[Mohamed A. el-Erian] China-US trade deal could be mere cease-fire

China and the US last week signaled substantial progress in their trade negotiations, as President Xi Jinping welcomed a “new consensus.” One question remains, however: Why has the US opted to deal bilaterally with China rather than lead a coalition of Western nations that share the same concerns about some of the Asian giant’s trade practices?The answer to this question will be one of the leading issues in assessing whether a China-US agreement is a decisive resolution to a conflict that has ha

April 8, 2019

[Philippe Legrain] EU’s China conundrum

Europeans can’t agree on how to handle a rising China. While European Union leaders were gathering in Brussels recently to discuss a more assertive common approach, Chinese President Xi Jinping was visiting Rome. Xi was there to mark Italy’s independent endorsement of the Belt and Road Initiative, his $1 trillion pan-Eurasian infrastructure investment plan that aims to bolster China’s economic and political influence. So much for a unified EU stance.How, then, should the EU engage with China? As

April 8, 2019

[Park Sang-seek] From civilization to barbarism

On March 16 this year, Harrison Tarrant, a white Australian, killed 49 Muslims at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. He issued a manifesto titled “The Great Replacement.” He claimed that “Even if we were to deport all Non-Europeans from our lands tomorrow, the European people would still be spiraling into decay and eventually death.” He emphasized that “our lands will never be the invaders’ (foreign immigrants’) lands.” However, he did not say that white people from the UK had invaded New

April 7, 2019

[Ronald W. Chan] Investors should buy a ticket to Indonesia

It’s not Bollywood yet, but Indonesia could be germinating Asia’s next big film scene. After years of stifled growth and censorship, new cinemas are opening across the vast Southeast Asian archipelago at a rapid clip thanks to large cash investments. Meanwhile, international filmmakers are setting up operations. With local production houses and cinema owners taking their companies public, investors might want to pay attention.While movies have been produced in Indonesia since the 1920s, early ef

April 7, 2019

[Lee Joo-hee] For me it’s romance, for you it’s cheating

We criticize intuitively every day. That slow driver in the fast lane, the waiter who obviously does not want to be here, the comedian who is just not funny anymore.Even the nicest person criticizes subliminally. When an important message suddenly lags on KakaoTalk, the blame quickly heads to those faceless technicians at Kakao (although they probably already prepared a fix, an apology and a debugging upgrade within five minutes).People criticize for several reasons: usually because we feel unde

April 3, 2019

[Ram Garikipati] Is Korea’s launch of world’s 1st 5G services hype?

The next-generation wireless network technology 5G is in the limelight as South Korea is poised to beat the United States as the first to cross the finish line. Tech giant Samsung Electronics has said it will launch its Galaxy S10 5G device in collaboration with the nation’s largest telecom operator SK Telecom on Friday, beating US telco Verizon, which is scheduled to launch its fifth-generation services across the country on April 11.But how exactly will 5G telecom services benefit consumers? W

April 3, 2019

[Kim Seong-kon] Apologies for denture-chattering bugs

Dear young Koreans, you deride old people these days by calling us “teultakchung” or “denture-chattering bugs.” We are appalled at such a derogatory nickname because we think we are still young -- at least on the inside -- even though our bodily functions may be deteriorating. We are also mortally offended because that kind of disrespect for older people cannot be tolerated in a supposedly Confucian society. Sadly, we realize that we are no longer young, and Korea is no longer a Confucian societ

April 2, 2019

[Lee Jae-min] Disheartened and disillusioned again: Week of national embarrassment

After all, it hurt to watch. It really did. Confirmation hearings for some of the seven ministerial post nominees last week stirred public anger. Questions posed, responses given and facts found were just so embarrassing, to say the least. Over the weekend, the nomination for one minister was withdrawn, and one nominee voluntarily stepped down. Frankly, I blushed at the thought of the reaction of our foreign friends: What would they think? Again, not all, but some of the seven candidates raised

April 2, 2019

[Andrew Browne] Detroit could be next victim of a tech cold war

These are testing times for Detroit’s big automakers as they puzzle over where to place their bets. Pickup trucks or driverless cars? Internal combustion engines or electric motors? Hardware or software?Now, an even larger question looms, just as a mobility revolution reshapes the industry: America or China?Tensions over technology, if not an outright cold war, are threatening to become a permanent feature of the US-China relationship. In an extreme case, as White House hard-liners press to limi

April 1, 2019

[Lionel Laurent] Xi Jinping and Huawei are a serious threat to European unity

To understand Europe’s muddle over China, look at Monaco.The tiny tax haven, famous for its casinos, has forged an unlikely partnership with the communist state that would have Lenin spinning in his grave. It is going to become a 2-square-kilometer test bed for a new fifth-generation mobile network from Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker. The deal has been promoted by Monaco as an attempt to build a “smart nation,” and China is happy no doubt to have a display window in the h

April 1, 2019

[Lee Jae-hyon] Indonesia, a central pillar of Korea’s New Southern Policy

For many Koreans, attention will turn toward Vietnam as President Moon Jae-in implements his New Southern Policy targeting ASEAN countries and India, given the substantial economic relations between Vietnam and Korea, the success of the Vietnamese national football team led by Korean coach Park Hang Seo, and the Hanoi Summit between North Korea and the United States. But one should not forget that the NSP was first unveiled in Indonesia in 2017. Under the leadership of Joko Widodo, widely known

March 31, 2019

[David Ignatius] Moscow shouldn’t misjudge the Mueller moment

Russian claims this week that the country has been exonerated by Robert Mueller’s final report make my skin crawl. But they highlight the critical question of how the US and Russia can begin to move back toward a saner relationship. Frankly speaking (as Russians like to say), the first step is for Russia to stop pretending that it didn’t meddle in the 2016 US presidential election. The Kremlin got caught red-handed, one could say, and if its representatives keep claiming otherwise, they obstruct

March 31, 2019