Recently in Seoul, a Taiwanese student tragically died of a traffic accident caused by a drunk driver, while she was crossing the street during the “Walk” signal. It was heartbreaking to think about the young, promising student who died in a foreign country because of an insolent drunk driver. Some time ago, another drunk driver tragically killed an entire family in another car. A few weeks ago, a drunk police officer crashed his car in a rice field. The above incidents show us how c

Judging by the sounds emerging from embassies and trade ministries, you’d think one of China’s most important economic relationships was on the rocks. But currency markets are predicting it’s on the verge of another boom. The Australian dollar hit its highest level in more than two years Thursday, capping a 29 percent rally from its nadir in late March. The moves come after data showed the country emerging from recession in the September quarter. That’s a remarkable cont

Australia’s China problem -- official contacts frozen and many of our exports under siege -- is now gaining attention far beyond our shores. Much of the world, given stark evidence of the economic havoc that China’s displeasure can wreak, and of the ugly depths to which its “wolf warrior diplomacy” can descend, is trying to understand both how we fell into this hole, and whether we can climb out of it with our dignity intact. How have Australia’s relations with Chi

US President-elect Joe Biden’s decision to appoint Janet Yellen as the next Secretary of the Treasury is good news for America and the world. The United States has survived four years under a mendacious president who has no understanding of, let alone respect for, the rule of law, the principles undergirding democracy and the market economy, or even basic human decency. Not only has Donald Trump spent the weeks since the presidential election spewing lies about non-existent voter fraud; he

Blizzard had prepared a lot for the Nov. 24 launch of Shadowlands, the eighth expansion pack for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. But it didn’t see the strange mini boom coming in South Korea. Let’s lay out the basic facts before moving to the big question of why the expansion is now the talk of the town among middle-aged gamers here. Whenever Blizzard has put out a new episode for WoW, there has been a logjam in the company’s servers as m

Angela Merkel, now in her 16th and final year as German chancellor, is surely tempted to compromise with Hungary and Poland for the sake of rescuing a historic fiscal deal for the European Union. She shouldn’t. That’s because so much more is at stake than that deal, however big it is. And despite appearances, the EU actually holds the stronger hand. At its next summit on Dec. 10, and in the remaining weeks until Germany passes the bloc’s rotating presidency to Portugal on Jan

In his first month as US president-elect, Joe Biden has made steady progress in preparing to take office in January. His first round of high-profile appointments focused on foreign policy and national security. The appointments are respected foreign-policy establishment figures, mostly from the Obama years, who support traditional alliances and US engagement in world affairs. To understand Biden’s interest in foreign policy, we need to go back to Biden‘s high school and college yea

China has all but met President Xi Jinping’s pledge to eradicate extreme poverty by 2020. More than 800 counties considered severely impoverished just under a decade ago have now cleared a government-defined line of 4,000 yuan, or roughly $600, in annual per capita income. The last nine, in the province of Guizhou in China’s southwest, were removed from the list this past week. The sheer scale of China’s overall achievements when it comes to poverty alleviation is remarkable.

Have South Korea’s armed forces become stronger under the Moon Jae-in administration, or weaker? Those who believe our military power has grown over the past few years cite the 5-7 percent annual increase in the defense budget, much of which was used to purchase high-performance weapons. Yet others point to the low morale and loose discipline of military personnel, as revealed in frequent news reports. Some analysts attribute this hardly proud state of the 610,000-person armed forces to

Having spent the past four years with the political equivalent of heavy metal music blasting outside their psychic windows late into the night, millions of Americans are hoping that the Biden administration will usher in a new era of calm. They are likely to be disappointed. To a limited extent, such wishes will be granted. Under President Joe Biden, the White House will no longer generate a cacophony of incompetence. Tweet tantrums will yield to process and predictability. Outright falsehood w

Due to cultural differences, wrong translations of English words into Korean occurs frequently and inevitably. The problem is that such erroneous translations may lead to inaccurate perceptions of other cultures and political systems, at times creating serious misunderstanding. Many Koreans, for example, know that the United States is comprised of 50 states. Nevertheless, they do not know that a “state” is a “sovereign government,” not a province. The Korean translation

Like the Joni Mitchell song puts it, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.” For example, classroom education was often deemed boring by students and obsolete by tech visionaries. Then, COVID-19 made it difficult or impossible to meet in person. Now we yearn for in-class experiences. Perhaps the same is true of international economic cooperation. Multilateral institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the U

From the moment COVID-19 emerged as a global threat, it was clear that it would test every society’s strength, resilience and response capabilities. Almost one year on, it is time to assess who passed the test, and who failed. From a public health standpoint, the answer is clear: East Asia -- including Australia and New Zealand -- passed the test with flying colors. As for the rest, Europe performed unevenly, the United States stumbled badly and developing countries have struggled. To be

You wouldn’t know it from the lack of headlines, but the US Navy and Missile Defense Agency recently made history with something that should help make all Americans safer. Specifically, they successfully shot down an intercontinental-range ballistic missile using the navy’s Standard Missile SM-3 Block IIA interceptor launched from a navy destroyer. Missile defense is nothing new, of course. The US has had one for years. But until now, we’ve tested its ability to defend the ho

Putting up the Christmas tree over the weekend, I was reminded once again of all the plans that came to naught this year, including long-planned trips. Among the ornaments that hang on the tree are baubles and trinkets bought on trips abroad -- a rough, handmade snowman bought at an Amish village in Pennsylvania, a Tiffany-style glass ball picked up on a rushed weekend trip to New York. Collected over the years, they remind us of our times there. It goes without saying that there were no new or