https://www.scmp.com/rss/269611/feed Andrew Leung has had decades of experience as a senior Hong Kong government official in a variety of fields including finance, industry, social welfare and overseas representation. Since his retirement in 2005, he has built up a reputation as an international and independent China strategist. He features regularly in international TV channels and conferences. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Andrew Leung Andrew Leung US President Donald Trump’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been held up as an example of American military power. As Venezuela is not a producer of fentanyl – despite the United States accusing Maduro of drug trafficking – Trump has pivoted his attention to Venezuela’s oil reserves, the largest in the world. Trump has commanded Venezuela to turn over 30 to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil, which he said would be sold at market value and the proceeds from which he would... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3339645/trumps-audacious-imperialism-will-only-propel-chinas-rise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3339645/trumps-audacious-imperialism-will-only-propel-chinas-rise?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Jan 2026 12:30:09 +0000 Notwithstanding US President Donald Trump’s “America first” iconoclasm with his territorial ambitions and obsession with tariffs, powerful dynamics are at play which may result in a less dystopian outcome. First, notwithstanding strong bipartisan consensus regarding China as America’s primary “existential threat”, relations are becoming more nuanced. China is now so deeply embedded in the interlocked global supply chain that no amount of “de-risking” is likely to turn the table. Nor have export... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3297132/how-trump-creating-more-peaceful-and-cooperative-multipolar-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3297132/how-trump-creating-more-peaceful-and-cooperative-multipolar-world?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Feb 2025 21:30:08 +0000 With the United States House of Representatives backing a US$1.6 billion anti-China bill, tense bilateral relations are set to get a lot worse. There is entrenched bipartisan consensus that a rising China represents an existential threat to America’s best interests, supported by increasingly negative American public opinion towards China. While agreeing on guard rails against war between two major nuclear powers, neither Democratic nominee Kamala Harris nor Republican nominee Donald Trump wants... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3280639/5-major-blind-spots-pushing-us-conflict-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3280639/5-major-blind-spots-pushing-us-conflict-china?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Oct 2024 21:30:08 +0000 Amid a US-China cold war, a confluence of critical inflection points is looming, with game-changing consequences for the world order. First, the Ukraine war. Following Russia’s resilience and reversal of Ukraine’s battleground gains, the early triumphalism of Nato, the transatlantic alliance, has given way to a sense of war-weariness, collective economic pain and a tussle between denial and despair. Ukrainian soldiers are increasingly exhausted and while motivation remains high, fighters and... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3264704/three-wars-and-taiwan-global-inflection-points-are-looming?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3264704/three-wars-and-taiwan-global-inflection-points-are-looming?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Jun 2024 08:30:10 +0000 The beloved phrase “city upon a hill”, cited by America’s forefather John Winthrop, is often used to denote the exceptionalism of America’s power, founded on “universal” human values and principles for others to follow. In the late 1950s, I was a great fan of the United States. Having a rudimentary command of English, I remember reading a Chinese translation of Little House on the Prairie from the now-defunct US Information Agency Library in Macau. In the summer of 1990, my faith in America was... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/united-states/article/3252584/gaza-ukraine-tiktok-us-double-standards-are-eroding-its-global-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/united-states/article/3252584/gaza-ukraine-tiktok-us-double-standards-are-eroding-its-global-power?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 21 Feb 2024 21:30:20 +0000 With the unprecedented third election victory of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), and Beijing branding president-elect William Lai Ching-te an “obstinate Taiwan-independence worker”, two questions are being asked: Can peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait can be maintained? And is achieving unification by 2049, the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China’s centenary, still a realistic idea? As of June last year, according to a long-running poll by Taiwan’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3249396/how-beijing-can-make-reunification-more-appealing-taiwanese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3249396/how-beijing-can-make-reunification-more-appealing-taiwanese?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:30:13 +0000 Notwithstanding President Joe Biden’s recent Beijing-friendly overtures, the looming US presidential election is set to intensify the perception of a “China threat” as the two main political parties try to outdo each other on China-bashing. Donald Trump’s election campaign, for example, calls for a four-year plan to phase out all Chinese imports of essential goods, as well as restrictions to stop American investments in China and Chinese purchases of US assets. Western media and bookstores are... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3247965/beijing-debunking-china-threat-myth-through-trade-and-cooperation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3247965/beijing-debunking-china-threat-myth-through-trade-and-cooperation?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:30:12 +0000 In the face of worsening climate anxieties, the hard-earned Cop28 Dubai consensus to transition away from fossil fuels has been hailed as a historic breakthrough, notwithstanding small island nations’ fears for their survival amid rising sea levels and some cynicism about the sincerity of vested fossil-fuel interests. What is certain, however, is China’s accelerating role in driving the global momentum towards carbon neutrality in the coming decades. There are many reasons. In September 2020,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3246696/climate-action-how-china-accelerating-drive-towards-net-zero-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3246696/climate-action-how-china-accelerating-drive-towards-net-zero-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Dec 2023 11:30:08 +0000 With US-China relations seemingly stuck in a deep freeze, President Xi Jinping hit the nail on the head at a recent last-minute meeting with US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his bipartisan delegation. Xi stressed that the Thucydides Trap was “not inevitable”, that the “wide world can accommodate China and the US in their respective development and common prosperity”. At the heart of it all is an American refusal to accept that the world has become multipolar. Rhetoric about US primacy... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3237591/us-needs-accept-its-multipolar-world-and-work-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3237591/us-needs-accept-its-multipolar-world-and-work-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Oct 2023 13:00:20 +0000 Last month, US President Joe Biden said US-China relations would “thaw” very soon. Then US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin tried and failed to secure a meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the recent Shangri-La security forum in Singapore. Now US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expects to visit Beijing on June 18, after a trip planned for February was derailed by the Chinese balloon incident. Does this eagerness to mend fences suggest the United States is willing to compromise when it comes... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3223986/us-china-rivalry-intensifies-beijing-has-no-illusions-about-washingtons-olive-branch?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3223986/us-china-rivalry-intensifies-beijing-has-no-illusions-about-washingtons-olive-branch?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Jun 2023 00:15:17 +0000 After World War II, world peace and prosperity have on the whole endured with a benign US-led liberal world order. That order followed the United Nations Charter of universal respect for national sovereignty, territorial integrity, international law, free trade, human rights and non-discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, language or religion. Nowadays, it appears that this liberal world order has been fraying at the seams, if not falling apart entirely. US credibility was damaged by its... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3203387/how-xis-saudi-arabia-visit-shows-rise-new-world-order-beyond-us-hegemony?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3203387/how-xis-saudi-arabia-visit-shows-rise-new-world-order-beyond-us-hegemony?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Dec 2022 12:15:09 +0000 Defending its global hegemony, the United States is now fighting a global war on two fronts, against Russia and China simultaneously. Russian President Vladimir Putin has refocused his Ukraine military strategy on the Donbas region and on creating a “land bridge” to Russia-occupied Crimea. He is turning the Ukraine war into a contest of attrition, threatening to last a couple of years, if not much longer. Speaking to Foreign Policy, Fiona Hill, a top Russia adviser to three US presidents, urged... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3186290/how-american-hubris-hastening-decline-us-led-global-order?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3186290/how-american-hubris-hastening-decline-us-led-global-order?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Jul 2022 01:45:16 +0000 Regardless of how they are elected, any leader’s litmus test lies in the outcome of his or her governance. Having repeatedly emphasised a result-oriented approach, chief executive-elect John Lee Ka-chiu must show sooner rather than later that he can deliver tangible results to regain the public’s faltering trust. Before anything can be done, Lee has to assemble a governing team of high-calibre individuals imaginatively drawn from a variety of sources. Both the Executive Council and the team of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3177500/10-goals-john-lees-first-100-days-hong-kong-chief-executive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3177500/10-goals-john-lees-first-100-days-hong-kong-chief-executive?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 May 2022 05:30:18 +0000 At the launch of his leadership campaign during a virtual press conference, chief executive candidate John Lee Ka-chiu listed three main objectives: build a results-oriented administration, enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness, and consolidate the city’s foundation. When his name first began to circulate in connection with the role, many assumed that Beijing wanted the new chief executive to put national security front and centre. Lee’s statement makes it clear that Beijing expects much... