Category: Thinking About China

Hong Kong Deserves a Better Examination Board

Commentary Last year the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (equivalent to GCE Advanced Level) History examination was full of factual inaccuracies, ambiguities, and repetitive answers; are there any improvements this year? The 2022 exam papers and marking scheme were recently published, and I got a copy as soon as it was out. As expected,…


Demographics: Another Problem for China

Commentary As Communist Party leader Xi Jinping begins an unprecedented third term with a team of loyalists, China faces an array of economic problems—financial strains, a collapse of the property sector, and the ill effects of COVID-19 lockdowns, just to name three currently attention-grabbing headlines. One problem that gets little media attention but nonetheless may…


Why the World of Alliances Is Changing

Commentary The Bali summit of the G20 nations in mid-November showed just how fragile and constantly changing the world’s nerve systems of alliances, treaties, and diplomatic balances. U.S. President Joe Biden wanted to calm the rising tensions in U.S.-China relations but ended up looking as though he was going to Chinese leader Xi Jinping rather…


Biden’s Economy Is Killing the Trucking Industry

Commentary During the pandemic, freight prices skyrocketed, as did consumer demand, attracting thousands of new companies into the trucking industry. Now, a general economic downturn is dampening consumer demand while the cost of operations is higher. This is forcing carriers out of business. Experts believe we are heading into a trucking market crash caused by…


Deciphering the Pre- and Post-Election Narratives

Commentary The narratives and political messages conveyed by the U.S. corporate media during the 2022 midterm election campaign are a classic example of media warfare of which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would be proud. The Democrat-media complex playbook was right out of the Three Warfares strategy endorsed by the CCP Central Committee and the Central…


Biden Is Weak on China—Here’s What He Can Do to Change That

Commentary Is President Joe Biden weak on China? If his administration’s new National Security Strategy is anything to go by, the answer is a resounding yes. Compared with the 2017 strategy published during Donald Trump’s time in office, the most recent document only mentions China, which is the biggest threat to the United States. The 2017 document,…


US-China Relations: Sometimes Silence Is Golden

Commentary President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping may not have agreed on much when they met in Bali this week. But they did agree that both sides would start talking again. A U.S. military officer serving in the Pacific asked if this at least was a good thing. Yes, it is better than…


Inflation Relief? Not Likely

Commentary Financial markets reacted gleefully to the Labor Department’s October consumer price index (CPI) release. It showed an extension of the modest relief from the terrifying figures of last spring. Investors seemed to think that inflation pressures were dissipating and that perhaps the Federal Reserve (Fed) might ease up on raising interest rates and on…


Trudeau Tries to Play Catch-Up on China’s Interference, but Is Chasing His Own Tail

Commentary Canada is in the global spotlight, again. A reporter at the G20 meeting in Bali captured Chinese leader Xi Jinping threatening Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over leaks of an earlier meeting between the two, in which Trudeau reportedly confronted Xi with intelligence leaks to the media about China’s election interference. Yes, there was…


Biden Fails to Confront Xi on Burma

Commentary President Joe Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Asian leaders at the ASEAN summit but failed to confront Xi on Burma (commonly known as Myanmar), where a Chinese-funded war against religious and ethnic minorities is occurring. The war in Burma was one of the primary issues discussed at the Association of Southeast…