The Case of Hong Kong’s Missing Booksellers – By ALEX W. PALMER – NYT

By ALEX W. PALMER Lam Wing-kee knew he was in trouble. In his two decades as owner and manager of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books, Lam had honed a carefully nonchalant routine when caught smuggling books into mainland China: apologize, claim ignorance, offer a cigarette to the officers, crack a joke. For most of his career, …

The Case of Hong Kong’s Missing Booksellers – By ALEX W. PALMER – NYT Read More »

Opinion | China’s Communist Party Is Abandoning Workers – The New York Times

By Harvey Thomlinson April 2, 2018 HONG KONG — China is a sea of labor unrest. During the first 10 weeks of this year there were more than 400 publicly reported strikes, more than double the number during the comparable period last year. President Xi Jinping’s government has responded with a firm hand: Labor activists …

Opinion | China’s Communist Party Is Abandoning Workers – The New York Times Read More »

Opinion | China’s Communist Party Is Abandoning Workers – By Harvey Thomlinson – NYT

By Harvey Thomlinson April 2, 2018 “HONG KONG — China is a sea of labor unrest. During the first 10 weeks of this year there were more than 400 publicly reported strikes, more than double the number during the comparable period last year. President Xi Jinping’s government has responded with a firm hand: Labor activists are …

Opinion | China’s Communist Party Is Abandoning Workers – By Harvey Thomlinson – NYT Read More »

Trump Hits China With Trade Measures as White House Exempts Allies From Tariffs – The New York Times

“President Trump said he would impose about $60 billion worth of annual tariffs on Chinese imports on Thursday as the White House moved to punish China for what it says is a pattern of co-opting American technology and trade secrets and robbing companies of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue. The measures come as …

Trump Hits China With Trade Measures as White House Exempts Allies From Tariffs – The New York Times Read More »

Opinion | In Vietnam- Turning a Camera on the War – by James Hill – NYT

No foreign photographer spent more time in Vietnam than Horst Faas, who oversaw photographers in Saigon for The Associated Press, who was based there from 1962 until late 1970 and then regularly returned until the withdrawal of American forces in 1973. Despite being heavily wounded just before the Tet offensive — which did not stop …

Opinion | In Vietnam- Turning a Camera on the War – by James Hill – NYT Read More »

Some Things Are True Even if Trump Believes Them – by Thomas Friedman – NYT

Thomas Friedman is great in this column. He writes that China is a big problem, but the Trump steel tariff hurts our allies and not China. Then: “So what would a smart American president do? First, he’d sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord. TPP eliminated as many as 18,000 tariffs on U.S. exports with the …

Some Things Are True Even if Trump Believes Them – by Thomas Friedman – NYT Read More »

The Biggest Refugee Camp Braces for Rain: ‘This Is Going to Be a Catastrophe’ – The New York Times

The world’s largest refugee camp, a temporary home to more than half a million people that sprawls precariously across barren hills in southeastern Bangladesh, faces a looming disaster as early as April when the first storms of the monsoon season hit, aid workers warn. “It’s going to be landslides, flash floods, inundation,” said Tommy Thompson, …

The Biggest Refugee Camp Braces for Rain: ‘This Is Going to Be a Catastrophe’ – The New York Times Read More »

The Myth of Eugene McCarthy – by Joshua Zeitz – NYT

Fifty years ago next week, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota scored a near-upset in New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary, setting in motion Lyndon Johnson’s announcement, three weeks later, that he would “not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.” It was a jaw-dropping series of …

The Myth of Eugene McCarthy – by Joshua Zeitz – NYT Read More »

U.S. Allies Sign Sweeping Trade Deal in Challenge to Trump – The New York Times

SANTIAGO, Chile — A trade pact originally conceived by the United States to counter China’s growing economic might in Asia now has a new target: President Trump’s embrace of protectionism. A group of 11 nations — including major United States allies like Japan, Canada and Australia — signed a broad trade deal on Thursday that …

U.S. Allies Sign Sweeping Trade Deal in Challenge to Trump – The New York Times Read More »

How Xi Jinping Made His Power Grab: With Stealth, Speed and Guile – by Chris Buckley – NYT

“BEIJING — Some 200 senior Communist Party officials gathered behind closed doors in January to take up a momentous political decision: whether to abolish presidential term limits and enable Xi Jinping to lead China for a generation. In a two-day session in Beijing, they bowed to Mr. Xi’s wish to hold onto power indefinitely. But a bland communiqué issued …

How Xi Jinping Made His Power Grab: With Stealth, Speed and Guile – by Chris Buckley – NYT Read More »