https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/rss/721/feed Alex Lo has been an SCMP columnist since 2012, commenting on China and international affairs. He is also a member of the editorial writing team. A journalist for 30 years, he has worked for various publications in Hong Kong and Toronto as a news reporter and editor. He has also lectured in journalism at the University of Hong Kong. en https://assets-v2.i-scmp.com/production/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg Alex Lo Alex Lo Americans are souring on artificial intelligence, so Washington is trying to convince them the old-fashioned way: by citing, ad nauseam, the China threat. US President Donald Trump, flanked by tech executives at the White House late last month, warned voters that if they rejected data centres, companies would “be forced to go overseas”. He added that “whoever wins superintelligence wins” and that “you’re probably not gonna have a second place”. The implication was that detractors would be... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3370992/us-tech-bros-are-coming-asia-and-latin-americas-power-grids?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3370992/us-tech-bros-are-coming-asia-and-latin-americas-power-grids?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Oct 2026 08:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo The French have a phrase for the urge to leap from a high place without any wish to die: “l’appel du vide” (the call of the void). The World Trade Organization, based in French-speaking Geneva, has put it to poetic bureaucratic use. In its French texts, a losing party’s appeal to a court that cannot hear it is “faire appel dans le vide”, or appealing into the void. Americans should take the credit. The WTO’s Appellate Body has had no sitting judges since Washington began blocking new... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3370392/us-cosplays-wto-against-china-while-paralysing-real-global-body?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3370392/us-cosplays-wto-against-china-while-paralysing-real-global-body?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Oct 2026 12:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo While Israel denounces the Nobel committee’s award of the Peace Prize to former UN human rights chief and South African judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, the United States decides to sanction the entire International Criminal Court. Rarely has a single day shown so starkly where the international order is breaking down. On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its Peace Prize to Pillay “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”. Within hours, Israel compared her to Joseph... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3370471/us-and-israel-have-gone-full-rogue?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3370471/us-and-israel-have-gone-full-rogue?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:30:08 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Another day, another hardline statement from the European Union. This week, the European Parliament voted by a landslide for a significantly tougher China position, despite long-standing Beijing lobbying. The report labels China a “decisive enabler” of Russia, calls for a “continuous” European naval presence and joint exercises in and around the Taiwan Strait, and describes Beijing’s industrial policy as an “existential threat to the EU”. “[T]his parliament can send a clear message: no more... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3370176/eu-its-own-worst-enemy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3370176/eu-its-own-worst-enemy?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Oct 2026 21:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo “Morally bankrupt”? Was Michigan Republican John Moolenaar talking about himself? Last week, the chairman of the House Select Committee on China demanded that Starbucks “immediately reverse course and close its stores”. The coffee chain’s crime? It opened two stores in Urumqi – the capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region – in the city centre’s Grand Bazaar and its international airport. The way Moolenaar talked about it, you would think Starbucks was committing genocide and crimes against... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3369691/cant-uygurs-drink-starbucks-and-taste-american-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3369691/cant-uygurs-drink-starbucks-and-taste-american-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 06 Oct 2026 21:30:07 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei seems to believe that he, the American artificial intelligence (AI) industry and the United States are the only ones who should have the right to determine the fate of humanity. While he pays lip service to involving other democracies in AI development, which ones remotely approach the technological capacities of the US and China? Do other non-democratic developing countries not count? His self-belief is far more dangerous than mere commercial greed. Like Peter Thiel,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3369516/dario-amodeis-american-ai-imperialism?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3369516/dario-amodeis-american-ai-imperialism?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Oct 2026 21:30:09 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo For more than a century, the Middle East has reached Western cinema audiences through a narrow and familiar lens: the amber filter, the call to prayer laid over a crowded bazaar, and bearded men shouting lines no one bothers to subtitle. As the YouTube channel Wave Media observes in a recent video essay, such figures “are not characters, they’re weather” – the hostile terrain in which a protagonist, usually a heroic but conflicted American soldier or spy, must fight to survive. A blockbuster... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3369499/how-chinese-film-exposes-hollywoods-dehumanising-mideast-propaganda?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3369499/how-chinese-film-exposes-hollywoods-dehumanising-mideast-propaganda?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 02 Oct 2026 12:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Armageddon is what will happen when billionaires, or even trillionaires, are given free rein. Could this be the final outcome of late-stage American capitalism and democracy? Imagine a human-extinction event: a rogue artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, a new world war or runaway climate change. You likely already have a fair idea of where the safest places on earth and beyond are, if you have been following the ultra-wealthy individuals from Silicon Valley and Wall Street. They are building... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3369007/its-end-world-and-i-dont-feel-fine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3369007/its-end-world-and-i-dont-feel-fine?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Sep 2026 08:30:09 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Last week, the president of the United States stood at the podium of the United Nations General Assembly and asked aloud whether he should “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly”. Donald Trump then turned to Venezuela’s oil and declared: “To the victor belong the spoils, you’ve all heard that …” He spoke as the Iran war neared its eighth month, a week after the UN Human Rights Council found “reasonable grounds to believe” that the US had committed war crimes. In the same speech,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3368749/how-beijing-neutralising-washingtons-sanctions-machine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3368749/how-beijing-neutralising-washingtons-sanctions-machine?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 27 Sep 2026 12:30:07 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Washington and Beijing have spent nearly a decade trading tariffs, export controls and blacklists, with each round threatening rupture. Yet they keep recovering from the brink. Tensions soared before summits and plunged immediately after. For example, in 2019 at Osaka, Trump walked back threats to impose tariffs on US$300 billion of Chinese goods and eased curbs on Huawei after Beijing reportedly agreed to buy American farm goods. In Busan last October, he lowered tariffs and shelved export... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3368480/china-and-us-can-make-nice-if-not-peace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3368480/china-and-us-can-make-nice-if-not-peace?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Sep 2026 21:30:10 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo The United States does not care much about democracy in general or Taiwan’s democracy in particular. Defending the island’s political system is a fairy tale it and its allies tell others; their real intention has always been to prevent China’s reunification and contain its rise. In reality, the island is a key node in the so-called first island chain for defence, or rather, offence against mainland China. It serves as a convenient pawn in disguising US dominance as defence of democracy. But... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3368315/taiwan-might-well-give-now?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3368315/taiwan-might-well-give-now?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Sep 2026 01:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo In early July, China fired a test missile from a nuclear submarine into the South Pacific for the first time, a weapon capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Washington and Canberra were livid. The Pacific has long been the exclusive testing ground for such long-range missiles from the United States. How dare China! The reaction from Pacific island states was more measured. While leaders from Tuvalu, Palau and the Solomon Islands strongly criticised the test, the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3367734/pacific-island-states-are-trapped-cold-war-20?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3367734/pacific-island-states-are-trapped-cold-war-20?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Sep 2026 21:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo What explains the vastly different attitudes of Hong Kong people and their mainland Chinese counterparts towards the United Kingdom? The first and easiest answer is, of course, Western freedom and democracy as allegedly practised – or at least taught – in colonial Hong Kong, as opposed to Chinese communist propaganda on the mainland. That is the most oft-cited claim, at least in Western media and public discourse, so I will not repeat it here. You can easily look up such arguments. Perhaps you... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3367682/why-mainland-chinese-despise-british-hongkongers-dont?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3367682/why-mainland-chinese-despise-british-hongkongers-dont?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Sep 2026 08:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Global surveys show China is now more popular than the United States in most countries. The reality is China hasn’t become more popular, only that Uncle Sam has become odious. Two recent major summits demonstrate precisely why this erosion has occurred. At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and the Group of 20 (G20) gathering in the US, the Trump administration faced withering criticism for policies that have destabilised global commerce, violated... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3367044/world-not-so-much-embracing-china-recoiling-trumps-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3367044/world-not-so-much-embracing-china-recoiling-trumps-us?