| | | | Team Trump's North Korea Policy Might Be Working | | Critics may lambaste President Trump for his Twitter spats with Kim Jong Un's regime. But that overlooks something important – the administration's North Korea policy is kind of working, suggests Adam Taylor in the Washington Post.
"The most obvious successes of this new policy are the increased economic and diplomatic pressures being placed on North Korea. U.N. sanctions in particular are a big win for the United States, especially as they have at least some backing from Beijing and Moscow. We are seeing some of the effects of their actions every day: Four ships were banned from international ports Tuesday because of links to North Korean cargo, a move that was described as unprecedented by one U.N. official," Taylor writes.
"There are other signs of economic pressure at work. Countries such as Qatar and Kuwait have stopped renewing visas for North Korean workers, potentially cutting off another source of income. Countries such as Egypt and Sudan have faced economic pressure to break their own covert ties with Pyongyang. Several countries, such as Japan, have imposed their own unilateral sanctions against North Korea in addition to U.N. and U.S. efforts."
| | Has China Given Up on Democracy? | | For decades, top policymakers in China never left any doubt about the direction in which their country was heading -- "more freedom of speech, judicial independence and ultimately democracy," writes Jamil Anderlini in the Financial Times. But as the Communist Party gets ready to confirm President Xi Jinping for a second five-year term, that kind of talk feels like a distant memory.
"The rejection of 'Western' political systems has been made easier recently by what the Chinese see as the ludicrous buffoonery of Donald Trump and, to a lesser extent, the self-inflicted damage of Brexit and EU infighting," Anderlini writes.
"Given the perceived failings of liberal democracy, many, perhaps most, Chinese are quite willing to accept creeping dictatorship and political persecution of individuals as long as they continue to see their livelihoods improve.
"Outside China many in the West will shrug and ask what all this has to do with them. But they should be aware that Mr Xi's other big shift has been to jettison the foreign policy mantra of non-interference that has also guided China since the days of Deng [Xiaoping]." - China's navy: Coming to a port near you. Western nations are going to be seeing a lot more Chinese naval vessels in their ports in the coming years. But that should be welcomed, not feared, the South China Morning Post editorializes.
"No nation has before acquired naval power at the rate of China. Warships are being launched at a furious pace, their capabilities arguably as up-to-date as vessels operated by the United States, the world's military superpower. In just three decades, the People's Liberation Army Navy has evolved from being limited to operating only close to shore to having a global reach," the paper argues.
"China is fast closing on the U.S. as the world's biggest economy. With expanding trade and investment comes the need to protect citizens and interests, and the Chinese military has a vital role. The same reason is made by the U.S. so there can be no argument against China doing the same far beyond its waters."
| | The Supreme Leader Really Wants You to Vacation Here | | | Barbecues, the beach, fishing and royal jelly flavor ice cream – Kim Jong Un's regime wants you to know that Wonsan has it all, as it clings to one of the few sources of cash, namely tourism, not targeted by U.N. sanctions, write Ju-min Park and James Pearson for Reuters. Just ignore the nearby missile tests.
The effort to turn the seaside city of Wonsan into "a billion-dollar tourist hotspot" is "strategically vital for Kim, say former North Korean diplomats. When he came to power in 2011, he inherited a society officially run by the military but whose people survived largely on black market dealings. On paper, North Korea is a state-run economy; but in fact, seven-in-10 North Koreans depend on private trade to live, according to Thae Yong Ho, North Korea's former deputy ambassador in London, who staged a high-profile defection with his family in 2016," Reuters reports.
"Kim is perceived by outsiders as all powerful, but North Korea's free marketeers make him more vulnerable than he seems, Thae told Reuters. The leader is looking for a way to harness both military and market forces to survive.
"Nuclear weapons are one part of his answer – because Kim hopes they will cost less to maintain than North Korea's conventional heavy weapons. Projects like Wonsan are the other part. He wants to cut the share of funding he gives to the military and allocate more money to the civilian economy." | | Europe's Next Trump? Or Berlusconi? | | Less than two weeks before the election, a party headed by a billionaire critical of immigration looks poised for victory. This time it's happening in the Czech Republic, writes Yascha Mounk for Slate. Add this to the growing list of European countries where "the very survival of democracy is now in doubt."
"Though the country is affluent, they are convinced that the political establishment has failed them. Though most of the foreigners you see in the streets of Prague are here to spend money on beer, souvenirs, and museum tickets, Czechs are intensely preoccupied with the supposed threat posed by migrants and terrorists. And though the country's political class has, on the whole, served it reasonably well, voters are now lending their support to a larger-than-life billionaire who promises to smash the system," Mounk writes.
"Like in Poland and Hungary, in Slovakia and Macedonia, the state media may slowly turn into a propaganda tool for its strongman leader; the judiciary slowly start to rubber-stamp government decisions; and independent associations as well as critical NGOs slowly face increasingly insurmountable obstacles. Within a few years, yet another country that once seemed on the sure path toward liberal democracy will be in danger of turning into a dictatorship with a thin electoral veneer."
| | The Danger of Trump's Trade Wars: Kucik | | Complaints of protectionism against other nations are nothing new. But President Trump's apparent desire to respond in kind is only going to end up hurting America's economy, argues Jeffrey Kucik in Foreign Affairs.
"The possibility of…tit-for-tat is exactly why trade economists criticized Trump's campaign promises as myopic and self-defeating. Economic nationalism is a two-way street. The White House can't slap new duties on imports without jeopardizing key U.S. export markets. Now Trump's trade barriers are limiting market access enjoyed by America's few remaining export-oriented industries," Kucik writes.
"Trump's unpredictability is motivating America's largest trade partners to search for alternative markets. Canada recently completed a new trade agreement with the European Union. Mexico is in bilateral talks with China. And the remaining 11 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump abandoned on his first day in office, met to negotiate moving forward. At this point, all of the country's top trade partners are forming new agreements. And none of these deals involves the United States.
"This highlights what might be the single biggest cost to Trump's approach. His contemporaries are losing patience." | | | | | | |
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