https://www.scmp.com/rss/322959/feed Wang Wen is a professor and executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Wang Wen Wang Wen After a year of Trump 2.0, China has much to be thankful for. This is not an endorsement of US hegemony but an expression of confidence in China’s increased resilience – and an acknowledgement of the US policies that pushed China there. The Chinese government’s stance towards Trump 2.0 remains the same: to adhere to its own principles, respond rationally and look to turn any crisis into an opportunity. For a start, Trump 2.0’s tariff war on China has backfired. All it did was force China to... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3340739/how-trump-20-accelerated-chinas-push-tech-and-trade-resilience?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3340739/how-trump-20-accelerated-chinas-push-tech-and-trade-resilience?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:30:08 +0000 A viral political cartoon circulating in China shows US President Donald Trump dressed in the imperial robes of the Qing dynasty. He is likened to Empress Dowager Cixi, who in 1900 effectively declared war on the Western powers in China, a disastrous move that helped accelerate the collapse of imperial China. To many Chinese observers, the cartoon is a warning: Trump, in launching his latest damaging round of tariffs, seems trapped in a tragic and ill-advised Game of Thrones, fuelled by outdated... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3306249/cixi-trump-has-made-mistake-declaring-ill-advised-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3306249/cixi-trump-has-made-mistake-declaring-ill-advised-war?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Apr 2025 22:30:07 +0000 Just days after US President Donald Trump announced a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican goods and a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods, Canada and Mexico reached a deal appeasing the US in exchange for a one-month suspension of the tariffs. China responded with multiple countermeasures: a 15 per cent tariff on US coal and liquefied natural gas and a 10 per cent tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and pickup trucks. Beijing also implemented export controls on rare earth elements... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3298245/china-will-survive-trumps-trade-war-its-done-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3298245/china-will-survive-trumps-trade-war-its-done-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Feb 2025 21:30:08 +0000 Western media analysts often fail to grasp the significance of the reforms initiated at the third plenum of the Communist Party of China, which recently concluded in Beijing. The Communist Party typically holds seven plenary sessions during each five-year term of its Central Committee, and the third is particularly important as major policy directions and reforms are often introduced. The 1978 third plenum marked the beginning of China’s reform and opening up, a policy introduced by Deng... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3273373/what-china-watchers-should-know-about-where-country-headed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3273373/what-china-watchers-should-know-about-where-country-headed?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Aug 2024 08:45:08 +0000 Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first state visits this year are all to European countries. Six months ago, I visited Europe four times, conducting research in nine countries including France, Serbia and Hungary, the three states on Xi’s itinerary. After conversations with more than 100 European friends, I feel that Europeans’ sense of autonomy is growing. This reinforces my belief that the US strategy of courting Europe to contain China is bound to fail. Two years after the Ukraine crisis began,... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3261775/no-good-reason-europe-follow-us-china-containment-strategy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3261775/no-good-reason-europe-follow-us-china-containment-strategy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 09 May 2024 08:30:34 +0000 A new world war is under way. For those living in developed countries, where gruesome battles remain mere headlines, it may not feel like the Earth is burning, but in 2022, according to the Peace Peace Research Institute Oslo, there were 137 conflicts around the world, resulting in over 224,800 deaths. The statistics for 2023 will no doubt be more chilling. In 2022, a quarter of the Earth’s population, about 2 billion people, lived in areas directly impacted by military conflict. Battles and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/world/article/3252809/world-engulfed-war-china-holding-out-peace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/world/article/3252809/world-engulfed-war-china-holding-out-peace?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 23 Feb 2024 21:30:10 +0000 “I hope to get a Chinese passport and become a Chinese citizen,” a Taiwanese student once told me. “Only by being Chinese can we have confidence and become the most powerful country in the world. If we remain only Taiwanese, we are but a mere vassal of the United States.” This student, who studied with me for five years, knows full well that mainland China can resist US suppression of its trade and technology and the politicising of human rights. His reflections are shared by many young... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248478/beijing-already-prepared-taiwan-reunification?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3248478/beijing-already-prepared-taiwan-reunification?