Here is an article, from the October 19, 2003 edition of the LA Times, about the significance of the rise of private car ownership in China. Continue reading

     This is the first installment of IR Week.  I am posting a number of articles I have published over the years on various topics of East Asian international relations and Chinese politics.  This first post is a piece… Continue reading

   The EPA has announced that it is setting new standards for the containment of nuclear waste to be stored at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada.  Its a modest goal: limit radiation leakages for a million years.      … Continue reading

    An opinion piece in today’s People’s Daily applies Confucian principles, especially the idea of benevolent government, to foreign policy issues, particularly those of the US.  The basic idea is: if powerful countries concentrated on a "policy of benevolence,"… Continue reading

     The Koreans clone a dog story is not too surprising after last month’s Koreans make a breakthrough in stem cell research story.  So here is a link to my post from last month, which may have some relevance… Continue reading

     Ahead of Saturday’s 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshime, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has released a letter, sent by Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, to the the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference… Continue reading

     The news today of fourteen US soldiers killed in one engagement in Haditha, together with the story that a journalist, Steven Vincent, was murdered in Basra, reminds us of just how badly the American occupation of Iraq is… Continue reading

     An article in today’s NYT about a conference on string theory caught my eye and roiled my Taoist sensibilities. Perhaps it is the hubris of referring to a "theory of everything" that gets my goat.  I mean, really,… Continue reading

     This story on the front page of today’s Washington Post describes just one of the many riots and demonstrations that have broken out in China in recent months.  In most cases, the social unrest is driven by the … Continue reading

     It is now clear that military lawyers worked hard to try to prevent the abuse of prisoners by US forces at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.  There were good legal and moral reasons given for avoiding the harshest interrogation… Continue reading