Considering all the different ways in which China has interacted with the world in the last 50 years, considering all the challenges ordinary Chinese people have to put up with, it's beneficial and, and, by any rational standard, non-threatening to have national energies channeled into this kind of competition. It's touching to see so many ordinary Chinese crowds cheering for their new heroes.

It seems to be the case that for the people who actually are all in with Donald Trump - which is who knows: 35, 38, 40 per cent of the electorate - apparently nothing can dissuade them.

The worst kind of management seeks a single optimum, a one-scale index of efficiency, like the mindless scales of 1 to 10 for grading a woman's beauty or one to four stars for a movie's appeal.

Contrary to what you might think, China's economy is relatively less efficient, and more polluting, than those of rich countries.

Our military plans should be based on the assumption of unpredictability, rather than on carefully drawn, static models of the world.

Always write angry letters to your enemies. Never mail them.

Up or out" greatly magnified the careerist emphasis on holding a position rather than doing a job.