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Minxin Pei
For Minxin Pei's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2022
China’s 'zero-COVID' muddle
The longer Chinese authorities attempt to avoid responsibility and muddle through on COVID-19, the greater the risk to public health.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 23, 2022
Will China prove the doomsayers wrong?
Investors seem convinced that China's new leadership lacks the know-how and independence to mount an effective response to the profound economic challenges the country faces.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2022
Beijing’s Mikhail Gorbachev phobia
In the eyes of most leaders of the Communist Party of China, Mikhail Gorbachev committed the unforgivable crime of causing the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 3, 2022
The coming Taiwan crisis
China's saber-rattling over Taiwan, galvanized by U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island, is born of a need to maintain some control over the situation amid pro-independence gains.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2022
How can America come out the victor in a new ‘cold war’?
If the U.S. is to win the new cold war, it will also need to protect its own democracy from the Republican Party.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2022
How the U.S. can counter China’s Middle-East influence
The only way U.S. President Joe Biden can counter China's efforts is by raising America's own diplomatic and economic game.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 13, 2022
What the Ukraine war should teach China
Russia's military has performed far worse than expected in Ukraine. This does not bode well for the Chinese People's Liberation Army, which shares many of the same weaknesses.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2022
China will be deglobalization’s big loser
History should be a stark warning to President Xi Jinping: if he allows Russia to divide the world with its war on Ukraine, it is China and its exporters who will pay the heaviest price.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2022
The Ukraine war could trigger a nuclear-arms race in Asia
Putin is sending one clear message with his Ukraine invasion: if you have nukes, nobody messes with you. The security risks this poses cannot be overestimated.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 24, 2022
Nixon was right to gamble on China
Critics argue that the U.S. President Nixon's 1972 China visit was a strategic blunder. But the 40 years of peace and stability between the two former foes must be considered a success.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 2, 2022
How China views the Ukraine crisis
The stakes for China are high, but Beijing has been extremely careful about showing its hand over the Ukraine crisis.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 6, 2022
The security consequences of America’s China focus
Some regional powers will be tempted to bully weaker neighbors because they think that the U.S. pivot to East Asia will make American military intervention much less likely.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / The Year Ahead: Reckonings
Dec 29, 2021
Shinzo Abe’s legacy reshapes the Asia-Pacific
The regional trade pact and security agreement that were championed by Japan's former prime minister look likely to shape Asia's geopolitical landscape for a long time to come.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 18, 2021
China is killing its tech golden goose
U.S. lawmakers may be fretting unnecessarily, because the Chinese government seems to be doing everything possible to lose its tech race with America.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 20, 2021
The Chinese Communist Party is not forever
The fact that no other such party in modern times has survived for a century should give China's leaders cause for worry, not celebration.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 13, 2021
The limits to U.S.-China climate cooperation
The best we can hope for is that the two superpowers are disciplined enough to avoid endangering humanity's survival as they jostle for geopolitical advantage.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2021
China’s human rights and economic self-harm
China can afford an economic decoupling with the U.S. (though it will be costly). It cannot afford a simultaneous decoupling with the rest of the major Western economies.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 17, 2021
Why China’s Hong Kong crackdown could backfire
The Year of the Ox has begun darkly for the people of Hong Kong. On Feb. 16, nine pro-democracy activists, including 82-year-old Martin Lee, the revered long-time leader of the city’s Democratic Party, went on trial facing charges of illegal assembly.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2021
Biden and Xi: Cooperation should come first, tit-for-tat later
If neither Biden nor Xi wants to risk any political capital to make the first move, the U.S.-China relationship is highly likely to worsen further.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World / Beyond COVID-19
Dec 28, 2020
China’s fateful year, from Wuhan to Hong Kong
In 2020, relations with the West swung back toward mutual distrust and hostility, with the COVID-19 pandemic and Hong Kong national-security law playing decisive roles.

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on