With war raging in Ukraine, China’s annual “Two Sessions” convey an image of a country in denial. As the Communist Party and its advisory body gather in Beijing this month, there has been little or no mention of a seismic disruption in the world order – an omission that is all the more glaring in view of China’s deep-rooted sense of its unique place in history. With its unabashed great power aspirations, modern China may well be at a decisive juncture.

Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had met face-to-face in Beijing, culminating in a joint document – and then they went off to see the opening of the Winter Olympic Games. Days after the Games ended, Russia invaded Ukraine.China's government has neither condemned nor condoned the attack and has even refrained from calling it an "invasion" in the first place.

China set its lowest annual gross domestic product (GDP) target in decades Saturday, as Premier Li Keqiang warned of a "grave and uncertain" outlook against the backdrop of the coronavirus, a property slump and uncertainty over the war in Ukraine.Li announced the unusually modest target of around 5.5 percent growth for 2022 – the lowest since 1991 – in his speech opening the annual session of China's rubber-stamp parliament.Addressing about 3,000 members of the National People&

One of Hong Kong's top coronavirus experts on Thursday joined a growing chorus of criticism over plans to test the entire city, saying doing so during its worst-ever outbreak would have little impact.The Asian financial hub is registering tens of thousands of new cases each day, overwhelming hospitals and shattering the city's zero-COVID strategy.China has ordered local officials to stamp out the current wave even as studies estimate as many as a quarter of the city's residents

Overflowing hospitals, empty supermarket shelves and grim quarantine camps – Hong Kong is in chaos battling a ballooning COVID outbreak in a business hub once renowned for its efficiency.Many locals are fuming at the government's failure to prepare after winning rare breathing room with two years of an economically painful but largely successful zero-COVID strategy.Other countries that deployed zero-COVID such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore are now learning to live with the viru

The Ukraine-Russia crisis is posing a major challenge for China on many fronts.The ever-closer diplomatic relationship between Russia and China could be seen at the Winter Games with Mr Putin coming to Beijing as one of only a handful of known world leaders to attend.Significantly, Mr Putin waited until just after the Games were over to recognise the two breakaway regions of Ukraine and send in troops to back them.In its public pronouncements, the Chinese government has urged all sides to de-

Hong Kong may impose a China-style hard lockdown that confines people to their homes, authorities signalled Monday, with the city's zero-COVID strategy in tatters and bodies piling up in hospitals.Two years of strict zero-COVID policies kept the coronavirus largely bay but a breakthrough of the highly transmissible Omicron variant exposed how little authorities had done to prepare for a mass outbreak.Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam previously ruled out a citywide lockdown and instead has ord

As I write, Russia’s army has entered Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. It is clear now that the threat of sanctions did not dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin from launching his invasion.

Rivals Singapore and Hong Kong have become pandemic polar opposites, the former opting to live with the coronavirus and reopen to the world while the latter doubles down on zero-COVID and its international isolation.For decades the two cities have jostled to be Asia's premier international business hub, offering low taxes, dependable legal systems and seamless global connections.Both adopted strict suppression tactics when the pandemic emerged, closing borders to keep infections low with

The scene was grim at Caritas Medical Centre last week.Just outside the hospital's emergency room, dozens of hospital beds had been placed in an alley under makeshift tents. The air was punctuated by the moans of patients – most of whom were elderly – and cries of children. All were suspected or confirmed COVID cases waiting to be admitted."It felt like we were in a wartime refugee camp. It was depressing. We were tearful, but there was no more space in the ward.