Over time, the pressure of strong sentiment in Hong Kong and around the world is more likely to shift the totalitarian regime in Beijing than fighting the police and causing property damage are | Chris Patten
By imposing draconian new security laws on
#HongKong
, Chinese President
#XiJinping
has in effect annulled the “one country, two systems” agreement that has served
#China
and the city for over two decades, says Chris Patten.
#OneCountryTwoSystems
It’s not an exaggeration to say that 2020 and the next few years will determine the fate not only of the United States and China, but also of the world, writes
@georgesoros
#Davos
@wef
#wef20
|
#PSonPoint
is a premium article
.
@RahulGandhi
's expulsion from parliament has opened a new and sorry chapter in India’s political history, writes
@ShashiTharoor
– and has cast serious doubt on the survival of its democracy.
The
@UN
must not stand by idly while
#China
breaches an international treaty and destroys what is left of
#HongKong
's freedoms and autonomy, writes
@YangheeLeeSKKU
, a former UN special rapporteur.
Chris Patten: We must not allow China the opportunity to divide and rule. The world’s democracies must unite and openly show Xi’s regime exactly what we stand for.
Slavoj Žižek laments that some of today's Western leftists are like the "anti-imperialist" pacifists who claimed, in 1940, that the Nazi blitz across Europe should not be resisted.
Over the weekend,
#China
revealed new details of its national security law for
#HongKong
, which allows the
#CPC
to significantly tighten its control over the city. In May, Minxin Pei wrote about the “calamitous consequences” of the law.
When China’s leaders finally declare victory against the outbreak of the new coronavirus, they will undoubtedly credit the Communist Party's leadership. But the truth is just the opposite: the party is again responsible for this calamity | Minxin Pei
The US should put up or shut up. Unless the
@StateDept
can prove its charge that
#China
is mounting a genocide against the
#Uighur
people in
#Xinjiang
Province, it should not abuse the term, say
@JeffDSachs
and William Schabas.
#Chinese
President
#XiJinping
’s aggressive bullying in recent months calls for a coordinated response from the rest of the world, and especially from liberal democracies, argues Chris Patten.
Indonesian President
@jokowi
is the world’s most effective democratically elected leader today, argues
@mahbubani_k
. But almost no one outside the country knows about it.
.
@Chellaney
: By trafficking in images of death, suffering, and private acts of mourning, Western media coverage of the
#COVID19
crisis in India has broken one of the first rules of journalism.
By the end of the 1980s, many Westerners believed that
#liberaldemocracy
had triumphed over all other systems of
#governance
, notes Chris Patten. But things look a lot less rosy for liberal democrats today
The removal of the Tigray People's Liberation Front will bring peace to the region's people and enable closer cooperation within the Horn of
#Africa
, says Ethiopian PM
@AbiyAhmedAli
.
A new
@hrw
report shows that
#XiJinping
's China is no longer content to stifle criticism of its own rights abuses, reports Aryeh Neier; it is now waging war on the entire international human-rights system.
As the world enters a new decade, India under
@narendramodi
and the
@BJP4India
has begun a dark new chapter in its history, says Gandhi biographer Ramachandra Guha
The comprehensive stifling of
#HongKong
’s freedom has proceeded remorselessly, encompassing schools and universities, the legislature, courts, civil service, and the media, notes Chris Patten.
Liberal democracies must point out collectively when
#China
assaults freedom, as it has done in
#HongKong
, or human life itself, as in
#Xinjiang
, argues Chris Patten.
When a former human-rights advocate and working-class hero backs dictators guilty of abominable butchery, shock is followed by abhorrence, writes
@AndresVelasco
.
Abe Shinzō brought clarity, strength of purpose, and credibility to Japanese foreign policy, transforming the country's stance vis-a-vis the region and the wider world, reflects
@bill_emmott
.
The idea of an open society terrifies Chinese President
#Xi
Jinping’s regime, because its system of control depends on party bosses at the center maintaining an iron grip on everything, notes Chris Patten.
