Four issues will be in the spotlight at the upcoming G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia: boosting confidence in global economic growth, promoting reform of global governance, increasing unity and cooperation among developing countries, and evaluating China’s economic growth trend.The G20 emerged in response to the unprecedented 2008 international financial crisis, with its top priority promoting global economic growth.Over the years, thanks to the United States’ fiscal cliff and the debt crisi

What would Deng Xiaoping make of Charles Xue? It’s a surprisingly edifying question. In the past few weeks, Chinese authorities have been eager to show their allegiance to the rule of law. They have gone after Western pharmaceutical companies for bribery, milk-powder suppliers for price-fixing and a well-known British investigator for illegally obtaining information about Chinese citizens.The most riveting spectacle ― the often salacious testimony in the trial of Bo Xilai, a former Politburo mem

If President Obama ever does get around to targeting Syria, with congressional approval, it will be the strangest U.S. military strike in recent memory.The administration has made a convincing case that the Syrian regime gassed 1,400 of its own people to death last month, including 426 children. And yes, the use of poison gas violates longstanding international norms.Yet Obama can’t seem to make up his mind if he wants to punish Syria for using chemical weapons or not.On Saturday, he made a stro

Teachers teach the way they were taught. They pay more attention to receptive skills (listening and reading) than productive skills (speaking and writing). What most teachers do in class is reading and translating English, and they think they have done a fine job. They monopolize most of the class hour without letting students talk because they never learned how to reduce their teacher talk. How can a swimmer learn to swim by watching their coach swim in the pool most of the time? Depending on t

If anyone still believes this country has a “pay for performance” system for corporate executives, it’s time to put the notion to rest. For more than two decades, corporations have gotten away with this sham ― at the expense of workers, shareholders and taxpayers.The good news: there’s reason to hope that members of Congress could come together across the aisle to help end this charade by closing one loophole in the tax code.The “pay for performance” myth has been unraveling for years. Most of t

BRUSSELS ― There is a saying, too often used in interpreting international relations, that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. Sometimes it proves true; often it does not.Thirty years ago, the Afghan mujahedin were mistaken for friends of the West when they fought their country’s Soviet invaders. But how lazy that assumption seems now, given all that has since happened.Syria’s deepening crisis, and the criminal use of chemical weapons there, has created a similar dynamic and dilemma. But the West nee

India’s economy has stalled. Growth in the second quarter fell to 4.4 percent at an annual rate, down from 8 percent two years ago. The rupee has slumped. Consumer-price inflation is about 10 percent and rising. The country faces what could be a full-scale financial crisis. This would be a testing situation even if India had a well-functioning government, but it doesn’t. With a general election due next May, politics are paralyzed. Between now and the vote, the Reserve Bank of India, led by its

For five years, President Obama has more or less successfully adhered to a very specific, though not immediately discernible, doctrine when formulating American policy in the Muslim world.Many foreign policy experts believe that Obama doesn’t have a Middle East policy at all ― a clear-cut set of ideas that guide American engagement in the greater Middle East. This, we are told, is a big problem.But the conventional wisdom is wrong. There is, in fact, an Obama doctrine. And for the first time sin

So the U.S. launches a military strike. Then what?As the Obama administration and the U.S. military plot military action against Syria, they should be spending just as much time ― and arguably more ― considering what happens next. Once Washington crosses the threshold of action, there’s no retreating from blame for anything that follows, whether through action or inaction. And in the weeks and months to come, dangers will only deepen.First, quick hits rarely achieve enduring political goals ― an