Tag Archives | China

An Era of Moral Crisis

Commentary by , September 11, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. A Serious Foreign Policy and an Unserious President President Trump celebrated the 18th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks a few days early this year by announcing that he had planned to hold personal negotiations with the top leadership of the Taliban–and to do so at […]

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Flying Chernobyl

Commentary by , August 23, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. One Country, One System The protests in Hong Kong continue to produce inspiring stories of courage. Here is one about Rupert Hogg, the CEO of Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways. According to local Hong Kong media reports, Beijing authorities asked Hogg to hand over a list of […]

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Can You Hear the People Sing?

Feature Article by , August 20, 2019

A bit of conventional wisdom I’ve heard for decades is that the people of China are not interested in freedom, either because they value social conformity and “stability” too much (as if the Communist Party has ever provided it), or because they have been bought off by a deal in which they trade freedom for […]

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Who Resists the Resistance?

Commentary by , May 1, 2019

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. Viva la Revolución “Democratic socialism” has finally achieved its usual end-state in Venezuela: mass shootings of innocent civilians by government goons. I’ll warn you that the reporting on this has been pretty awful, and in the link I just gave, even Jake Tapper—who ought to know better—refers […]

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“We” Are All Socialists Now

Commentary by , April 2, 2019

It’s a little disconcerting how quickly the “libertarian moment” of the Tea Party era gave way to today’s socialist moment. The dissipation of that supposed “libertarian populism,” which has turned out to be more “populist” than “libertarian,” is certainly disappointing, but at least this history provides some hope that the socialist moment will prove just […]

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The Theater of the Deal

Feature Article by , March 8, 2019

Some of us never quite believed Donald Trump’s “Art of the Deal” self-image as the ultimate negotiator. It was an image crafted for the tabloids and for television, and Trump imported it straight into politics, promising he would employ his astounding powers of negotiation to achieve unprecedented results in public policy. But then where are […]

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Salon of the Refused, Episode 7

Announcement by , January 9, 2019

Episode 7 of my video and podcast series, Salon of the Refused, is now available. I talk with an old friend, Bob Garmong, who spent most of the past decade as a lecturer at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics in Dalian, China, about his experiences there and the prospects for the country’s future. The […]

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Social Media Was a Mistake

Feature Article by , December 22, 2018

Top Stories of the Year: #1 I’ve been counting down the top stories of the year, looking back at the big events of 2018 and reviewing my coverage of them. At the top of the list this year is what we have discovered about the impact of digital media on our public debate—particularly the second […]

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Salon of the Refused, Episode 4

Announcement by , December 4, 2018

Episode 4 of my video and podcast series, Salon of the Refused, is now available. I talk to Scott Lincicome about President Trump’s trade war. The conversation includes: why tariff power was delegated to the president, how trade changes jobs instead of taking them away, and how Flashdance and Bruce Springsteen explain Donald Trump’s trade policy. […]

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Fast Times at Ben Trovato High

Commentary by , December 4, 2018

Five Things You Need to Read Today 1. Let No More Be Heard of Confidence in Man I speculated a while back that the legal problems of Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, might come back to haunt the president–and lead to “The Clinton Impeachment Rerun We Didn’t Want But Probably Deserve.” It looks […]

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