The Korea Herald

[Junheng Li] China's two-tier leadership structure

Investors trying to make sense of China’s National People’s Congress last week and its relation to the more important 19th Party Congress to be held later this year should familiarize themselves with an old saying: “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away.”　Orders from Beijing are often ignored in the cities and provinces. Instead, important decisions such as whether and how to restructure the debt of insolvent local governments and state-owned enterprises are made locally. Officials

March 17, 2017

[Junheng Li] China's two-tier leadership structure

[Walter Browne] More of us need to say ‘enough’ in face of racism

A beloved family member posted on Facebook that he loves making fun of the “dot-heads” in gas stations. Another family member, a cousin I had not seen in 40 years, connected with me and then posted disparaging comments about immigrants, African-Americans and “libtards.” Then another family member posted a “funny” cartoon of an SUV running over a crowd that read: “All Lives Splatter. I don’t give a f- about your protest.”　Every day in my classroom, I see what family members do not see: real faces

March 17, 2017

[Michael Schuman] Trump is already losing to China

In the waning days of Barack Obama’s administration, one of the president’s advisory councils issued a report warning of China’s plans to snatch control of the critical semiconductor industry. Its recommendation: “Win the race by running faster.”It is sound advice, but the new administration isn’t listening. Donald Trump’s policies, in fact, offer a road map for how not to compete with China.That’s because team Trump doesn’t fully grasp the threat China now poses to the US economy. China is mars

March 16, 2017

[Michael Schuman] Trump is already losing to China

[Shashi Tharoor] Why India should scrap parliamentary democracy

India’s parliamentary system, inherited from the British, is rife with inefficiencies. By the logic of Westminster, you elect a legislature to form the executive, and when the executive does not command a secure majority in the legislative assembly, the government falls, triggering fresh elections.The result is a vote in some or other of India’s 29 state assemblies every six months or so, each one acting as a sort of referendum on the government in New Delhi. In short, India’s freewheeling multi

March 16, 2017

[Shashi Tharoor] Why India should scrap parliamentary democracy

[David Ignatius] The real shocker in the WikiLeaks scoop

WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange’s revelation last week of the CIA’s arsenal of hacking tools had a misplaced tone of surprise, a bit like Claude Rains’s famous line in “Casablanca”: “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” The hacking community, of which WikiLeaks and the CIA’s cyberwarriors are both aggressive offshoots, has been invading and exploiting every device in sight since the dawn of the digital age. It would be nice if governments, criminals and self-appointed

March 16, 2017

[Cynthia M. Allen] It’s easy to hate and condemn when we refuse to listen

A friend of mine came to visit last weekend.Geography, work and family life mean we no longer have much time to talk, but fortunately, the cliche that we can “pick up right where we left off” aptly applies to our decadelong friendship.We covered a lot of ground in two days, on topics that affirmed how very different we are, both in what we believe and in the lives we lead.She regularly traverses the country for her job.I seldom leave home. I write and care for my children.She’s married to a woma

March 16, 2017

[Rachel Marsden] America's game of footsie with Saudi Arabia

At the top of US President Donald Trump’s tentative daily schedule posted Tuesday morning on Facebook was lunch with Saudi Arabia’s defense minister and deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Perhaps Trump could post the full agenda for that meeting on social media as well. The lack of transparency in recent American-Saudi relations has many of us wondering what the endgame really is for the US.This isn’t your granddaddy’s Saudi Arabia. For decades, America purchased Saudi oil and mostly igno

March 16, 2017

[Kim Ji-hyun] Most pragmatic form of nationalism

After voicing my perspective on the current frayed relations between Japan and Korea, including my take on how some Korean politicians appear to be abusing our “comfort women,” I received quite a bit of feedback from readers. So I thought it would be good to respond through this column where the discussion all began.In my previous pieces, I already stated that I do not support Japan’s stance on comfort women, nor do I accept the 2015 deal for receiving monetary benefits in return for permanently

March 15, 2017

[Kim Ji-hyun] Most pragmatic form of nationalism

[Kim Myong-sik] China’s immaturity revealed in reaction to THAAD

However luminous the brains of the leaders at Beijing’s Jongnanhai may be, the current Chinese “countermeasures” on Korea’s decision to introduce the US-built Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system are unjustified and inappropriate. Above all, they will be counterproductive. 　While we were in the impeachment turmoil over the past few months, China took a variety of restrictive measures on Korean businesses and pop entertainers operating in the country. It appeared that anti-South Korea hyste

March 15, 2017

[Kim Myong-sik] China’s immaturity revealed in reaction to THAAD

[Gina Barreca] Patriotism more than being born in US

The term “patriotism” is often reduced to its lowest pop culture denominator, dividing us into two groups: the folks who chant Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” by bellowing out the refrain and the ones who listen to the lyrics about a working-class boy who comes home from Vietnam to find that he can’t get a job and that he’s got “nowhere to run” and “nowhere to go.”The rousing chorus can too easily eclipse the despair of Springsteen’s lines about a veteran who has ended up “like a dog that’

March 15, 2017

Right-wingers want to hide Germany’s Nazi past

“We Germans are the only people in the world that have planted a monument of shame in the heart of their capital.” -- Bjoern Hoecke, German politician and a leading member of Germany’s upstart nationalist party, Alternative for Germany“He who resists dealing with the past is ill-prepared for the future.” -- Wolfgang Schauble, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s finance ministerThe nationalist juggernaut sweeping across Europe has taken an ugly turn in Germany, where leading members of the right-wi

March 15, 2017

[Trudy Rubin] What happens in Iraq after IS is defeated?

