The Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam

The Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam

By Jonathan Power February 26, 2019 Kim Jong-un, paramount leader of the North Korean dictatorship, is in Vietnam ready to meet President Donald Trump. Last June the two leaders met, applauded themselves and each other and made some sort of a deal even if it wasn’t the one Trump boasted about – the total elimination […]

Taiwan is not going back to China

Taiwan is not going back to China

By Jonathan Power January 9, 2019 Those, like some highly placed people in the US government and Congress, who say it is inevitable that Taiwan with its population of 24 million will one day return as part of mainland China rather as Hong Kong did, have really missed a beat. There is simply no likelihood […]

Phantom democracy: A puzzle at the heart of Chinese politics

Phantom democracy: A puzzle at the heart of Chinese politics

The Goddess of democracy at Victoria Park in Hong Kong. Photo credit: AP The notion of a globally menacing ‘authoritarian China’ is too simplistic. Dig deeper, and you will find signs of local democratic experiments, thanks to its skittish rulers afraid of losing control By John Keane January 2, 2019 As China rapidly moves to […]

Sinologist sees China changing the world

Sinologist sees China changing the world

Photo from Shanghai by Jan Oberg 2018   By Cecily Liu in London from China Daily October 22, 2018 Esteemed author says nation’s development model can be a blueprint for emerging economies China’s rapid growth since the reform and opening-up process began in 1978 has not only been an economic miracle for the nation, but […]

The US Nuclear Posture Review: Who decide its content?

The US Nuclear Posture Review: Who decide its content?

Not President Trump but a priesthood, says the writer   By Tom Sauer The main novelty of the recent U.S. Nuclear Posture Review is the emphasis on small nuclear weapons. That is exactly the opposite of President Donald Trump’s trademark: always being and having the biggest. Via defensenews.com The White House has not written the […]

Behind the Fall and Rise of China’s Xiaomi

Behind the Fall and Rise of China’s Xiaomi

  By David Kline A year ago, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi (sha-oh-me) had fallen from the world’s most valuable unicorn to a “unicorpse.” Sales plunged in 2016, pushing the company from first to fifth place among China’s smartphone makers. No firm had ever come back from a wound that severe in the trench warfare of […]