China has long been criticized both for its obsession with GDP statistics and their quality: Pressuring cadres to meet growth targets has encouraged a risky buildup of debt and, at times, the outright fabrication of numbers. If anything, though, the quality of China’s official employment data is even worse -- and the inaccuracies could have equally dangerous repercussions.　Until relatively recently, Chinese GDP growth would fluctuate even while remaining robust. The same can’t be said for jobles

Optimism that the US and China can reach a trade deal is rising, with another round of intensive negotiations in Washington this week. What buoyant investors are ignoring, however, is that the talks have become a test of strength between the world’s two great powers -- or, more accurately, a test of how accurate each nation’s sense of its own strength is.　The inconvenient fact is that neither country possesses the power to impose its will on the other. The US is not on its own capable of compell

As the US demands more from Europe and castigates it ever more stridently, it’s increasingly clear that Russia is missing a historic opportunity. If President Vladimir Putin hadn’t made Russia an unreliable partner for its neighbors, he’d be poised to realize his fondest dream: of displacing the US as Europe’s security guarantor.　Despite European officials’ determination to preserve what’s left of the US-led liberal world order, the cracks in the transatlantic alliance are obvious. They were one

Vietnam is more than a convenient neutral site for the second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, which is slated for later this month. The Southeast Asian nation is being held up as a model for what Kim’s isolated country could become if he adopts sweeping market reforms.　The choice facing Kim at the Hanoi summit is the same as it’s always been: weapons or wealth. The US has long offered North Korea a chance to develop its moribund economy in exchange

In retrospect, it seems obvious that President Donald Trump would want to have his cake and eat it, too. That’s essentially what he was doing Friday by both signing a government funding bill that provides $1.375 billion for a barrier with Mexico while also declaring a national emergency to allocate other federal funds for the same purpose.Presumably, congressional Democrats knew this could happen when they entered the compromise to keep the government open in exchange for barrier funding conside