Insights on China and Global Affairs

Our grandchildren risk living in a terrifying dystopia where one man or woman one day soon possesses more wealth than half the world's population — where voting has become pointless compared with their power.

Xi approaches politics from a long-term strategic perspective, while Trump has little patience for long-term commitments. That mismatch makes meaningful progress unlikely, whether on trade, Ukraine, the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman, technology, or AI. Still, Xi will almost certainly provide the ceremonial grandeur and hospitality Trump enjoys, perhaps a quick Great Wall visit.

Will the major powers support a candidate capable of shepherding real change? Or will they prefer someone merely compliant? There is a real risk that with weak leadership, reform will stall for another decade. Combined with more funding cuts, the UN’s effectiveness would be eroded more severely than ever and the public's confidence could wane.

Faced with the most bullying superpower leader since Adolf Hitler, our collective behaviour has been deeply disappointing. Nearly the entire world has repeatedly acquiesced to his outrageous, criminal behaviour.

In China, Representatives are democratically elected, not appointed. There are five levels of representation in line with administrative levels. People’s Representatives at the township and county levels are directly elected by people in their constituencies. Municipal, provincial and national representatives are indirectly elected by the next lower level of People's Representatives.

The Chinese Army has never launched any war against any country, never joined anybody else's war, never subverted any other country’s government nor pushed for regime change — in the Chinese Army's entire history since the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949.

I share with readers my experience because, quite contrary to the expectations of most Westerners, those three decades abroad, seeing the world, left me feeling lucky to be Chinese. I truly love my country and respect the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China and government.

U.S. foreign policy has long been coercive, illegal, and imperial. What has changed under the Trump II regime is the abandonment of any pretense of moral justification, revealing a stark, unapologetic “might makes right” posture. This nakedness, though shocking, is more a change in style, tone, and tempo than in historical behavior. By exposing the illusion of U.S. moral authority and uni-polar global leadership, Trump is catalyzing a faster transition toward a multi-polar wo

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Ernest Hemingway asked "For Whom the Bell Tolls?" His answer was, it tolls for you. Elderly Europeans will remember the time when their own cities were destroyed and millions killed. Today, Ukraine is the front line in another such European war. It must be ended. Ukraine will not be able to simply capitulate to Russia's demands, nor will it be able to insist on everything it wants. A true and lasting peace will require compromise on both sides and for crying out loud, they

If we cannot put better people in positions of great power [...] then in the long run we the people will be at fault for what will follow.

Despite US rhetoric about trade deficits in goods, US firms dominate huge global e-commerce and services, earning gigantic de facto trade surpluses and avoiding fair taxation.

How does a world class narcissistic egomaniac react in such a humiliating situation? Will he retreat into an ever-more self-delusional state as his term wears on? Or will he, instead, start a new war? While Trump says he dislikes war, he has threatened to attack Greenland, Panama and Iran in just his first few weeks. If he's choosing between being a 'loser' and starting a war, we can predict his choice.

Tariffs on imports were a constant in U.S. history, both for revenue and for protection, often causing conflict and often linked to wars.

China didn’t just survive—it adapted. The rupture forced Mao’s regime to pivot inward, accelerating domestic tech development....

Far from crippling China's economy [...] US trade wars have especially accelerated China's technological independence.

We can at least have the satisfaction of fighting back a little and hold back some of that money we are sending to US oligarchs.

.... by Bill Paton, 28 January 2025, Phuket 1050 words ______________ The pace of global events is accelerating and the risks for 2025, especially of a great war, bigger than ever. We need our leaders to avoid reckless driving and slow down a bit, carefully navigating the many dangerous bends in the road ahead. Despite what we think, or wish to believe, the pace of technological change is now slower than it was in the 20th century.(1) Home robots or fusion pow

Lying Has Become An Existential Threat by Bill Paton, 3 November 2024, Phuket In *The Three-Body Problem* aliens known as the "San Ti" are traveling toward Earth and initiate a dialogue before their arrival. Among themselves, they communicate their unfiltered thoughts directly, but when interacting with humanity, they use spoken language. In explaining human culture, their earthly correspondent recounts the children’s story of *Red Riding Hood*, where a wolf disguises itself

The U.S. and its allies' repeated opportunism ... has led many to view the US as morally hypocritical, resembling a pedophile priest.

Over 130 world leaders, altogether representatives of 193 countries, are attending the Summit of the Future at United Nations Headquarters,

Their goal is simply to honor a promise made five decades ago, signed by 191 countries, to prevent global destruction.

NATO today has become a menace, constantly increasing its already overwhelming military might and membership.

Wonderland Without Alice by William Paton 16 J une 2024 Just when I thought my morning news feed couldn't get any sillier, the...

Halfway across the world from home, the USA is openly preparing for war, surrounding China ever-more closely, opening ever more bases....

We Are All Here Together and the Time Has Come by William Paton, Beijing 5 May 2024 Our invaluable framework of international law is not...

It is time for the world's majority to say: 'We no longer accept that any single nation can veto the collective will of most of the world.'

"Today we are in Rafah after more than five months of war. We are facing three wars. The first war is the Israeli war and the second is ...

American politicians are determined to maintain their country’s global military and economic dominance.

Will we wake up on September 27th to read the front-page headline: “World Fails Again to Agree! No Progress Made on Peace and Security?”

A bitterly cold winter has arrived in relations between an entitled, USA-led West, and a global South on the verge of revolt.

What was a Canadian warship doing 90 km off the Chinese coasts? The author, a Canadian, muses over his breakfast in Beijing about why a rusty old Canadian frigate had obediently followed a US destroyer through the Taiwan Strait, off the coasts of the country with the world's largest navy. by William Paton, Beijing 5 June 2023 I grew up in Canada, in a small town not so far from Montreal. When I was 29, I left Canada

It is May Day break time With the pandemic and masks already a distant memory, China enjoyed GDP growth of 4.5% in the first quarter, despite the pandemic wave in January and the Spring Festival when the economy always slows for a month. Now it is the May 1st break. Many people have a least a week off and travel, some to the beach. I just took these photos in Hainan near Sanya, in the space of two hours or so on two consecutive days, just as the May Day break began. by W

The US Congress passed a law on 29 March 2023 entitled the ‘China is Not a Developing Country Act'. The law sets targets for US representatives to pressure international organizations to change their rules to take away China's developing country status. The author explains the current rules for categorizing countries as 'developed' or 'developing' and then uses photographs rather than words to let viewers judge for themselves if China still looks like a developing country.

The entire world is witnessing China's abandonment of its attempt to keep Covid out. The Panda has now gone surfing on a deadly wave of infections. But whether it was zero Covid, or now living with Covid, the Western media continue to relentlessly criticize China's handling of the pandemic. Why? Of the approximately 20 million dead from Covid world wide, less than 30,000 were Chinese as of 30 October 2022. Now that the dam has burst, and a wave of Omicron variants has overwhe

The world is suspended in anticipation of an unknown future. An era has ended but we are not quite sure what exactly has ended, and a new...

“Human history is … marked from time to time by completely avoidable events which I like to call ‘pink flamingos’. Pink flamingos are...