If Taiwan were to fall, the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh could become the Chinese government’s next target for “reunification,” warns
@Chellaney
.
Decades ago, a wealthy group of corporate interests and right-wing ideologues hatched a plan to influence
#US
courts in systematic fashion. Under
@realDonaldTrump
and
@senatemajlr
Mitch McConnell, their plan succeeded spectacularly, writes
@SenWhitehouse
In a new PS Big Question,
@ProjectLincoln
co-founder
@reedgalen
underscores Donald Trump’s enduring influence over a party to which he lacks the slightest loyalty. Read the feature at the link.
"It’s not two branches that govern Congress now, but two parties, and one of them has surrendered reason and common sense,"
@RepRaskin
told
@ElizabethDrewOH
following the conclusion of Donald
#Trump
's second Senate
#impeachment
trial.
Just in the last three years, the
@federalreserve
has mishandled its interest-rate hiking cycle, faced insider-trading allegations, and stumbled in its supervision of banks. None of these failures has gone unnoticed globally, writes
@elerianm
.
With
#China
willing to step in as
#Myanmar
’s patron, the military junta has no reason to worry much about expressions of disapproval from a diminished
#America
, says Ian Buruma.
Putin has built a modern-day Sparta, a regime that lives only for war. Now that the Ukrainians have begun to repel the Russian military, the dictator in the Kremlin has nothing left, argues
@anders_aslund
.
In a new Big Question,
@AlexLHinton
explains just how dangerous Trumpism 2.0 could be. Read the feature – which also includes insights from Ian Buruma,
@ruthbenghiat
, and
@reedgalen
– at the link.
Economists love marginal-cost pricing because it normally provides appropriate incentives with only small distributive effects. But in these non-normal times for Europe's electricity system, it has become a huge problem, explains
@JosephEStiglitz
.
America’s role in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas has exposed the hollowness of Western countries’ stated belief in basic human rights and their inconsistent compliance with international law, says
@elerianm
.
.
@Chellaney
: China is applying the same strategy on the roof of the world that has driven its expansion in the
#SouthChinaSea
: gradual territorial encroachments followed by militarized construction.
Chris Patten: The West should not be browbeaten into embarrassed silence in the face of China’s violation of its obligations regarding Hong Kong, a city that exemplifies many of the values that Xi’s CPC wants to bury.
Donald Trump's tough China policy is his most consequential – and constructive – foreign-policy legacy. Unless
@JoeBiden
pursues a similar approach, the erosion of US global leadership will become inexorable, argues
@Chellaney
.
By making good economics popular, accessible, and democratic,
#MMT
advocates like
@StephanieKelton
and
@ptcherneva
have threatened central bankers' unmerited mystique, argues James K. Galbraith of
@UTAustin
.
The
@federalreserve
has made a series of compounding mistakes over the past two years. It must openly acknowledge them if it is going to restore its credibility and policy effectiveness, says
@elerianm
.
Since 2016, Donald Trump has repeatedly proved to be toxic at the ballot box. This November is likely to be no different, writes
@ProjectLincoln
co-founder
@reedgalen
.
Modern Monetary Theory offers a dangerous half-truth that has become particularly seductive now that governments are desperate for tools with which to keep their economies afloat. | Willem Buiter.
Acting as if all criticism is illegitimate, as PM
@narendramodi
’s government does, is the hallmark of a banana republic, not a mature democracy, observes
@ShashiTharoor
.
#China
's newest claim to
#Bhutan
's territory shows that, as long as the
#CPC
is in power, none of the country's neighbors are safe, writes
@Chellaney
.
The COVID-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call for a world that has accepted China’s lengthening shadow over global supply chains for far too long |
@Chellaney
An overwhelming body of evidence and international law support the determination that the mass atrocities against the
#Uyghur
people of
#China
’s Xinjiang province constitute genocide, say
@IrwinCotler
and
@yonahdiamond
of
@TheRWCHR
.