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3173844/how-hong-kong-chief-executive-hopeful-john-lee-can-raise-bar-if?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3173844/how-hong-kong-chief-executive-hopeful-john-lee-can-raise-bar-if?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 13 Apr 2022 00:15:09 +0000 The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s 539-page report to Congress, released on November 17, frames the perceived “China threat” as nothing less than a global contest between democracy and authoritarianism, reminiscent of Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilisations” thesis on post-Cold-War conflict. To many China hawks, the threat is more pressing with China expected to become the world’s largest economy by the early 2030s. With midterm elections looming, President Joe Biden... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3157540/seven-reasons-us-and-china-should-be-building-more-bridges-not?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3157540/seven-reasons-us-and-china-should-be-building-more-bridges-not?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Nov 2021 17:30:22 +0000 Chinese President Xi Jinping’s emphasis on “common prosperity” has been taxing many minds. Some relate it to the recent crackdown on Big Tech and talk of redistributive taxes and philanthropy. Some highlight concepts of safety nets and a clampdown on “illicit incomes”. Others seem to wonder if they should hide their wealth under the mattress. A clarification in a People’s Daily editorial on September 8 may not have succeeded in calming all nerves. Xi’s watchword reflects a judgment that, after... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3149584/chinas-common-prosperity-goal-wont-mean-robin-hood-style?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3149584/chinas-common-prosperity-goal-wont-mean-robin-hood-style?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Sep 2021 19:30:18 +0000 While denying any attempt to contain China, recent moves by the Biden administration and the stance taken by the Group of 7 seem to have upped the ante by targeting China’s human rights transgressions and playing the Taiwan card. This accompanies a more robust, if calibrated, approach towards China in what are considered the West’s “strategic assets”, including advanced technology. Efforts also continue apace in Nato members’ naval deployments in the South China Sea. All these follow the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3134018/waning-us-must-overcome-fear-chinas-inevitable-rise-top?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3134018/waning-us-must-overcome-fear-chinas-inevitable-rise-top?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 May 2021 17:30:17 +0000 With strong bipartisan consensus, China has become America’s arch-enemy. It is thought to be undermining the US-led liberal order, seeking to supplant the United States as the regional, if not world, hegemon. Its ideology, economic practices and assertive behaviour are trampling on the values of human rights, fair play and regional stability. Americans’ negative views of China have reached historic highs. The US, along with its allies, must continue to push China back, at all costs short of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3123035/how-us-can-offer-realistic-response-china-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3123035/how-us-can-offer-realistic-response-china-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Feb 2021 17:30:09 +0000 After the storming of Capitol Hill, an avalanche of disapproval on all fronts may lead many to believe that Donald Trump will live out his days at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, with Trumpism buried once and for all. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Trump secured over 74 million votes, the highest number for any president before him, regardless of any contextual niceties downplaying its significance. Not all of his supporters are extremists. Despite hellish blowback, he remains the most... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3118351/america-bids-farewell-trump-trumpism-lives?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3118351/america-bids-farewell-trump-trumpism-lives?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 Jan 2021 01:15:17 +0000 Andrew Leung Andrew Leung The US dollar displaced the British pound as the world’s leading reserve currency at the beginning of the last century. Since the Bretton Woods Agreement in 1944 linked world currencies to the dollar, it has reigned supreme. As China opened up and became integrated with the world trading and financial systems, it has been caught in a “dollar trap”, having to convert excess national savings into secure, internationally-convertible US treasuries. Over the years, the US has enjoyed the dollar’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3115540/how-chinas-digital-currency-will-thwart-us-dollar-trap-and-help?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3115540/how-chinas-digital-currency-will-thwart-us-dollar-trap-and-help?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Dec 2020 14:00:06 +0000 China-bashing rhetoric aside, the world is becoming more hostile towards China. In a recent survey by the Washington-based non-partisan Pew Research Centre, 66 per cent of American respondents viewed China unfavourably, while 71 per cent didn’t trust President Xi Jinping. Similarly, other Western countries’ negative views of China and its leader are at historic highs. There is widespread dissatisfaction among the advanced economies with China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, although they... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3109495/biden-china-gets-four-years-remake-itself-likeable-trusted-power-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3109495/biden-china-gets-four-years-remake-itself-likeable-trusted-power-it?