“That is a crotch shot!” says Cheng Lei, laughing at my phone’s screensaver. I tell her it’s a picture of my legs but she’s sceptical and laughs even more. You could be forgiven for expecting Cheng, 49, to be serious and sombre: the journalist spent two years and three months in prison in China for an absurd crime. Detained as a spy and kept in isolation for months, she was constantly watched by guards, and did not hear the voices of her two children for years. But she displays a…
Tag: Australian books
Australia’s big bet is that Asia still matters to the US. But does it really? Sam Roggeveen
Australia has made its big bet on the US based on the key assumption that Asia really matters to Washington. Australia is placing a lot of chips on the red, white and blue, so we had better be sure that this assumption holds up. Does it? Some who question American staying power in Asia argue that the US simply isn’t strong enough to maintain its leadership – it is too politically dysfunctional, racially divided and economically unequal. We shouldn’t dismiss such concerns, especially the increasingly realistic fear that the next…