Barely a month ago, China was in the grip of the coronavirus. Thousands of new infections were confirmed every day. Hospitals were overwhelmed. People were dying by the hundreds. People couldn’t leave their homes. But …
Articles by: "Minxin Pei"
It may seem preposterous to suggest that the outbreak of the new coronavirus, Covid-19, has imperilled the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, especially at a time when the government’s aggressive containment efforts seem to …
The outbreak of a new coronavirus that began in the Chinese city of Wuhan has already infected over 4,000 people—mostly in China, but also in several other countries, from Thailand to France to the United …
China’s strongman leader can’t seem to catch a break. From the trade war with the United States to the crisis in Hong Kong to international criticism of his human rights record, President Xi Jinping suffered …
Although the rapid escalation of violence in Hong Kong seems terrifying enough, things may be about to get much worse. The communiqué of the recently concluded fourth plenum of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese …
The Chinese folk saying ‘lift a rock only to drop it on one’s own feet’, or its English equivalent, ‘to shoot oneself in the foot’, perfectly describes the self-defeating inclinations of dictatorship. And nothing exemplifies …
On 1 October, to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, President Xi Jinping will deliver a speech that unreservedly celebrates the Chinese Communist Party’s record since 1949. But, despite Xi’s apparent …
The crisis in Hong Kong appears to be careening towards a devastating climax. With China’s government now using rhetoric reminiscent of that which preceded the Tiananmen Square massacre in June 1989, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters—and, …
Of all the changes in US foreign policy that President Donald Trump’s administration has made, the most consequential is the adoption of a confrontational stance towards China. Replacing a decades-old policy of engagement, Trump’s approach …
The world has been riveted by the protests raging in Hong Kong against the city government’s proposed law to allow the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China. About one million people—roughly one-seventh of the …
China’s progress towards an open society ended when the People’s Liberation Army slaughtered at least hundreds, if not thousands, of peaceful demonstrators in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on 3-4 June 1989. The crackdown left …
Late last month at a security forum in Washington DC, Kiron Skinner, director of policy planning for the US Department of State, described today’s US–China conflict as ‘a fight with a really different civilization and …