China

The greed and hypocrisy of the opium trade continue to shock

10 February 2024 9:00 am

Amitav Ghosh admits he found writing his history difficult because of the obscene profiteering and suffering he had to cover

Henry Kissinger saw his world fall apart

2 December 2023 10:58 pm

The leading advocate of world order died at a time when it all appeared to be coming undone. Henry Kissinger…

From the Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz: Praiseworthy, by Alexis Wright, reviewed

11 November 2023 9:00 am

Everything blends into everything else as an Aboriginal knight errant sets out on a quest to save his scorched native bushlands

China is spying on us, so what?

11 September 2023 9:43 am

That China is spying on us is hardly the revelation of the century. The Sunday Times broke the story that police have…

The FBI has a problem with Catholics

19 August 2023 9:00 am

  On board Aello She was built in 1921, a beautiful wooden ketch that is as graceful to look at…

The Spectator's Notes

12 August 2023 9:00 am

Where has Xi Jinping’s foreign minister gone?

29 July 2023 9:00 am

Where has Xi’s foreign minister gone?

Portrait of the week

22 July 2023 9:00 am

Home Ben Wallace said he would cease to be the Defence Secretary at the next cabinet reshuffle and would not…

Tory floundering over China is a gift to Labour

22 July 2023 9:00 am

The government’s floundering over China is a gift to Labour

The secret life of China’s Banksy

8 July 2023 9:00 am

The secretive life of China’s most controversial cartoonist

Backstabbers

1 July 2023 9:00 am

What have we been missing?

1 July 2023 9:00 am

Ge’s short stories set in China are her most adventurous, ranging from politics in the time of Confucius to sex in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake

Wuhan clan: we finally know the identity of the scientists in the lab linked to Covid

24 June 2023 9:00 am

We finally know the identity of the scientists in the lab linked to Covid

The 19th century Chinese craze for all things European

10 June 2023 9:00 am

By the 1800s, the mechanical clock had become a status symbol for wealthy Chinese. The first arrived with Jesuit missionaries…

Gag order: China’s stand-up comedy crackdown

3 June 2023 9:00 am

The crackdown on China’s stand-up comics

Why Britain is falling behind in the global universities race

20 May 2023 9:00 am

Our country still excels when it comes to higher education. Britain has seven of the world’s top 50 universities. In…

Letter from Taiwan

20 May 2023 9:00 am

The root of the problem

20 May 2023 9:00 am

The novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo is attracted by the freedom a New York job promises, but misses the young daughter she has left behind in London

Why China might attack Taiwan

23 April 2023 9:39 pm

China may well attack Taiwan. According to the CIA, President Xi Jinping has instructed his armed forces to be able…

Shame on those who abandoned Peng Shuai

16 April 2023 3:31 am

No one really expects much in the way of principles or morality from those charged with running international sport. The…