That beacon of peace, China, errr, I mean Pakistan…

by liberal japonicus The Guardian reports the following: The US and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire on Tuesday evening after a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan, canceling an ultimatum from Donald Trump for Iran to surrender or face widespread destruction. Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire agreement came less than two hours before … Read more

Adam Tooze

by liberal japonicus I’ve mentioned my frustration with Klein a few times, but I was grateful to hear his talk with Adam Tooze. I think the title is rather misleading which continues to hang on to the idea that the US is central, because most of the podcast is about China. Here is the transcript … Read more

Chinese corruption

by liberal japonicus More China stuff. As you’ve probably noticed, I’m skeptical about narratives that argue that China is collapsing because [insert reason here]. One of those reasons has often been that China is corrupt from stem to stern. A few links to get an idea of the arguments, here, here and here There was … Read more