Ian Williams

Ian Williams is a former foreign correspondent for Channel 4 News and NBC, and author of Every Breath You Take: China’s New Tyranny (Birlinn).

Has Ursula von der Leyen seen the light on China?

20 June 2025 5:01 pm

Coming from an American politician, the accusations would have been unsurprising. Beijing is unwilling to ‘live within the constraints of…

What the next phase of Trump’s trade war with China looks like

15 May 2025 10:03 pm

For clues as to where US policy towards Beijing goes next, look beyond Donald Trump’s chaotic and erratic tariffs and…

Xi has no right to be ‘guest of honour’ at Putin’s Victory Day

9 May 2025 4:00 pm

The presence of Chinese president Xi Jinping as ‘guest of honour’ at Vladimir Putin’s Victory Day military parade in Moscow…

How China bought Britain

3 May 2025 9:00 am

Somewhere in the bowels of the Foreign Office, civil servants are still working on the government’s ‘China audit’. The report…

China smells victory in its tariff war with Trump

24 April 2025 12:07 am

It was an extraordinary statement, given all the bluster that had gone before it. Tariffs on Chinese goods will ‘come…

What is Xi Jinping planning?

13 April 2025 12:18 am

Shanghai port is the busiest in the world. Activity there is closely monitored by financial analysts distrustful of official statistics…

Can China win the trade war against the US?

10 April 2025 2:21 am

China hit back on Wednesday with an additional 50 per cent tariff on US imports, matching the extra levy imposed overnight…

China won’t win its ‘fight to the end’ against Trump

8 April 2025 11:41 pm

China has accused Washington of ‘blackmail’ and said it will ‘fight to the end’ after Donald Trump threatened overnight to…

Why Vladimir Putin is afraid of sea cucumbers

29 March 2025 5:23 pm

Vladivostok, the ‘ruler of the East’, is preparing to celebrate the 165th anniversary of its founding. City Day, as they…

China is not the West’s environmental ally

22 February 2025 9:00 am

In the fight against climate change, China loves to present itself as the world’s White Knight. Armed with wind turbines…

Trump’s support for Taiwan has infuriated Beijing

19 February 2025 7:13 pm

They were only six words on a website, but they helped maintain Beijing’s fiction that Taiwan is part of its…

Trump’s tariff war with China is just getting started

5 February 2025 12:04 am

Over the weekend, Donald Trump described his sweeping 10 per cent tariffs against Chinese goods as an ‘opening salvo’. Within…

Labour’s kowtowing to China will cost Britain

13 January 2025 10:11 pm

When the security services accessed the mobile phone of Yang Tengbo, the alleged Chinese spy who became a confidant and…

What is the point of Rachel Reeves’s visit to Beijing?

10 January 2025 2:30 am

The Chinese communist party claims to know a thing or two about humiliation – the ‘century of humiliation’ at the…

China’s hacking frenzy has reached the US Treasury

31 December 2024 11:04 pm

When Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves visits Beijing in January on a mission to improve ‘economic and financial cooperation’…

How to avoid another Chinese spy scandal

17 December 2024 11:21 pm

As the fallout continues from the latest China spy scandal, it is hard not to conclude that Labour’s policy on…

China is getting ready to take on Trump

15 December 2024 6:20 pm

By one estimate, Chinese military exercises close to Taiwan this week were the largest since 1996, when Beijing attempted unsuccessfully…

Assad’s fall is also a blow to Beijing

10 December 2024 10:17 pm

Russia and Iran kept Bashar al-Assad in power and are the biggest strategic losers from the toppling of his brutal…

The corruption scandal gripping Xi Jinping’s army

30 November 2024 10:19 pm

In an effort to create a cutting edge force, the Chinese Communist party (CCP) has spent billions of dollars expanding…

The academic paper mills helping China commit scientific fraud

25 November 2024 3:35 am

Few people embody the ideal of scientific excellence as much as Albert Einstein. Each year a Berlin-based foundation bearing his…

The paper mills helping China commit scientific fraud

23 November 2024 5:30 pm

Few people embody the ideal of scientific excellence as much as Albert Einstein. Each year a Berlin-based foundation bearing his…

Keir Starmer’s desperate cosying up to Beijing

19 November 2024 3:27 am

Keir Starmer has met President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, telling the Chinese leader that…

Why did China censor reports of a deadly hit-and-run?

14 November 2024 1:40 am

In many respects, the Chinese Communist party’s (CCP) response to one of the deadliest mass killings in recent Chinese history…

Will Trump and Musk fall out over China?

10 November 2024 9:00 pm

Xi Jinping was quick with his congratulations, urging Donald Trump to ‘forge the right path for China and the United…

Why the Great Firewall of China is waging war on Halloween

31 October 2024 5:00 pm

The Chinese Communist party (CCP) is spooked by Halloween. In Shanghai, police have rounded up people gathering in costumes that…