China
Has the lab leak theory really been disproved?
The BBC carried a story this week with the headline ‘Covid origin studies say evidence points to Wuhan market’. Bizarrely…
Is the US thinking straight about Taiwan?
As the Tory leadership candidates tussle over China, it is well worth reading this essay by the US strategist Hal…
My Tory leadership race fantasy game
‘Black swan’ theory, developed by the writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb, refers to unexpected events that have extreme consequences but are…
Jacinda Adern’s tricky China policy
New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Adern, has had a busy week on the international circuit. On Friday she appeared in…
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…
How long will Xi Jinping rule China?
For some time now it has been assumed that in November the National Congress will rubber stamp Xi Jinping’s continued…
A glimmer of hope for the blue planet
David Profumo wonders whether newly created marine reserves can really reverse decades of devastation
The closing of the Chinese mind
I was born in Nanjing five years after the Tiananmen Square protests. By then, records of the demonstrations and the…
‘Putin may be prepared to go to the limits’: Antony Beevor and Serhii Plokhy in conversation
Antony Beevor and Serhii Plokhy in conversation
The World Health Organisation has lost all credibility
Let’s be honest: is there anyone out there who has faith in the ability of the World Health Organisation (WHO)…
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
Did monkeypox leak from Wuhan?
It’s a familiar story. Close contacts of individuals infected by a dangerous illness are being asked by UK officials to…
Pope Francis has betrayed Cardinal Zen
When Cardinal Joseph Zen, the 90-year-old former Bishop of Hong Kong, was arrested by Chinese authorities on Wednesday and charged…
New Aussie rules: Conservative values have fallen out of fashion
Conservative values have fallen out of fashion
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…
Will the bad luck of the Philippines ever turn?
The Philippines is the odd man out in Asia, a predominantly Catholic country colonised first by Spain, then the United…
The Shanghai lockdown is testing the limits of the CCP’s control
China’s lockdown protestors cannot be silenced
Portrait of the week: Boris packs his bags, XR blocks bridges and Netflix viewers switch off
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, told the House of Commons that it did not occur to him that the…
Sri Lanka’s descent into chaos
Colombo, Sri Lanka Some 13 years after the end of a civil war that saw 100,000 deaths, Sri Lanka is…
China’s pact with the Solomons is a direct threat to Australia
Tulagi, a 1.5 square mile island in the South Pacific’s Solomon Islands, is perhaps the most remote place on the…
Does knotted string constitute ‘writing’?
What particularly excites Silvia Ferrara, the author of The Greatest Invention, is not language per se but writing – that…
‘Putin still has a lot left to lose’: Niall Ferguson and David Petraeus in conversation
Niall Ferguson and David Petraeus on Russia’s mistakes, Xi’s plans and the lessons of Iraq
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…
China may be facing its greatest Covid crisis yet
China appears not to have defeated Covid after all
