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My Take

My Take
My Take, a popular and sometimes controversial daily column of the South China Morning Post, analyses a variety of hot-button issues concerning Hong Kong, mainland China and the region.
last updated:
9 September, 2024
Tourists from Spain in Shanghai. Photo: Xinhua
China economy

My Take | China’s extended visa-free tourist stays drive momentum for opening

Its latest foreign-visitor policy shows that China is willing to be pragmatic, rather than adhering strictly to ideologies.

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US-China relations

My Take | Chinese garlic, tomato paste and chilli peppers on sanctions menu

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My Take | As global tensions rise, peace and goodwill is needed more than ever

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Israel-Gaza war

My Take | Countries get on their high horse while being accessories to murder

As the world’s most respected human rights groups warn against the continuing Palestinian genocide, the US and Canada penalise China.

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A child looks on following an Israeli strike at a post office where people were sheltering in the central Gaza Strip on December 12. Photo: Reuters

My Take | Is Turkestan Islamic Party a foreign proxy force to destabilise Xinjiang?

A video by the militant group against ‘Chinese infidels’ has been spread widely by mainstream news media, while similar propaganda by Hamas and Hezbollah are routinely suppressed or ignored.

Canada

My Take | Shock resignation by their deputy PM has shaken up Canadians

An ignominious exit awaits unpopular Justin Trudeau after his long-time ally walks, but let’s hope he does not drag the country down with him.

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US-China relations

My Take | China and the paranoid style in US foreign policy

Two erudite commentators explain why the West’s strategic antagonism towards Beijing is both self-serving and misconceived.

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The US Capitol Christmas tree. Photo: AFP
US-China relations

My Take | Showbiz is preparing the American public for war with China

The warmongering fantasies of the US entertainment and defence establishment are increasingly indistinguishable.

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Hong Kong politics

My Take | YouTuber rounded on the Hong Kong government, then apologised

Pro-Beijing commentator who goes by the pseudonym ‘Wah Kee’ should have the courage of his convictions when it comes to criticising officials.

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LGBTQ

My Take | End the foot-dragging when it comes to progressive judgments

Rather than fighting court battles, the government should put in place comprehensive legislation upholding the LGBTQ community’s rights.

Nick Infinger holds intersex-inclusive pride progress flag after Hong Kong’s top court rules in favour of equal housing and inheritance rights for same-sex couples. Photo: Reuters
Canada

My Take | Canada’s Beijing sanctions are not only useless but hypocritical

Ottawa might be on stronger ground if it had sanctioned both China and Israel on human rights, but just punishing one shows double standards.

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then-US President Donald Trump (left) and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talk prior to a NATO round table meeting at The Grove hotel and resort in England, December 4, 2019. Photo: AP
Hong Kong society

My Take | Extinction? Time has come to give our diminishing boars a break

With a back-of-the-napkin calculation suggesting animals will be no more within two years at current rate of culling, a wildlife action plan is needed.

South Korea

My Take | Is South Korea a burnout society?

If normal is stressful in the world’s most high-pressured country, maybe Koreans need to blow off steam, now and then, by going against their government and politicians.

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United States

My Take | Trumpian economics will hurt the world more than it will hurt China

Plaza Accord 2.0 reportedly set in motion by the incoming US president’s unorthodox team is likely to end with mutually destructive decoupling.

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US president-elect Donald Trump dances after speaking during the FOX Nation’s Patriot Awards at the Tilles Center on December 5, 2024 in New York. Photo: Getty Images via AFP
Middle East

My Take | An immoral and unjust proposal to resolve the Palestine question

Accept ‘Greater Israel’ as a de jure state, resettle most Palestinians across the West and some in friendly Arab states, then compensate a small, token minority by granting them full Israeli citizenship.

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Demonstrators hold a banner reading “Stop Genocide” during a protest organised by pro-Palestinian associations and French leftist parties in Paris, November 13, 2024. Photo: EPA/EFE

My Take | Mixing Marx with Confucius: the heart of the matter for China

Xi Jinping wants the country to have its own belief system to counter Western values but there is one thing missing.

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US-China relations

My Take | How will China fight a new trade war under Trump 2.0?

With hindsight from Trump’s first term, Beijing could adopt a different approach this time around.

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United States

My Take | Trump has been Beijing’s most effective science talent recruiter

Many fear the supposedly defunct ‘China Initiative’ – a racial profiling programme targeting Chinese-born scientists in the US – could return with a vengeance.

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Professor Yau Shing-tung, director of the Yau Mathematical Sciences Center at Tsinghua University. Photo: SCMP / Edmond So
South Korea martial law 2024

My Take | Martial law fiasco exposes cracks behind the South Korean facade

Spreading social malaise and economic stagnation in country reinforce political instability while being caught in worsening US-China rivalry.

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United States

My Take | Blaming China to evade its own responsibility is now America’s default mode

Chinese political philosopher Xiang Shuchen lays bare the cultural and psychological roots of America’s Manichean view of Beijing and its ‘evil’ ways.

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South Korea

My Take | South Korea’s Yoon back-pedals on firing bazooka in knife fight

If there is anything worse than going after a hated opposition that enjoys a parliamentary majority, it’s having to back down almost immediately.

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Members of South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party shout slogans during a rally against President Yoon Suk-yeol at the National Assembly in Seoul, December 4, 2024. The signs read “Stop”. Photo: AP
United States

My Take | Bureaucratic waste is (usually) in the eye of the beholder

The modern state is all about big government and public spending. The right and the rich in the US like to rail against it while being directly or indirectly subsidised and supported.

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Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk. Photo: Reuters

My Take | The end of US-dollar dominance will come, but not yet

Trump’s latest spat with Brics nations over their threat to challenge the greenback is premature despite Washington’s abusive weaponisation of the currency.

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Ukraine war

My Take | The West is reaping what it has sown in Ukraine and Palestine

Having failed in two of the biggest geopolitical challenges of the century, the same Western elites are doubling down by moving against China.

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US-China relations

My Take | The views of Bill Overholt could not be more timely and relevant

The banker and author, who died recently aged 79, believed that fears and myths must be rejected, calling for the creation of a “coalition of hope”.

A Chinese navy ship sailing during the sunrise near the Scarborough Shoal. Bill Overholt, who died recently aged 79, believed that fears and myths must be rejected, calling for the creation of a “coalition of hope”. Photo: AFP
China

My Take | Donald Trump’s tech war against China will prove self-defeating

Biden’s ‘small yard, high fence’ strategy may become ‘huge yard, tall fence’, prohibitively expensive to maintain and with diminishing returns.

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A semiconductor-chip factory in Huaian, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, in April 2024. Photo: AFP

My Take | Xi Jinping is voice of reason to calm a world in chaos

Beijing has turned out to be a major force for stability while friends and foes alike are wreaking havoc around the world.

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United States

My Take | Will Musk make US government a lean, mean, effective machine?

Instead of enhancing efficiency, new advisory unit is likely to push radical deregulation and slash manpower required to supervise big industries.

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