(Originally published here by South China Morning Post.) In the torrent of heartbreaking news last week, perhaps the only silver lining was that none of it was created by a Donald Trump executive order. Leave aside the US president’s denial that the massacre in Christchurch was part of a rise in white nationalism, and we can [...]
Stumbles over Meng Wanzhou’s arrest won’t help the US case against Huawei
(Originally published here by South China Morning Post.) As Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced an onslaught of political attacks last week over accusations of back-room dealing, Beijing piled on the pressure. When a member of China’s state-owned press questioned Canada’s judicial independence in light of accusations that Trudeau tried to interfere with a judicial [...]
China shouldn’t celebrate if Donald Trump loses his border wall battle – his successor may be even harder on Beijing
(Originally published here by South China Morning Post.) Of all of the cuts Donald Trump has invited by declaring a national emergency to fund a border wall between the United States and Mexico, The Wall Street Journal’s might be the deepest. Citing former US Supreme Court chief justice Robert Jackson, the newspaper’s editorial board pointed out that “a president’s power is [...]
What my mother’s changing fears about China say about Sino-US relations
(Originally published by South China Morning Post on January 27, 2019) “Did you see state dept warning about going to China? Maybe re-think plans to travel there esp since you are a journalist. Love, mom.” I woke to this text a few days before my annual trip to Hong Kong, where I would be reconnecting [...]
Translating High-Profile Events into Fiction
(This piece was first published by Writer's Digest on January, 19 2019.) My friend disappeared when I was living in Beijing. Hao had been living in the city for about a year, working on a documentary about underground Christian congregations in China. The project attracted the attention of the country’s state security officials, and when [...]
After 40 years, the US and China are still trapped in their own political bubbles
(Originally published by the South China Morning Post on 07-January-2019.) The US government marked the 40th anniversary of official bilateral relations with the People’s Republic of China with a warning to American citizens visiting the country to beware of its “arbitrary enforcement of local laws”. A day later China’s President Xi Jinping ordered the People’s [...]
In praise of the Donald Trump playbook, which will help the US score a victory over China, albeit temporarily
(Originally published by South China Morning Post on 27 November, 2018.) US President Donald Trump deserves some credit when it comes to his approach to China. For most people outside his base, this might be a challenging assertion. They will need to block out how Trump has debased the White House by saying lucrative arms deals with [...]