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:30:08 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Winston Churchill famously praised the resilience of the British people during the Blitz, describing the nightly bombings of London as a “cruel, wanton, indiscriminate” attempt by Adolf Hitler to break the spirit of a tough “island race”. He was not wrong about the toughness and courage of his fellow citizens. But as one of the United Kingdom’s greatest leaders and historical writers, he created a false impression of the uniqueness of the British wartime experience. Strategic bombing alone,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3366939/us-israeli-failure-bomb-iran-submission-was-preordained?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3366939/us-israeli-failure-bomb-iran-submission-was-preordained?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Sep 2026 12:30:04 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo The death of Tung Chee-hwa at age 89 has prompted a necessary reckoning with the legacy of Hong Kong’s first chief executive. Two decades after his resignation, the question endures: was Tung a hapless administrator overwhelmed by crisis, or a prescient leader constrained by circumstance and an unforgiving political environment? The contrasting assessments of political scientist Sonny Lo Shiu-hing and former Central Policy Unit head Lau Siu-kai frame this debate sharply. Their divergent analyses... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3367140/tung-chee-hwa-had-clear-vision-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3367140/tung-chee-hwa-had-clear-vision-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 12 Sep 2026 01:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Argentine President Javier Milei has every right to reassert his country’s territorial claims over the Falkland Islands. His proposal to use the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration as a template for resolving the Falkland Islands dispute merits serious consideration as a pragmatic framework for bringing this long-standing territorial conflict to a peaceful conclusion. Argentina’s claim to what its citizens call the Islas Malvinas rests on solid foundations. Upon independence from Spain in 1816,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3366533/britain-should-accept-hong-kong-style-handover-falklands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3366533/britain-should-accept-hong-kong-style-handover-falklands?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Sep 2026 01:30:08 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo There is little in common between Daron Acemoglu and Xi Jinping. As a strong advocate of the Western model of liberal democracy, Acemoglu, co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, may be considered the ideological opposite of the Chinese president. But on a crucial point about China’s future, the two may, strangely, be on the same page: an across-the-board introduction of cutting-edge technology may enhance productivity and maintain economic growth. It may counteract the negative... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3366015/why-chinas-shrinking-population-may-be-blessing-not-curse?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3366015/why-chinas-shrinking-population-may-be-blessing-not-curse?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Sep 2026 08:30:07 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo When China’s trade with Latin America reached a record US$518.4 billion in 2024, it marked a fundamental shift in hemispheric economics. Beijing is now the largest bilateral creditor and second largest trading partner of Latin America and the Caribbean, with President Xi Jinping pledging a new credit line of 66 billion yuan (US$9.2 billion) at the 2025 China-Celac (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) forum. Chinese investment has evolved from extractive industries towards clean... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3366092/us-dangerous-reversion-imperialism-latin-america?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3366092/us-dangerous-reversion-imperialism-latin-america?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 04 Sep 2026 12:30:10 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Michael Pettis says a great rebalancing is coming and China will pay for it. It’s strange how the man who insists that power decides who pays never tests his claim on Washington. The Beijing-based economist has been warning that a great rebalancing is coming since he published a book called The Great Rebalancing. That was in 2013. His latest Foreign Affairs offering? You guessed it: “A Great Rebalancing Is Coming: Who Will Bear the Costs of a Global Trade Adjustment?” It’s the same plot: Today’s... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3365757/if-great-rebalancing-coming-will-china-really-have-pay-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3365757/if-great-rebalancing-coming-will-china-really-have-pay-it?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:30:07 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo In contemporary discourse, the bogeyman of “debt traps” is almost exclusively tied to Beijing. Western media, think tanks, NGOs and policymakers from Washington to Brussels frequently warn developing nations of the perils of bilateral loans from China. Yet, Grenada’s debt dispute from a decade ago and St Vincent and the Grenadines’ (SVG) current troubles offer a starkly different, and often ignored, counter-narrative: the weaponisation of debt by Taiwan. For years, Grenada has grappled with... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3365300/taipeis-debt-hardball-carries-clear-warning-its-remaining-allies?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3365300/taipeis-debt-hardball-carries-clear-warning-its-remaining-allies?