Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is heading for visits with two of the island’s 18 remaining official, formal allies with diplomatic relations (Paraguay and Belize), with all-important symbolic stopovers in the United States. I discussed the issue on Monocle radio.
With Beijing successfully pressuring foreign airlines to stop referring to Taiwan as a separate region, and instead show the implication that it is a part of China, the issue of the island’s status is again in the news. I discussed the issue on Monocle radio 24.
Russia’s Putin flies to meet China’s Xi in Qingdao just as a fractured G7 shows its divisions in Canada. That the big two nations show their bromance — meeting more than 25 times already — on the eve of the US/North Korea summit shows that geopolitics is not a game for the faint hearted. I..
China’s air force is again flying encirclement runs around Taiwan, giving stark evidence that the issues of the island and its sovereignty, autonomy or independence could easily become a serious world flashpoint – particularly as the US administration of Donald Trump seems to want to play a “Taiwan card” to tweak China’s dragon tail. Monocle..
Making a huge statement about wanting to project military might, China is beginning sea trials of its first home built aircraft carrier, the same week it conducted exercises with its first carrier, a rebuilt Soviet ship bought from Ukraine. The country began a massive modernization program for its military in the 1990s. One catalyst was..
I contributed the following piece to Nikkei Asian Review. The original is here. Xi and Ma must look beyond nationalism David Schlesinger When the Chinese and Taiwanese presidents meet in Singapore on Saturday, the first such meeting since the 1949 Communist revolution, it will be a battle between nationalism and pragmatism. The historic summit comes..
I joined a ChinaFile conversation on China’s Economy. The whole back-and-forth can be viewed here. My contribution: When things hit their extreme, they can only move to the opposite direction—物极必反 (wù jí bì fǎn)– is an idiom that seems to sum up perfectly punditry about China. Where once Beijing seemingly could do no wrong and..