Calls for a gentler form of capitalism that looks beyond shareholder value are mere fads, says
@yanisvaroufakis
. To imagine what transcending capitalism might mean in practice requires rethinking the ownership of corporations
A mature sovereign state does not automatically cast others into outer darkness if they disagree with it, says Chris Patten. But the Communist Party of China clearly believes otherwise.
.
@yanisvaroufakis
: A decade ago, eurozone countries were supposed to emulate Germany. Today, the tables have been turned, because Germany's economic model, which relied on repressed wages, cheap Russian gas, and Chinese demand, is no longer tenable.
Although Russia will not pay any reparations to Ukraine as long as Vladimir Putin remains in power, that should not deter Ukraine and its allies from pressuring the Kremlin to take responsibility for its war of aggression, writes
@anders_aslund
.
Given China’s population size and rapid economic growth, some pessimists believe that shaping Chinese behavior is impossible. But this is not true if one thinks in terms of alliances, argues
@Joe_Nye
.
China’s claim to sovereignty over
#Taiwan
should be challenged on the basis of both history and the welfare of its 24 million citizens, says Chris Patten.
#Xi
Jinping managed to change the South
#China
Sea’s geopolitical map without firing a shot. But his efforts to use the same tactics against
#India
have produced only a dangerous stalemate, notes
@Chellaney
.
Sweden and Finland will furnish
@NATO
with important new and expanded capabilities, including a greater capacity to control the Baltic Sea, and thus to support the defense of the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), writes
@carlbildt
.
.
@ShashiTharoor
: As countries scramble to secure supplies in the face of "vaccine apartheid,"
#India
has enhanced its global standing by making vaccines that are readily available in the world's poorest countries.
Other central banks will have no choice but to follow the
@federalreserve
in raising
#interestrates
beyond what would have otherwise been needed, to avoid “importing” more
#inflation
and financial instability, predicts
@elerianm
. Read more at the link.
.
@elerianm
cannot recall a time when so many former
@federalreserve
officials and their international counterparts have been so critical of the institution’s competence.
#Ethiopia
is so consumed by the fighting in Tigray that it is no longer a source of regional stability, and appears to be renouncing its role as regional peacekeeper, argues
@DrMehari
.
#China
’s intensifying crackdown in
#HongKong
will vindicate those in
@POTUS
@JoeBiden
’s administration who are convinced that only a hardline US stance can modify Chinese behavior, notes Minxin Pei of
@CMCnews
.
If Putin is allowed to succeed in
#Ukraine
, a new world will be born, in which larger states will once again be able to invade their neighbors with impunity, warns Oleksandra Matviichuk (
@avalaina
).
Libya eventually agreed to pay $2.7 billion in compensation to the families of the Lockerbie bombing victims. Russia's war in Ukraine falls into the same category as that atrocity, but on a much larger scale,
@anders_aslund
observes.
Building a coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh would generate economic benefits worth more than 500 times the financial cost of climate damage, argues
@Copenhagen_CC
's
@BjornLomborg
More than a decade of socialism for bankers and austerity for most of the rest thwarted capitalism’s dynamism, plunging it into a state of gilded stagnation, says
@yanisvaroufakis
.
Earlier today, Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed said that serious crimes have been committed in
#Tigray
. In February,
@DrMehari
called for the establishment of an international commission to help restore peace to the country’s northern region.
Chris Patten: Free and open societies should work together to make clear to China that a good relationship requires respecting and defending the rules-based international order.
With the approval of a new citizenship amendment by
@narendramodi
's government, the religious bigotry that led to India's partition and the establishment of Pakistan is now being mirrored in the pluralist Indian republic, laments
@ShashiTharoor
For many Indian liberals, writes
@ShashiTharoor
, the long-cherished idea of the country as a benign, inclusive state – thriving in its diversity of religions, ethnicities, languages, and castes – is collapsing
China’s population aged more rapidly than previously predicted, and its fertility rate (births per woman) has been lower than that of the US since 1991 and below those of Japan and Italy since 2021, notes
@fuxianyi
.