Chinese leaders do like their slogans, and where foreign policy is concerned, two have reflected Beijing’s thinking in recent times. The first is the cautious principle of tao guang yang hui, usually rendered in English as “hide your light and bide your time,” which guided Chinese policy for decades after Deng Xiaoping established it in the 1980s. In late 2013, though, President Xi Jinping coined a new slogan to define a more assertive, muscular approach: fen fa you wei, or “strive for achieveme

Jan. 17, 2019

It was both a historic vote and a decisive defeat for the government. But while it was called a “meaningful vote,” parliament’s verdict on Theresa May’s Brexit deal Tuesday was actually anything but.Tuesday’s ballot was all about tactics; not one MP thought it would decide anything. As the prime minister noted herself afterward, it makes clear what parliament doesn’t want, but not what alternative can garner a majority among lawmakers. As such, it has left all factions even more entrenched.Remai

Jan. 16, 2019

China’s economy is slowing. The downturn may be the result of recent events -- the trade war with the US, or retrenchment in China’s real estate and infrastructure sectors. But it may also be the latest manifestation of a trend that began a decade ago. And it may signal that China’s entire system of authoritarian state capitalism is less effective than many had believed.Recent data suggest that consumption is falling, indicating rocky times ahead:But China’s woes go far beyond the current busine

Jan. 16, 2019

The wonderful thing about Donald Trump’s presidency -- I never thought I’d begin a column this way -- is that he brings us back to basics.The basic difference between a democracy and a dictatorship comes down to means and ends.Democracy is about means, not ends. If we all agreed on the ends, such as whether to build a wall along the Mexican border, there’d be no need for democracy.But of course we don’t agree, which is why the means by which we resolve our differences are so important. Those mea

Jan. 16, 2019

Does President Donald Trump have the legal authority to declare a national emergency, and order the military to build a wall between Mexico and the United States?We are dealing with a novel question here, which means that any judgment has to have a degree of tentativeness. But the best answer appears to be no.Outside of the most extraordinary circumstances, the US Constitution does not give the president “emergency power.” If he wants to declare a national emergency -- to build a wall, to respon

Jan. 15, 2019

Last November, Michael Bloomberg made what may well be the largest private donation to higher education in modern times: $1.8 billion to enable his alma mater, Johns Hopkins University, to provide scholarships for eligible students unable to afford the school’s tuition. Bloomberg is grateful to Johns Hopkins, he explains, because the opportunity to study there, on a scholarship, “opened up doors that otherwise would have been closed, and allowed me to live the American dream.” In the year after

Jan. 15, 2019

Haruhiko Kuroda may rue the day he visited Nagoya.In a Nov. 5 speech to business leaders in the city, the Bank of Japan governor came close to declaring the end of deflation and the dawn of a new era. The implication was that interest rates may no longer be geared toward combating something that no longer exists. There was a whiff of normalization.Events have caught up with Kuroda and his upbeat comments look premature, at best, and like a misreading of the economic cycle. He’s likely to spend a

Jan. 15, 2019

In recent times the development discourse all over the world has been heavily influenced by the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2015 for the year 2030.These goals are in the form of specific targets for key areas of development, protection of the environment and so on.If these goals are achieved, then these 15 years will be the most successful years of human history in terms of reducing distress. Hunger is to be almost eliminated, while poverty will be reduced greatly.

Jan. 14, 2019

The single most important public health measure of 2019 is the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. These three diseases, which currently kill around 2.5 million people per year, could be fully contained by 2030, with deaths reduced to nearly zero. The Global Fund is the primary instrument for success, and it needs to raise $10 billion per year to accomplish its mission.The Global Fund, established in 2001 by Kofi Annan, has been credited with saving 27 milli

Jan. 14, 2019

It was mendacious, petty, deeply cynical and full of contradictions -- and just possibly the most honest expression of a US administration’s policy in the Middle East by a top American official.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech in Cairo will win no hearts and change no minds among his imagined audience, the Arab world. Most Arabs will have paid it no heed at all, since Pompeo is widely regarded as having no “wasta” (connection or influence) on the Trump administration’s Middle East poli

Jan. 14, 2019

Ten years ago, President Barack Obama traveled to Cairo to open a new dialogue with the world’s Muslims. On Thursday Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Cairo to offer a rebuttal.　Some of his points are correct. It’s true that Obama in his first term was too sanguine about political Islam. In 2009 -- two years before the revolution that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak -- Obama invited members of the Muslim Brotherhood to attend his speech. Obama wrongly assessed the prospects for

Jan. 13, 2019