May 2018

The recent trade truce has provided a welcome cessation of hostilities between the U.S. and China. But given the festering issue of technology, and China's need to acquire more of it, the ceasefire agreed on the weekend of May 19-20 will only be temporary. For all its other faults, President…

Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping met in China’s historic city of Wuhan last month. Greeting each other warmly, the Indian and Chinese leaders talked over cups of tea and strolled in bucolic gardens. President Xi noted he had only twice met a visiting foreign leader outside Beijing. On both occasions, it…

Last week's Malaysian election result is sending shock waves across the region, not least in China. The surprise outcome is now likely to see a partial reversal of Malaysia's recent ardently pro-Chinese foreign policy. It also ought to act as a wake-up call for Beijing and prompt a rethink of…

It takes a couple of hundred pages before anything approaching a controversial idea emerges from Dambisa Moyo’s Edge of Chaos, in which the Zambian-born author takes aim at the economic failings of the west. Indeed, until her conclusion, Moyo’s argument is oddly conventional. In her account, the…