Opinion

The annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress kicked off in Beijing this weekend, highlighted by Premier Li Keqiang’s government work report on Saturday. The NPC always finalizes China’s targets, goals, and areas of emphasis for the coming year. This year’s session, however, will see the final adoption of China’s next Five Year Plan, which will cover the period from ...

The two clashing readings on the US economy and the appropriate monetary policy are quite interesting. Two of the central bank’s most influential policymakers differ over the best options to stimulate the growth of US economy. Fed Governor Lael Brainard, who has emerged as a leader of the Fed’s dovish faction, argued for “patience” in raising interest rates. “Given weak ...

They were just four words, but they denoted something that led to a wonderful swerve in world history. They were words Ronald Reagan repeatedly used when referring to something that happened long before he spoke his most famous four words: “Tear down this wall.” The other four words described the most important event in his eventful life, an event without ...

How dependent is China on foreign military technology? Despite enormous progress over the past two decades, the answer remains “a lot.” But the reasons for this dependence are complicated, and in any case the situation appears to be changing fast. Much discussion of the competition between the United States and China concentrates on American vulnerabilities. Analysts have conclusively established that ...

The very strange U.S. presidential election bears some surprising similarities to the 1996 campaign in Russia — a momentous event that undermined a fragile democracy and led to the emergence of Vladimir Putin’s dictatorial regime. This precedent could be especially telling if Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump end up their parties’ nominees in the general election. The electoral systems in ...

As its governing council prepares to meet in Frankfurt on Thursday, the European Central Bank finds its scope for action influenced not just by regional issues but also by the world’s other systemically important central banks. The ECB is wedged uncomfortably between, on one side, the Federal Reserve — which is able but unwilling to venture deeper into unconventional monetary ...

What we are seeing in the continuing march of Donald Trump toward the Republican presidential nomination is the power and significance of political entrepreneurship. If you want to become president (or senator or House member), you don’t need the permission of either party. You just announce, comply with the legal requirements for filing and launch your campaign. You are the ...

The recent air tragedies have drawn global attention to ensure air traffic safety. This new trend brings together the industry’s managers and policymakers closer to address the issue that worries travellers and is also a headache for the sector. Some air crashes were shrouded in mysteries and there are efforts to unearth what went wrong. One cause for concern is ...

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did what he does best and made headlines around the world on Friday by ordering the military to be ready to use nuclear weapons at a moment’s notice. Following the UN Security Council’s vote Wednesday to hit Pyongyang with the strongest sanctions yet over its latest nuclear test and rocket launch, the dictator said the ...

Many observers have already rolled their eyes as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, at the opening of China’s National People’s Congress this Saturday, announced a GDP growth target between 6.5 and 7 percent for next year. The Economist, in a bold, tongue-in-cheek prediction that is almost certain to be correct, notes that on January 17, 2017, when we’ll learn of China’s ...