[Local announcer] Viewers, please continue to stand by. Do not change station. The President's address will be carried on all network channels, and on all cable news services. As soon as … Excuse me … Yes? … We do? … Thank you. All right, we are now going over to … [Washington announcer cuts in]... Read More

The recent crisis in Hainan Island has brought Chinese nationalism to the front of our minds. Specialist China-watchers have understood for some time that the events of 1989 — not only the student and worker movements that were crushed in Tiananmen Square on June 4 of that year, but also the collapse of Soviet and... Read More

In yet another display of that selfless humility for which I am well-known, and with the generous permission of our noble editor, I once again direct my readers' attention to a piece far superior to any of my own meager offerings. This one is by John B. Judis in the current (issue date 4/23/01) issue... Read More

So the United States has done a full kowtow, begging China's pardon for having the audacity to land a plane, crippled by the antics of a hot-dogging Chinese pilot, on a Chinese airfield, without first securing the written approval of 43 bureaucrats in Beijing. The President has also, by implication, blamed U.S. military personnel for... Read More

To judge from the Internet chat groups and radio call-ins, there is widespread disgust and anger in the U.S. at China's attitude in the spy-plane incident. China's peculiar way of addressing the matter has especially got people's backs up. Colin Powell's statement of regret over the loss of that Chinese pilot is "a step in... Read More

With all due respect, Admiral: the hell you say. The U.S. can prevent the Chinese from boarding the plane very easily, by destroying it. The administration should do this as speedily as possible, without any regard whatsoever to Chinese sensitivities, or indeed lives and property. The only question worth serious discussion is that of technique.... Read More

"Let observation, with extensive view, survey mankind from China to Peru." I'm afraid that Peru, along with the rest of the Americas, Europe and some minor places like New Zealand, will have to wait for another column. Today I am just going to survey mankind in the Middle East, Africa, Russia and China. I've only... Read More

The news that China is continuing its build-up of missiles opposite Taiwan, with 100 more short-range ballistic missiles now in place at a newly-built base, comes as one of China's most senior officials, Vice Prime Minister Qian QiChen, arrives in Washington for the first high-level Sino-U.S. discussions of the new administration. (That "q," by the... Read More

Inspectors from the International Olympic Committee were in Beijing last week, studying that city's qualifications to host the 2008 Olympic Games. The purpose of the inspection was to make sure that Beijing has suitable facilities for staging Olympic events, can accommodate the expected number of visitors, has sufficient infrastructure to move them around efficiently and... Read More

January 8th saw the publication of the so-called "Tiananmen Papers," transcripts of high-level discussions among the Chinese leadership in the period leading up to the suppression of the 1989 student movement. What do these documents reveal about the inner workings of the Chinese leadership? What guidance do they offer to the new U.S. administration in... Read More

Some years ago I was sitting around with a bunch of colleagues at the Wall Street firm I worked for. These were "two-year analysts" — kids recruited straight out of college to do two years drudge work in the firm's back offices ("turning out equity margin crap for little old ladies," as one of them... Read More

Last Tuesday the prosecution rested its case in the trial of the Lockerbie bombers, two Libyans accused of blowing up a jumbo jet over Scotland in 1988. Lost your attention? Yes, I know, this is one of those news stories that seems to have been bobbing about in the media for ever. The bombing was,... Read More

This week has seen the publication of the so-called "Tiananmen Papers." These are said to be transcripts of high-level discussions in the Chinese leadership in the period leading up to the suppression of the 1989 student movement. It possible that these documents are some kind of bluff, put out by a united Chinese leadership to... Read More

The world is full of surprises. With the Middle East coming to the boil again and the Russians acting up, it would be foolish to guess what foreign-policy headlines might look like this next four — let alone eight — years. However, there is not much doubt that China will feature in many of them,... Read More

President Clinton has announced that he will not, after all, be making a state visit to North Korea before he leaves office. He gave as his reason that "there is not sufficient time to close a deal" with the leaders of that country. The choice of words here betrays how egregiously wrong-headed has been U.S.... Read More

In the middle 1930s, as Hitler consolidated his power in Germany and began re-arming that country in earnest, the facts of the situation were duly reported back to the British foreign secretary, Sir John Simon. However, Sir John, as one of his underlings later remarked, did not want to know "uncomfortable things." Still less did... Read More

Perhaps it is a bit much, in an election season, with a major crisis a-building in the Middle East, to expect Americans to concentrate their minds on Ireland. Ninety-nine per cent of Americans do not care about Ireland one way or the other; and the one per cent that do care mostly have attitudes frozen... Read More

————————— In the minds of Chinese people, the modern history of their country is marked off by "incidents," most of them unknown to the general Western public. Each incident is remembered by the digits of the month and day on which it occurred. The grandaddy of all these milestones is "Five Four": May 4th 1919,... Read More