Even Xi is unimpressed with Putin's bungling autocracy
To say that Vladimir Putin is giving autocracy a bad name is rather to state the obvious. But it now…
The extreme heatwave wreaking havoc across China
China is struggling to limit the impact of its longest and most widespread heatwave since records began more than 60…
The Chinese spy ship and the dangers of debt-trap diplomacy
A Chinese spy ship that docked in Sri Lanka on Tuesday in defiance of Indian and western protests is the…
China's Taiwan tantrum is already backfiring
Chinese social media is full of anger and frustration – because the military didn’t shoot down Nancy Pelosi’s plane. As…
Taiwan tells China: we're not scared
China has launched a new round of military drills near Taiwan, having previously announced they were ending on Sunday. The…
The UK is just waking up to the scale of Chinese espionage
The scene could have come straight out of a spy novel. An ornate Chinese garden with temples and pavilions, built…
HSBC has answered the call of the Chinese Communist Party
HSBC was being more than a little disingenuous when it claimed on Thursday that Communist party cells don’t have much…
China’s economy is grinding to a halt
Economic growth in China is grinding to a halt. The days of soaring double-digit growth are over, and the malaise…
China’s Ponzi banks are teetering
What began as a run on a handful of provincial banks is rapidly morphing into one of China’s worst financial…
China’s increasingly authoritarian Covid pass
A Chinese health app, developed to enforce the Communist party’s draconian Covid-19 restrictions, is being repurposed to tighten political control…
Is Xi Jinping losing his grip on power?
The Beijing political rumour-mill has gone into overdrive in recent weeks, seizing upon every nuance and reading between every line…
Saving Taiwan: the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine
Taiwan is learning valuable lessons from Ukraine
China’s zero-Covid horror show is inspiring Taiwan to open up
Taipei Nowhere is watching the zero-Covid horror show unfolding in China more closely than Taiwan, where it is encouraging the…
Xi has made his choice: he is sticking with Vladimir Putin
Xi Jinping has made his choice. He is sticking with his ‘best friend’ Vladimir Putin, and no end of Russian…
China’s demographic time-bomb is ticking faster
The latest warning was stark – that China’s population will shrink this year, more than a decade faster than forecast,…
The battle for zero-Covid is being fought in Shanghai
Confusion infected Shanghai on Tuesday, as the authorities dithered over a promised easing of severe lockdown rules and Covid-19 continued…
Is China beginning to distance itself from Russia?
The read-outs from Friday’s two-hour call between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping were so different, that you have to wonder…
Will China come to Putin's rescue?
Joe Biden appears to be trying to force China’s hand over Ukraine. This follows days during which Beijing has tied…
Xi Jinping and the plight of Chinese nationals in Ukraine
The plight of desperate Chinese nationals in Ukraine has further battered Xi Jinping’s credibility, testing his continued refusal to condemn…
China is tying itself in knots over Ukraine
A few hours after Vladimir Putin sent his tanks into Ukraine, Beijing announced that Russian wheat, previously barred because of…
Unmasking 'panda diplomacy'
The star of the Beijing Winter Olympics wasn’t an athlete: it was Bing Dwen Dwen, the spacesuit-clad panda mascot. It…
‘Xi Jinping Thought’ is taking over China’s classrooms
From last fall, in an extension of a personality cult not seen since Mao Zedong, “Xi Jinping Thought” is being…
China breaks new records in the Surveillance Olympics
Never before have the participants in a major sporting event been so closely monitored as in this Winter Olympics in…
The dangerous alliance between Russia and China
The growing alliance between Russia and China is something we shouldn’t lose sleep over, their long history of mutual suspicion…
How China spies on the West
In December last year Oxford University students were offered £15,000 in prize money if they could solve challenges relating to…
