[Faye Flam] Coronavirus complacency arrives ahead of schedule

Scientific models show a reasonably high probability that the Wuhan coronavirus will accelerate in its spread outside of China. That’s concerning, to say the least. But even as the news gets darker, the tone of news coverage is swinging the wrong way, offering too much false reassurance. It’s extremely unlikely to turn into a nightmare scenario ripped from movies like “Contagion.” It isn’t an immediate threat to most people’s lives. But if it spreads widely a

Feb. 19, 2020

[Anjani Trivedi] China Inc. virus cure will make matters worse

Beijing is throwing all it’s got at the coronavirus. Less visible than the drama of quarantining communities, however, is the new pressure that the outbreak is bringing on China Inc.’s hard-up borrowers. They face $944 billion of debt maturities onshore and $90 billion offshore this year. Authorities are going back to their old playbook of spewing handouts to get them through. The costs will add billions of dollars of debt and cripple an already weakened financial system. It may be d

Feb. 18, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] Living well until the end

Recently, I saw an American movie in which the main character says there are three words beginning with “R” that kill older people slowly. They are retirement, regret and revenge. “Reward,” too, should be included in this category. “Retirement” can be bliss for some people, and yet it is a curse for others. After retirement, some people may enjoy a restful life, but others get bored. Indeed, if you have nothing to do all day long, you will find your life bor

Feb. 18, 2020

[James Jay Carafano] The Pentagon’s three headaches

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper doesn’t have much gray hair. Just wait. He has some monumental challenges ahead. Even if Esper has the backing of the president, and Trump gets reelected, the Pentagon has a daunting to-do list. If the secretary plans to leave the common defense stronger than it was when he came aboard, he’ll have to overcome three big problems. Big Problem No. 1: All bets aren’t covered. There are three vital areas of operations for the US: Europe, Greater M

Feb. 17, 2020

[Ivo Daalder] China’s secrecy has made coronavirus crisis much worse

For eight years, China’s President Xi Jinping has trumpeted his country’s increasingly authoritarian system as a grand model for other developing countries to follow. No doubt, China has seen an extraordinary period of economic growth, which has benefited hundreds of millions in China and around the world. But authoritarianism has also come at great cost, as the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus underscores. In two months, the virus has spread throughout China and beyond. More t

Feb. 17, 2020

[Volker Perthes] Toward new Iran nuclear deal

When Iran announced in January that it would further “reduce” its commitments under the 2015 deal limiting its nuclear activities, it was not responding to the United States’ assassination of Iranian Quds Force leader Gen. Qassem Suleimani a few days earlier. But both developments reflected the escalating confrontation between Iran and the US since the summer of 2019. Any effort to safeguard the substance of the 2015 deal -- formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Act

Feb. 16, 2020

[Serendipity] Inconvenient truths laid bare by Bong Joon-ho

Yes, I have finally found someone who understands what it is like to live with a heightened sense of smell, I thought, watching Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite.” I felt vindicated about my irritation at being hit with the sharp, pungent smell of kimchi upon opening the fridge, the boxes of odor-absorbing baking soda apparently past their expiration date. The agitation of waking up to the acrid smell of cigarette smoke wafting in through the window, thanks to an unconscionable neigh

Feb. 13, 2020

[Liam Denning] Decadent energy system needs renewal

Like many of you, I’m sure, I read Ross Douthat’s essay on “The Age of Decadence” in Sunday’s New York Times while sprawled on a chaise, picking at my smashed avo and laudanum. Stirring from the languor, I wondered: How does energy fit with this thesis? Our energy system is decadent at a fundamental level. Roughly four-fifths of what is called primary energy consumption comes from burning fossil fuels, and thermodynamics ensure the majority of that kind of “c

Feb. 13, 2020

[Noah Smith] 'Parasite' Oscars say a lot about South Korea

On Sunday night, there was widespread rejoicing when the South Korean film “Parasite” received the Academy Award for best picture along with several other awards. Not only was this the first such win for a movie in a language other than English, but to many it represented a long-sought victory for Korean popular culture. It’s not the first such victory. In the past decade, Korean music and TV shows have exploded in global popularity. The Korean band BTS is the first since the

Feb. 13, 2020

[Lionel Laurent] Ireland brings new twist to populism

Sinn Fein’s electoral smash in Ireland is a historic moment for a party that has long had difficulty shaking off its past ties to the sectarian violence of the “troubles.” It’s clear that the party’s new leader and a policy platform based around fixing the country’s housing crisis and improving public services have struck a chord with the public. That was especially true with the under-35s, for whom peace in Ireland has been the norm rather than the exception.

