New studies of the centuries-old Confucian order in East Asia show the country is, more than ever, committed to stability and peace
3-MIN READ3-MINAlex LoAlex Lo has been an SCMP columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China. Published: 9:30am, 20 May 2026The end of the Cold War was supposed to deliver a long peace. For a while, that was working, until it wasn’t. We might now be entering another period when the breakdown of a world order leads to war.
This long peace was, however, undermined by Western imperialism and by Japan adopting this aggressive ideology of territorial conquest.