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 Aug 2026 01:30:10 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo The gaffe at last month’s Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, where a US State Department presentation displayed a map of Africa with every country mislabelled, serves as more than a source of embarrassment. It was a potent symbol of the distance between Washington’s rhetoric and its real stance regarding the African continent. Earlier this year, Nick Checker, a senior US State Department official, spoke of “resetting” US relations with Africa, pivoting away from dependency and towards... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3364970/africa-knows-who-its-true-friends-are-and-theyre-not-washington?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3364970/africa-knows-who-its-true-friends-are-and-theyre-not-washington?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo It is not the most enticing reading material: “Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States.” But this 59-page report, issued last month by the US Treasury Department, reveals much about contemporary America. Remember the joint intervention by Japan and the United States in the international currency market to prop up the yen at the end of July? By now, everyone knows it didn’t work, a waste of monetary resources for both countries while earning a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3364765/us-telling-its-trading-partners-do-i-say-not-i-do?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3364765/us-telling-its-trading-partners-do-i-say-not-i-do?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 21 Aug 2026 21:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo No one really knows who will ultimately win. Perhaps that’s not even the right question. But it seems clear that China’s operating systems are currently working better than those of the US. Contrast the Chinese state’s control of the tech and financial sectors with the United States, where the situation is reversed. In 2007-08, unfettered financial capitalism almost caused the collapse of the US economy and triggered the global financial crisis. Wall Street’s political influence waned as a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3364360/why-chinas-political-and-industrial-systems-work-better-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3364360/why-chinas-political-and-industrial-systems-work-better-us?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:30:18 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo The extraordinary achievements of Zhu Rongji’s market reforms and their contribution to China’s rise to global economic power are well known. Much ink has already been spilled in the news media since his death at the age of 97 was announced this week. But if foreigners are supposedly suffering the deliberately mislabelled “China shock 2.0”, they may be more interested in whether Zhu and his reforms caused the original – and equally mislabelled – “China shock”. Here, I start with a useful... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3363974/was-late-zhu-rongji-responsible-original-china-shock?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3363974/was-late-zhu-rongji-responsible-original-china-shock?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Aug 2026 21:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo When it comes to bad prognostication, no one can beat Fortune, which came up with the mother of all “Hong Kong is doomed” narratives. In June 1995, the magazine ran its infamous “The Death of Hong Kong” cover story, predicting its demise following the 1997 handover to China. Stephen Roach, veteran China watcher and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, seems determined to follow in its footsteps. In 2024, Roach caused a stir by proclaiming “Hong Kong is over” in the Financial Times. He was... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3363522/hong-kong-no-longer-western-playground-and-its-not-looking-back?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3363522/hong-kong-no-longer-western-playground-and-its-not-looking-back?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Aug 2026 01:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo “Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” This famous 11th thesis from Karl Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach is engraved on his tombstone in Highgate Cemetery in London. It was meant to be a refutation of another famous saying, by G.W.F. Hegel: “The owl of Minerva takes flight only when darkness falls.” This poetic but enigmatic remark is from the Philosophy of Right. It means understanding always arrives too late; philosophy can only teach... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3363031/world-made-confucius-and-china-he-made?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3363031/world-made-confucius-and-china-he-made?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Aug 2026 12:30:07 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo A viral clip renews the headlined question for me. Jameela Jamil, a British actress of Pakistani and Indian descent, caused a public row in the UK for her interview last month on Yestergays, a pop culture podcast. She said: “Americans think British people are so sweet, which is crazy because British people are truly the most evil people in history. Like, they are Thanos. They owe 43 trillion to India … We colonised the world.” A similar figure came from Indian economist Utsa Patnaik. Based on... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3362778/how-evil-was-british-empire-centuries-theft-and-destruction?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3362778/how-evil-was-british-empire-centuries-theft-and-destruction?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Aug 2026 21:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo In America today, many low-income workers and households can’t get adequate healthcare or pay for food. Depending on who you ask, medical costs are the number one cause or at least among the top causes of bankruptcy for families. This is despite the United States spending more on healthcare per capita than any developed economy within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and having the most advanced medical science and technology in the world. Healthcare is one good... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3362331/despite-immense-power-us-delivers-neither-butter-nor-bullets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3362331/despite-immense-power-us-delivers-neither-butter-nor-bullets?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Jul 2026 12:30:09 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo In Orwellian totalitarianism, two plus two can equal five. But with American hegemony, things can be A and not A at the same time. Earlier this month, Washington declared war on the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose very existence, it claims, poses an “intolerable” challenge to America’s sovereignty. But, citing an international maritime law, it also led a coalition of 14 mainly Western countries in issuing a joint statement in support of a 10-year-old South China Sea arbitration ruling... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3361944/america-declares-international-law-thee-not-me?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3361944/america-declares-international-law-thee-not-me?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Jul 2026 12:30:09 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo If a cure for cancer were discovered, wouldn’t it be a cause for celebration? Not if China discovered it. At least that’s the view of the congressionally appointed US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. “Imagine they [the Chinese] cure cancer. A shock would go through the system as we’ve never seen – our approach would have failed,” Commissioner Leland Miller told a public forum earlier this year. “We want someone to cure cancer, but we don’t want China to control the pipeline for... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3361896/west-should-stop-blaming-china-its-economic-woes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3361896/west-should-stop-blaming-china-its-economic-woes?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Jul 2026 13:30:08 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo I once came across a book titled, The Last Walk, with a worn-out dog collar on the front cover. I lost all interest in browsing and quickly left the bookstore. As a lifelong owner of cats and dogs as well as other animals, I have had too many last walks. Some walks I knew were likely to be our last together. Others I didn’t suspect would come to an end; I thought there was still time. I often wonder whether that book sold well. Perhaps it appealed to some people. My wife and I, though, have been... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3361551/how-death-argos-odysseus-faithful-dog-still-haunts-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3361551/how-death-argos-odysseus-faithful-dog-still-haunts-us?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Jul 2026 12:30:08 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has hit theatres across North America. Suddenly, everyone has Homer on their mind. If China has Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West, the West has The Iliad and The Odyssey. These are civilisation-defining monuments, about which children know the stories and scholars spend a lifetime probing every detail. The identity of Homer has always intrigued scholars over the ages. Samuel Butler, who translated both The Iliad and The Odyssey, was convinced a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3361090/how-obscure-psychologist-reshaped-homeric-hero?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3361090/how-obscure-psychologist-reshaped-homeric-hero?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Jul 2026 01:30:10 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo The world is giving up on America, according to Richard Wike, director of global attitudes research at Pew Research Centre. Writing in Foreign Affairs this month, he warns that this time, anti-Americanism is different. Often seen as holding the gold standard of public opinion surveys, Pew executives are usually circumspect in their public statements. But Wike is stating the obvious. In the past, anti-Americanism was often ideological. Today, it may be purely practical as the United States... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3361116/why-does-world-distrust-america-just-ask-canadians?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3361116/why-does-world-distrust-america-just-ask-canadians?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Jul 2026 13:30:08 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo The historian A.J.P. Taylor wrote one of the most powerful openings of any book. “In the state of nature which Hobbes imagined, violence was the only law, and life was ‘nasty brutish and short’,” he wrote in The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918. “Though individuals never lived in this state of nature, the Great Powers of Europe have always done so. Sovereign states have distinguished European civilisation, at any rate since the end of the fifteenth century. Each individual state in... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3360640/hegemony-or-balance-power-what-wars-ancient-china-teach-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3360640/hegemony-or-balance-power-what-wars-ancient-china-teach-us?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Jul 2026 01:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo In May last year, US President Donald Trump established the Religious Liberty Commission. Last month, timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, it released a 224-page draft report titled, “Americans’ First Freedom”. I gather the current government and its key support base, the religious right, consider American society too secularised – to such an extent that it amounts to systemic religious discrimination. That’s what the commission is tasked with rectifying.... