With the latest round of trade talks between the US and China ending in a predictable stalemate, one thing has become clear: The Trump administration’s approach to these negotiations has made it all but impossible for Chinese President Xi Jinping to make a deal. Until that changes, there’s no end in sight for the tariff-for-tariff tussle between the two countries, and little chance of achieving Donald Trump’s stated goals.　The White House seems to misunderstand a crucial fact about modern China.

Aug. 26, 2018

China’s urbanization push helped modernize its economy and has been a key component of its boom during the past two decades. But although the migration of hundreds of millions of workers from rural China to skyscrapers in the country’s cities has been good for economic growth, it may turn out to be a weakness for the country in the future. What China needs now, given its looming demographic crisis, is more babies, and a country built around workers crammed together in dense cities isn’t the best

Aug. 23, 2018

News that China and the US will resume trade talks this week swiftly lifted markets. This follows the first meetings at the annual summer retreat of the Chinese Communist Party leadership at the beachside resort of Beidaihe. As might be expected, the main topic this summer has been the US-China trade war, where it might lead and what could conceivably be done to avert it without an unacceptable loss of political face.　While we won’t have any real indication as to the tenor of the Chinese discuss

Aug. 22, 2018

Before you get excited, this editorial about US military endeavors in space will not describe how you can join the Rebel Alliance. It will not detail an imminent jump to hyperspace for bold American pilots, or a new base for Starfleet outside Ronkonkoma. It will not include blasters or humanoid aliens visiting or attacking Earth (for now, anyway). That’s because as much as we love a good space saga, America’s reality in space is not much like science fiction.　That’s not to say our daily life is

Aug. 22, 2018

Doors are slamming shut in the developed world not just to Chinese investment in technology, but potentially to a wave of acquisitions with a tech element as diverse as smart heaters and robotic lawnmowers.　President Donald Trump last week signed an update to legislation for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US that broadened the interagency vetting committee group’s scope to encompass even minority and passive investments in three areas: Critical technology, infrastructure and business

Aug. 22, 2018

What’s the main value in a free press? To hear the press tell it -- as in many of the 350-plus editorials published in coordination last week in response to the president’s anti-press rhetoric -- the answer is factual, objective coverage of events.　But that’s not what the framers of the constitution thought, or what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes had in mind when he crafted modern free-press jurisprudence during World War I. It also doesn’t match how most newspaper writers thought of themselves u

Aug. 21, 2018

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission wants to help the elderly enjoy their golden years in comfort. With the world’s fastest-aging population and a pension system beset by shortfalls, China is turning to a staple of late-night television commercials -- reverse mortgages -- to help out retirees. It just might work.　Outside of Beijing and Shanghai, China’s real estate market is nearly moribund after years of spiraling values drove home ownership beyond the reach of many people. In

Aug. 21, 2018

Modern humans, born into one climate era, called the Holocene, have crossed the border into another, the Anthropocene. But instead of a Moses guiding humanity in this new and dangerous wilderness, a gang of science deniers and polluters currently misguides humanity to ever-greater danger. We are all climate refugees now and must chart a path to safety. The Holocene was the geological age that started more than 10,000 years ago, with favorable climate conditions that supported human civilization

Aug. 21, 2018

Analysts are trying urgently to evaluate the potential impact of a full-fledged trade war on the Chinese economy. This typically involves estimating how much various tariff scenarios will reduce China’s GDP growth, with current estimates ranging from the minimal, 0.1 or 0.2 percentage point, to the substantial -- as much as 2 percentage points.　This is probably the right way to evaluate the impact of external shocks on other countries. For China, however, it’s wholly inappropriate. The fact is t

Aug. 20, 2018

US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker may have averted a trade war last month, but the challenges confronting the European Union are far from resolved. In today’s increasingly Hobbesian global environment, the EU can survive only by increasing its capacity to project power.With the 1957 Treaty of Rome, Europe shed what remained of its militaristic impulses and focused on building a single market. From then on, Europe’s only means of projecting power woul

Aug. 20, 2018

Gig companies such as Uber, DoorDash and Instacart portray themselves as brave and brilliant innovators, underdog entrepreneurs whose explosive growth simply reflects that they’ve built a better mousetrap. But the companies have been sued again and again, in the United States and around the globe, by workers who say these businesses prosper by violating their workers’ basic legal rights.　That charge invites a question: Can gig companies survive without breaking the law? Apparently not, according

Aug. 20, 2018