[Trudy Rubin] Stand with HK against Xi’s efforts to curb its liberties

A major turning point in US-Chinese relations occurred Thursday. It nominally involves the future of Hong Kong, but has major significance for Washington and the wider world. China’s National People’s Congress approved a security law that will allow Beijing’s security agencies to crack down directly on the civil liberties of Hong Kong residents, who have been protesting the regime’s indirect efforts to shrink their freedoms since last summer. China promised Hong Kong a

June 1, 2020

[Anjani Trivedi] Can China’s spenders lift the world?

The Chinese consumer has been one of the most important drivers of the world economy over the past decade, fueling hopes of prolonged growth and profits. So it’s worth looking at what’s happening to household balance sheets as COVID-19 wreaks havoc on a population now feeling the downside of growing personal leverage from the boom. In the last major financial crisis, big-spending Americans were hit hard, but the Chinese found new ways to open their wallets and took the rest of the

June 1, 2020

[Digital Simplicity] Netflix faces major regulatory setback in Korea

Jennifer recently opened a restaurant. She faithfully paid the rent, taxes and other sundry fees. She also hired staff, including a talented chef. She developed an incredibly tasty menu. Not long after she started her long-awaited business, a horde of customers rushed to dine out at the new restaurant. The restaurant became so famous and popular that a great number of people rode buses for hours to visit the restaurant and have a nice meal. Business, all in all, was great, and nothing would st

May 29, 2020

[James A. Goldston] How courts will shape post-pandemic world

In just a few months, COVID-19 has stricken millions and effectively shut down the global economy. But at the same time, the pandemic has profoundly altered the global debate about inequality and raised the prospect of reversing our decades-long failed experiment with market fundamentalism. Many lauded this month’s May Day protests by newly recognized (but still underpaid) “essential workers” as a sign of growing activism. But fewer have noticed that people around the world ar

May 29, 2020

[Shang-Jin Wei] America’s delisting threat could pay off

After passing unanimously in the US Senate on May 20, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act is heading for the House of Representatives, and US President Donald Trump is expected to sign it into law. The law requires that all companies listed on US stock exchanges submit to audits reviewable by the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and non-compliant firms can be delisted after three years. This has generated talk that all Chinese firms could disappear from US exchanges. Some

May 28, 2020

[Ivo Daalder] Our new Cold War with China: Not like the old Cold War

Are the United States and China heading for a new Cold War? Judging by some of the rhetoric and policies emanating from Beijing and Washington, it sure looks that way. Already tense, relations between the world’s two largest powers have deteriorated sharply since the lethal coronavirus first emerged in the eastern Chinese city of Wuhan and then rapidly spread across the globe. In the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has led the charge. Last January, Pompeo called the Chinese

May 28, 2020

[Eli Lake] Trump is right to quit Open Skies deal

President Donald Trump is preparing to exit his second arms-control treaty with Russia since taking the oath of office, and the opposition is already in high dudgeon. “This is insane,” tweeted former CIA director Michael Hayden. “Another shortsighted Trump move to abandon a treaty that includes many close allies,” tweeted Samantha Power, former ambassador to the United Nations.　 But Trump’s decision is the right one -- both in the details and on principle. The dea

May 27, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] ‘Person of Interest’ in the era of AI

We are now living in the era of artificial intelligence. In fact, AI is everywhere already, in our smartphones, laptops, and cars. What many commentators have hailed as the “fourth industrial revolution,” too, includes AI. As AI is fast becoming part of our everyday lives, we would do well to reflect on its upsides and downsides. An American television drama, “Person of Interest,” well illustrates many of the merits and problems of the AI era. The drama centers on a re

May 27, 2020

[Andy Mukherjee] China’s crypto is all about tracing -- and power

The coronavirus has disrupted the world in very large ways. While that battle has been waged, however, another event has almost been missed: the birth of a new kind of fiat currency, which could forever reshape the relationship between money, economic power and geopolitical clout.　 An official Chinese digital yuan, more than five years in the making, is now in pilot runs to slowly start replacing the physical legal tender. If the experiment succeeds, this new cash, valued the same as the famili

