About: William Holstein

To the editors: I would like to commend H.R. McMaster for his excellent article, What China Wants. He blended together the various threads of what emerges as a global competition of systems and values. The emerging U.S.-Chinese competition goes beyond trade issues. It touches on control of Information Technology platforms and telecommunications systems. It touches […]…

Seen through the prism of today’s pandemic, the anti-war student demonstrations that erupted 50 years ago today do not seem as significant as they seemed at the time. But the fact that the National Guard killed four students at Kent State was stunning. How had we reached the point that students were being gunned down […]…

I’m enjoying watching the editorial page writers at the Wall Street Journal going through ideological agony as the state and federal governments take a central role in combatting the coronavirus. At least since the days of Ronald Reagan, the Journal’s editorial page has promoted the notion that government does not solve problems. It IS the […]…

My old pal, Bradley Martin, has this excellent article out today examining whether Kim Jong-un is critically ill. No one knows who his successor might be. From decades of covering this story, I agree that if there is a power struggle and the North is paralyzed, that creates the possibility of a dramatic multi-sided confrontation […]…

The Chinese government is engaged in a global battle to shape the narrative about the coronavirus. If the story that dominates the headlines is “China Did It,” that is very dangerous to the legitimacy of the Communist Party, at home and abroad. But if the story that dominates is “China Is Saving The World,” then […]…