PATRICK LAWRENCE: Cold War Escapades in the Pacific
There is a lot to read into this moment, but one thing’s clear. The U.S. doesn’t know what time it is. First came the Defense Department’s formal request to Congress for a $20 billion check to upgrade its presence across the Pacific. That…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Failed American Experiment
Here comes the front edge of a new era, one in which America finally falls off its horse, its global standing properly diminished. “The American experiment” is a familiar phrase among us. When we reference it, we do so fully…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: US, China & Hong Kong’s Betrayal
The territory’s likely loss of autonomy is a tragedy made worse because it could have been avoided. China’s announcement last Thursday that the National People’s Congress has placed new security legislation on the table that provides a legal basis for…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Our Latest Sinophobia Fest
Watch, read, and listen as Washington and its media clerks manufacture our consent for a full-dress Cold War with China. One hundred nine years ago, one G. G. Rupert published an extraordinary book called “The Yellow Peril, or The Orient…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Establishment is Changing its Tune on Russia
Russophobic rhetoric persists in Washington, but a counter-argument is emerging. Are Western democracies, the U.S. and France in the lead, rethinking the hostility toward Russia they conjured out of nothing since Moscow responded to the coup Washington cultivated in Ukraine…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Hong Kong’s Inevitable Showdown
This reckoning with Beijing’s authority was baked into the cake 22 years ago when the Union Jack came down over Government House. It is impossible not to admire the bravery and commitment pro-democracy demonstrators display daily as they clog Hong…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The US-China Decoupling
The long, dense economic relationship appears to have passed its peak, writes Patrick Lawrence. President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is swiftly taking a decisive turn for the worse. Step by step, each measure prompting retaliation, a spat so…
China’s European Moment Has Arrived
The simplicities of the postwar order have just begun to pass into history, writes Patrick Lawrence. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of Xi Jinping’s visits to Rome, Paris and Monaco last week. In bringing his much-remarked Belt and Road…
Why China Tiptoed onto the Far Side of the Moon
Xi Jinping’s state media was strangely quiet about its historic lunar landing, writes Patrick Lawrence in this look at the U.S. effort to maintain primacy over advanced technologies. When China landed a space probe on the far side of the…
Bravate di Guerra Fredda nel Pacifico
This Italian translation appeared on Sakeritalia. Prima è arrivata al Congresso la richiesta formale [in inglese] da parte del Dipartimento della Difesa per un assegno di 20 miliardi di dollari per aumentare la propria presenza in tutto il Pacifico. Un mese dopo la…