May 26, 2020

[Elizabeth Drew] Trump is not just a liar but a fabulist

In April 2011, Donald Trump, then considering a run for the presidency the following year, said he had sent investigators to Hawaii to check out rumors that President Barack Obama wasn’t born there, but in Kenya, which would disqualify him for the presidency. His investigators, Trump declared, “cannot believe what they’re finding.” I can find no record of Trump being challenged on this outlandish claim at the time. In the fall of 2016, Trump, as the Republican presidenti

May 25, 2020

[David Fickling] China too rich to splurge on infrastructure

How much more stimulus can the Chinese economy take? It’s a question of crucial importance after Beijing unveiled its 2020 economic policy plans Friday. China’s 4 trillion yuan ($562 billion) stimulus package in the wake of the global financial crisis paved the way for its transformation over the past decade. In the 2000s, the country was a low-cost assembly room for the world’s supply chains. Now it’s an increasingly confident middle-income power, with a burgeoning c

May 25, 2020

[Serendipity] Music can heal. We need it more than ever

Months into the COVID-19 pandemic, life seems to have settled into a humdrum rhythm. Days pass like the swing of a pendulum -- back and forth, back and forth, from home to work, work to home. Yet, such regularity as I have not experienced in years does little to offer peace of mind or comfort. Beneath the surface calm is the constant whirring of the brain. Actions have consequences and in these perilous times, we are required to constantly make decisions that could potentially impact not only

May 22, 2020

[Robert J. Fouser] Dealing with labor market duality

South Korea continues its steady march back to normal life as the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic recedes. The nation continues to earn international praise for its effective response to the pandemic. As most nations begin to emerge from emergency measures, attention has turned to rebuilding economies reeling from lockdowns. Though Korea managed to escape lockdowns, deteriorating economic conditions are creating new challenges. In the first quarter of 2020, gross domestic product declined by a

May 22, 2020

[Kim Myong-sik] S. Korean military costs a lot, loses trust

South Korea, 12th in the world in terms of GDP ranking, has a defense budget of 50.15 trillion won for 2020, equal to or $42 billion. The nation’s defense spending has grown steadily these years to a level comparable to major states in Europe -- 84 percent of Russia’s, 84 percent of Germany’s and 72 percent of France’s in 2018. If the average increase rate of 6 percent over the past five years continues, South Korea will surpass Japan in defense expenditure by 2026. Supp

May 21, 2020

[Noah Smith] Debt isn’t as scary as government bungling

The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic depression are going to require huge amounts of government spending. The US government is devoting resources to halting the outbreak. It’s sustaining businesses during shutdowns so that they don’t have to be rebuilt from scratch. It’s paying the bills for workers who’ve lost their jobs. It’s bailing out state and local governments whose tax revenues are disappearing and can’t finance budget deficits. And it&r

May 21, 2020

[Daniel Moss] Central banks let the genie out of the bottle

The world’s biggest economies have rolled out a plethora of monetary support measures over the past two months. If there’s one central bank that knows how hard bottling them back up will be, it’s Japan, where special operations have become a permanent fixture. Tokyo’s example suggests that policymakers will have an expansive role for years to come, particularly given the depth of the slump from the coronavirus outbreak. Japan headed into its lockdown hobbled by poor choi

May 20, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Coronavirus resembles a corrosive ideology

The global pandemic called COVID-19 is now ruthlessly invading the world, devastating all the infected nations and still causing untold numbers of deaths. Humans cannot but shudder at this never-before-seen deadly virus that attacks and kills them callously. Meanwhile, the lethal coronavirus has radically changed our society in many ways. For example, we are now living in an inhumane society where people are suspicious of one another and shun the warmth of human touch because we cannot be sure

May 20, 2020

[Doyle McManus] Welcome back, Barack. What took you so long?

It’s about time. After more than three years of relative self-restraint while President Donald Trump lambasted his character and eviscerated his policies, former President Barack Obama has waded back into politics just in time for the presidential campaign. In a videoconference with some 3,000 former aides last week, Obama slammed Trump’s response to the coronavirus crisis as an unbridled catastrophe, criticism he knew would leak. Obama acknowledged that the pandemic “would

May 19, 2020