Strategic Narratives

​​Five years of freedom, and the PRC is still taking hostages

As Trump hosts Xi, Huawei goes on trial, and Beijing keeps arbitrarily detaining other countries’ citizens, the geopolitical tensions of the…

Sep 27 • Michael Kovrig

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Strongmen at the Temple of Thymos

The status-driven fragility of a world dominated by Xi Jinping and Donald Trump

Sep 23 • Michael Kovrig

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Why Chinese state financiers have come to Canada’s investment summit

China Investment Corp, China International Capital Corp and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are in Toronto to look for passive stakes, but political…

Sep 14 • Michael Kovrig and Patricia Xavier

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Trump and Xi: from summit to summit or peak to trough?

Reading the tea leaves of the May US-China state visit to prepare for the reciprocal meeting on September 24

Sep 1 • Michael Kovrig

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August 2026

The True Cost of Decoupling from China

Breaking with Beijing is more affordable than you think.

Published on Commonplace • Aug 7

China is claiming the right to punish its critics anywhere on Earth

A new law declares that organizations and individuals outside the PRC who “undermine ethnic unity” or “create ethnic division” can be pursued for legal…

Aug 4

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July 2026

Carney in Saudi Arabia: from moral suasion to strategic indispensability

The Prime Minister isn’t shrinking Canada’s ambitions, he’s updating them

Jul 20 • Vina Nadjibulla

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Hedging in Beijing and Barcelona: restoring the peloton

Western leaders keep walking into China’s choreography. Instead they should think more like elite cyclists — and diplomats

Jul 5 • Michael Kovrig

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June 2026

Hedging in Beijing and Brussels: from waving to waffling

Can France unite Europeans against China’s mercantilist export flood?

Jun 24 • Michael Kovrig

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Canada's Indo-Pacific Strategy is now more robust than ever

But will Mark Carney deliver?

Jun 8 • Vina Nadjibulla

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May 2026

The hard choices of Canada’s China reset

Foreign Minister Wang Yi's first visit to Ottawa in a decade should judged by the clarity it produces

May 29 • Vina Nadjibulla

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Hedging in Beijing II: the parade Trump made

Bandwagoning, buck-passing and hiding in China's Great Hall of the People

May 18 • Michael Kovrig

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