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:30:09 +0000 US China-bashing has turned increasingly muscular across the political aisle. US allies are being cajoled or pressured to fall in line, and China is now targeted as the US’ No 1 existential threat. Gone are hopes that China could become a “responsible stakeholder” in a US-led global order. Its alleged trade malpractices, technological and military advances, foreign policy assertiveness, and perceived regime repressiveness, have inflamed a McCarthyist “China scare”. There is a lurking belief that... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3095917/why-new-us-china-scare-big-pressure-short-vision?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3095917/why-new-us-china-scare-big-pressure-short-vision?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Aug 2020 01:15:14 +0000 Against multiple headwinds, China’s trajectory is unlikely to be smooth. Notwithstanding major changes, the following realities are likely to define China in the new decade. First is a tectonic collision on all fronts with the United States. The China scare is reaching a crescendo. This is powered by such thinking as Peter Navarro’s Death by China (2011), Michael Pillsbury’s The Hundred-year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America As the Global Superpower (2015), Elizabeth Economy’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3044463/seven-trends-will-define-china-2020s?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3044463/seven-trends-will-define-china-2020s?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Jan 2020 23:00:09 +0000 Six months of unprecedented, often violent, social protests have coalesced, like water, into a torrent for more freedom and democracy. Riding on stunning district electoral results and US President Donald Trump’s signing of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, protests are now returning to the streets. They are rallying behind calls to press ahead on three fronts: international support, district groundwork and street protests.  The groundswell happened against a backdrop of perceived... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3040174/six-powerful-reasons-beijing-rethink-how-hong-kong-should-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3040174/six-powerful-reasons-beijing-rethink-how-hong-kong-should-be?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Dec 2019 22:30:08 +0000 The saga of violence and vandalism continues. A Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act on Capitol Hill overhangs like the Sword of Damocles. The city broods in resignation and helplessness. What does Beijing think? And how will all this end? After the government agreed to withdraw the controversial extradition bill , the protests’ nature fundamentally changed. The remaining demands undermine levers of governance: the government, police, law and order, and the Basic Law. Street violence... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3034447/hong-kong-should-enact-national-security-laws-then-seek-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3034447/hong-kong-should-enact-national-security-laws-then-seek-more?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Oct 2019 00:00:12 +0000 With protests in Hong Kong crossing 100 days, “one country, two systems” has undergone a trial by fire. Youth passion and idealism have been aroused for freedom and democracy. A protest theme song, Glory to Hong Kong, is gaining wide popularity. An ill-fated extradition bill has ignited a prairie fire, fuelled by housing unaffordability, lack of upward mobility, widening inequalities, and social injustice. Looking deeper, the anger has much to do with a perceived erosion of identity, lack of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3029924/hong-kong-protests-cross-100-days-10-ways-ensure-end-youth-anger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3029924/hong-kong-protests-cross-100-days-10-ways-ensure-end-youth-anger?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 24 Sep 2019 03:00:11 +0000 The night of July 21 will be remembered as the time law and order in Hong Kong broke down. The entire city watched on television as hooligans in white T-shirts attacked people in Yuen Long MTR station, especially targeting black-clad extradition-bill protesters. A short while earlier, protesters had vandalised China’s national emblem and a plaque outside the liaison office building, where the central government’s top representative in Hong Kong sits. A masked protester announced the setting up... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3019752/chinas-authorities-can-allay-hong-kongs-worst-fears-addressing-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3019752/chinas-authorities-can-allay-hong-kongs-worst-fears-addressing-its?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jul 2019 01:00:13 +0000 The breakdown in US-China trade talks was a surprise. At the 11th hour, China seemed to decide to remove commitments for laws to codify promised concessions. Upping the ante, US President Donald Trump ordered tariff hikes on all remaining Chinese exports. While most concessions represent the structural reforms China needs, contrary opinions prevail that they should be implemented in a way the nation can live with. Caving in with a loaded gun overhead is reminiscent of past national humiliations.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3010418/end-trade-war-and-meet-its-centenary-goals-china-must?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3010418/end-trade-war-and-meet-its-centenary-goals-china-must?