[Cai Fang] China faces challenge of development mode

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, held in mid-October, put forward a proposal for the 12th Five-Year Plan for national economic and social development over the next five years, once again highlighting the importance of transforming the country’s economic development mode. It also called for governments at various levels to shift their economic

Feb. 18, 2011

[Editorial] Egypt’s uprising may one day extend to China

While the resignation of Egypt’s authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak may have only set the course for the difficult transition to democracy for Egypt, Feb. 11 will be remembered as the day the people triumphed.The transition of the Middle Eastern heavyweight and trendsetter, an important ally of the U.S. and one of the world’s greatest military powers, will have repercussions throughout the worl

Feb. 18, 2011

No breaktrough in inter-Korean dialogue

Low-level, preliminary military talks between North and South Korea at the Panmunjom truce village collapsed on Feb. 9 when the North Korean delegation abruptly stormed out. It had been hoped that the talks, intended as a preparatory step for high-level inter-Korea military talks, would lay a foundation for lowering the tension on the Korean Peninsula. But the collapse of the talks has underlined

Feb. 17, 2011

Obama’s 2012 budget has been tamed too much

President Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2012 landed with a thud Monday, laying out short- and long-term tax and spending plans that disappointed lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The proposal was a remarkably tame response to Washington’s fiscal problems, not the bold statement about belt-tightening that the White House had suggested was coming. Yet the biggest shortcoming is that it all but

Feb. 17, 2011

[Doyle McManus] Mission not yet accomplished

“Mission Accomplished” read the hauntingly familiar phrase from Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim when the first word came that President Hosni Mubarak might step down. Ghonim delivered the words by Twitter, unlike George W. Bush, who had them printed on a banner. But in both cases, they were premature.As Richard Haas, a former top State Department official who now heads the private Council on Foreign

Feb. 17, 2011

[Dick Polman] GOP cutting Obama slack over Egypt

Hey, check out some of the nice things that people have said lately about Barack Obama:“The president, I think, is handling this (Egypt) situation well, under the most difficult kind of circumstances.”“I really have no fault with the president, Obama, the way he’s handled this process.”“I think the administration, our administration, has handled this tense situation pretty well.”“We ought to speak

Feb. 17, 2011

Castro’s playbook is different from Mubarak’s

Somewhere in Havana, Fidel Castro is probably laughing out loud to see Hosni Mubarak lose his grip on power after 30 years of undisputed leadership. In Castro’s eyes, no doubt, the octogenarian Mr. Mubarak brought a world of trouble on himself by trying to mollify Western critics through the creation of a phony democracy that would give his regime a veneer of respectability.Mr. Mubarak was never a

Feb. 16, 2011

Don’t hinder EPA from regulating emissions

Temperatures in Wisconsin are expected to rise by midcentury by an annual average of 6 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists and others in state government. Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year on record based on global surface temperature. It was also the wett

Feb. 16, 2011

[Marifeli Perez-Stable] Education is the key to success

Is the United States in decline? Twenty-five years ago Americans feared Japan would make us No. 2, but then in the 1990s our economy boomed and Japan’s stagnated. Now the fears have returned.China, India, Brazil and other emerging economies are roaring ahead. China, our closest competitor, holds more than 20 percent of the $4.3 billion in U.S. Treasury securities purchased by foreigners.Deficit re

Feb. 16, 2011

[Joshua Muravchik] Revolution germ will spread in the Arab World

Few bets are safer today than that we will see more uprisings in the Middle East in 2011, though maybe not everywhere. One of the ironies of revolution is that it is hardest to do where it is needed most. Hosni Mubarak was a dictator, but his rule was neither absolute nor bloodthirsty.Revolutions often produce something worse than they replace. But in the case of Egypt the nature of the protests g

Feb. 16, 2011

[Matthew Lynn] Women can win corporate sex war without Ackermann

If there is one German banker who isn’t taking gender equality seriously, it is Josef Ackermann.The Deutsche Bank AG chief executive officer is in hot water over flippant remarks he made about women serving on bank management boards. Now some German ministers are calling for mandatory quotas to be introduced, forcing companies to appoint women to top positions.If it happens, it will be following a

Feb. 16, 2011

Don’t let territorial dispute just drift along

During their meeting in Moscow last week, Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, discussed the bilateral territorial dispute over four islands off Hokkaido but failed to reach agreement as they reiterated their countries’ conventional stances.Japan-Russia relations have become seriously strained since Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited one of the four isl

Feb. 15, 2011

[Martin Khor] A new dawn, but many questions linger

People across the world were mesmerized last week by the remarkable images of the dramatic events in Egypt that eventually propelled President Hosni Mubarak out of office on Friday.In the end, the courage, determination and fighting spirit of the millions of mainly young people that packed into streets in protest in many cities overcame a president who had been entrenched in power for over 30 year

Feb. 15, 2011

[Trudy Rubin] Egyptians must handle revolution carefully

As Cairo erupted in jubilation on Friday over the announcement that Hosni Mubarak had stepped down, I remembered another celebration of revolution I witnessed in 1979.I was visiting some Syrian leftists in a rickety wooden house in the heart of the old city of Damascus as they gathered around a crackly short-wave radio set and broke out the whiskey. They were celebrating the return of Ayatollah Ru

Feb. 15, 2011