When a political party undergoes such a dramatic transformation, it needs a new name. I suggest “Visigoth Patriot Party”. Trump, Johnson and the movement they represent would love the Germanic link, and there was that whole episode where the Visigoths sacked and looted Rome.
Author: Robert F. Delaney
Washington DC-based U.S. Bureau Chief for the South China Morning Post, and author of The Wounded Muse.
Kick China while it’s down? Lift democracy first.
(Originally published here in the South China Morning Post on October 2, 2023.) “What are things we could do to kick [China] while they’re down?” The question was posed by Randall Schriver, a member of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), during one of the body’s hearings in August, and reflected one that’s probably on [...]
On economic growth and environmental decline
The American right will call this a “woke” conspiracy. Let them. Their message will be lost in the smoke of our burning forests.
Why are China’s neighbours not demanding the US Navy’s ouster?
(Originally published here in the South China Morning Post on June 20, 2023.) In the flurry of US-China diplomacy in recent weeks, it’s understandable that tensions between the two countries over the South China Sea and Cuba have been in the background. Despite all the initial clamouring to confirm reports that Beijing is paying Cuba billions of dollars to [...]
With GOP lawmaker’s ‘great mistake’ comment, we see the party isn’t entirely unmoored
Trump’s characterisation of his withdrawal from the TPP as “a great thing for the American worker” was as fallacious as his assertion that the trade war he started with Beijing in 2018 would bring jobs back to the US and cut the country’s trade deficit with China.
Xi Jinping must love how much he scares US lawmakers
Fearmongering about China already seems to occupy nearly every congressional hearing room in Washington these days, which ultimately plays into the hands of a Communist Party propaganda department that loves to show how much China scares US policymakers.
Tsai/Zelensky vs Xi/Putin: The Republican dilemma
Is it cynical to point out that Pompeo emerged as a Ukraine supporter after there was little doubt that the Russian military machine is broken?
Beijing-Tehran-Riyadh-Moscow is bad news for the GOP’s right flank
Perhaps it has finally sunk in that the lambasting of a leader who is fighting, and winning, against a foe that is increasingly aligned with China will backfire.
Finding the footpath through an incinerated forest
(Originally published here on November 7, 2022 in the South China Morning Post.) No US State Department or National Security Council press briefing is complete these days without an attempt to get confirmation that Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will meet in person as presidents for the first time at the G20 summit in Indonesia this month. [...]
More U.S. lawmakers in Taiwan may be just what our planet needs
(Originally published here in the South China Morning Post on August 2, 2022.) Devastating weather events, breakthrough climate legislation, economic warning signs and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Asia-Pacific itinerary dominated the US news cycle last week. As the death toll from record flash flooding rises in Kentucky – which was still recovering from a once-in-a-century barrage of tornadoes that killed [...]
The Wounded Muse 