Seek truth from facts,” goes an old Chinese saying favored by Deng Xiaoping. That injunction should also apply to the story of Bo Xilai, the recently ousted party chief of Chongqing whose fall has become something of a morality tale. To hear some tea-leaf readers tell it, the high-flying Bo was the creator of the “Chongqing model,” a program that melded support for state-owned enterprises and measures to help the poor with a relentless campaign against crime and corruption and a rekindling of re

Barely two weeks ago, the drumbeat of war against Iran pounded like a throbbing headache. Israel’s prime minister made the rounds in Washington threatening to launch a preemptive attack, while President Barack Obama argued his best case for letting economic sanctions run their course.After the prime minister’s departure, the international banking system came together like never before. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, broke a longstanding neutrality poli

Students all over Korea are hard at work posting comments on the Internet, positive comments! With more than 2.5 million positive comments posted to date, our Sunfull Movement, which I started five years ago, is proving an effective way to reduce students’ posting of malicious comments. Now we are looking to expand our idea to other countries.The harassment of children and teenagers via the Internet and cellphones is becoming common in countries around the world. Every month, there are more stor

In any country in the world, most citizens tend to want more social/welfare programs from their governments. When politicians are running in local or national elections, they become particularly sensitive to the pressure from groups advocating their pet social/welfare programs. It is quite natural for politicians in any democracy to cater to the citizens’ wishes, hoping to ingratiate themselves to the voters. All is good except for the problem of paying for the programs, or more specifically, wh

Leaders of 53 nations and four international organizations have gathered in Seoul for a two-day summit on expanding and deepening international cooperation in thwarting nuclear terrorism. The threat of nuclear terrorism loomed large following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. But global efforts to address it had remained low-key until U.S. President Barak Obama energized them. In a speech in Prague in 2009, Obama presented his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. One initiative he pro

U.S. President Barak Obama has nominated Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American who leads Dartmouth College, to become president of the World Bank. Kim, if confirmed by the bank, will become the first Asian-American to head the institution in its 68-year history. The bank has usually been headed by an American, while its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund, has always been led by a European. Kim’s nomination is seen as a move aimed at fending off challenges from developing nations, whi

U.S. policy toward North Korea is crazy ― that is, if you believe the old chestnut that insanity means repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results. Each time the U.S. thinks North Korea has agreed to curtail its nuclear or missile programs, usually in return for some concession, the North either breaches or skips away from its obligations. Brinksmanship and rupture ensue, followed by a laborious and tentative rapprochement ― and then the cycle commences anew. It’s like watchi

Clean water is increasingly scarce. About a third of the world’s fisheries have collapsed and desertification now threatens the livelihoods of a third of the world’s people. Parts of our planet are in peril. For a comprehensive solution, green is not enough.To protect our home, we must empower people. The Arab Spring and the Occupy movement are clear calls for equality. We must heed them. Only by working to ensure the next generation has jobs, basic services and opportunity, as well as a protect

Three months ago, Verizon Communications Inc. and three major cable companies announced a $3.6 billion joint marketing deal. Today, Congress is getting around to the question of whether it’s a good idea. The Subcommittee for Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights of the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing titled, “The Verizon/Cable Deals: Harmless Collaboration or a Threat to Competition and Consumers?” A better question might be: Why isn’t the American public paying closer

Within 10 minutes of landing in Tokyo Narita International Airport, I encountered my very first earthquake, and it was a brutal one. More than 15,000 people were confirmed dead and more than 3,000 are still missing. While Japan marks its first year since the quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, I contemplate the incident. There’s one lesson for Tokyo: Do not hide a problem under the rug and pray that it will simply go away.Tokyo was quick to silence dissent when a spokesman for the Nuclear and I

Tension is building as Pyongyang escalates its threats of attack against South Korea. The latest among them is a warning that North Korea would regard it as a “declaration of war” if the forthcoming Seoul nuclear security summit adopts a statement condemning its nuclear program.Those remarks were contained in a statement carried by the North’s state-run news agency on Wednesday. It added: “If there is any provocative act such as the issuance of a so-called statement concerning ‘the North’s nucle