Mar 1st 2022 TO THE FERVENT revolutionaries who ran China in 1968, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia was a monstrous crime, but not a surprise. Watching from Beijing, Chairman Mao Zedong and his aides saw a vindication of a long-standing suspicion: that the once-proud Soviet Union was now ruled by “socialist imperialists”, on a par with the capitalists in charge of America, the original imperialist superpower. Indeed, Mao’s deputy, Zhou Enlai, accused Soviet leaders of active collusion with America, involving a scheme to divide the world into two spheres of…
Day: February 28, 2022
Why the Chinese Internet Is Cheering Russia’s Invasion
The countries’ friendship has “no limits,” they declared. Given that the leaders met just weeks before the invasion, it would be understandable to conclude that China should have had better knowledge of the Kremlin’s plans. But growing evidence suggests that the echo chamber of China’s foreign policy establishment might have misled not only the country’s internet users, but its own officials. My colleague Edward Wong reported that over a period of three months, senior U.S. officials held meetings with their Chinese counterparts and shared intelligence that detailed Russia’s troop buildup…
China Was Woefully Unprepared for the Russia-Ukraine War
Advertisement While countries around the world warned their citizens to avoid traveling to Ukraine before the imminent military conflict, China did not take significant actions until the day Russia started its invasion. Instead, it downplayed the potential for conflict and thus missed the chance to safely evacuate Chinese citizens. The information posted by the Chinese Embassy to Ukraine showed that the Chinese diplomatic mission changed its stance on the security crisis three times in less than a week. Initially recognizing the Russia-Ukraine war as a regional conflict, the Chinese embassy…
How Reliable Are China’s Statistics?
Advertisement In January, China announced its population statistics for 2021, with a net gain of 480,000 for the year. Although this is greater than the entire population of 61 other countries, it represents China’s slowest increase since 1960, when Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward” famine killed tens of millions of Chinese people. Paramount leader Xi Jinping is pushing reforms to encourage fertility, but China’s population growth seems destined to stall for some time. Beyond this story, however, there is an important question about China’s statistics that most reporting never addresses:…
We Are All Living in Vladimir Putin’s World Now
Over the last two months, the Moscow-Beijing alliance has moved from hypothesis to reality, thanks to the shared goal of challenging American dominance. While Chinese elites are hardly excited about Russia’s reckless invasion of Ukraine (the Chinese hold dear their commitment to nonviolation of state sovereignty), there is no doubt they will stay on Moscow’s side. Look at how Beijing refused to officially describe Mr. Putin’s war as an invasion. President Xi Jinping may be the biggest beneficiary of the current crisis: America not only looks weak; it also now…