. With China’s government now using rhetoric reminiscent of what preceded the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters – and, indeed, its democracy – could well be in grave danger. For more than two months, Hong Kong has been beset by protests. Triggered by a proposed law to allow the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China, the demonstrations have since developed into... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/perils-tiananmen-style-crackdown-hong-kong/article/3022794?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/perils-tiananmen-style-crackdown-hong-kong/article/3022794?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Aug 2019 12:54:44 +0000 The crisis in Hong Kong appears to be careening towards a devastating climax. With China’s government now using rhetoric reminiscent of what preceded the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters – and, indeed, its democracy – could well be in grave danger.  For more than two months, Hong Kong has been beset by protests. Triggered by a proposed law to allow the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China, the demonstrations have since developed into... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3022555/china-must-pick-least-bad-option-resolve-hong-kong-crisis-pla?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3022555/china-must-pick-least-bad-option-resolve-hong-kong-crisis-pla?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Aug 2019 20:00:09 +0000 Of all the changes in American foreign policy US President Donald Trump’s administration has made, the most consequential is the adoption of a confrontational stance towards China. Replacing a decades-old policy of engagement, Trump’s approach has not only resulted in an economic cold war between the world’s two largest economies, it has also raised the spectre of armed conflict in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. Within the first year of his presidency, Trump labelled China a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3019683/trump-owes-americans-truth-about-goals-his-china-policy-economic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3019683/trump-owes-americans-truth-about-goals-his-china-policy-economic?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Jul 2019 10:00:04 +0000 The world has been riveted by the protests raging in Hong Kong against the city government’s proposed law to allow the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China. About one million people – roughly one-seventh of the former British colony’s population – took to the streets on June 9 to denounce the draft law, and another large protest on June 12 resulted in violent clashes between demonstrators and police. Yet, despite the massive protests, the Chinese government is determined to get its... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3014467/us-could-make-hong-kong-and-china-pay-economic-price-extradition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3014467/us-could-make-hong-kong-and-china-pay-economic-price-extradition?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Jun 2019 05:45:07 +0000 Late last month at a security forum in Washington, Kiron Skinner, director of policy planning for the US Department of State, described today’s US-China conflict as “a fight with a really different civilisation and a different ideology, and the United States hasn’t had that before”. As a trial balloon, this apparent attempt to define the Trump administration’s confrontation with China did not fly.  By framing the creeping cold war between the US and China as a clash of civilisations, Skinner –... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3010257/counter-china-us-must-rise-above-talk-race-and-clash?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3010257/counter-china-us-must-rise-above-talk-race-and-clash?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 May 2019 14:30:05 +0000 Lou Jiwei may not be a household name in the West, but the former Chinese finance minister is well known and highly respected among financiers and economic policymakers. Yet, earlier this month, China’s government announced that Lou was being replaced as chairman of the country’s national social security fund. The move reflects a change in the Chinese leadership’s approach to governance that is likely to have profound implications for the country’s future.  The removal of Lou from his post... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3006516/xi-jinpings-intolerance-dissent-within-government-heightens?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3006516/xi-jinpings-intolerance-dissent-within-government-heightens?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Apr 2019 17:00:07 +0000 It is convenient to call the escalating geopolitical contest between the United States and China a “new cold war”. But that description should not be allowed to obscure the obvious, though not yet sufficiently understood, reality that this new competition will differ radically from the cold war between the US and the Soviet Union.  The cold war of the 20th century pitted two rival military alliances against each other. By contrast, the Sino-American rivalry involves two economies that are... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/3001808/donald-trump-demands-us-allies-join-his?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/3001808/donald-trump-demands-us-allies-join-his?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Mar 2019 16:30:04 +0000 Minxin Pei Minxin Pei As Chinese and American trade negotiators meet in Washington to try to forge an accord on trade, observers are largely focused on the countries’ economic disagreements, such as over China’s subsidies to its state-owned enterprises. But to think that an agreement on trade will protect the world from a Sino-American cold war would be as premature as it would be naive.  Of course, a trade deal is highly desirable. The collapse of trade talks would trigger a new round of tariff hikes from 10 per... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2186739/us-china-trade-war-more-about-geopolitical?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2186739/us-china-trade-war-more-about-geopolitical?