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3360284/why-trump-commission-attacking-nietzsche-foucault-and-sartre?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3360284/why-trump-commission-attacking-nietzsche-foucault-and-sartre?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo A Chinese nuclear-powered submarine fired a test missile into international waters in the South Pacific. Major countries in the areas were given advance notice. Even Japan, situated closer to the north Pacific, was warned beforehand. And the United States, located on the other side of the globe? Yes, of course it was given notice as well. Still, all hell broke loose, as pundits and politicians rushed to denounce the Chinese missile test carrying a dummy warhead. Considering what they themselves... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3360283/how-chinas-rare-missile-test-sparked-hysterical-hypocrisy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3360283/how-chinas-rare-missile-test-sparked-hysterical-hypocrisy?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Jul 2026 13:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo We are all used to Western assessments of Deng Xiaoping. You may even be convinced by them, as I was for a long time. Ezra Vogel, for example, wrote in Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China: “It was [Deng] who would finally realise the mission that others had tried for almost two centuries to achieve, of finding a path that would make China rich and powerful.” And, according to Orville Schell and John Delury in Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-first Century, “Once in... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3359813/how-new-left-won-battle-ideas-21st-century-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3359813/how-new-left-won-battle-ideas-21st-century-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Jul 2026 21:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Who would have thought that Leon Trotsky inadvertently offered a theory to explain China’s economic leapfrog into the 21st century after bouncing back from history’s worst famine and the Cultural Revolution? In recent decades, some people thought China was done for and would eventually collapse. They might have done better if they had read at least the first chapter of Trotsky’s The History of the Russian Revolution. Here, he expounds on what he calls “the privilege of historic backwardness”,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3359513/sometimes-it-pays-be-backward-country?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3359513/sometimes-it-pays-be-backward-country?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Jul 2026 01:30:07 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo In Monty Python’s classic comedy Life of Brian, one of the many bickering revolutionary groups, the Campaign for a Free Galilee – or was it the People’s Front of Judea? – was plotting revenge against the Romans. One of them broke into a song: The Romans are all b*******,/they have bled us ’till we’re white,/they’ve taken everything we’ve got/as if it was their right,/and we’ve got nothing in return/though they make so much fuss./ What have the Romans ever done for us? For all their brutalities,... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3359488/what-have-americans-ever-done-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3359488/what-have-americans-ever-done-us?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Jul 2026 13:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo An unmistakable pattern has emerged in the US’ strategy to contain China. Washington has sought to deny China access to frontier technologies and key commodities, and to redirect related supply chains to revitalise American industries. In this context, US President Donald Trump’s intense interest in America taking over Denmark’s Greenland becomes clear. Deny the Chinese their favourite seafood, which many can’t live without, and revive the US food industry. You think I am pulling your leg. This... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3359109/no-greenland-seafood-china-us-new-security-doctrine?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3359109/no-greenland-seafood-china-us-new-security-doctrine?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Jul 2026 01:30:04 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo When I was still working from the South China Morning Post’s office in Hong Kong, I fought with my expat colleagues throughout the summer over control of the thermostat. There were basically two tribes. I generalise here a bit, but essentially the locals wanted it freezing, which admittedly was bad for the environment and rather excessive. The expats, however, wanted it just a few degrees lower than outside, which seemed to defeat the purpose of air conditioning. When my late boss Simon, who was... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3358644/do-bno-migrants-dream-air-conditioning?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3358644/do-bno-migrants-dream-air-conditioning?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 30 Jun 2026 21:30:08 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est. Since I don’t really know Latin and am not a Roman, I am going to speak very ill of Alan Greenspan, the long-reigning chairman of the US Federal Reserve, who died last week aged 100. No one particular policymaker was entirely responsible for the real estate market collapse in the United States that triggered the last global financial crisis. But Greenspan bore more responsibility than most. In US congressional testimony in 2008, Greenspan made a confession... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3358668/greenspan-helped-blow-capitalism-china-saved-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3358668/greenspan-helped-blow-capitalism-china-saved-it?