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Jan 2024 01:30:14 +0000 It’s been 10 years since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was launched, and later this month, China will host the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. Journalists and scholars from around the world have been reflecting on the 10 years of the belt and road. Among those reflections, Western narratives that focus on certain individual cases or take a particular slant rate the belt and road poorly. The initiative is arguably the first concept for global cooperation... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3236499/10-years-belt-and-road-showcase-chinas-peaceful-rise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3236499/10-years-belt-and-road-showcase-chinas-peaceful-rise?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Oct 2023 01:30:17 +0000 The US staged the second Summit for Democracy last week. Chinese are chuckling at the irony as they await details of a criminal investigation into hush money paid on behalf of former US president Donald Trump before election day in 2016. The former American leader should also be ashamed of his role in the January 6 insurrection. Chinese didn’t always feel the need, nor have the ammunition, to lampoon the US political system. However, the generation of young people who shouted “Long live... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3215831/trumps-indictment-and-bank-collapses-poor-advertisement-us-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3215831/trumps-indictment-and-bank-collapses-poor-advertisement-us-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:15:11 +0000 Here we go again. A giant Chinese balloon floats across North America, and US politicians want to shoot it, and China, down. Surely the sabre rattlers know how much is at stake – and how little another kerfuffle will mean to the symbiotic aspirations of good people on both sides of the Pacific. The ballyhoo over the balloon won’t make a pinprick in the billions of dollars’ worth of trade between the two countries that occur every month. This voluminous commerce is one of the greatest... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3211836/us-china-hostility-must-end-benefit-both-countries-and-rest-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3211836/us-china-hostility-must-end-benefit-both-countries-and-rest-world?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 01 Mar 2023 17:00:18 +0000 The global significance of 2022 has been grossly underestimated. Its importance to world history far exceeds that of 2001, when the September 11 attacks occurred, and 2008, when the global financial crisis broke out. Instead, 2022 may be comparable to 1991, when the Cold War ended. If there’s a keyword, it’s “de-Westernisation”. This is not just about Russia’s radical attempt, through the use of military power, to try to break the US-dominated international order. It is also about the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3205148/beyond-china-more-nations-reject-us-led-order-2022-will-go-down-year-de-westernisation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3205148/beyond-china-more-nations-reject-us-led-order-2022-will-go-down-year-de-westernisation?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Jan 2023 17:00:19 +0000 The US’ perception that China is a threat runs contrary to empirical evidence, is mired in ossified ideological thinking and is unacceptable to Chinese academia. To see just where potential evil lies, here are the facts. China has not been at war in more than four decades. It doesn’t send destroyers and bombers to cruise the Florida Straits, just to test Washington’s tolerance. China’s military expenditure isn’t even a third of the US’, which spends more to fund its military than the next 10... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3180863/us-so-bent-resisting-chinas-rise-it-has-ignored-its-own-decline?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3180863/us-so-bent-resisting-chinas-rise-it-has-ignored-its-own-decline?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Jun 2022 00:45:13 +0000 The escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict into a protracted war has heightened many other threats facing the world. According to Russian government reports, the Ukrainian army launched its first raid on Russia on April 1, which, if confirmed, means that the conflict may have entered the stage of counter-attack. On the surface, it is a military struggle between Ukraine and the western and southern theatres of Russia. In essence, it is an all-out manifestation of Cold War confrontational... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3173298/how-russia-ukraine-war-food-insecurity-and-covid-19-have-made-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3173298/how-russia-ukraine-war-food-insecurity-and-covid-19-have-made-world?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Apr 2022 01:15:10 +0000 Throughout its history, the South China Sea has remained a “sea of peace” untouched by a large-scale battle. The South China Sea arbitration, however, is turning this region into a powder keg. All too often, the public discourse on the relations between China and the South China Sea has only made an already complex subject more complicated. There is an urgent need to clarify at least 10 myths. Myth No 1: China’s stance against the South China Sea arbitration violates international law. By... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1986732/debunking-10-myths-about-china-and-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1986732/debunking-10-myths-about-china-and-south-china-sea?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 10 Jul 2016 02:01:39 +0000