I returned to the office this week, joining thousands of bankers from Citigroup to Morgan Stanley that are trickling back to their desks in Hong Kong. After almost five months working from home, it’s going to take some getting used to. The easing of coronavirus lockdowns heralds the beginning of the end for the world’s greatest work-from-home experiment. Perhaps. Twitter will let employees work from home permanently even after the outbreak recedes, while others such as Google have s

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants all 1.3 billion Indians to be “vocal for local” -- meaning, to not just use domestically made products but also to promote them. As an overseas citizen living in Hong Kong, I’m doing my bit by very vocally demanding Indian mangoes on every trip to the grocery. But half the summer is gone, and not a single slice so far. My loss is due to India’s COVID-19 lockdown, which has severely pinched logistics, a perennial challenge in the huge, i

Vietnam is pulling ahead in the race to reopen Southeast Asia to city-hoppers and sunseekers. International arrivals were down 98 percent in May from a year earlier, after a record 2019. Yet success in containing the coronavirus epidemic means domestic travel has already restarted. Thailand, by comparison, is still under a state of emergency, and other neighbors in the tourism-friendly region are only slowly easing restrictions. The steady reopening will help Vietnam’s convalescing econom

A crisis is mounting between the United States and China, and South Korea has found herself suddenly caught in the crossfire of the two superpowers. Now under relentless pressure, the Korean government faces a sobering reality in which the answer to the question “Which side are you on?” will bring decisive or even dire consequences. Such a situation is not new to the Korean people; we were also stuck in the crossfire between China and Japan in the 19th century. Back then, Korea cou

Beijing is scrubbing up. Late last week, the central bank excluded so-called clean coal from a draft list of projects eligible for green bonds. It’s a significant move that puts the world’s No. 2 issuer on the path toward consistency with international norms, making it easier to attract the foreign capital required to finance hundreds of billions of dollars of environmental fixes. The next logical step will be to tackle what companies are allowed to do with the cash they raise. So-ca

What was your first reaction when you saw the video of the white cop kneeling on George Floyd’s neck while Floyd croaked, “I can’t breathe”? If you’re white, you probably muttered a horrified, “Oh, my God” while shaking your head at the cruel injustice. If you’re black, you probably leapt to your feet, cursed, maybe threw something (certainly wanted to throw something), while shouting, “Not @#$%! again!” Then you remember the two white

It came as no surprise that a fourth round of trade negotiations between the UK and the EU has produced no big breakthrough. Once again, there is talk about Britain separating from the EU in December without a trade deal in place; Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey told banks this week to prepare for just that. Why hasn’t the coronavirus pandemic changed the Brexit narrative, forced an outbreak of reasonableness between UK and EU negotiators or at least made compromise more likely? It&rsq

What pushed former Defense Secretary James Mattis over the edge, to denounce President Donald Trump in the strongest possible terms? Only the former general knows for sure, but a clue is provided by the title of his statement: “In Union There Is Strength.” Another clue is provided by the most important words in his text: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people -- does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divid

The 1,442nd Wednesday Rally held across the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Wednesday proceeded as it has for 30 years, opening with a performance followed by individual citizens and group representatives coming to the microphone to express their support for former Japanese military sex slaves during World War II and call on the Japanese government to officially apologize to the victims and provide legal reparations. The rally was subdued compared to those I had seen in the past, flanked on eithe

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated many trends that have been gathering force slowly. The pandemic transformed the tense competition between the US and China into a nascent Cold War. To isolate China, US President Donald Trump has proposed expanding the annual G-7 summit to include South Korea, along with Australia, India, Russia, and possibly Brazil. The goal of the strategy is to surround China with major powers that cooperate on global economic issues. South Korea’s participation

In the persistent condemnation of Japan’s wartime sex slavery, we have told the descendants of former imperialists to be sorely ashamed of the part of history that they share with Koreans. The recent episode, involving Yoon Mi-hyang, a key activist in the protest movement, brought shame on ourselves. Public complaints stoked when the leader of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery of Japan became a National Assembly lawmaker on the ruling

On Sunday, President Donald Trump tweeted that the executive branch will designate Antifa as a “terrorist organization,” apparently in an attempt to pin blame for the weekend’s violent protests on the loose collection of far-left activists. The president’s announcement was characteristically unclear. Federal law says that if the Secretary of State designates a group as a foreign terrorist organization, then materially supporting that organization becomes a very serious f

The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that’s orbiting the Earth with two US astronauts is the picture of New Space Age glamour. It’s a sleek, stylish commercially made capsule that’s destined to be featured beside Italian sports cars in future design textbooks. Just don’t tell that to Elon Musk, SpaceX’s chief executive and chief designer. “Is a Ferrari more reliable than a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic?” he once asked a space journalist. The answer, of cou

We need government to run the country for us and represent us in the international community. Unfortunately, however, we often find our government overbearing and oppressive. Sometimes we suffer heavy taxes and other times, tyrannical rule. That is why “governance” has always been a major concern of political scientists. Thomas Paine aptly pointed out the issue, saying, “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”

What is the COVID-19 crisis teaching us about the role of the state? And what lasting lessons will our societies draw from it? It is still very early to be asking these questions, but they cannot be avoided. Postponing their discussion would simply leave the field open for those peddling old obsessions whose time is long gone (if it ever came). The starting point should be that, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and US President Donald Trump notwithstanding, a new pandemic consensus has been f