Douglas Wong
Asia Watcher. Bloomberg editor. Culturally incoherent citizen of everywhere. Holder of personal opinions
- @mbrooker.bsky.social tells good London stories www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
- The NIMBY lobby is strong and suggestions to build on green-belt land will encounter fierce resistance, says @mbrooker.bsky.social 'But some fights are worth having. This is one' www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
- 'The Trump administration is showing us the makings of an imperial order,' said Bader Al-Saif, while Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic commented 'There is no international law anymore' www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
- 'The strength in China-Russian relations is no Russian wants to become Chinese and no Chinese wants to become Russian,' Ivan Kratsev tells @fbermingham.bsky.social 'For China, coming to Europe as Russia's husband is probably not going to be the most successful strategy' www.scmp.com/news/china/d...
- Many of these protest movements lead to promises of radical policies that aren’t sustainable or realistic, says @dacemoglumit.bsky.social 'so they further tarnish the liberal democratic system they come from' www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
- 2025 has been the UK’s sunniest year on record, with weeks and months of unusually clear skies, writes Lia Leendertz. 'The British body, so accustomed to bracing itself against drizzle, remembered the pleasure of sitting still without shivering' #wintersolstice www.ft.com/content/925e...
- 'A US establishment that intimidates large companies, conscripts tech into politics, guards its domestic markets and weaponizes its trade will hardly see the Chinese system as an ideological threat,' writes Mihir Sharma bit.ly/4oYz8z1 'That is what unnerves Asian capitals'
- More please #bonetemple #28yearslater
- There's an arrogance to the UK government tone on immigration, writes @sarahoconnorft.ft.com Settling is a privilege not a right Shabana Mahmood says, but how can migrants become net contributors when a shambolic bureaucracy blocks them? And how long will they want to try? www.ft.com/content/f4e5...
- Hong Kong is holding legislative elections on Sunday that will be closely watched for turnout. Participation fell to a record 30.2% in the 2021 race www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
- The Independent Commission Against Corruption the city’s anti-graft agency, said on Thursday that it had arrested four people on suspicion of inciting others not to vote. Three others were charged with the same offence by the body last month www.scmp.com/news/hong-ko...
- 'Every day, another corporation, elected official or family member chooses to speak to you in this particular voice,' writes Sam Kriss (or does he?) 'This is just what the world sounds like now, how everything has chosen to speak. Mixed metaphors and empty sincerity' www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
- When Tan Shzr Ee came to the UK in the 1990s, she faced racism for the 1st time, 'so quirkily delivered I didn’t clock it as racism.' On Sept. 14, 'a giggling chorus of youths' overtook her on the A30, their SUV window wound down, to shout: Ching-chong hee-haw! www.straitstimes.com/world/europe...
- 'Being called a f---ing P--- is not a new thing for me, but there's a lot more of it around in recent times than there has been over the course of the rest of my life,' Shabana Mahmood tells Emily Smith, after using the same words to rebut criticism that her policies encourage racism bit.ly/43L9GFt
- November nights
- 'For decades, free speech & an impartial justice system were assets reassuring allies, attracting talent & offering hope to those living under repressive governments' writes @dantenkate.bsky.social. 'Now it’s becoming increasingly difficult to discern what values the US stands for' bit.ly/4oK7GFh
- Malaysia, Truly Asia #MalaysiaBoleh www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opi...
- 'The underlying structure of Sino-American relations is getting terribly precarious,' says Hal Brands. 'The question is whether Trump grasps this ugly truth' www.bloomberg.com/opinion/feat...
- 'Do you want to polish slides no one will remember, or tackle the problems no one can forget?' asks @simonvanteutem.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/f01c...
- Reposted by Douglas WongThe ECHR has taken over post-Brexit as the symbolic oppressor of Britain’s sovereign freedom. But grandiose gesture of leaving would do little to solve the problem it’s designed to address: immigration. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
- 'The prospect of pledging allegiance to a country out of fear that said country might deport me is an unsettling one,' says @meganjgibson.bsky.social 'Who can feel settled in a system this arbitrary or a state this cruel?' www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
- “I had this terrible thirst for contact with Chinese people,” Jerome Cohen, RIP, once said. He went on to spend decades influencing the country’s legal, trade and human-rights policies. www.wsj.com/world/china/...
- Although upset by Xi Jinping's authoritarian revival, he was not distraught, writing that 'his rule will not last forever, and one can then expect another swing of the political pendulum toward a more moderate polity' www.economist.com/china/2025/0...
