Valdai Club

Picking a fight with China might prove to be one of Trump’s most consequential missteps, though only time will ultimately reveal the full impact, Nelson Wong writes.

It takes two to tango, but a great many to form an orchestra to stage an exceptional performance of a world in harmony. If peace and development is what we all aspire for as humans, now is the time to lay down arms, to sit down and talk, Nelson Wong writes.

In fact, the rise of China from being one of the poorest countries on Earth some forty years ago to being its second largest economy today is a classic example of what a country can accomplish in its economic and social development with the benefit of good domestic governance based on meritocracy and proactive but flexible foreign policies, as well as through the hardworking nature of its people. China's achievements have not been brought about through plunder, by identifying enemies and picking fights with others, or by bullying and harming those that are weaker.    

This year marks the start of a new period of changes in modern history. We are certainly sailing into unchartered waters in times of a great transition, whereby extra caution must be taken by all nations, big and small, to guide our way forward. Nelson Wong writes on the causes of geopolitical shifts and on Putin’s six principles.

We are living in times of great changes, and these changes have convinced us that the world is becoming polycentric sooner than most of us might have expected, writes Nelson Wong, Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Centre for RimPac and International Studies, for the Valdai Club Youth conference.

By selling and sending weapons to Taiwan and patting on the shoulders of the regime in Taipei, the White House continues to play with its “strategic ambiguity” when it still claims that the US “does not support Taiwan’s independence”. China seems to have exhausted its patience in continuing to play the game with the US by laying its cards clear on the table, Nelson Wong writes.

For many in the West, East and South East Asia are generally perceived as a vast region that is relatively tranquil accommodating weaker and smaller nations that have held their heads down and stayed submissive to Western colonialists for hundreds of years, writes Nelson Wong, Vice Chairman, Shanghai Centre for RimPac Strategic and International Studies, for the 13th Asian conference of the Valdai Discussion Club.

Despite the fact that the world has crumbled and with Russia's military operation in Ukraine still ongoing, the Valdai Discussion Club's annual convention this year is therefore more important than ever, and the fact that it has still gathered over 100 participants from 41 countries alone has shown the due respect towards the club by experts, diplomats, politicians alike from around the world who care about not only the current crisis but also the way forward for us humanity.

In the context of the on-going worldwide geopolitical transition towards more competition among big powers, Hong Kong is still well-positioned to continue to serve as city of international importance and hence be a valuable asset to its motherland, Valdai Club expert Nelson Wong writes.

While the "special military operation" of Russia in Ukraine is still underway, the US and its Western allies have already announced several waves of sanctions against Russia over the last couple of days. Op-ed articles that have appeared in both Russian and Western media are feeding readers around the world with opinions of well-known scholars from Russia, Europe and the US on the background and root-cause of the on-going crisis in Ukraine, let us turn to look at those sanctions against Russia that have also taken the world by surprise.