Feb. 12, 2020

[Kim Myong-sik] Blue House and 2018 Ulsan mayoral election conspiracy

It is a crime story with enough sinister plots that Bong Joon-ho or even Martin Scorsese might be interested in making it into a movie. After several months of investigation, the South Korean prosecution under Prosecutor-General Yoon Seok-yul indicted 13 people, including current and former senior secretaries of President Moon Jae-in, for abuse of power and violating the election law in relation to the Ulsan mayoral election in 2018. Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae involved herself in the affair

Feb. 12, 2020

[Kim Seong-kon] 'Parasite' and 2020 Academy Awards

The news that the Korean film “Parasite” won Oscars in four categories, marking the first such wins in Korean film history, came as a pleasant surprise. Initially, people expected the celebrated Korean film would easily win for best international film and possibly best original screenplay. However, it looked difficult for “Parasite” to win for best picture, because it had to compete with such distinguished films as “The Irishman,” “Joker” and &ld

Feb. 11, 2020

[Robert J. Fouser] The Trump show and North Korea

On the eve of his impeachment acquittal, President Donald Trump gave his annual State of the Union address. Instead of outlining proposals for the coming year, Trump turned the address into a rally for his reelection campaign. He stoked his base while pivoting to groups that he wants to reach to bolster his chances of reelection. Absent from the speech was any reference to North Korea. In his 2019 State of the Union address, shortly before the summit with Kim Jong-un in Vietnam, President Trump

Feb. 11, 2020

[Josep Borrell] Embracing Europe’s power

The geopolitical upheavals we are witnessing today underline the urgency with which the European Union must find its way in a world increasingly characterized by raw power politics. We Europeans must adjust our mental maps to deal with the world as it is, not as we hoped it would be. This is a world of geostrategic competition, in which some leaders have no scruples about using force, and economic and other instruments are weaponized. To avoid being the losers in today’s US-China competi

Feb. 10, 2020

[Kevin Rudd] The coronavirus and Xi Jinping’s worldview

The coronavirus crisis represents the single biggest challenge for Xi Jinping since he became general secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2012. Individuals and families across China are living in fear. Multiple Chinese provinces are under virtual lockdown. The virus has brought significant parts of the economy to a grinding halt, as firms instruct their employees to work from home. Politically, the blame game bounces between local authorities in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, and

Feb. 10, 2020

[Trudy Rubin] Coronavirus death of Chinese whistleblower doctor should sober Beijing -- and us

The death of a young Chinese doctor who was silenced by authorities when he tried to warn about the outbreak of the coronavirus has lit up the country’s social media with outrage. By Friday, references to the death of whistleblower Li Wenliang from the virus had been viewed 270 million times on Weibo, one of the biggest social media platforms in China. The public is so angry that Chinese censors haven’t yet shut the topic down. This 34-year-old ophthalmologist from Wuhan, who left

Feb. 9, 2020

[Digital Simplicity] Surging appetite for analog experience on digital devices

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs famously said at the iPhone launch event in 2007, “Who wants a stylus?” As of February, most iPads come with a stylus called the Apple Pencil. So, my quick answer to Jobs’ rhetorical question is, “At least millions of Apple device users across the world.” And millions more, if I may add Samsung’s stylus-enabled Galaxy Note smartphones. The point is not that Jobs failed to see a new digital culture blossoming about a decade later.

Feb. 7, 2020

[Katherine A. Mason] International overreaction to the coronavirus is more dangerous than the virus itself

In April 2003, I was evacuated from my post teaching English in Guangzhou, China, at the height of the SARS epidemic. I was 23. While transiting in Chicago on my way home to Philadelphia, I called my parents. That’s when they informed me that they were not coming to pick me up. Convinced that I was going to be “patient zero” for an American outbreak of SARS, they told me to take a cab to my sister’s apartment, where they intended to lock me up for 10 days with only a bag

Feb. 6, 2020

[Anjani Trivedi] Virus forces the China car shutdown Beijing couldn’t

Fears that the coronavirus will ravage global supply chains rooted in China are spreading fast. For automakers, a hiatus from production in the world’s largest car market may force them to take some needed rebalancing. Provinces that extended the Lunar New Year holiday period include Guangdong, which accounts for 12.8 percent of light vehicle production, and Hubei, where the outbreak’s epicenter Wuhan is located. Hubei, in central China, chalks up 9 percent of Chinese auto producti

Feb. 5, 2020