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Jun 2026 14:08:50 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Leaders of the G7 rich nations might have gone into this month’s summit in France hoping for a united front against China. But, overshadowed by the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine and alienated by a mercurial US President Donald Trump, the lacklustre gathering came up short. There was no public agreement on how to address the so-called China shock 2.0, the supposed overcapacity issues and currency manipulation that is considered to be the cause of Chinese exports flooding into Europe. Instead of... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3358271/europe-wants-new-plaza-accord-china-seriously?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3358271/europe-wants-new-plaza-accord-china-seriously?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:30:05 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Bankers working for JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong must have been miffed when they were shut off from using artificial intelligence (AI) models from Anthropic, a pioneering American firm in the field. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase pulled the plug in April and last week respectively, based on a strict interpretation of Anthropic’s terms of use, which reflect Washington’s stringent restrictions on China’s access to frontier American AI models. The banks’ decisions are seen as a... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3357898/us-anthropic-ban-best-advert-chinese-ai?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3357898/us-anthropic-ban-best-advert-chinese-ai?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 23 Jun 2026 21:30:07 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo The end of history was supposed to happen in Europe, not America. As it were, it did neither because there is no such thing. For a long time, many European leaders, bureaucrats and intellectuals deluded themselves that the European Union (EU) was “post-politics” and “post-state”. As its member states emerged from centuries of dog-eat-dog conflicts, they agreed to delegate much of their decision-making to technocrats and regulatory agencies. It was a long process over decades after the second... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3357836/end-history-has-come-and-gone-europe?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3357836/end-history-has-come-and-gone-europe?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Jun 2026 13:49:26 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Carl Jung was a big fan of the I Ching, also known as the Book of Changes. He was also a close friend of Richard Wilhelm, whose German translation was probably the most influential Western version of the ancient Chinese text in the last century. But over the years, I have become convinced that the great Jung didn’t really get it. A red flag is that he thinks it is very difficult for the Western mind to grasp what I will call the Chinese spirit of the I Ching, which he claims is completely... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3357512/what-i-ching-really-about?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3357512/what-i-ching-really-about?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jun 2026 01:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Is the economic decline of Europe worse than the last decades of the Qing dynasty? That’s a question posed by Luis Vassy, director of Sciences Po, one of France’s premier universities. It has caused something of a stir in Europe and China. “The European Union has seen its share of the world economy fall from 30 per cent to 17 per cent between 2008 and 2025, a span of 17 years,” he wrote in Le Grand Continent, a European current affairs publication, last week. “China covered the same distance... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3357056/europe-declining-faster-qing-china-chinese-french-debate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/world-opinion/article/3357056/europe-declining-faster-qing-china-chinese-french-debate?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:30:06 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Now we know what the Americans mean by “self-defence”. Actually we have always known that. Except with the war on Iran, they don’t bother with making plausible propaganda any more and just dare you to challenge their ridiculous claims. In this, they have learned well from their Israeli partner-in-crime, according to whom every person killed, however young, is by definition a terrorist. Every facility bombed, even if it’s a hospital or school, is either a terrorist cell or has one hiding in or... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3357077/war-crimes-are-self-defence-us-and-israel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/article/3357077/war-crimes-are-self-defence-us-and-israel?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Jun 2026 14:59:29 +0000 Alex Lo Alex Lo Even Western pundits grudgingly admitted the summit between President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was a success. Both sides, according to Bloomberg, “appear to have walked away with what they wanted”. Given China’s rising pre-eminence while avoiding any damaging war, it’s no surprise that Xi had the upper hand in his recent meetings with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. But with Kim, the stakes for Beijing were just as high, in light of Tokyo’s... https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3356697/kim-jong-un-turns-out-be-cleverest-them-all?utm_source=rss_feed https://www-scmp-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/opinion/china-opinion/article/3356697/kim-jong-un-turns-out-be-cleverest-them-all?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:30:06 +0000