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Those who have seen my few posts concerning South Korea know that I do not hold South Korea in high regard. It is an emotional, volatile, xenophobic, and anti-American country, so as far as I'm concerned, China is welcome to take SK under its wing. Good riddance. As far as the theme of the...

This is part and parcel with the economic reforms and market liberalization. Protectionism of domestic industry is a double-edged sword: you can build industrial champions, but unless those champions are exposed to global competition, they will become inefficient and impose an unnecessary cost...

@xenon54 @Solomon2 It's as bad as we suspected, and it's not a parody. Erdoğan vows to teach Turkish children Muslim discovery of Americas - POLITICS President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has instructed Turkey’s educational institutions to adopt a policy of highlighting the contribution of Islam to...

There are better ways to fix the debt problem than raising taxes, namely GDP growth at a faster rate than debt growth. How to raise the GDP growth rate? 1) Trade deals. TPP is right there for the taking, time to spend some political capital. And if TPP is distasteful, Japan should pursue...

Sadly, until the occupant of the White House changes, I suspect we won't see a significant upgrade of relations between our countries. Azerbaijan represents such a great opportunity for the US for the kind of ally we need in the region (as detailed in your post #44), and if we've learned...

This is interesting, because while many in the West get excited about the potential for market liberalization, we may see a strengthening of the welfare state first, in order to prepare society for some of the changes that may take place after market reforms are enacted. If SOEs are privatized...

To say that Obama is intentionally destroying the US would be ascribing to Obama a level of intelligence that he does not possess. The true explanation can be found in Hanlon's Razor: Hanlon's razor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The man is simply a clown. He doesn't know how to run the...

No doubt about it, China can only gain from this situation. Russia becomes more dependent on China, and China can in turn use the opportunity to secure resources that Russia had previously intended for European use (and moreover, China can probably secure these resources at favorable prices)...

@Kiss_of_the_Dragon Perfect lead in for this article that I was about to post. --- http://online.wsj.com/articles/china-caps-big-week-of-diplomacy-1416239570 China Caps Big Week of Diplomacy In Raft of Deals, Xi Shows New Confidence to Seek Middle Ground With Rivals Chinese President Xi...

@hans @TaiShang To me, China's future looks fairly obvious. Just like Japan's LDP has effectively ruled Japan as a single party since inception, and Singapore's PAP has ruled as a single party since inception, it's fairly obvious that the CCP will enjoy a similarly long-lived mandate, even if...

As far as I'm aware, Bo Zhuang is a Chinese citizen living in China, not a "Western analyst." Does a critique of the Chinese system automatically disqualify an analyst as a patriot? I've always been interested in this part. Of course China has had periods in its history, as recently as WWII...

Are you posting in the right thread? Where does the article discuss political infighting and the end of the state? Sometimes your comments seem a bit robotic, so it's difficult to understand where you're coming from with this. The article was hardly a Gordon Chang-style analysis, and if...

What is the alternative? While I understand the frustration of Okinawa residents, I don't understand the opposition to moving the base away from population centers. If the base needs to be located in the area for strategic reasons, is there any prospect of building an artificial island near...

@Chinese-Dragon @Edison Chen The following article presents a more modest, but probably more realistic road map for China's reform efforts compared to the previous post. As a supporter of capitalism, it seems like a reasonable interim step before full liberalization, but I have to ask a...

The music cracked me up, but the plan looks attractive. Too bad it's replicating the "train station is the center of life" culture so ever-present in Japan. On a side note, I was surprised that the subway simulation showed suicide barriers. Is there a suicide-by-train problem in Myanmar, or...

I can't say I have any complaints. The moderator staff is largely professional, and any quibbles I have about certain TTAs is balanced by the sheer diversity of opinion represented in their ranks; essentially every user can look to a given TTA as his/her champion, if you will. There are a...

I see that you are also a disciple of William Easterly. Reading The Elusive Quest For Growth changed my outlook on aid permanently. Less aid, more clean government and focus on productivity improvement and trade. @Nihonjin1051 TPP, cough, cough.

I do enjoy these discussions with you, @Norwegian , as you are a reasonable fellow, and even when we disagree, I still learn a bit about a new perspective. I won't go through a thorough line-by-line rebuttal, since I already said I am an unenthusiastic participant in these discussions, but I...

With the anti-Israel crowd, the world suddenly becomes a binary choice: stand with the Palestinians and justice, or stand with Israel and evil. The world is far more complicated than that, which is why I can be a patriotic American and still be honored to stand with our allies, the Israelis...

http://online.wsj.com/articles/china-woos-neighbors-with-carrot-and-stick-approach-1415843541 China Takes Carrot-and-Stick Approach to Dealing With Neighbors New Silk Road Effort Means Tough Choices When it Comes to Disputes With China By BRIAN SPEGELE Nov. 12, 2014 8:52 p.m. ET...