Beijing has the power to do most anything that it wants not only in the mainland but also Hong Kong (and Macau). However, prudence counsels for less rather than more.

Recently, the world has witnessed larger typhoons and bigger hurricanes in size and frequency. As climate risks are escalating, efforts to contain collateral damage are eroding. What is needed is joint U.S.-Chinese climate leadership.

On the 26th of March, Hong Kong gained a new leader, the duly elected Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. Despite professing a desire to continue the policies of her predecessor Chief Executive CY Leung, it has noted that Lam has also taken certain steps that bear a similarity to another Chief Executive, Donald Tsang. The question then becomes: will Lam become CY 2.0, or Donald Tsang 2.0?

Despite all the predictions of doom by Western pundits in 1997, Hong Kong has done well since its reversion of sovereignty to China twenty years ago. 

On the first of July, Hong Kong will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its return to China. HKSAR's first chief executive reflects on how far the city has come, where it is today, and what the future may bring.

July 1, 2017, will mark the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China, after more than a century of British colonial rule. It comes at a moment when China’s leaders are increasingly promoting Hong Kong’s unique role in advancing the country’s economic development.

Chief Executive C.Y. Leung offers a chilling glimpse into what Trumpian politics in government might look like. In the context of statements made by the then-presidential republican nominee Donald Trump, Cheung illustrates how Chief Executive Leung exemplifies these policies, stances, and personality qualities of Trump. Principles once seen as fundamental to Hong Kong’s continued prosperity as diverse as separation of political powers, freedom of the press, and clean government have all been thrown into question by CY Leung’s administration, as have American values in this year’s election.

The call for “real elections” has been the rallying cry of Hong Kong protestors, but open and direct elections of the Chief Executive may actually exacerbate the problem by introducing political gridlock. Lawrence Zhang explore three structural problems in the Hong Kong political system, highlighting the need to link up the Exco and Legco in a way that creates more effective and responsive government in practice as well as in the perception of the voting public.

Ted Carpenter argues that the contentious Taiwan issue has merely been slumbering during the presidency of Ma Ying-jeou, and it now shows signs of awakening as a part of Taiwan’s greater assertiveness toward Beijing – which also implicates the United States in their role as “protector.”