- Reposted by Douglas WongJapan could soon make history with its first-ever female prime minister. Hardline conservative Sanae Takaichi has been elected the new leader of Japan's ruling party, putting her on track to lead the world's fourth-biggest economy: bloom.bg/4gRaKNc
- 'Britain already feels like a less tolerant country than when my family moved here from Asia three years ago,' writes @mbrooker.bsky.social 'This anti-immigrant environment will impact the high-skilled, high-value workers the UK would like to attract' www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
- 'Together, political predators & digital conquistadors have decided to wipe out the old elites & their rules,' says Giuliano da Empoli 'If they succeed it will not only be the parties of lawyers & technocrats that will be swept away, but liberal democracy as we have known' www.ft.com/content/85ee...
- 'Has Dubai, which has much higher numbers of immigrants but essentially no permanent path to citizenship,' asks @stephenkb.bsky.social 'really done a better job of integrating people and preserving its identity than the UK has?' www.ft.com/content/43da...
- 'Doubling the visa pathway to 10 years would damage the UK’s global reputation for integrity, dependability and fairness — and hand a propaganda coup to China,' writes @mbrooker.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
- 'How have conditions led to so many feeling unheard, frustrated and angry?' asks @helenpidd.bsky.social 'Until the foundations of Britain are fixed – the NHS, schools, potholes, fuel prices – I can’t see this movement doing anything other than growing' www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
- 'You either fight back or you die,' Elon Musk told yesterday's crowd in London. @robynvinter.bsky.social was at the front line www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
- London: sunny with gale ⚠️
- London's transport chaos adds to the impression of an administration adrift, says @mbrooker.bsky.social, but rather than driverless subway trains , what Britain really needs is a driver for the country www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
- 'What we so often describe as politics is, in fact, a series of shoves,' writes Jonathan Liew 'Splenetic, emotional and with a wilful blindness to consequence that can so easily be exploited by those with a clear destination in mind' www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
- 'At some point,' writes @roberthutton.co.uk, 'Labour are going to have to accept the possibility that sometimes the advice they get is bad' thecritic.co.uk/free-for-me-...
- 'The US pivot from free trade and global security has the makings of a decades-defining transformation,' write Tom Orlik and Jennifer Welch. '(Now) Donald Trump’s new world order is crashing into the century-defining challenges of climate change and AI' www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
- 'Keir Starmer should be calling out the racists, unashamedly defending British tolerance and embrace of different cultures and not shirking the duty of enhancing the present by critically examining the past,' says Stephen Vines open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
- 'It is absurd to imagine that, in a porn-soaked culture, in which rape is virtually decriminalised, protesting outside migrant hostels should be anyone’s first priority in keeping women and girls safe,' says @glosswitch.bsky.social thecritic.co.uk/reclaiming-p...
- 'Tolerance, freedom and justice were and are supreme Enlightenment values' writes Will Hutton 'Universal human rights are foundational. And thus, the vital primacy of impartial law to govern all of this' observer.co.uk/news/columni...
- 'History shows that many countries have fallen because of obsession with defending language, race or religion,' Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. 'A civilised Malaysia can only have meaning through understanding, commitment and a clear resolve to safeguard unity'
- 'The rule of law depends heavily on having a president willing to accept it,' writes @gregstohr.bsky.social 'and even some conservatives say the biggest threat to the rule of law is the administration’s penchant for pushing legal bounds' www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
- There are better ways to build unity and patriotism than putting out more flags, writes @mbrooker.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
- 'Each application is determined on its individual merit,'Hong Kong's immigration department said, @hongkongfp.com reported hongkongfp.com/2025/08/23/b...
- '@nytimes.com began relocating its Hong Kong-based digital news operation to Seoul in 2020 because of the uncertainty surrounding press freedom and because some Times employees faced challenges securing work permits' www.nytimes.com/2025/08/23/w...
- Europe is welcoming a new wave of immigrants seeking refuge from political upheaval, with some European institutions offering "asylum" to scientists willing to uproot and take lower pay, writes @ashifakassam.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
- 'For the most part, Britain has shown it is good at integrating new arrivals,' says @philipstephens.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/a54a...
- Shirt sponsors are no longer delightfully local like Walkers crisps, Dagenham Motors and Newcastle Brown Ale, writes @agordon.me Today 4 teams are sponsored by a betting website licensed by TGP Europe, which exited the UK after being fined by the nation's regulator www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
- 'Barely a century ago,' writes @kenanmalik.bsky.social, 'Jewish beliefs and practices were seen as being as incompatible with British values as many now deem Muslims to be' observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