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 May 2019 17:00:10 +0000 While the world anxiously watches the US-China trade talks unfold, there has been all-out resistance against the perceived “China threat”, albeit with uncertain results. Following a series of national security and defence reviews, there is bipartisan consensus in the US on the need for an anti-China confrontation. China’s rise is regarded as being at America’s expense. After joining the West-led liberal trading system, not only has China not become more like the West, but it is perceived to be... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2183287/china-facing-not-just-trade-war-us-assault-all?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/united-states/article/2183287/china-facing-not-just-trade-war-us-assault-all?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Jan 2019 19:00:00 +0000 US Vice-President Mike Pence's ferocious anti-China speech was the latest salvo in what The New York Times has called a “new cold war”. It followed a recent US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) with a “poison pill” clause that forbids parallel agreements with “non-market economies” (read China). Similar clauses are expected in future US agreements with Japan and the European Union. A Western economic wall is being built to isolate the Middle Kingdom. Concurrently, the White House has made an issue... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/world/article/2168778/chinas-economy-may-suffer-under-trade-war-us-shouldnt?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/world/article/2168778/chinas-economy-may-suffer-under-trade-war-us-shouldnt?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Oct 2018 19:00:30 +0000 China exports US$500 billion of goods to the United States, but imports only US$150 billion. US President Donald Trump figures that a trade war against China is easy to win, as it would quickly run out of equivalent retaliatory tariffs and would soon have to buckle to US demands. However, 85 per cent of the Chinese products hit by initial Trump tariffs are machinery and components used by manufacturers in the US. As for consumer goods, Americans will struggle to cope, not just with increased... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2156292/never-mind-trade-war-how-china-and-us-can-both-get-what-they?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2156292/never-mind-trade-war-how-china-and-us-can-both-get-what-they?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Jul 2018 10:30:00 +0000 US President Donald Trump says he likes chaos. And that “trade wars are good and easy to win”. These remarks define his world view: that the United States has been short-changed by the existing world order and China, a master of “unfair” trade practises and “intellectual property theft”, is the main culprit. Trump wants to upend this world order to make America great again. The trade deficits feed the anger over decades of trying but failing to shape China according to the West’s values. China... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2139675/sinophobia-should-not-define-us-approach-china-or-its?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2139675/sinophobia-should-not-define-us-approach-china-or-its?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Mar 2018 04:02:34 +0000 Breaking with tradition, US President Donald Trump chose to personally launch the National Security Strategy in December. He named China and Russia “revisionist powers”, “attempting to erode American security and prosperity”. While conceding the need to cooperate with China, he vowed to make the US, including its military, more competitive and stronger, always putting America first. This was soon echoed in the 2018 National Defence Strategy, which asserts that “great-power competition”, not... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2133309/how-sino-us-relationship-reset-would-help-make-america-great?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2133309/how-sino-us-relationship-reset-would-help-make-america-great?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Feb 2018 09:40:05 +0000 For US President Donald Trump’s upcoming China visit, weighty issues are at stake. A new leadership team under President Xi Jinping will be unveiled at the 19th Party Congress next month. The stage is set to redefine an increasingly testy US-China relationship. Finding out how to ­unspring the “Thucydides trap” ­demands more concrete action than academic debate. Long before Xi’s presidency, a Chinese state-sponsored 12-part TV documentary analysed the whys and wherefores of the Rise of the Great... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2112357/how-us-president-donald-trumps-visit-china-can-make-both?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2112357/how-us-president-donald-trumps-visit-china-can-make-both?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Sep 2017 03:01:37 +0000 Following a sizeable protest march in support of Hong Kong’s recently jailed young democracy activists, shrill cries of foul play were heard in certain leading Western media, over perceptions of Beijing’s pressure on local judges and references to “Hong Kong’s political prisoners”. Hong Kong as a British colony was noted for its political apathy: any anti-colonial stirrings were firmly suppressed. The city’s raison d’etre was to make money. Now, under “one country, two systems”, the people of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2109789/hong-kong-must-safeguard-one-country-sake-two-systems?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2109789/hong-kong-must-safeguard-one-country-sake-two-systems?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 05 Sep 2017 05:35:33 +0000 President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) hard-hitting speech on July 1 on how “one country, two systems” should be implemented has raised worrying eyebrows. Will the “two systems” increasingly tilt towards the “one country”? President Xi Jinping’s four key points for moving forward under ‘one country, two systems’ In her inauguration speech, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor vowed to comprehensively fulfil her responsibilities to make “one country, two systems” work, including through better... