We were born Born to be wild We can climb so high I never wanna die – Steppenwolf The Great American Novel (GAN) is the Super Bowl of world literature. Every February, America showcases its most dazzling display of athleticism. But the rest of the world barely knows who’s playing. Of course, Americans are similarly […]

The post China’s rise and the Great American Novel appeared first on Asia Times.

Beijing is grappling with a new challenge after Covid – an expanding war encircling its friends and neighbors. Is China a victim or a contributor to this new conflict? The country may or may not be aware but suspicions are mounting about its role. War is spreading like a virus during an epidemic. Two years […]

The post Is China driving the new war epidemic? appeared first on Asia Times.

Many Americans feel broken and people are split on immigration and very divisive issues like gender or abortion and go for former president Donald Trump. His victory in Iowa is proof of this. But the country is doing better than ever. A belief crisis blinds many. The US needs to restore its cultural unity, starting […]

The post Trump chaos vs Bidening time in a broken America appeared first on Asia Times.

Country roads, take me home To the place I belong – John Denver The jig should have been up when the Varsity Blues scandal broke. Oh was it delicious. Hollywood actresses, hedge fund managers, winery owners, real estate developers and other assorted muckety-mucks sneaking their low-watt spawn into elite colleges. The fraud was so absurd […]

The post Open letter to Chinese American high school students appeared first on Asia Times.

The view from China is important as the tensions around it make up the fundamental backdrop within which both the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts are playing out. In November in San Francisco, with the meeting between US and Chinese presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, a kind of truce or cease-fire was agreed between the […]

The post China’s choices on Gaza and Ukraine appeared first on Asia Times.

The Chinese Communist Party rules and holds power based on three legs. The first leg is, of course, self-interest, the preservation of its own naked power.  The second leg is the ideal and ideological content of the period and of the party, that is, Marxism and its revision of Marxism. The third leg is critical […]

The post China in crisis waits for clarity from the US appeared first on Asia Times.

In theory, it is a peninsula, but actually, for all practical purposes, it is an island. South Korea is separated from the rest of the Asian continent by its intractable half-brother to the North, making any land contact with its neighbors impossible. The gap between the reality (being an island) and the theoretical aspiration (being […]

The post You say Taiwan; I say Korea appeared first on Asia Times.

Few in Washington seem overly worried about the apparent stalemate in Ukraine, where Kiev’s forces can’t break through Russia’s fortified defenses. Meanwhile, America is entirely concentrated on the latest from China – complex malware reportedly able to cripple US cyber systems. According to The New York Times, which broke the story: “The discovery of the malware has […]

The post War and peace with Ukrainian characteristics appeared first on Asia Times.

US President Joseph Biden announced a thaw in China’s ties with the US. However, there is much more ice than meets the eye in this “thaw.” When the US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo returned from China last week, she declared that the US “won’t tolerate” China’s ban on Micron chips. Still, from Beijing’s perspective, […]

The post A glacial Sino-American thaw appeared first on Asia Times.

China is at a perilous crossroads between war and peace in a world led by the United States. But perhaps there are still elements the two countries could look at to try to defuse the situation. One is a crucial understanding of competition and war. There are tensions around China. As Henry Kissinger commented in […]

The post US-China: competitive peace or road to war? appeared first on Asia Times.

For old Russian chess masters, the position is well known. It is a zugzwang: when any legal move will worsen the player’s situation, that of Moscow. Here it may be China’s luck. There are a few lessons Beijing can draw from Russia’s predicament. Last week’s summit of the five ex-Soviet Central Asian republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, […]

The post Russia’s Zugzwang and Gorbachev vindicated appeared first on Asia Times.

Drums of war sound louder around China. For at least three years, Beijing’s propaganda has been warning that China must prepare for war, a vague phrase in China’s often macho Communist Party rhetoric. The announcements are to be taken literally, warned a recent Foreign Affairs article signed by two of the most prominent China analysts in the […]

The post China’s war labyrinth appeared first on Asia Times.

Last week’s deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia brokered by China is a significant success for Beijing, and it could as well change the shape of the Middle East. Still, it’s not clear in which direction it could spin. It may bring benefits to everybody, or it might also increase conflict in the region. The […]

The post China’s Iran-Saudi deal bigger than it looks appeared first on Asia Times.

The only way “Old Europe” has to retain its clout is to stop its hesitations, decisively help Ukraine win its war quickly and then find a future settlement for Russia fitting into a new Eurasian balance. Without this, France and Germany could pay a long-term high price. The Russian offensive in Ukraine is falling apart […]

The post The price Europe must pay to end the Ukraine war appeared first on Asia Times.

The German decision to ask for more time to decide whether to supply Ukraine with Leopard tanks may actually have no teeth. After consultations and protracted pondering, Berlin could eventually decide to deliver the weapons. They are necessary to strike hard against the Russians in Kiev’s long-announced spring offensive. It is not just about foreign […]

The post Thanks, but no tanks. Really? appeared first on Asia Times.

For almost 20 years, the US bet on China first offering to be a responsible stakeholder and then being a member of the G2. Yet, according to the US, China turned down both suggestions, and now the bilateral trust is gone. Once trust is gone, it’s gone forever, or at least for a long time. How […]

The post Can the world trust China again? appeared first on Asia Times.

A new document, issued on December 15, announces a bold 13-year plan from 2022-2035 to boost domestic consumption and stop export growth that might reach the staggering surplus of US$1 trillion at the end of the year. The plan is long overdue, as economists have been discussing expanding China’s domestic consumption, especially private consumers’ demand, […]

The post Can China make its people spend more? appeared first on Asia Times.

The December 9 skirmish on the China-India border, which caused injuries to some 40 Indian and Chinese soldiers, could trigger a sea change in India’s attitude toward dealing with China. It comes two years after a similar border clash without firearms that left 20 Indians and four Chinese dead, and proves that more than 24 […]

The post Bye-bye Chindia appeared first on Asia Times.

Ulysses or the Yellow Emperor? The Mediterranean Sea or the Yellow River? China is searching for its new path, perhaps with an old map. Meanwhile, international politics is veering toward new modernity, and Covid is thrashing everything in its wake. In 1961 Umberto Eco wrote a famous essay about Mike Bongiorno[1], the Italian presenter of […]

The post China’s dangerous Odyssey appeared first on Asia Times.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is recreating the bases of continental and transatlantic politics, but it is also helping to lay the foundation of a new system of values and traditions that unite more than yesterday a part of the world. Act I: Germany One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goals at the outset of the […]

The post Ukraine, EU and values: a drama in three acts appeared first on Asia Times.