https://www.scmp.com/rss/9785/feed Wenran Jiang, the founding director of the China Institute and Mactaggart Research Chair Emeritus at the University of Alberta, is an adviser at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang The dust and debris of the US-Israeli war on Iran have yet to settle, but its strategic shock waves have reached East Asia. From Tokyo to Taipei, a reassessment is under way. The conflict, intended to project American resolve, has been a brutal stress test for the US-led order – with catastrophic results for Washington’s credibility. Far from cementing its primacy, America’s misadventure has revealed a superpower that is overstretched, vulnerable and seen as an unreliable partner. This erosion... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3348665/east-asias-crisis-confidence-us-militarising-chinas-backyard?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3348665/east-asias-crisis-confidence-us-militarising-chinas-backyard?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Apr 2026 12:30:09 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang The bombs falling on Iran have extinguished any remaining doubt. The US-Israeli military campaign has ignited a major regional war. This explosion of violence is the ultimate rebuke to a central promise of US President Donald Trump’s second term: that America could disengage from distant quagmires to focus on confronting China. Over a year into this administration, the strategic picture affirms the conclusion I reached last summer: America’s hoped-for single-minded containment of China lies in... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3345177/china-waits-and-watches-us-fights-all-its-tigers-once?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3345177/china-waits-and-watches-us-fights-all-its-tigers-once?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Mar 2026 01:30:09 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang Historians may mark January 20, 2026, as a landmark moment. That day, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, during his speech at Davos, declared the terminal decay of the US-led international order and charted a principled, pragmatic path for middle powers caught in the crossfire of great power rivalry. The significance lies in the fact that this bold critique came from Canada – a nation deeply intertwined with the United States through an alliance, as well as proximity and economic ties. US... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3341214/canadas-carney-charts-third-path-middle-powers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3341214/canadas-carney-charts-third-path-middle-powers?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Jan 2026 21:30:08 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang For China’s leadership, the most urgent lesson of modern military power comes not from a foreign manual but from its own history books. Its catastrophic defeat by Japan in 1895, born of internal corruption, forms the invisible backdrop to every Chinese showcase of modern hardware. The recent live-fire drill around Taiwan code-named Justice Mission 2025 – a forceful display of Beijing’s resolve to achieve reunification and deter any challenge to its core interests – was no exception. To Beijing,... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3338815/how-chinas-history-links-military-strength-fighting-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3338815/how-chinas-history-links-military-strength-fighting-corruption?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 08 Jan 2026 01:30:11 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang Historians are likely to point to 2025 as the watershed in China’s 21st century ascent, a year in which the People’s Liberation Army’s power projection matured across all domains, resetting the global balance of power. This seismic shift is underscored by an unmistakable admission: the US has formally acknowledged the limits of its global reach in its new national security strategy and begun a strategic recalibration away from undisputed hegemony. These military and strategic realities are... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3336668/2025-marked-end-pax-americanas-unipolar-moment?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3336668/2025-marked-end-pax-americanas-unipolar-moment?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 18 Dec 2025 21:30:07 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks suggesting that Japan could intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait under the pretext of a “survival-threatening situation” represent a strategic pivot away from Japan’s post-war pacifist ethos. These statements, explicitly condemned by Beijing as “blatant interference in China’s internal affairs”, transcend mere diplomatic indiscretion. They reflect a calculated alignment with containment strategies aimed at curtailing China’s... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3333048/taiwan-japans-takaichi-shouldnt-play-fire?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3333048/taiwan-japans-takaichi-shouldnt-play-fire?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Nov 2025 21:30:09 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang The Chinese government’s recent announcement of more export controls on rare earth-related items marks a significant shift in global economic statecraft. The new measures, covering a spectrum of rare earth elements, other critical materials and relevant processing technologies, have been justified as measures to safeguard national security and fulfil non-proliferation obligations. The controls aim to deny the use of the materials in foreign military systems, linking China’s mines directly to the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3329777/can-china-make-its-rare-earth-controls-bite?