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2101966/seven-ways-hong-kong-chief-executive-carrie-lam-can-please?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2101966/seven-ways-hong-kong-chief-executive-carrie-lam-can-please?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 Jul 2017 09:20:41 +0000 Following US President Donald Trump’s decision to quit the Paris Agreement on climate change, three questions of strategic import beg to be answered. First, how will other large backers of the climate accord, like the EU, China, Japan and India, address the resultant deficit in financial and emission commitments? Second, with financial assistance expected to be curtailed due to the US withdrawal, how can less-developed nations diversify from carbon-intensive development? Third, what will be... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2098287/chinas-belt-and-road-can-lead-world-greener-future?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2098287/chinas-belt-and-road-can-lead-world-greener-future?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Jun 2017 09:19:14 +0000 The world order is at a crossroads. For evidence, look no further than the iconoclasm of US President Donald Trump, the leader of the free world; a fracturing European Union, once a pillar of peace in Europe; the resurgent powers of Russia and China and rising Islamophobia, which may precipitate Samuel Huntington’s “clash of civilisations”. Some, like Robert Kagan of the Brookings Institution, think American exceptionalism backed by military dominance is the answer. Some, such as historian Niall... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2075511/america-first-thinking-wont-survive-hyperconnected-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2075511/america-first-thinking-wont-survive-hyperconnected-world?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Mar 2017 07:22:28 +0000 Much has been said about how fractious and confrontational the newly elected Legislative Council is going to be. Young anti-establishment activists have pushed over the old guards. “Localists” with “self-determination” or “independence” leanings have taken centre stage. Simple pleas for closer cooperation with the government are unlikely to bear much fruit. If left to fester, the political ecology is bound to get worse. What is more, it has touched a raw nerve with Beijing. The prospects for... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2020051/ten-ways-turn-around-hong-kongs-governance-and-relations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2020051/ten-ways-turn-around-hong-kongs-governance-and-relations?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Sep 2016 03:00:55 +0000 Notwithstanding the initial standoff, both the Philippines and China have acted with commendable restraint after the Permanent Court of Arbitration found overwhelmingly in favour of Manila in its ruling on the South China Sea. The same applies to the US, the region’s “arbiter-in-chief”, as well as other rival territorial claimants. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was reported to favour a settlement with China after discussions with the US ambassador and a delegation of US lawmakers. China’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2005586/10-reasons-why-south-china-sea-ruling-may-lead-regional?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2005586/10-reasons-why-south-china-sea-ruling-may-lead-regional?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Aug 2016 08:41:51 +0000 To many, China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative seems little more than a buzz word. Scepticism abounds. Does China mainly want to export excess capacity? Is it up to the task of traversing territories fraught with political and geopolitical uncertainties? Governments aside, where is the attraction for the private sector? Would corporate governance and environmental standards be compromised? What role, if any, can Hong Kong’s small and medium-sized businesses and professionals play? Roadblocks... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1941104/huge-potential-gains-chinas-one-belt-one-road-are-worth?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1941104/huge-potential-gains-chinas-one-belt-one-road-are-worth?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 May 2016 09:22:03 +0000 China’s five-year plan to 2020 aims to shift to higher value-added and more sustainable development, doubling 2010’s national income by 2020. Many China-watchers remain unimpressed. Some say the current model is unsustainable without far-reaching structural reforms while Beijing appears to muddle through with financial stimulus. The way forward seems pointed more to sunset than renaissance. Let’s try to see through the mist. Key takeaways from China’s 13th five-year plan and annual... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1931527/beijing-track-meet-its-five-year-goals?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1931527/beijing-track-meet-its-five-year-goals?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Mar 2016 08:39:22 +0000 Despite sanctions and warnings, Pyongyang recently tested an alleged hydrogen bomb and launched a satellite rocket with a payload twice as heavy as its previous successful launch in 2012. READ MORE: North Korean rocket condemned – UN Security Council pledges significant new sanctions as China, Russia show restraint North Korea is the only country known to have conducted nuclear tests this century and this was its fourth since 2006, which points to an unwavering ambition to achieve long-range... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1913624/trade-can-do-what-threats-cannot-and-bring-north-korea-cold?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1913624/trade-can-do-what-threats-cannot-and-bring-north-korea-cold?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Feb 2016 08:47:36 +0000 China has opened 2016 with another market crash in its roller-coaster ride. Meanwhile, capital outflows continue amid concerns about the yuan’s potential downward slide and the risk of slowing growth under the “new normal”. Although a hard landing is unlikely, at least according to a Goldman Sachs Investment Strategy Group report, growth in 2016 is forecast to range between 5.8 per cent and 6.8 per cent, testing Premier Li Keqiang’s (李克強) suggested 6.5 per cent as the required... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1899903/2016-promises-be-make-or-break-year-new-china-struggles-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1899903/2016-promises-be-make-or-break-year-new-china-struggles-be?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Jan 2016 09:49:13 +0000 America has vowed to continue freedom of navigation operations such as those conducted by USS Lassen to challenge China's island-building activities in the South China Sea under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This is part of America's Asia-Pacific military strategy to maintain freedom of navigation and to "rebalance" against a more assertive China. The stakes are high on both sides. America wants to pre-empt the risk, however far-fetched, of China imposing a "Monroe Doctrine" in the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1876282/how-softer-approach-us-balancing-rising-china-could-pay?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1876282/how-softer-approach-us-balancing-rising-china-could-pay?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Nov 2015 04:41:29 +0000 As President Xi Jinping's first state visit to the United States draws near, his phraseology of "new great power relations" is seemingly being shunned by Washington. A host of doubts come to mind. How robust is China's rise that it merits "great power" status? Is it sustainable? What are China's ultimate intentions? Should China be contained or confronted? To read China correctly, a number of myths need to be debunked. The first is that the recurrent "China collapse" speculation does not accord... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1854326/america-must-face-chinas-rising-global-clout?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1854326/america-must-face-chinas-rising-global-clout?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Sep 2015 02:12:53 +0000 The elephant in the room during the last meeting of Beijing officials and pan-democrats over political reform was the lack of mutual trust. But trust cannot be demanded; it can only be built on working relationships. However, if pan-democrats are forever precluded from taking part in governing, how can any working relationship be established? Nevertheless, vetoing the proposal is unlikely to create trust with Beijing, given the latter's take-it-or-leave-it logic. The fact is, the Occupy... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1822195/pan-democrats-can-build-trust-beijing-voting-political?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1822195/pan-democrats-can-build-trust-beijing-voting-political?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Jun 2015 08:28:35 +0000 Notwithstanding President Xi Jinping's growing power at home and influence abroad, some top American academics are forecasting China's imminent collapse. Their prognosis was rebutted by Kevin Rudd, former prime minister of Australia, in a report last month for the Harvard Kennedy School. Predictions of China's collapse are not new, but the prognosis by some of the world's most respected experts on China carries traction. In Hong Kong, for example, some politicians quietly hope for China's regime... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1798107/warnings-chinas-imminent-collapse-are-once-again-greatly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1798107/warnings-chinas-imminent-collapse-are-once-again-greatly?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 17 May 2015 19:00:39 +0000 President Xi Jinping has emphasised that in a "new normal" of slower growth, it is quality that counts, even though at around 7 per cent annual growth, China's economy would still lead the world. Evidence of economic restructuring emerged last year when consumption for the first three quarters of the year overtook investment as the main contributor to growth. Besides, at 46.7 per cent of the economy, services surpassed the share of manufacturing. Meanwhile, newly registered enterprises... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1711947/can-slowing-china-navigate-round-global-storm-debt-and-asset?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1711947/can-slowing-china-navigate-round-global-storm-debt-and-asset?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Feb 2015 09:02:51 +0000 China's rent-seeking decades have yielded massive systemic corruption, and recent revelations of cases of power abuse have shaken the Communist Party to the core. The nation's unbalanced, uncoordinated, unstable and unsustainable development is threatening its very survival. President Xi Jinping has forged a party consensus that it's crunch time for China to sink or swim. What's more, he has raised the bar by launching a global infrastructural blueprint that puts China at the centre of the world... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1677965/chinas-middle-kingdom-dream-offers-opportunities-taking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1677965/chinas-middle-kingdom-dream-offers-opportunities-taking?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Jan 2015 19:01:50 +0000