Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
China has moved to tame [the legislative council], one of Hong Kong’s few remaining avenues for dissent and democratic ideals, as it effectively expelled four elected opposition lawmakers from office, prompting vows to resign from their allies. … The council … stood as a symbol of the ‘one country, two systems’ legal framework that was… Read more.
The world watched anxiously as two million people marched in the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday. They were demanding Carrie Lam, the territory’s China-anointed chief executive, withdraw an extradition bill that would allow anyone arrested in Hong Kong to face trial in China. To everyone’s relief, cooler heads prevailed. There was no repeat of… Read more.
And China will have it – either by agreement, the way it claimed Hong Kong, or by force, the way Russia claimed South Ossetia, Abkhazia … and Crimea. Chinese President Xi Jinping, declaring that independence is not an option for Taiwan, urged both sides to reach an early consensus on unification and not leave the issue… Read more.
China has been leveraging its economic power on the world stage for years. And it is beginning to do the same with its growing military power, which its aggressive and uncontested moves in the South China Sea attest. More to the point, China’s disregard for international criticisms in this context has been growing commensurate with… Read more.
China on Wednesday warned U.S. President Barack Obama against meeting with the Dalai Lama at the White House, saying that hosting the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could damage mutual trust. Obama has met the Dalai Lama several times before and calls the monk, who is revered by Tibetans but portrayed by Beijing as a dangerous… Read more.
The new Cold War: China’s economic invasion In 1962, the Soviet Union threatened America’s sphere of influence by basing missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy threatened nuclear confrontation if it did not retreat. The Soviet Union blinked, and the Cold War stayed cold. Fast-forward to today, and China is posing a similar threat. Except that instead of missiles, China is deploying… Read more.
