I'm pleased to be the most right-wing person in Hong Kong, said William Kristol to an audience of Asia Society members last week. Kristol is well known in the United States as a commentator and the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard. He has also served as chief of staff to former Vice President Dan Quayle and to former Secretary of Education William Bennett. He is a useful proxy for understanding the current administration's foreign policy, and the message he brought to Hong Kong was to expect more changes in America's approach to the region.
To understand the dramatic changes in US policy, Kristol finds a useful analogy in the origins of the...