https://www.scmp.com/rss/525395/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Wang Huiyao Wang Huiyao The global order has outgrown itself. The 2026 Munich Security Report describes this moment as a period of “wrecking-ball politics”, in which the post-war order constructed in 1945 is “under destruction”. However, that order was designed for a world shaped by bipolar rivalry and later sustained by American predominance. Today’s global system looks very different: economically diffuse, environmentally constrained and politically fragmented but deeply interconnected by both trade and... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3343875/its-time-global-governance-reflect-new-realities?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3343875/its-time-global-governance-reflect-new-realities?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Feb 2026 21:30:09 +0000 Tian Shichen Tian Shichen At the opening of the Munich Security Conference this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that the rules-based international order is eroding before our eyes. His remarks echoed the conference’s annual report, which painted a picture of fragmentation and disorder. His remarks also echoed a growing anxiety across Europe: that the system built after 1945 is eroding under the weight of geopolitical rivalry, economic coercion and military confrontation. However, to many observers, Europe’s... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3343834/why-europe-must-accept-blame-erosion-global-order?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3343834/why-europe-must-accept-blame-erosion-global-order?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Feb 2026 12:30:08 +0000 dpa dpa German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed irritation over the standing ovation for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference. “I wasn’t in the hall and even if I had been, I would have found it difficult to stand up,” Merz said on the political podcast Machtwechsel (“change of power”), which is due to be released on Wednesday. Rubio’s speech had not been as confrontational as the one delivered by US Vice-President J.D. Vance at last year’s conference, Merz said, adding... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3343873/germanys-merz-chides-standing-ovation-rubio-munich-security-conference?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3343873/germanys-merz-chides-standing-ovation-rubio-munich-security-conference?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 18 Feb 2026 04:34:54 +0000 Seong Hyeon Choi Seong Hyeon Choi Chinese military activities – and the need to respond to them – were framed as a major driver of cooperation between US allies in the Indo-Pacific and Europe during this year’s Munich Security Conference (MSC). It comes as Washington pushes its allies to spend more on their own defence and in the collective defence of the “first island chain” to deter potential war with China. Speaking at the conference on Saturday, Elbridge Colby, US undersecretary of defence for policy, said that while... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343636/munich-us-urges-collective-strength-among-allies-deter-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343636/munich-us-urges-collective-strength-among-allies-deter-china?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Feb 2026 22:00:21 +0000 Finbarr Bermingham Finbarr Bermingham At a Munich Security Conference drinks reception last week, a seasoned Chinese delegate who has been coming to Bavaria for more than a decade said China had long felt like an observer on the periphery. China was mentioned mainly to be blamed, they said – but things flipped last year when, instead of taking Beijing to task, US Vice-President J.D. Vance targeted Europe. Later in the weekend, the event’s CEO Benedikt Franke praised the China Centre for Globalisation – a Beijing think tank – for... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343639/transatlantic-divorce-plays-out-munich-china-enjoys-silence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343639/transatlantic-divorce-plays-out-munich-china-enjoys-silence?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Feb 2026 13:11:47 +0000 Finbarr Bermingham,Fan Chen,Seong Hyeon Choi Finbarr Bermingham,Fan Chen,Seong Hyeon Choi The US and China sought to manage their great power competition at Europe’s premier defence summit on Saturday, even as their top diplomats traded thinly veiled barbs at their respective roles in the current global tumult. In back-to-back speeches at the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke of the need to carefully manage the superpowers’ differences, continuing a relative thaw that is expected to see US President Donald Trump... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343593/rubio-wang-yi-manage-us-china-great-power-rivalry-munich-even-core-tensions-linger?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343593/rubio-wang-yi-manage-us-china-great-power-rivalry-munich-even-core-tensions-linger?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Feb 2026 15:00:08 +0000 Fan Chen,Seong Hyeon Choi Fan Chen,Seong Hyeon Choi China and the US could get along well but whether that goal is reached would ultimately depend on the United States, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference. Wang said China sought to find the right way for the two major countries to get along well through dialogue and consultation, and would continue on this path in the interest “of our own peoples” and in line with the expectations of the international community. “But whether we can achieve that goal... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343579/chinas-wang-yi-calls-global-governance-reform-amid-global-turbulence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343579/chinas-wang-yi-calls-global-governance-reform-amid-global-turbulence?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:54:00 +0000 Finbarr Bermingham Finbarr Bermingham US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Munich Security Conference that it would be “geopolitical malpractice” not to talk to China, as he pledged that Washington would carefully manage its differences with Beijing. “Because we’re two large countries with huge global interests, our national interests will often not align,” Rubio told the event in a keynote address on Saturday morning. “We owe it to the world to try to manage those as best we can, obviously avoiding conflict, both economic and... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343577/rubio-european-allies-our-destiny-will-be-intertwined-yours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343577/rubio-european-allies-our-destiny-will-be-intertwined-yours?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 14 Feb 2026 08:13:34 +0000 Finbarr Bermingham Finbarr Bermingham As a flurry of European leaders flock to China, a different diplomatic dynamic has taken shape in Brussels, exposing deep-seated problems in the relationship between the EU and China. Several sources described a deliberate slowing of high-level appointments with Chinese diplomats in the Belgian capital – an effort to reciprocate the lack of access EU diplomats receive in Beijing. In the Chinese capital, the EU ambassador, Jorge Toledo, has been effectively frozen out of meetings with relevant... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343198/cold-shoulder-china-and-eu-diplomatic-stand-ahead-munich-showdown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343198/cold-shoulder-china-and-eu-diplomatic-stand-ahead-munich-showdown?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Feb 2026 10:22:29 +0000 Orange Wang Orange Wang The United States has appeared “more threatening” over the past year, while perceptions of China have improved markedly in parts of the Western world, according to a global risk survey released on Monday. The same report, released in the lead-up to the Munich Security Conference (MSC) this week, also accused Beijing of “increasingly threatening regional stability” in the Indo-Pacific, while warning that President Donald Trump’s “vacillating” China policy was causing a “crisis of confidence”... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343087/trumps-vacillating-china-policy-leads-allies-crisis-confidence-security-report?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3343087/trumps-vacillating-china-policy-leads-allies-crisis-confidence-security-report?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Feb 2026 14:00:15 +0000