Everyone has been talking about how wonderful the Beijing Olympics, particularly the opening ceremonies, were. The implication is that London won’t do as well. Jacques Rogge has been fulsome - excessively, perhaps - in the achievements of China for the games.
Given the difference in spending and the facility with which the Chinese Communist Party ignores [...]

China is on the up.
All, however, is not rosy. China faces a few problems; these are my impressions.
Tibet and Xinjiang both have groups that seek more autonomy or even independence. They are in the interior of the Asian continent and a long way from the rich cities of the coast. With disparate geography, I do [...]

I am no Pekinologist, but I am tempted to say, with apologies to Václav Havel, that
a spectre his haunting China - the spectre of what is known in the west as ‘dissent’
I wonder how much of the actuality in Tibet is reaching people in China-proper and how it is received by a people who (I [...]