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3329777/can-china-make-its-rare-earth-controls-bite?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Oct 2025 21:30:08 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang The ruling party of North Korea is approaching its 80th official anniversary amid an unprecedented rise in the country’s international stature. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s presence alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at China’s Victory Day parade early last month was more than ceremonial; it was a strategic declaration. Kim carried himself with the assurance of a man who has successfully recalibrated his nation’s place in the world. This confidence,... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3328231/can-north-koreas-kim-jong-un-forge-legacy-goes-beyond-bomb?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3328231/can-north-koreas-kim-jong-un-forge-legacy-goes-beyond-bomb?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Oct 2025 21:30:08 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang The recent phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump signals a pivotal moment in the world’s most critical bilateral relationship. While tensions between the two powers have dominated headlines, the conversation – described as “pragmatic, positive and constructive” by China’s People’s Daily – hints at an emerging reality: the US and China are being pushed into accommodation rather than escalation. This shift reflects pragmatic acceptance of mutual dependence... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3326346/trump-xi-call-signals-new-normal-us-and-china-managed-rivalry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3326346/trump-xi-call-signals-new-normal-us-and-china-managed-rivalry?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Sep 2025 12:30:07 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang The recent military parade in Beijing marking the 80th anniversary of victory against the Japanese invasion was a stunning display of precision and power. Rows of soldiers moved with robotic synchrony and new weapons systems – hypersonic missiles, stealth aircraft and autonomous drones – rolled past Tiananmen Square, signalling China’s arrival as a military peer to the United States. The presence of leaders from across the Global South, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3324883/eu-and-china-beijing-parade-was-missed-chance-build-bridges?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3324883/eu-and-china-beijing-parade-was-missed-chance-build-bridges?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Sep 2025 12:30:09 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang Geopolitical tremors from Washington’s trade wars against its closest allies – the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia – might have convinced Beijing of an impending realignment. China has seized the moment with a charm offensive, urging pragmatic cooperation amid tariff spats. Beijing rightly condemns Washington for shredding the very World Trade Organization rules and post-war liberal order it crafted, calling for collective action against US coercion. Yet despite the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3322705/why-us-allies-are-resisting-chinas-charm-offensive-trade?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3322705/why-us-allies-are-resisting-chinas-charm-offensive-trade?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Aug 2025 12:30:08 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang Half a year into Donald Trump’s second US presidency, a stark reality confronts Washington: the grand vision of an unprecedented focus on countering China, heralded by his strategists and supporters, has faltered. The fundamental premise that America could dramatically disengage from Europe and the Middle East, freeing up resources for a singular containment strategy against Beijing, has collided against a resistant world. Instead of pivoting to pursue China, Trump finds himself owning the very... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3319885/how-trumps-vision-single-minded-china-containment-has-failed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3319885/how-trumps-vision-single-minded-china-containment-has-failed?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Jul 2025 21:30:08 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang While the Ukraine war drags on and new conflicts rage in the Middle East, we cannot overlook the drumbeats of great power tension across the Pacific at levels unmatched since the Cold War. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, a known China hawk, frames diplomacy through strategic confrontation. He has said the United States aims to “re-establish deterrence” against “China’s aggression” in the Indo-Pacific. This includes upgrading the US-Japan command to a “warfighting headquarters” and pushing... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3317131/quieten-drumbeats-war-us-and-china-cool-heads-must-prevail?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3317131/quieten-drumbeats-war-us-and-china-cool-heads-must-prevail?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Jul 2025 21:30:08 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang The United States’ strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 22 – followed abruptly by US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a fragile “complete and total ceasefire” between Israel and Iran – exposes a critical nuance in America’s changing strategic posture. Where Washington pursues global primacy through continuous military intervention, gambling that overwhelming force can prompt capitulation, China charts a different course. Beijing follows a “long peace” path, having leveraged... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3315650/can-us-military-adventurism-outcompete-chinas-long-peace-strategy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3315650/can-us-military-adventurism-outcompete-chinas-long-peace-strategy?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 25 Jun 2025 12:30:08 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang In a stark turn of events, US President Donald Trump has accused China of “totally violating” the Geneva trade agreement. The May 12 deal, which slashed US tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 per cent to 30 per cent and Chinese tariffs on US goods from 125 per cent to 10 per cent, was touted by Trump as a triumph of American diplomacy. Within weeks, however, Trump reversed course, his administration accusing China of failing to resume rare earth exports as promised. Beijing vehemently denies any... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3312776/us-china-rivalry-morphing-multifront-war-no-easy-way-out?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3312776/us-china-rivalry-morphing-multifront-war-no-easy-way-out?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Jun 2025 01:30:08 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang India and Pakistan have agreed a truce after trading accusations over cross-border strikes and civilian casualties, but the risk of resumed escalation looms, with consequences extending far beyond the subcontinent. Although US President Donald Trump is claiming credit for the ceasefire in this volatile theatre of conflict, China’s restrained and nuanced diplomacy reflects a strategic calculus rooted in regional stability, economic imperatives and global power dynamics. While the Chinese public... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3309950/china-faces-tough-balancing-act-india-and-pakistan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3309950/china-faces-tough-balancing-act-india-and-pakistan?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 May 2025 21:30:08 +0000 Wenran Jiang Wenran Jiang Nearly a month into US President Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “Liberation Day” trade war, Washington has retreated, at least temporarily, on tariffs against most nations – even admitting its sky-high duties on Chinese imports are unsustainable. Trump has extended multiple olive branches to start negotiations with President Xi Jinping. Yet Beijing’s resolve remains unshaken: no negotiations unless the tariffs are lifted. While Washington and the world initially underestimated China’s swift... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3308197/china-has-upper-hand-trade-war-trump-flounders?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3308197/china-has-upper-hand-trade-war-trump-flounders?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Apr 2025 12:30:07 +0000 Donald Trump’s off-the-cuff remarks and late night tweets have flummoxed observers. The US President-elect’s selections for his new cabinet include both hawks and doves on China and Russia, sending out mixed signals on the future of US relations with the two world powers. His unprecedented phone conversation with Taiwan’s president has raised a storm of controversy: is he a “child in terms of foreign policy” as the Global Times says, or a Machiavellian negotiator? Signs are he is set to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2055188/taiwan-trump-card-sino-us-relations?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2055188/taiwan-trump-card-sino-us-relations?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Dec 2016 02:02:05 +0000 Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe just celebrated his 52nd birthday. He could not have wished for a better birthday present: the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for the past six decades, overwhelmingly voted him in as the new president, replacing the retiring Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. With the LDP's control of the lower house, Mr Abe is set to become the new prime minister of the world's second largest economy next week. Like his predecessor, Mr Abe belongs... https://www.scmp.com/article/564975/mr-abe-meet-neighbours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/564975/mr-abe-meet-neighbours?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Sep 2006 16:00:00 +0000 In open defiance against growing domestic and international criticism, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi went to the Yasukuni Shrine on Monday, his fifth such visit since coming to power in 2001. The following day, a large number of other politicians paid tribute at the shrine. Two weeks ago, a Japanese high court ruled that Mr Koizumi's pilgrimage to Yasukuni, where convicted war criminals are honoured among the war dead, violated the constitutional separation of church and state. A... https://www.scmp.com/article/521237/honouring-aggression-yasukuni?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/521237/honouring-aggression-yasukuni?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 19 Oct 2005 16:00:00 +0000 In its reporting on the 16th Central Committee's fifth plenum, which has just concluded, the overseas media has focused on elite politics - with much speculation about a power struggle and personnel changes. Yet, this overemphasis on the top leadership comes at the expense of a comprehensive analysis of mainland politics, economy and social changes at this very important stage of China's development. Many fail to realise that China's leaders know very well the challenges they face as a... https://www.scmp.com/article/520793/beyond-politics-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/520793/beyond-politics-power?