Category Archives: Blog

The stock market leaps gracefully this morning as – Phew! – China and the US agree to end the massive world-shattering trade war before it has even begun. Both sides remove tariffs that they piled on in fits of righteous … Continue reading →

Almost feeling sorry for China’s barbarian-handlers – how can they use their cold, calculating, cynical cunning to undermine the US-led rules-based international trade order when Trump’s negotiating team is a baboon show too incoherent to con? Presumably the answer is: … Continue reading →

For the second time in a week, security men assault Hong Kong reporters covering sensitive stories on the Mainland. Outraged citizens imagine that the Hong Kong government will take a stand – but they should be thankful for a bit … Continue reading →

The Hong Kong government takes a break from bemoaning the shortage of land for affordable housing and auctions off a plot at a price equivalent to apartments costing HK$32,000 a square foot. I think there are people out there who point … Continue reading →

Is Beijing softening its tone towards Hong Kong? The South China Morning Post believes it might be, judging by remarks from China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office boss Zhang Xiaoming. (Incidentally, the column is an interesting example of the … Continue reading →

Donald Trump prepares a love-in with nuke-rattling North Korean dictator and hostage-releaser Kim Jong-un, pulls out of the years-in-negotiating multilateral Iran nuclear deal and potentially freezing Western economic relations with that country, then offers a lifeline for China’s ZTE – … Continue reading →

A letter from HSBC. The first sentence starts with a dangling participle, drops the word ‘enhancements’ – a sure sign of impending crap – and makes the guru-cult-like promise of ‘deeper inspiration’. Then it gets bad… ‘Going forward’, the letter … Continue reading →

It’s all relative. Malaysian leader Najib Razak was so bad that the country is celebrating the return of 92-year-old dissent-crushing, courts-rigging, rival-framing Mahathir Mohamad as a victory for fresh, clean, decent governance. And by the standards of the Philippines, Thailand, … Continue reading →

If you enjoy a non-stop sickly diet of Amazing Rising China and Decrepit Declining West, reading the South China Morning Post’s op-ed page is like gorging yourself on a 5lb box of chocolates. In today’s… A quasi-official ultra-nationalist commentator takes … Continue reading →

What’s inside this impenetrable and spooky old Macau tower? It is part of a pawn shop business, so I would guess it’s full of vaults, safe-deposit boxes and strong rooms – or was in its glory days. The scale of … Continue reading →