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Asia

Entertainment & Arts

Qatar 2022

SCMP
Asia

Opinion

Columnists

Donald Kirk

Protests in China, Iran

Protests in China and Iran come as a surprise. One would have thought those bastions of authoritarian rule would have been almost the last places on Earth where dissidents would defy the systems in which they exist. The dictators at the top of the ruling structures of both countries count on their security forces to round up the miscreants and on their courts to mete out drastic sentences, including death.

2022-12-01 17:00

Exercises in summitry

WASHINGTON - What a great two weeks it's been for President Joe Biden. First, his Democratic Party survived the midterm elections in the U.S., clinging to a bare majority in the Senate and winning close races for governors of key states. Those victories were vital if Biden is to stand firm against Donald Trump's bid to recover the presidency in 2024.

2022-11-17 16:15

From 'ppalli-ppalli' to tragedy

Blame it on Korea's culture of “ppalli-ppalli” - “quickly, quickly.” That was the simplistic explanation that a Korean gave me for the crowd surge in the narrow Itaewon alley where so many were trapped, crushed and died last weekend. “They were madly pushing each other,” she said. “It's in the genes.”

2022-11-03 14:35

Act Three for Xi in China

Xi Jinping, the strongest, most enduring Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, opens possibly the climactic act of his rule with his uncontested election to a third five-year term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, which controls just about everything in China. No, the government does not operate independently of the party. Top government officials are party members. Almost all young people hired for government jobs also belong to the party.

2022-10-20 14:21

Playing with fire

It's getting harder all the time to think that Kim Jong-un is just play-acting when he rams through a law saying North Korea can unleash a nuclear warhead whenever he feels threatened. And it's also getting harder to assume the Americans and South Koreans will never translate the lessons of their own war games into real live action.

2022-10-06 15:50

Art of non-apology

The pomp and circumstance surrounding the passing of Queen Elizabeth II evoked memories of the days of the British Raj.

2022-09-22 15:15

Admitting North Korea to 'nuclear club'

James Clapper, a retired air force lieutenant general who served two tours in South Korea and then as President Barack Obama's director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, has shocked a virtual forum by asking, rhetorically, if “our policy of demanding North Korean denuclearization is going to work.”

2022-09-08 15:44

Ukraine-style wars

Russia's invasion of Ukraine evokes unpleasant comparisons for Northeast Asia. It's easy to envisage China invading Taiwan or enabling a North Korean invasion of South Korea.

2022-08-25 17:10

At odds on Taiwan

China's claims to Taiwan bear a disturbing resemblance to Russia's war with Ukraine. You just cannot ignore the similarities and parallels despite the geographic differences.

2022-08-11 16:45

Edging toward war

Chinese rhetoric over Taiwan is getting more strident all the time. It's hard to believe the Chinese will go beyond the kind of big talk we've been hearing since Chiang Kai-shek fled there with his defeated forces before the victory of Mao's Red Army on the mainland in 1949, but the shrill nature of Chinese intimidation there and elsewhere is cause for mounting concern.

2022-07-28 17:00

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