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Oct 2005 16:00:00 +0000 With large-scale and widespread anti-Japan protests going into the third week in Chinese cities, most of the Japanese and western press have chosen to focus on the negative aspects: angry mass gatherings, rock throwing, flag burning, window smashing and the potential for escalation. An important meeting between Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and his Beijing counterpart, Li Zhaoxing , over the weekend generated hundreds of headlines. Yet, it all boils down to the fact that China... https://www.scmp.com/article/497180/no-apologies-chinese-grievances?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/497180/no-apologies-chinese-grievances?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:00:00 +0000 While the Chinese were in the mood to celebrate their Lunar New Year, Tokyo last week announced that it had taken control of a lighthouse built by a Japanese right-wing group on one of the Diaoyu Islands. Named Diaoyutai in China and Senkaku in Japan, the disputed islands form a small chain northeast of Taiwan. Beijing, Taipei and Tokyo all claim sovereignty. The mainland government claimed that the latest move was a 'severe provocation'. Taipei also protested. But Japan has backed up its ... https://www.scmp.com/article/489267/dont-play-politics-china-mr-koizumi?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/489267/dont-play-politics-china-mr-koizumi?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Feb 2005 16:00:00 +0000 The Communist Party's No1 Document on agriculture, released from 1982 to 1986, made a comeback this week. It calls for increasing peasants' income and reversing the trend of widening disparity between urban and rural areas. While the leadership's renewed attention to the deepening rural crisis may be music to the ears of the poor, many people are in tears and feel outraged after reading a recently published investigation on Chinese peasants, Zhongguo Nongmin Diaocha. The authors, Chen Guidi... https://www.scmp.com/article/444417/unimaginable-poverty-unbelievable-tragedy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/444417/unimaginable-poverty-unbelievable-tragedy?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Premier Wen Jiabao's warning to the Taiwan authorities that 'the Chinese people will pay any price to safeguard the unity of the motherland' made people sit up. In his interview with The Washington Post on November 21, the first with western journalists since becoming premier last spring, Mr Wen twice quoted Abraham Lincoln to show that Beijing's resolve to keep Taiwan a part of China is on a par with president Lincoln's efforts to prevent the United States from breaking apart in the mid-19th... https://www.scmp.com/article/436852/wens-elusive-message-liberty?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/436852/wens-elusive-message-liberty?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Dec 2003 16:00:00 +0000 The Chinese leadership considers the third plenum of the 16th Communist Party so significant that it planned the session right up to the day before sending its first man into space. But unlike the excitement the space mission has generated, the 300-plus party elites emerged from their four days of meetings with little to deliver, creating an anticlimax. There had been high expectations. The meeting had been compared to the epoch-making third plenum of the 11th party congress in 1978, when Deng... https://www.scmp.com/article/431248/grounded-chinas-political-reforms?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/431248/grounded-chinas-political-reforms?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 15 Oct 2003 16:00:00 +0000 Seventy-two years ago today, in 1931, Japan invaded northeast China, starting a 14-year expansionist war on the mainland and in other parts of Asia. The Chinese government has been marking this painful anniversary fairly predictably. But this year's commemoration will make history: more than one million Chinese - 1,119,248 to be precise - from China and around the world have signed a 'joint statement' via 12,518 participating websites. The statement was an unprecedented grassroots reaction... https://www.scmp.com/article/428241/confronting-poisonous-past?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/428241/confronting-poisonous-past?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 17 Sep 2003 16:00:00 +0000 Today marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Peace and Friendship Treaty between China and Japan. The treaty proclaimed that both countries would 'develop relations of perpetual peace and friendship', but they have shown little enthusiasm for celebrating the year so far - no large-scale commemorative events, no outpouring of warm feelings and no plans for a Sino-Japanese summit. But it was very different 25 years ago. In 1978, Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping, who had just... https://www.scmp.com/article/424519/can-china-and-japan-ever-become-best-neighbours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/424519/can-china-and-japan-ever-become-best-neighbours?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Aug 2003 16:00:00 +0000 As reports intensify on North Korea's progress in making nuclear weapons, former US defence secretary William Perry has openly criticised the Bush administration for 'losing control' of the situation, and warned that the two countries are rapidly drifting towards war. That gives the world ample reason to closely watch China's latest shuttle diplomacy in finding a compromise between North Korea and the United States. Indeed, US officials have been working hard to persuade their counterparts in... https://www.scmp.com/article/422553/same-bed-different-dreams?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/422553/same-bed-different-dreams?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Jul 2003 16:00:00 +0000