The Korea Herald

[Naresh Koirala] ‘Gold is waste that’s adorning us’

Dec 18, 2018

Recently, I walked through New Road after nearly a decade. Much of what I saw was no different from what it was like 10 years ago -- unruly traffic, pedestrians jostling to navigate crowded sidewalks, trash piled up at curbside. Assorted shops catering to consumers’ every need -- from sweets to shoes, from computers to clothes. The only noticeable change was in the number of gold jewelry shops. They had multiplied manifold. They were bigger and swankier too. This spurred a number of questions. W
[Jeff Kosseff] How the US Congress might still break the internet

Dec 18, 2018

Civil liberties activists in the United States long warned that the federal government must adopt “net neutrality” requirements that prevent broadband companies from charging websites for prioritized access to their lines or risk the loss of freedom and openness online. Yet the US Federal Communications Commission repealed Obama-era net neutrality regulations a year ago, and the internet did not break.Unfortunately, there is a growing movement in Washington to change a technology law that has re
[Slawomir Sierakowski] Germany still playing defense against EU, US

Dec 17, 2018

An old joke among non-Americans is that they, too, deserve a vote in US presidential elections, given how central that office is to their lives. When Germany’s Christian Democratic Union met this month to select a new leader, Europeans probably felt the same way.Not only is the CDU Germany’s largest party; it is also the largest in the European Union. At its recent congress in Hamburg, the word “Europe” was uttered constantly, with most speakers declaring a sense of responsibility for what happe
[Stephen L. Carter] Don’t let Boy Scouts of America go bankrupt

Dec 17, 2018

The Boy Scouts of America is not exactly confirming reports that it’s considering bankruptcy, but it’s not exactly denying them either. It’s hard to see how the organization has much choice. The many lawsuits it is facing because of abuse by adult leaders is in any case likely to deplete the group’s resources.The accusations against the Boy Scouts are horrific, and if they’re true, the organization ought to be made to suffer. But I hope it doesn’t die. There’s simply no other group that does wha
[Anne O. Krueger] Trump’s anti-service economy

Dec 17, 2018

In the 19th century, more than 70 percent of American workers were farmers. By 2017, that figure was under 2 percent. In 1970, about 32 percent of private employment was in goods-producing industries. By 2018, that figure was 13.5 percent. The dynamic sectors of the American economy are in services, though US President Donald Trump, with his fixation on old manufacturing industries, does not seem to have grasped that.Just as manufacturing companies comprised the most rapidly growing industries i
[Christopher Balding] China faces dilemma as pressure for stimulus rises

Dec 17, 2018

China’s top leaders meet this week in Beijing to set economic policy objectives for the coming year. The central question is whether they will do what they want or what the country needs. Clear evidence has emerged in the past couple of months that the Chinese economy is slowing to an uncomfortable degree. That’s raised expectations that the leadership will opt for significant stimulus at the Central Economic Work Conference, which Bloomberg News has reported will be held Wednesday to Friday.Pre
[Nicole Brodeur] Wins for women in reproductive health care

Dec 17, 2018

Christmas is days away, but women got a couple of early presents -- one from local medical researchers and the other from the highest court in the US.I would say, “You shouldn’t have,” but here’s my truth: “What took you so long?”The first gift is a contraceptive gel for men being tested by the University of Washington. When applied daily on the upper arms or shoulders, it can effectively reduce sperm production within eight to 16 weeks -- taking some of the birth-control burden off women’s shou
[Hal Brands] Chinese money has American universities in a bind

Dec 16, 2018

The arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in Canada at the request of the US has further ramped up the tension and rancor between Washington and Beijing. It is also forcing a reckoning about the role of Chinese money in America.Members of the Twitterverse have begun to point out that certain US think tanks have accepted money from Huawei, which the US government considers to be linked to China’s intelligence apparatus. Yet they are not the only academic and research instituti
[Noah Smith] Why Japan needs criminal-justice reform

Dec 16, 2018

Japan’s police recently threw the chairman of Nissan Motor Co. into a jail cell. Carlos Ghosn, a Brazilian-born executive with French and Lebanese citizenship, has been accused of falsifying financial reports and hiding $44 million of personal income.Ghosn is unlikely to receive anything resembling justice. Officially, under Japanese law, a suspect can be held and questioned for 23 days without being charged. During this time he can be interrogated for as long as eight hours a day with no lawyer
[David Fickling] Trade war’s too broad to turn on quick fixes

Dec 16, 2018

Count the straws in the wind, and it looks like the trade tensions between the US and China could be moving closer to a resolution. Don’t relax just yet, though.　Beijing will delay by a decade some of the targets in its Made in China 2025 program to move into high-technology industries, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News last week. The news comes on the heels of a Reuters report that PetroChina Ltd.’s parent, China National Petroleum Corp., has suspended investment in Iran’s Sou
[Kevin Rudd] Prospects for US-China relations in 2019

Dec 16, 2018

Throughout 2018, much of Asia has been shaken by the new and increasingly unpredictable dynamics in Sino-American relations. One year ago, US President Donald Trump returned from Beijing after his “state-plus” visit, which China hoped had finally laid his anti-Chinese campaign rhetoric to rest. Twelve months later, China and the United States are caught in an unresolved trade war, and Trump’s administration has replaced US “strategic engagement” with China with “strategic competition.”So what ar
[David Ignatius] Republicans failed to govern, but Democrats have a chance to succeed

Dec 16, 2018

Last week was a vivid demonstration of the inability of conservatives to deliver results after the great populist revolts in 2016 in Britain and America. And it showed that there is a golden opportunity for liberals in both countries to tackle the public concerns that motivated the mistaken decisions to vote for Brexit and Donald Trump. To put it bluntly, the Tories under Prime Minister Theresa May and the Republicans under President Trump have failed as governing parties. That’s because they ca
[David Ignatius] For Taiwan, ‘status quo’ an increasingly delicate balancing act

Dec 13, 2018

If you like betting on embattled underdogs, President Tsai Ing-wen is worth a look. She’s tempting the wrath of her powerful neighbor in mainland China by arguing that Taiwan must maintain its own open culture, democratic values and, yes, its sovereignty. Tsai is a petite woman, dressed in a plain black suit, who speaks the careful language of a Cornell-educated lawyer. But her low-key message of self-determination makes her something of a rebel in an Asia where China’s autocratic President Xi J
[Jeffrey D. Sachs] The war on Huawei

Dec 13, 2018

The arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou is a dangerous move by US President Donald Trump’s administration in its intensifying conflict with China. If, as Mark Twain said, history often rhymes, our era increasingly recalls the period preceding 1914. As with Europe’s great powers back then, the United States, led by an administration intent on asserting America’s dominance over China, is pushing the world toward disaster.The context of the arrest matters enormously. The US requested that Canada arre
[Rachel Marsden] Saudi influence on US foreign policy may be coming to an end

Dec 13, 2018

One of the US military-industrial complex’s longest-running foreign-war charades may soon come to an end despite objections from the White House. What’s puzzling is why President Donald Trump isn’t standing up for the values on which he campaigned: withdrawal from useless foreign conflicts, and “America First.”The country at issue is Yemen. Why on earth would American taxpayers want their country to be involved in war there? Spoiler alert: There are no American interests in Yemen beyond the mili