Leung Chun-ying, a former adviser of the Hong Kong government and property consultant, was declared winner of the election as the Chinese city‘s next chief executive. He won 689 votes from a 1,200-member election committee composed mainly by pro-Beijing business leaders and other elites.Given the circumstances, Leung ran a clever race. He first worked hard to build up public support by announcing policy proposals popular among the general public such as increasing social housing, despite the alm

The state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council is drafting its funding plan for the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period and proposing to subsidize five energy companies and two power grid companies. It will not be the first time that the electrical power industry has received such a financial subsidy. But the question is: can such cash injections really contribute to the development of China‘s power industry? The losses from the thermal power generation bu

Two people crossed paths one rainy night last month.One was Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old on a snack run before the NBA All-Star game. He bought Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea and headed back to his father‘s fiancee’s home to catch the game.The other was George Zimmerman, a beefy 28-year-old packing a 9-millimeter handgun, who spotted Martin walking alone, got out of his truck, trailed him through the quiet neighborhood and then confronted him on the street.Which one had more reason to be susp

China watchers are waiting to see whether the country has engineered a soft landing, cooling down an overheating economy and achieving a more sustainable rate of growth, or whether Asia’s dragon will crash to earth, as others in the neighborhood have before it. But some, particularly American politicians in this presidential election year, focus on only one thing: China’s trade balance.True, not long ago the renminbi was substantially undervalued, and China’s trade surpluses were very large. Tha

As it prepares to hold its latest annual summit in New Delhi on March 28-29, the BRICS grouping -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa -- remains a concept in search of a common identity and institutionalized cooperation. That is hardly surprising, given that these countries have very different political systems, economies, and national goals, and are located in very different parts of the world. Yet the five emerging economies pride themselves on forming the first important non-Weste

These are strange days for China’s netizens. On March 15, the Chinese Communist Party relieved Bo Xilai, the Chongqing party secretary, of his duties after his police chief allegedly attempted to seek asylum in the United States. It was arguably the biggest political story to hit China in two decades, and Chinese microbloggers embraced it with gusto. In the hours following the concise, two-sentence official statement the state media carried about the firing, citizens posted millions of tweets to

A friend of mine had his name in the paper the other day. It was an article speculating about who might inherit a prestigious post in the literary world when the current grandee retires. The article said that my friend would have led the list 10 years ago. Ouch! The obvious though unstated implication is that now he’s too old. He just turned 60. He says he already has his dream job and didn’t mind the idea that, because he is 60, some career opportunities have moved beyond his reach. But I mind.

After being bombarded with news of Third World problems for so long, I figured it was time to give a bit of equal time to First World suffering. Every so often I reach a boiling point with modern Western culture and feel the need to rant ― so I’m going to bleed it out through my fingertips, as Ernest Hemingway used to say of writing, before my brain explodes from the pressure.― After years of not owning a television, I finally broke down and bought one in November, thinking that maybe it was tim

The leaders of 53 nations and international bodies met in Seoul for two to reconfirm their shared responsibilities to keep nuclear materials from dangerous hands, but the absence of North Korea and Iran helped the participants of the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit realize where the biggest threats are. One positive outcome for President Lee Myung-bak, host of the second nuclear summit after the first in Washington in 2010, was that he had a great opportunity to convince world leaders of the nature

Universities are increasing the number of English-only lectures to “go in step with the globalization trend,” but students and professors are uncomfortable with the plan. They complain that learning efficiency decreases rather than increases in classes where teachers and students are supposed to speak only English.Since the innovative Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology president Suh Nam-pyo declared “all-English” lectures at the state-run university five years ago and the decisio

Park Geun-hye, Han Myeong-sook and Lee Jung-hee. These three women dominate electioneering in the Republic of Korea, each leading a political party. Of them, Lee is the youngest and newest. This baby-faced, smiling woman is also probably most intelligent ― the highest female scorer in the 1987 SAT ― but she is dedicated to the toughest political cause. She wants to be Korea’s first woman president from the working class.Lee Jung-hee, a co-leader of the United Progressive Party, left the parliame

When U.S. President Barack Obama visited Camp Bonifas near the Panmunjeom truce village on his way to a guard post in the Korean Demilitarized Zone on Sunday, he must have been told whom the U.S. Army facility was named after. It was dedicated to Capt. Arthur Bonifas, one of the two U.S. officers who were killed by axe-wielding North Korean guards while on a work detail from the U.N. Command on Aug. 18, 1976.Time has passed very slowly in the 36 years since the bloody incident and since the sign