https://www.scmp.com/rss/510005/feed Lub Bun Chong is a partner of C Consultancy and Helios Strategic Advisors, and the author of “Managing a Chinese Partner: Insights From Four Global Companies”. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Lub Bun Chong Lub Bun Chong This year marks the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II and the founding of the United Nations. Humanity learned with great pain that peace and security must coexist for all nations, and the vicious circle of war must not be repeated. In 1941, the United States imposed an oil embargo on Japan in response to its expansion in Asia and invasion of French Indochina. For the US and its allies, Japan’s militant aggression was a blatant violation of peace; for Japan, the embargo was... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3324197/ukraine-war-must-be-resolved-within-un-halls-not-battlefield?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3324197/ukraine-war-must-be-resolved-within-un-halls-not-battlefield?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Sep 2025 12:30:07 +0000 American society is plagued with serious imbalances, and although the United States and China are not the same, US President Donald Trump can still draw inspiration from how China is restoring harmony to its society, which is also out of sync after decades of high but lopsided economic growth. Chinese leaders from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping are discerning pupils of history. Broadly speaking, policymaking is shaped by a trifecta matrix comprising philosophy, power and pragmatism. An imbalance in... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3307186/trumps-maga-vision-can-find-inspiration-xis-rejuvenation-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3307186/trumps-maga-vision-can-find-inspiration-xis-rejuvenation-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Apr 2025 21:30:08 +0000 China concluded its third plenum last month, which came off the back of lower-than-expected second-quarter GDP growth of 4.7 per cent. The outcome of the plenary session was a disappointment, once again, for Western analysts who seem bent on pressing China for more stimulus to boost its gross domestic product. Economic development is a tenet of China’s social contract. President Xi Jinping warned, in his new year speech, that “some enterprises had a tough time”, and “some people had difficulty... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3275350/why-chinas-gdp-growth-needs-be-read-against-its-social-contract?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3275350/why-chinas-gdp-growth-needs-be-read-against-its-social-contract?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Aug 2024 21:30:14 +0000 There was some good news for China’s economy this week, with first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures better than expected. However, structural and cyclical issues persist, and the consequences of policy missteps cannot be stressed enough. Accordingly, calls urging China to boost confidence and consumption are well placed. However, doing so without addressing the underlying issues is akin to treating the symptoms, not the cause, of an illness – to use a Chinese medicine... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3259204/how-sustainability-driving-chinas-next-economic-transformation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3259204/how-sustainability-driving-chinas-next-economic-transformation?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Apr 2024 21:30:25 +0000 Humanity is ill with a number of serious conditions. The latest severe flare-up is the Israel-Gaza war, and Chinese medicine, which has been practised for thousands of years, offers useful insights into a remedy. In simple terms, an illness occurs when the body’s qi – the complementary vital forces of yin and yang – is in disharmony, and this imbalance shows up as symptoms. To be effective, a Chinese remedy treats the cause, not the symptoms, and this is achieved by restoring the harmony and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3241738/israel-gaza-remedy-take-leaf-chinese-medical-thinking?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3241738/israel-gaza-remedy-take-leaf-chinese-medical-thinking?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 Nov 2023 21:30:22 +0000 French President Emmanuel Macron worked his Gallic flair to success in China, but his charm fell flat at home in the West. Specifically, his call for strategic autonomy to steer clear of US-China tensions over Taiwan drew flak; his effort to solicit Chinese President Xi Jinping’s help on Ukraine was also met with scepticism. Later, Xi did take a call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, possibly to the relief of the under-pressure Macron. After what Zelensky characterised as “a long and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3219958/us-must-find-courage-give-way-gracefully-multipolar-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3219958/us-must-find-courage-give-way-gracefully-multipolar-world?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 May 2023 16:30:18 +0000 Politicians and the media in polarised US put their differences aside and threw their support behind the zero-Covid protesters in China. CNN proclaimed: “Protests erupt across China in unprecedented challenge to Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy”. Fox News shouted: “BEIJING BACKS DOWN: Chinese citizens ‘empowered’ after Covid protests, China researcher says”. The zero-Covid protests are a contributory factor to China’s decision to relax its measures, but the Western media portrayal is an... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3203481/why-china-moving-carefully-away-zero-covid-or-without-protests?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3203481/why-china-moving-carefully-away-zero-covid-or-without-protests?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Dec 2022 17:00:08 +0000 The US is using Hong Kong’s national security law as another battlefront in its anti-China crusade, and this is causing distress to countries trying to stay out of the fight. The latest salvo was fired last month when the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) urged President Joe Biden to “consider targeting additional sanctions to those engaged in political prosecutions in Hong Kong”. In the CECC’s version of events, President Xi Jinping is portrayed as an autocratic ruler bent... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3187382/what-us-narrative-hong-kong-leaves-out-and-simply-gets-wrong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3187382/what-us-narrative-hong-kong-leaves-out-and-simply-gets-wrong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Aug 2022 01:15:22 +0000 In 1967, US president Richard Nixon penned an article in Foreign Affairs magazine, urging a strategy of engagement with China and stating that “our goal should be to induce change”. In 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asserted that US engagement “has not brought the kind of change inside of China that president Nixon had hoped to induce”. For good measure, Pompeo supported his assertion with a litany of Chinese transgressions, including the oppression of its people. There appears to be broad... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3167174/era-common-prosperity-shows-china-moving-forward-despite-what-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3167174/era-common-prosperity-shows-china-moving-forward-despite-what-us?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Feb 2022 17:30:25 +0000 In 1972, then-US president Richard Nixon met Mao Zedong in China. Buoyed by his success in winning over a former adversary, he labelled this trip as “the week that changed the world”. Little did Nixon realise the far-reaching changes that this trip would have on China, US-China relations and the world. The Americans and Chinese have vastly different notions of “change”, and nowhere is this more evident than their narratives. The United States is adamant that China is its biggest threat, whereas... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3136105/how-i-ching-informs-chinas-harmonious-pursuit-geopolitical-strategy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3136105/how-i-ching-informs-chinas-harmonious-pursuit-geopolitical-strategy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jun 2021 17:30:08 +0000