Bloomberg (March 30)
“In order to steer China off its current trajectory, leaders are going to have to tolerate a bigger hit to GDP. They must also quickly build a transfer mechanism to allow banks, state-run enterprises and entire municipalities to dispose of bad loans.” China’s total debt to GDP ratio “now exceeds America’s 269 percent and Germany’s 258 percent. Even more worrying: If the credit buildup continues at its current pace, that ratio will explode to 400 percent by 2018.”
Washington Post (February 22)
“There is a danger that as other pressing concerns about North Korea accumulate — nuclear weapons, missiles, cyberattacks — the world will lose interest in the human rights disaster.” Ideally, “North Korea’s leaders should be held accountable” and referred “to the International Criminal Court for investigation of crimes against humanity.” At present, however, a Security Council referral looks doomed to veto by China or Russia. For the time being, the UN must continue “to investigate human rights abuses in North Korea, with an eye toward identifying who in the regime’s leadership is responsible for the horrors so that they can eventually be held to account.”
Tags: Abuses, Accountable, China, Crimes against humanity, Cyberattacks, Disaster, Human rights, International Criminal Court, Investigation, Leaders, Missiles, North Korea, Nuclear weapons, Russia, Security Council, UN, Veto
Wall Street Journal (October 20)
“On the eve of Tuesday’s talks with student leaders of the democracy movement, Hong Kong’s embattled Chief Executive has a message for the world: No compromises, and no apologies. Which means that Hong Kong’s upheavals are likely to continue.”
Tags: Apologies, Compromise, Democracy movement, Hong Kong, Leaders, Leung Chun-ying, Students, Upheavals
Washington Post (September 17)
“Afghanistan is teetering between a political implosion that could ignite civil war in Kabul and a power-sharing deal that could give the country another chance for stability.” Official election results will soon be announced, but due to voting irregularities a “winner-takes-all approach” is unsustainable. “It is up to Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani [the two candidates] to show that Afghanistan can have a future under moderate, pragmatic leaders who are able to compromise.”
Tags: Abdullah, Afghanistan, Civil war, Compromise, Election, Ghani, Implosion, Kabul, Leaders, Moderate, Power sharing, Pragmatic, Results, Stability, Voting
Wall Street Journal (August 6)
“Taiwan’s leaders have warned for years that economic isolation will damage the nation’s competitiveness. Now their worst fears may be coming true, and the consequences of resisting freer trade and economic reform are becoming clear.”
Tags: Competitiveness, Consequences, Damage, Economic isolation, Fears, Free trade, Leaders, Reform, Taiwan
New York Times (July 22)
“The comments from European leaders have been clear and tough, but words will count for little unless European Union foreign ministers enforce more stringent sanctions against Russia…. After the downing of Flight 17 and the brutish handling of the victims, it is time for Europe to hold Mr. Putin to his words.”
Financial Times (April 15)
“Putin’s insidious tactics in Ukraine” should convince EU leaders of the need to spell out the consequences of further incursion. “Russia’s Achilles heel throughout this crisis has been its economy. If Mr Putin persists in his attempt to destabilise Ukraine, European leaders need to be prepared to apply punishment – even if this means inflicting some pain on their own economies.”
Tags: Consequences, Crisis, Economy, EU, Insidious, Leaders, Punishment, Putin, Tactics, Ukraine
New York Times (February 26, 2014)
Recent cross-border family reunions “reinforced the stark differences: South Korea is an economic powerhouse and democracy; North Korea is the most totalitarian and isolated state on earth. That reality is unlikely to change soon, but when it does, North Korean leaders must be brought to justice” for the atrocities recently disclosed by a special commission of the United Nations.
Tags: Atrocities, Democracy, Isolated, Justice, Leaders, North Korea, Powerhouse, Reunions, South Korea, Special commission, Totalitarian, UN
The Economist (February 22, 2014)
“If not championed by leaders who understand its broad benefits,” free trade “will constantly be eroded by narrow economic nationalism. Mr Obama now appears to be surrendering to protectionists within his own party. If he cannot drag Democrats back to their senses, the world will lose its best opportunity in two decades.” Estimates have placed the combined benefit from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at $200 billion for the U.S. alone and $600 billion worldwide.
Tags: Benefits, Democrats, Free trade, Leaders, Nationalism, Obama, Opportunity, Protectionists, Surrender, TPP, TTIP, U.S.
Washington Post (February 20, 2014)
“North Korea’s camps and methods of political repression rival the worst of the 20th century’s totalitarian crimes: Hitler’s concentration camps and Stalin’s prison system. This is happening not in the 1940s or 1950s but in our own time…. North Korea’s leaders must be held accountable.”
Tags: Accountable, Concentration camps, Crimes, Hitler, Leaders, North Korea, Prison, Repression, Stalin, Totalitarian
