62 h. ago Europe’s vow to Trump to push defence budget to 5% rings hollow

The commitment by Nato’s 32 members to lift their defence spending to 5 per cent of their gross domestic product by 2035 has generated something between shock and awe and a feeling of being plunged into an Alice-in-Wonderland world. Above all, the agreement, which would lift Nato defence spending from an estimated US$1.5 trillion to around US$4.2 trillion over the next 10 years, was an attempt to prevent US President Donald Trump from pulling the United States out of the transatlantic security...

Politics

3 d. ago Opinion | How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again

Opinion | How Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Will Make China Great Again  The New York Times

Politics

5 d. ago Opinion | Trump’s America Is Beginning to Look More Like China

Opinion | Trump’s America Is Beginning to Look More Like China  The New York Times

Politics

2 w. ago If Trump has all the cards, why is the US in such a strategic quagmire?

Just four months ago, US President Donald Trump was lecturing a surprised Volodymyr Zelensky on how the Ukrainian leader was “not winning” because he did not “have the cards”. As commander-in-chief of a superpower, Trump unabashedly brandished his geopolitical capital – apparently more interested in negotiating agreements with traditional US rivals such as Russia and Iran to bolster his “art of the deal” credentials. Today, the strategic picture looks dramatically different. Following the...

Politics

2 w. ago How Trump has landed the US in a strategic mess from Ukraine to Iran

Just four months ago, US President Donald Trump was lecturing a surprised Volodymyr Zelensky on how the Ukrainian leader was “not winning” because he did not “have the cards”. As commander-in-chief of a superpower, Trump unabashedly brandished his geopolitical capital – apparently more interested in negotiating agreements with traditional US rivals such as Russia and Iran to bolster his “art of the deal” credentials. Today, the strategic picture looks dramatically different. Following the...

Politics

2 w. ago China attains leverage in trade war on the back of its trump card, rare earths.

The United States remains a dominant power in finance, while China has a pre-eminent position in the global industrial supply chain. That distinction between the world’s two largest economies was highlighted in the latest trade talks between Beijing and Washington, when China leveraged its trump card – rare earth elements. China dominates the global supply of rare earths, including 70 per cent of mining and around 90 per cent of refining these minerals. Rare earths are vital components in a vast...

Politics

2 w. ago Despite growing anger, Trump marches on with his projections of power

There was nothing wrong with the idea that America might want a 250th anniversary celebration of the US Army. The celebration that US President Donald Trump finally got after pushing for it since his first term could have been billed as a front-running event connected to the country’s 250th birthday, since we are almost one year away from that significant date. And for those longing for a break from the blood sport that US politics has become, the event did not end up as Trumpian as might have...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump tariffs challenge Asean’s unity and economic stability

When US President Donald Trump’s tariff chaos eventually calms, its long-lasting consequences will significantly affect the area just south of China and east of India – Southeast Asia – and its organisational bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Trump’s focus on protectionism is likely to replace uniform tariffs with varying import taxes for different countries. This shift could create divisive and harmful effects for Southeast Asia and Asean, which are interchangeable but...

Economics

3 w. ago Opinion | Trump miscalculated on China. Now the administration is trying to fix the mess.

Opinion | Trump miscalculated on China. Now the administration is trying to fix the mess.  The Washington Post

Politics

3 w. ago Trump cannot hope to solve a China ‘problem’ he has misdiagnosed

Amid a US-China trade truce, negotiators in London reached a “framework” agreement to activate the Geneva deal, raising hopes for an immediate alleviation of the trade conflict, including potentially a US commitment to revoke some of its tech embargoes in return for China’s relaxation of rare earth export restrictions. The full details of the London agreement are expected to be available after both US President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping have approved it. The two-day London...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump’s fundamental mistake is in seeing China as America’s problem

Amid a US-China trade truce, negotiators in London reached a “framework” agreement to activate the Geneva deal, raising hopes for an immediate alleviation of the trade conflict, including potentially a US commitment to revoke some of its tech embargoes in return for China’s relaxation of rare earth export restrictions. The full details of the London agreement are expected to be available after both US President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping have approved it. The two-day London...

Politics

3 w. ago Opinion | Trump’s fundamental mistake is in seeing China as America’s problem

Opinion | Trump’s fundamental mistake is in seeing China as America’s problem  South China Morning Post

Politics

4 w. ago Thanks to Trump, US threat of a ‘peaceful evolution’ recedes for China

As someone born in the 1960s in China, one of the earliest lessons our generation learned in school was to be vigilant about the perceived dangers of American conspiracies and attempts aimed at subverting and overthrowing the Communist Party through peaceful means. Through classroom teachings, propaganda films and slogans plastered prominently along the streets, we were repeatedly exposed to Chairman Mao Zedong’s warnings about the threat of “peaceful evolution”, encapsulated in his assertion...

Politics

4 w. ago Opinion | Thanks to Trump, US threat of a ‘peaceful evolution’ recedes for China

Opinion | Thanks to Trump, US threat of a ‘peaceful evolution’ recedes for China  South China Morning Post

Politics

4 w. ago Trump, Hegseth, Rubio: a triple threat to global stability – and Asia

The Indo-Pacific cannot afford to become collateral damage in America’s descent from diplomacy into dysfunction – a decline embodied by Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth’s sabre-rattling and Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio’s overreach. At the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Hegseth stunned Asia’s defence and diplomatic elite by demanding that Indo-Pacific countries raise defence spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product to “counter China”. The proposal...

Politics