In the search for stability, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threat
If geopolitics relies at least in part on bonhomie between global leaders, China made an unexpected play for Ireland’s good graces when the taoiseach visited Beijing this month. Meeting Ireland’s leader, Micheál Martin, in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China’s president, Xi Jinping, said a favourite book of his as a teenager was The Gadfly, by the Irish author Ethel Voynich, a novel set in the revolutionary fervour of Italy in the 1840s.
“It was unusual that we ended up discussing The Gadfly and its impact on both of us but there you are,” Martin told reporters in Beijing.
China is on a charm offensive with western leaders, a path cleared by Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic and destabilising power grabs on the global stage. Although Europe breathed a sigh of relief this week when Trump withdrew the threat of using military force in Greenland and said he would not impose tariffs on opponents of his plans in the Arctic, the US no longer seems like a reliable partner.
Running from one superpower dependency to another.
Lateral move at best.
Xi cares about Xi.
For the tankie who inevitably wull ackshuallys me: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/nobody-is-safe-chinas-xi-targets-his-close-ally-purge-2026-01-26/
That’s what Xi does to his closest friends.
The article I saw yesterday about this Gen. Zhang Youxia said he was leaking sensitive information to the US. I wonder why Reuters declined to mention this accusation.
It seems like, maybe, with a title like “nobody is safe”, the authors are trying to scare us more than they’re trying to inform us.
It’s also a bit strange that they’re spinning the fact that this guy’s status and personal connections didn’t make him immune as a bad thing. If we were talking about western politics this would be a virtue.
Sure he was. 🙄
The question isn’t whether he was committing treason. The question is why would the author of the article omit this information. It’s highly relevant, even if you don’t believe it’s true.
Again, the article’s title (“Nobody is safe”) is expressly written to invoke fear. The article’s author could’ve written “… And he is accused of leaking information to the west; a flimsy excuse.” or something, but they chose not to included that information.