Xi and his coterie are going about the business of stealthily disintegrating the one power, America, standing in the way of the Middle Kingdom assuming its place as the dominant world power. For that to occur America must be broken and defeated, preferably 'without fighting', just as Sun Tzu recommended

China’s second attempt to build a socialist society, under the dictatorship of President Xi Jinping, is soon to join the list of spectacular failures. It seems the poor Chinese people must once again endure upheaval and suffering just as their parents and grandparents did under the Great Helmsman Mao Zedong.

The attempt to resist the undermining of democratic rights in Hong Kong has proven futile and the consequences are easily observed. There are fewer ex-pats on the streets and shops and much diminished numbers of European tourists. My wife’s former job at one of the large banks, and many of the hundreds of positions around her in Hong Kong, have all been moved to the Philippines or Singapore, much to the chagrin of the island's tailors

Kissinger worries that all the work he and Nixon did back in 1971-72 to open an effective long-term relationship between Washington and Beijing is being undone and, far worse, that we may well be headed for a Sino-US war. A naysayer might counter that the work he and Nixon did is the very reason very we might be heading for war. First published in September's edition, this analysis is reprised upon news of Kissinger's death

If China takes Taiwan in a fait accompli, US credibility in Asia would be shattered. To prevent such an epoch-changing shift, former CIA hand Elbridge Colby argues in an important new book that Beijing must be forced assume the burden of any offensive it undertakes while standing condemned before the altar of world opinion,. In other words, to replay Athens at Syracuse, Germany in the Battle of Britain, and Argentina in the Falklands

Xi Jinping would like nothing better than for trans-Atlantic bonds to be loosened and for France—and the rest of Europe—to be more independent from the US. Meanwhile, Beijing has no intention of allowing Europe (or the European Union) to end up independent from the PRC. The question we have to ask is whether Macron ,speaks for all of Europe

Sun-Tzu propounded was that it is possible to defeat an enemy without firing a shot. This concept is especially relevant to Australia and many other open democratic countries which welcome immigrants and adhere to the principle of free trade. Such countries are highly vulnerable to economic and political influence, with Beijing taking advantage of every opportunity to advance a vision of global hegemony

'A recent software update for iPhones in China has modified the AirDrop function to make it more difficult for protestors to evade Beijing's censorship and surveillance. Unconscionable though this decision may be, it is not surprising . . . Apple has time and again assisted the Chinese Communist Party'

The oppression of democracy and the legal persecution of its supporters is fostered by the conscious erosion of political responsibility, resulting recently in that ultimate farcical pantomime of the one-horse election for Chief Executive. These developments are relevant to the future standing of the courts, the last institution not yet entirely under Beijing's control