Category Archives: geopolitics

Separation of Birth & Merit 1. Human life begins in lotteries Some of these lotteries operate at the level of groups: race, sex, skin color, facial features. Others operate at the level of the individual: height, intelligence, health, temperament, the family into which one is born, whether that family is wealthy or destitute. Still othersContinue reading “Separation & Unity 3/6”

Separation of Ownership and Use I. What Do You Really Own? China’s Seventy-Year Housing Right In China today, a private individual may buy an apartment, live in it, sell it, rent it out, or pass it on to heirs. And yet, under Chinese law, the right attached to that apartment expires after seventy years. ThisContinue reading “Separation & Unity 2/6”

2025 feels like one of those rare hinge years—the kind that only become obvious in hindsight, but which you can feel while you’re living through them. Eighty years after the end of World War II, the world order born from that moment is quietly, then loudly, falling apart. And watching that collapse has brought meContinue reading “2025: The Year the Postwar Order Broke”

1. 我有时候去那个野树林子里走一走，满眼看见的都是树，大多笔直挺拔，有的则是歪八斜扭。我就想，为什么大多数树林子里的树，都是笔直挺拔，而有些树，天生下来就是歪的，骨子里就是坏的？世上真的是有坏种这种东西吗？

2. 中国古代有个叫庄周的，写了本书叫做《庄子》，里面讲说，你要是想活得长，就不要像那个笔直挺拔的树，要长得歪八斜扭才好。他那意思是说，你长得笔直挺拔，木匠来了看见了，第一时间就把你给砍了做家具去了。你要是个歪巴斜扭，没用的东西呢？那就谁也不会理会你，也不来砍你去做家具。你就好死不如赖活着。世界上还真有这种坏种。你不信，自己去树林子里走一趟。

3. 我刚上大学的时候，有一天

“中华人民共和国中央人民政府今天成立了！”

1949年10月1日，毛泽东主席的宣告响彻天安门广场，也震动了世界。但许多人不知道的是，这句话背后还带着一个石破天惊的行动——人民政府宣布：废除所有自鸦片战争以来西方列强强加给中国的不平等条约，所有这些条约带来的外债，我们一概不认！

你知道这笔被甩进历史垃圾堆的债务究竟有多庞大吗？让我们看看这些触目惊心的数字：

1. The Norwegian Professor and the Mushroom Dish One time, a Norwegian professor came to our university to give a talk. Afterward, we took him to lunch. Everyone at the table was handed a copy of the menu and courteously asked to pick a dish of their own liking. Our foreign guest, a big fanContinue reading “Drop the Isms, Pick Up the Chopsticks!”

Why Compare a Country to a Corporation? Comparing a state to a corporation risks oversimplification, but the intellectual payoff is worth it. Analogies clarify hidden structures. They help people—especially Americans steeped in corporate culture—see governance through familiar eyes. And when you apply this lens to China, something remarkable happens: you realize the world’s most populousContinue reading “China. Inc.”

England, once a titan of empires, now slinks through the global gutter, embodying the essence of a “low life.” This critique targets not individual citizens but the collective character of England’s government, society, and media. To grasp this fall, we first define the low life, then expose how England’s actions mirror these traits, and finallyContinue reading “England’s Descent: A Nation of Low Life”

My cousin from Hong Kong came to visit last summer. He was slick, confident, and wore a blazer in ninety-degree weather. Over dim sum, he declared — in a thick, showy accent — that English was “the key to civilization.” I asked him what kind of tea he preferred, and he answered, “Frankly, I onlyContinue reading “My Cousin from Hong Kong”