A Los Angeles firm has quietly assembled a Trojan horse electric car designed to carry the Chinese military-industrial complex deep into America’s auto market. Detroit should be afraid, very afraid. And anyone in the U.S. unemployment line ― along with American taxpayers, who are subsidizing this sham ― should be outraged.The car is branded Coda and debuted at the L.A. Auto Show. While Coda Automotive salespeople were eager to portray it as “All American” ― we got one of them bragging about it o

It has become even more difficult to implement visible steps that would lessen Okinawa Prefecture’s burdens as the host of many U.S. military bases. The government must recognize that this situation is extremely serious.The armed services committees of the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives have agreed on revisions to a bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2012, which includes a freeze on the entire $156 million budget for shifting U.S. marines stationed in Okinaw

Representatives for Taiwan’s three presidential candidates chose their “election numbers” last week. Tsai Ing-wen and Su Jia-chyuan of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ticket got number one. The Kuomintang (KMT) ticket of Ma Ying-jeou and Wu Den-yih drew number two while the People First Party’s (PFP) nominees James Soong and Lin Ruey-shiung ended up with number three. While no one takes the numbers too seriously, staff members for the respective candidates did put their spin on the numeri

The launching of joint patrols on the Mekong River by China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand over the weekend is the initial result of the quartet’s efforts to increase security and stability along the waterway. The joint patrols have set a precedent for more transnational cooperation in security issues in the region. On Saturday, five patrol boats equipped with heavy machine guns and carrying hundreds of armed police and military personnel from the four nations, acted as escorts to 10 Chinese cargo

Conservatives were quick to accuse President Obama of embracing class warfare in his speech last week in Osawatomie, Kan. And liberal Democrats were thrilled to see a hint of the populist president they had hoped they were voting for in 2008.The polarized reactions suggest that Obama’s speech succeeded in one of its goals: to frame the 2012 election as a clear choice between two philosophies, a contest he might be able to win, instead of a referendum on his own unhappy economic record.But electi

CHONGQING ― A quiet revolution is happening in China’s hinterland.Breakneck growth spurred by government-led economic reforms has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and transformed a poor agrarian society into a global industrial powerhouse in one generation. Yet, the second-largest economy in the world is now at a crossroads. Its spectacular success has brought about byproducts such as a large wealth gap and widespread corruption that threaten the sustainability of its develop

When it comes to shining a light on the cozy relationships between Wall Street and Washington, and how the rich and powerful get access to things the rest of us don’t, there can never be too many juicy examples. Last month, thanks to Bloomberg Markets magazine, we were treated to the excellent story about how former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson met with a bunch of bankers and hedge fund managers in New York during the summer of 2008 and shared with them some of his early thinking on the futu

The public is in a foul mood over increasing college costs and student debt burdens. Talk of a “higher education bubble” is common on the contrarian right, while the Occupy Wall Street crowd is calling for a strike in which ex-students refuse to pay off their loans. This week, President Barack Obama held a summit with a dozen higher-education leaders “to discuss rising college costs and strategies to reduce these costs while improving quality.” The administration plans to introduce some policy p

Dramatic climate change in the Arctic is rapidly diminishing the polar ice cover, exposing serious environmental, economic and security issues across the top of the world.Ecological upheaval is producing a long coveted Northwest Passage for shipping, with all its opportunities and complications.U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., is working to focus congressional attention on giving the U.S. Coast Guard the ability to protect America’s interests. As the ranking member of the House Transportation sub