This most liberal of Iraqi cities, nestled in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, is a perfect place from which to ponder the impact of the upcoming military defeat of the Islamic State group -- on Iraq and the world.　Suli (its nickname), a low-rise city with a population of around 2 million, is home to the American University of Iraq, Sulaymaniyah, a modern, private co-ed campus, where young men and women (most with hair uncovered) argue unimpeded with their professors in a manner light years awa

March 15, 2017

[Robert J. Fouser] Reform agenda for next president

On Aug. 9, 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president of the United States after Richard Nixon resigned amid the threat of certain impeachment. In brief remarks Ford said, “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”In its verdict on the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye, the Constitutional Court echoed Ford’s words and ruled that Park had failed to

March 14, 2017

[Robert J. Fouser] Reform agenda for next president

[Kim Seong-kon] 'The man who would be king'

Rudyard Kipling’s novella “The Man Who Would Be King” is an account of two British adventurers in British India, Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan, who go to Afghanistan to become kings of Kafiristan.Impressed by their rifles and white skin, the native people worship them as gods. Intoxicated by their newfound power, the two men become arrogant and tyrannical. Driven by voracity and gluttony, Dravot declares he needs a queen and therefore will marry a gorgeous native woman, against the warning o

March 14, 2017

[Kim Seong-kon] 'The man who would be king'

Trump’s reckless plan to starve ocean, atmosphere agency

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is just one of many federal agencies marked for drastic funding reductions to enable a big boost in military spending. But the cuts proposed for America’s center of weather and climate research reveal alarming pitfalls in President Donald Trump’s approach to budgeting: a reluctance to invest in the future, a disregard for science and a willingness to damage a well-functioning government operation for a minimal payoff.　According to an outline re

March 14, 2017

Reviving 2009 six-party talks on NK might be key

The combined actions of North Korea, South Korea, the United States, China and Japan have probably made the Korean Peninsula the most dangerous potential flashpoint in the whole world at the moment.North Korea has fired off four more ballistic missiles, simultaneously, alarming neighboring South Korea, China and Japan, along with the United States, which has 28,500 troops based in South Korea.Pyongyang’s obvious continuing pursuit of its effort to possess nuclear-armed intercontinental missiles

March 14, 2017

[David Ignatius] Rex Tillerson off to agonizingly slow start

Rex Tillerson is off to an agonizingly slow start as secretary of state. That matters, because if Tillerson doesn’t develop a stronger voice, control of foreign policy is likely to move increasingly toward Stephen K. Bannon, the insurgent populist who is chief White House strategist.　Tillerson’s State Department has been in idle gear these past two months. He doesn’t have a deputy or other top aides. His spokesman can’t give guidance on key issues, because decisions haven’t yet been made. Tiller

March 14, 2017

[Adam Minter] Surprising roots of Malaysia’s rage

It didn’t take long for Malaysia to retaliate against North Korea for barring its citizens from leaving the country Tuesday. Within hours, a security cordon had surrounded North Korea’s Malaysian embassy to prevent diplomatic staff from leaving. The response may not be legal under international law, but it’s certainly understandable. North Korea is not only accused of sponsoring an assassination in Malaysia’s busiest airport, using a banned nerve agent. It has since taunted and bullied Malaysian

March 14, 2017

[Jay Ambrose] Stick up for free speech to protect democracy

Charles Murray, someone who makes his living by thinking and appreciates its grandeur as a guiding force, recently had a firsthand encounter with a mob of college students insisting instead that fury should rule the day.I am tempted to generalize about a sickeningly spoiled, intellectually betrayed younger generation out to announce its moral superiority by way of moral thuggery. That goes too far. We’re talking about 100 people. But they symbolized more than themselves. Something significant is

March 13, 2017

[Noah Feldman] South Korea does impeachment right

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye was officially removed from office Friday after the Constitutional Court affirmed her impeachment by the national assembly. It’s a remarkable outcome for a relatively new democracy, and the scandal holds some important lessons for how impeachment can take place in a political culture deeply dominated by partisanship.　Park’s removal depended on three key elements: peaceful, sustained popular protests; a corruption scandal so egregious that even politicians fr

March 13, 2017

[Noah Feldman] South Korea does impeachment right