(Originally published here by the South China Morning Post on November 24, 2020.) "I think it just adds to the confusion and chaos,” John Cornyn, a Texas Republican re-elected to the US Senate for a fourth term this month, said last week about US President Donald Trump’s firing of Christopher Krebs. Krebs, the director of [...]
Author: Robert F. Delaney
Washington DC-based U.S. Bureau Chief for the South China Morning Post, and author of The Wounded Muse.
Trump country voted for weed. Maybe that will keep the peace.
(Originally published here in South China Morning Post on November 10, 2020.) In an inspiring kumbaya moment for America, Joe Biden called for unity on Saturday after being named the country’s next president and vowed to work as hard for those who didn’t vote for him as for those who did. The message came after four years [...]
Donald Trump is accidentally right in saying the US shouldn’t fear Covid-19
(Originally published here by South China Morning Post on October 13, 2020) Donald Trump had a point about Covid-19 when he told Americans not to fear the disease, a remark that sparked an immediate backlash and accelerated the rapid worsening of his re-election odds. Although there’s no scientific evidence that the pathogen itself is mutating into [...]
If economic gains are reason enough for Americans to look past the Trump administration’s flaws, why would this not be the case for Chinese?
(Originally published here on September 15, 2020 in South China Morning Post.) Don’t expect Beijing to roll over when it is collared with the same leash it puts on diplomats posted to China. Conflating one-upmanship and reciprocity as readily as US President Donald Trump portrays America’s Covid-19 disaster as a public health policy success, Chinese Foreign Ministry [...]
Why China should try to keep Donald Trump happy
(Originally published here on September 1, 2020 in South China Morning Post.) When US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, discussed China with the Atlantic Council’s Paula Dobriansky last week, he let slip something unusual for an administration that otherwise projects nothing but confidence about its chances for a second term. “Whether [Trump] has a [...]
US curbs on China’s Confucius Institutes are welcome, but they’re not the real target
(Originally published here on August 18) Washington has finally cornered China with its move against Confucius Institutes in the US (CIUS) last week. United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s order that the US headquarters of Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes must register as a foreign mission makes sense, but the distorted narrative that is being spun around [...]
Donald Trump is picking the wrong fights in his re-election campaign
(Originally published here on July 20 in the South China Morning Post.) When Fox News’ Neil Cavuto cut away from a campaign-style speech by Donald Trump from the White House last week to fact-check the United States president’s claims that financial regulations established by the previous administration were a “disaster”, the interruption didn’t spark the [...]
As George Floyd protests raged across the US, why did Donald Trump insist on posing in front of churches?
(Originally published here on June 9 in South China Morning Post.) Remember the New Testament story of how Jesus Christ got his henchmen to beat the living daylights out of merchants occupying the Temple of Jerusalem for defiling the house of worship with trade? Well, that wasn’t quite how it went. Jesus didn’t have any [...]
US outrage over national security law for Hong Kong puts Donald Trump and China trade talks in an awkward spot
(Oringinally published here on May 25, 2020 in South China Morning Post.) If you missed the statement last week from the US Trade Representative’s office about hopeful progress in its phase-one deal with China, that’s entirely understandable. It came through quietly amid the uproar created by the Beijing’s plan to promulgate a new national security law for [...]
The death of daily US coronavirus task force briefings should be cause for both celebration and mourning
(Originally published here on May 11, 2020 in South China Morning Post.) It’s time to celebrate and mourn the passing of the daily White House coronavirus task force briefing. As Americans watched the Covid-19 pandemic turn New York into an epicentre of death on a scale seen only in dystopian sci-fi films, they tuned into the task [...]
