East Asia

China's strategic ambitions, Taiwan's precarity, the Korean peninsula and the Indo-Pacific contest between Washington and Beijing. Coverage focuses on the decisions being made here that will shape the international order for decades.

Putin Won the War. Xi Won Putin.

Putin went to war for Russian sovereignty. He flew to Beijing this week hoping Xi will finalise a gas pipeline replacing the European market Russia destroyed. The act of independence produced the most comprehensive dependency in Russian history.

By Sunny Peter

/ 21 May 2026

The Thucydides Question

Xi asked Trump if they could avoid the Thucydides Trap — the theory that a rising power and an established one are destined for conflict. Trump said China was beautiful. That is not an answer to Xi's question. It is confirmation the question was not understood.

By Sunny Peter

/ 15 May 2026

Country Builder Comes to Beijing

As Trump's plane touched down in Beijing, Chinese social media was circulating his nickname: Chuan Jianguo — the Country Builder. The implication is sardonic and precise. His policies built China's power more than America's. Now he has come to ask for a favour.

By Sunny Peter

/ 14 May 2026

Xi Only Has to Not Lose

Trump flies to Beijing on Thursday carrying a war he cannot finish and a strait he cannot reopen. He is going to ask Xi Jinping for help. Beijing did not need to do anything to earn this moment. Washington created it by starting a war it cannot end without China's assistance.

By Sunny Peter

/ 12 May 2026

Ask China

Bessent called China a funder of terrorism for buying Iranian oil. Then asked China to use those ties to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. In the same interview. Washington built this crisis on the premise that China's relationship with Iran was the problem. Now it needs that relationship to survive.

By Sunny Peter

/ 11 May 2026

Japan Chose Its Lesson

Japan has scrapped its postwar ban on arms exports. Framed as a response to North Korean missiles and Chinese naval expansion, the decision is also a generational shift in Japanese strategic culture — from the pacifism written into the constitution to the realism written by events.

By Sunny Peter

/ 22 Apr 2026

When the Tyrant Has a Point

Kim Jong Un runs concentration camps and starves his people. He also looked at Iran’s ruins and drew the obvious conclusion: nuclear weapons are the only guarantee against American military action. The argument is made by a monster. That does not make it wrong.

By Sunny Peter

/ 31 Mar 2026

Semiconductor Chessboard: How the US-China AI Race is Redrawing Global Alliances and Diplomatic Strategy

The US-China rivalry has found its sharpest edge in semiconductors. Washington uses export controls to choke Chinese access to advanced chips. Beijing races to build domestic capacity. Every state in between is being forced to choose sides in a contest they did not start.

By Sunny Peter

/ 12 Nov 2025

Semiconductor Chessboard: How the US-China AI Race is Redrawing Global Alliances and Diplomatic Strategy

China's Massive Military Parade Unites Xi, Putin, and Kim Jong Un in Historic Display of Anti-Western Alliance

Xi Jinping flanked by Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un sent a message requiring no translation. Three authoritarian leaders, three nuclear states, one parade. The image is not merely symbolic — it reflects a convergence that Western strategic planning cannot afford to dismiss.

By Sunny Peter

/ 3 Sep 2025

China's Massive Military Parade Unites Xi, Putin, and Kim Jong Un in Historic Display of Anti-Western Alliance