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 19 Feb 2019 17:03:46 +0000 The Communist Party of China has invested a great deal to reshape the international system in its own, illiberal way. China is an illiberal state, even though the Chinese Communist Party bills itself as a democracy with socialist characteristics. China’s ruling regime is not subject to any law, including its constitution. Chinese people are not really protected by a credible system of the rule of law, and their individual freedoms are constantly violated by the state itself. The Chinese state... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/minxin-pei-china-has-plan-make-world-illiberal/article/2179005?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/minxin-pei-china-has-plan-make-world-illiberal/article/2179005?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Dec 2018 02:45:15 +0000 Since the cold war ended, the West has invested huge amounts of resources in efforts to induce political liberalisation in China, including through programmes to promote the rule of law, civil society, transparency and government accountability. The results have been disappointing. Far from becoming more democratic, China has lately been backsliding towards hard-line authoritarianism. And now it is investing resources in efforts to do some inducing of its own in the world’s democracies.  China’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2177803/china-ups-its-influence-abroad-west-must-count?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2177803/china-ups-its-influence-abroad-west-must-count?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Dec 2018 03:00:00 +0000 Over the past decade, China has taken an increasingly muscular approach to relations with East Asian countries. But in recent months, it has surprised its neighbours with a charm offensive. What changed?  In terms of China’s behaviour in the region, quite a lot. In 2013, China unilaterally declared an Air Defence Identification Zone covering the East China Sea’s disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands – a move that exacerbated tensions with Japan. A year later, China began to construct large artificial... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2174059/why-chinas-east-asian-charm-offensive-will?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2174059/why-chinas-east-asian-charm-offensive-will?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Nov 2018 03:30:45 +0000 The escalating trade feud between the United States and China is increasingly viewed as the opening campaign of a new cold war. But this clash of titans, should it continue to escalate, will cost both parties dearly, to the point that even the winner (more likely to be the US) would probably find its victory Pyrrhic. Yet, it is the rest of the world that would pay the steepest price. In fact, despite the low probability of a direct military clash between the US and China, a new cold war would... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2169608/us-and-china-seek-win-trade-war-whole-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2169608/us-and-china-seek-win-trade-war-whole-world?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Oct 2018 18:30:45 +0000 Now that US President Donald Trump has imposed a 10 per cent tariff on yet another US$200 billion worth of Chinese imports, the US-China trade war has entered a costly new phase. As China follows through on its pledge to retaliate, the casualties will include more than half the bilateral trade between the two, with China itself suffering the most losses. Whereas China exported US$506 billion worth of merchandise to the United States in 2017, it imported just US$130 billion of US goods. That... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2165333/china-would-be-wise-avoid-going-mad-trade-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2165333/china-would-be-wise-avoid-going-mad-trade-war?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 22 Sep 2018 10:30:00 +0000 When the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, the Communist Party of China became obsessed with understanding why. The government think tanks entrusted with this task heaped plenty of blame on Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformist leader who was simply not ruthless enough to hold the Soviet Union together. But Chinese leaders also highlighted other important factors, not all of which China’s leaders seem to be heeding today.  How the trade war raises the spectre of a ‘China collapse’ To be sure, the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2163200/two-lessons-china-how-avoid-soviet-style?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2163200/two-lessons-china-how-avoid-soviet-style?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Sep 2018 18:00:18 +0000 The cold war ended in December 1991, when the Soviet Union disintegrated. The post-cold-war era ended in November 2016, when Donald Trump won the US presidency. It is impossible to predict all of what the Trump era will bring. But some consequences are apparent: his presidency has already upended the key assumptions underpinning China’s post-cold-war grand strategy. The first assumption is ideological. The ostensible triumph of Western liberal democracy in 1989 imbued that system with a kind of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2069868/trumps-rise-leaves-china-ideologically-safe-facing-graver?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2069868/trumps-rise-leaves-china-ideologically-safe-facing-graver?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Feb 2017 23:00:57 +0000 As President Xi Jinping begins his trip to the US, most observers are looking ahead to his meeting with President Barack Obama. Can the summit reverse the downward spiral in relations that began with Xi's accession to power in 2013? Few dispute that the world's most important bilateral relationship is in deep trouble. From the US perspective, China's reckless behaviour in the South China Sea, unrestrained cyberattacks against American targets, protectionist economic policies, and escalating... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1860659/can-xi-jinping-offer-enough-his-state-visit-mend-rift-sino?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1860659/can-xi-jinping-offer-enough-his-state-visit-mend-rift-sino?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Sep 2015 02:30:30 +0000 Although the People's Liberation Army celebrated its 88th anniversary on August 1, the country's 2.3 million soldiers have little to cheer about. On the eve of the anniversary, the PLA's former top general, Guo Boxiong , was unceremoniously booted out of the Communist Party and handed over to military prosecutors to face corruption charges, which include taking large bribes from fellow officers for promotions. Guo's arrest followed that of General Xu Caihou . The two are not the only senior... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1850147/rooting-out-pla-corruption-helping-xi-jinping-build-his?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1850147/rooting-out-pla-corruption-helping-xi-jinping-build-his?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Aug 2015 06:11:35 +0000 The death of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding father, offers an occasion to reflect on his legacy - and, perhaps more importantly, on whether that legacy has been correctly understood. During his 31 years as prime minister, Lee crafted a unique system of government, intricately balancing authoritarianism with democracy and state capitalism with the free market. Known as "the Singapore model", Lee's brand of governance is often mischaracterised as a one-party dictatorship superimposed on a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1750952/beijing-sees-only-distorted-version-singapore-model?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1750952/beijing-sees-only-distorted-version-singapore-model?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 30 Mar 2015 05:15:30 +0000 The news from the mainland these days is mostly depressing, owing to the government's escalating crackdown on its critics. But what few observers seem to understand is that the Chinese leadership's fight against liberalism and "Western values" is directly undermining its efforts to root out official corruption, promote innovation and entrepreneurship, and deepen engagement with the outside world. The government has intensified its censorship of the internet, rendering popular portals and sites... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1710698/chinas-self-defeating-crackdown-western-values?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1710698/chinas-self-defeating-crackdown-western-values?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Feb 2015 04:45:30 +0000 It may be hard to imagine, but 25 years ago, the Chinese Communist Party was nearly toppled by a nationwide pro-democracy movement. It was the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's steely nerves and the tanks of the People's Liberation Army - dispatched to enforce martial law and suppress the protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square - that enabled the regime to avoid collapse, at the cost of several hundred civilian lives. On the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 4, 1989,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1520414/communist-party-survived-tiananmen-does-it-have-tools-last?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1520414/communist-party-survived-tiananmen-does-it-have-tools-last?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 May 2014 20:32:14 +0000 Less than 18 months after becoming general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping is poised to cage the biggest political "tiger" - a corrupt top official - in the history of the People's Republic. Although rumours of the imminent fall of former internal security chief Zhou Yongkang have been swirling for months, many observers remained unsure whether Xi would prosecute Zhou and thus break the party's long-established unwritten rule of immunity for sitting or retired members of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1450790/zhou-yongkang-case-set-expose-scale-rot-chinas-elite-politics?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1450790/zhou-yongkang-case-set-expose-scale-rot-chinas-elite-politics?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Mar 2014 11:45:30 +0000 Since ascending to the Communist Party's top post in 2012, Xi Jinping has confounded observers. While his political strategy has entailed tightening the party's control over ideology, cracking down on official corruption, repressing dissent and championing a more nationalistic foreign policy, he has announced an unusually bold economic reform blueprint. The world will soon find out whether his politically conservative course is intended to facilitate his pro-market economic reforms. Having spent... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1402400/xi-jinpings-three-challenges?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1402400/xi-jinpings-three-challenges?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Jan 2014 20:47:43 +0000 There is something odd and disturbing about the conventional wisdom surrounding the upcoming Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As the November 9-12 conclave draws near, the international community’s attention seems to be focused mainly on technocratic policy changes deemed essential to restructuring China’s state-dominated economy and reenergising growth. Will the government liberalise interest rates or loosen capital controls? How will the fiscal... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1350681/whats-real-test-xi-jinping-and-communist-party-third-plenum?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1350681/whats-real-test-xi-jinping-and-communist-party-third-plenum?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Nov 2013 04:30:45 +0000 China's "princelings" - the offspring of senior Chinese officials who benefit from lavish privileges in education, employment and business - are coming under scrutiny as never before. Bo Xilai, the son of one of Mao Zedong's comrades and a supposed "immortal" of the revolution, was recently sentenced to life in prison after his conviction on charges of corruption and abuse of power. Outside China, princelings are feeling the heat as well. Not long ago, the US Securities and Exchange Commission... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1329484/hot-pursuit-chinas-princelings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1329484/hot-pursuit-chinas-princelings?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Oct 2013 16:00:00 +0000 As show trials go, the drama featuring Bo Xilai , the once-swaggering, media-savvy former Communist Party chief of Chongqing , veered anomalously into improvisation. Before the proceedings began, the conventional wisdom was that Bo's trial had been carefully scripted and rehearsed to portray a forlorn and penitent sinner confessing his crimes and apologising to the party. But the historic five-day trial dispelled any notion that Bo would go quietly to his cell in Beijing's infamous Qincheng... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1300394/why-bo-xilai-wont-go-quietly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1300394/why-bo-xilai-wont-go-quietly?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Ruling elites almost everywhere - whether in democracies or in authoritarian regimes - believe that clever sloganeering can inspire their people and legitimise their power. There are, of course, crucial differences. In functioning democracies, government leaders can be held accountable for their promises: the press can scrutinise their policies, opposition parties are motivated to show that the party in power lies and cheats. As a result, incumbents are frequently forced to carry out at least... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1217625/xi-will-be-pushed-make-good-his-china-dream?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1217625/xi-will-be-pushed-make-good-his-china-dream?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Sometimes the books that a country's top leaders read can reveal a lot about what they are thinking. So one of the books recently read by some of the incoming members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party may come as a surprise: Alexis de Tocqueville's The Old Regime and the Revolution. These leaders - to whom the party is about to pass the baton at its 18th congress, scheduled for next Thursday - reportedly not only read Tocqueville's diagnosis of social... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1074691/more-confident-chinese-people-tests-communist-party-rule?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1074691/more-confident-chinese-people-tests-communist-party-rule?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:00:00 +0000 By pure coincidence, on the day the Chinese Communist Party marked its 91st anniversary, July 1, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of Mexico, which lost power in 2000, won back the presidency. Its telegenic candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto, emerged victorious in a three-way race. One may wonder why this event is relevant to the Communist Party's leadership. The short answer is that the return of the PRI to power through a democratic process should encourage the Communist Party to think... https://www.scmp.com/article/1006362/survival-guide?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/1006362/survival-guide?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:00:00 +0000 If anything, the recent Brookings Institution-Peking University report on the strategic distrust between the United States and China points to a difficult period ahead for the world's two most powerful countries. The highly regarded report, given prominent coverage in the American media, provides an honest and insightful assessment of the fundamental obstacles to the establishment of enduring trust in each other's long-term intentions. The most important conclusion drawn by the report is that... https://www.scmp.com/article/998025/game-rivals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/998025/game-rivals?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:00:00 +0000 A time traveller who left Beijing three decades ago and returned today would find the Chinese capital unrecognisable. But there is one place he should have no trouble identifying: the annual session of the National People's Congress. The imposing Great Hall of the People, the seat of China's national parliament, has retained all its Soviet architectural features and should help our time traveller get physically oriented. The scene of nearly 3,000 appointed delegates duly rubber-stamping... https://www.scmp.com/article/995395/frozen-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/995395/frozen-time?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000 Diplomacy used to be simple for Beijing. During the cold war, Chinese leaders could safely count on shared geopolitical interests of other countries in securing good relations. They did not have to take into account ideological differences or economic benefits. When president Richard Nixon landed in Beijing 40 years ago, he did not make the historic visit to expand trade or make China democratic. His objective was pure and simple: ending China's self-imposed isolation and making it part of the... https://www.scmp.com/article/992679/behind-mask?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/992679/behind-mask?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The comfortable re-election victory of Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president on Saturday must have been greeted with relief in Beijing. Had the candidate of the pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party won, relations between the mainland and Taiwan could have deteriorated rapidly, undoing the painstaking efforts by Beijing and Taipei in the past four years that have restored stability and built vibrant economic linkages. Some in Beijing are likely to interpret the election... https://www.scmp.com/article/990325/securing-peace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/990325/securing-peace?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000 The sudden demise of Kim Jong-il has drastically increased the probabilities of a regime collapse in Pyongyang and the reunification of the two Koreas. Should either scenario become a reality, China will face the most difficult geopolitical challenge since the disintegration of the Soviet Union two decades ago. It is thus understandable that Chinese leaders are now trying to do everything possible to prop up the Kim dynasty. Maintaining the status quo will avert a strategic nightmare for China... https://www.scmp.com/article/988407/facing-realities?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/988407/facing-realities?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:00:00 +0000 The one-two punch delivered by Washington this month must have sent Beijing reeling. Within a week, the geopolitical tide in East Asia seemed to have turned decisively against China. The United States has not only reaffirmed its security commitments in the region with the establishment of a permanent marine base in Australia; it has also managed to isolate China on the South China Sea dispute at the East Asia Summit in Bali. Chinese leaders must be understandably frustrated and befuddled by... https://www.scmp.com/article/985760/chinas-move?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/985760/chinas-move?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:00:00 +0000