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How our opinion writers reacted to Asia’s most polarising stories of 2018
- From Trump’s trade war to Beijing’s response and the shifting political dynamics in other parts of Asia, the year’s events divided opinion and fuelled speculation about what’s to come in 2019
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
A year of turbulence in Asia proved fertile territory for our opinion writers, who sunk their teeth into everything from Donald Trump’s trade war with China to the transformation of Malaysian politics to the brinkmanship surrounding North Korea’s weapons programme. Alongside those major, ongoing political stories, there were other polarising developments, all tackled head-on by our columnists.
Here’s a selection of our opinion pieces, addressing the stories that shaped the region in 2018 – and may indeed echo throughout 2019 – as well as some others that simply stirred debate and got people talking.
Trump’s trade war with China
Donald Trump campaigned to become US president by vowing to put “America First” and 2018 showed that an embrace of tariffs would be a centrepiece of fulfilling that promise. And China responded in kind. Our columnists were left to make sense of it all. Leslie Fong looked back at the opium wars to consider how Beijing might proceed. Cary Huang warned any dispute over trade threatened to boil over and inflame relations between the two countries more broadly. And, indeed, as the year drew to a close, he warned of further escalation ahead. Tom Holland cautioned against assuming the US will come out on top. Wang Xiangwei sounded a note of optimism, insisting the stand-off could help reform China’s economy and even suggested it could be a “blessing in disguise”.
It’s a matter of time before Trump and China embrace the TPP
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