China

It’s exactly ten years since Iranian dissidents first blew the cover of a secret uranium-enrichment facility under a mountain at Natanz, in a bleak stretch of desert near Isfahan. Ever since, relations between Israel and Iran have headed inexorably towards war. Israeli leaders have insisted that they are ready to launch a military strike — unilaterally if necessary — against Iran if the uranium enrichment continues. Iranian leaders, liberals and hardliners alike, have been equally adamant that the centrifuges will continue to spin. For Israeli hawks like prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the question has been not whether to strike Iran, but when.

The other week I had the honour of spending some time with a great hero. Chen Guangcheng is the blind Chinese human rights activist who made world news last year when he escaped from house arrest and made his way to Beijing where he claimed asylum in the US embassy. Now living in the US with his immediate family, Chen and I had some time to sit down and talk during a brief visit to London. We talked about China, Communism, his extraordinary story and his hopes for his own - and China's - future. He relayed, in unsparing but necessary detail, the gruesome and inhumane reality of the Chinese Communist Party's one-child policy. I also asked him to talk about his opinion of David Cameron and William Hague, who refused to meet with him on this trip. The interview is in this week's magazine.

François Hollande has just completed his visit to China. The two great socialist nations more or less embraced: 'I look forward to... working with you to make our relationship closer, healthier and more vibrant,' said Chinese president Xi Jinping. 'When China and France agree on a position, we can drive the world,' Hollande cooed back. Both countries agreed they wanted a 'multipolar world' rather than a 'superpower' one — meaning they're not comfortable with America's dominant position. While the French president's two-day tour of Beijing and Shanghai was probably hectic, it must have been positively Elysian compared to the troubles he's facing back home, where ministerial scandals abound and unemployment is at its highest ever.

This may look like just a photo of rather boring-looking suits being led by a placid Eastern monk through some Asian temple, but it's created a furore in South Korea and China. The picture shows Japanese lawmakers visiting the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which deifies people who have died for the Empire of Japan, including 14 convicted Class A war criminals (among them the ex-prime minster who was directly responsible for Pearl Harbour). The shrine owns a museum that may politely be called 'revisionist', displaying Imperial Army memorabilia ranging from military badges to suicide torpedoes. It's not uncommon to see men, and sometimes toddlers, dressed in World War 2 uniform marching outside.

Is the Chinese economy for turning? The country has reported a 'shock' GDP growth of only 7.7 per cent for the fourth quarter. Yes, I know — if only Britain could get such shocks. But economists were expecting China to post an 8 per cent climb and, along with Fitch's recent rating downgrade and today's Moody's lowering of the nation's credit outlook, it's hard evidence the world's second largest economy is slowing. Analysts are falling over each other to slash their 2013 predictions. It's obvious how much international markets have been relying on the Chinese engine to haul the global economy out of the mire. The GDP figures sent markets tumbling - from crude oil to metals, from the euro and sterling to Prada shares. Gold is in meltdown.

Let us be clear — Beijing bankrolled this monster. As Kim Jong-un continues his bellicose bluster, now having moved a second missile to North Korea's east coast, we cannot forget: it's the Middle Kingdom that has for decades funded Pyongyang's armies and kept this cruelest of regimes afloat. Forget Kim's crankiness. North Korea is one of the most gruesome, warped dictatorships the world has ever seen. It's estimated that is has up to a quarter of a million political prisoners, in gulags that are probably beyond human comprehension. When I worked as a journalist in Asia, news would filter through, now and then, of unspeakable acts done in the concentration camps, especially to women and even children.

I found myself snorting with derision last night while watching a news bulletin about the Korean situation. The sight of a Gummy Bear like Kim Jong Un vowing to obliterate the United States was too much after a long day. But then I checked myself: what if, this time, the madmen are serious? It is, of course, a leap to say that a regime of such longevity is mad. There is cunning in Kim Jong Un’s apparent lunacy, which has been heightened yet again by news that he has closed the border to South Korean workers in a jointly-run industrial zone. Such actions are not created ex nihilo.