| | | | China "Edges Closer" to One-Man Rule | | China's future is "largely in the hands of just one man" after President Xi Jinping failed to include a clear successor as he unveiled the new line-up to the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the party's key decision-making entity, write Chun Han Wong and Jeremy Page for the Wall Street Journal. Indeed, the move has pushed the country "closer to resurrecting one-man rule."
"The parade of the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee onto a red-carpeted podium in Beijing's Great Hall of the People was the climax of a twice-a-decade process that placed Mr. Xi on a par with Mao in the party constitution and positioned him as pre-eminent leader even beyond his second five-year term," they write.
"Concentrating such power in Mr. Xi -- who can now make policy and personnel choices virtually uncontested -- draws to an emphatic end an era of collective leadership. It also represents a historic gamble." - Power to the diplomats. President Xi has further empowered the diplomats driving his foreign policy vision, promoting top diplomat Yang Jiechi to the 25-member Politburo, one rung below the Politburo Standing Committee, writes Shi Jiangtao for the South China Morning Post.
"The move not only recognizes Yang's ability and personal contribution to implementing Xi's assertive foreign policy, but also provides a boost to China's diplomatic establishment as the country seeks to expand its interests and influence in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond," analysts said. - China's Communist Party: No place for women, apparently. "Mao Zedong, may have once said that women 'hold up half the sky' but when the twice-a-decade party congress selected a new batch of top leaders this week, females weren't holding up much at all," writes John Ruwitch for Reuters.
"No women made it onto the elite Politburo Standing Committee, the group of seven men at the pinnacle of the party. None ever have," Ruwitch says.
"In the new Politburo, only one of its 25 members is a woman -- Sun Chunlan, head of the party body charged with outreach to non-Communists. It is her second term and she is likely to retire in five years. On the previous Politburo, there were two women, Sun and Vice Premier Liu Yandong -- who is past retirement age and has stepped down from the Politburo."
| | Trump's Big Missed Opportunity | | President Trump had a chance to score a rare win-win on tax reform – drain the swamp of special interest tax breaks in return for lower rates, argues Edward Luce in the Financial Times.
"But Mr Trump is no match for Grover Norquist, the anti-tax campaigner who is the real arbiter of Republican tax policy. Mr Norquist dismissed the idea that the rich should pay more as the 'sin of envy'. Gluttony is apparently not a sin," Luce writes.
The result? The "lion's share" of tax cuts are likely to go to "the top one per cent at a time when they are taking a larger share of the economy than at any time since the 1920s. Almost nine out of 10 of the dollars America has earned since 2009 have gone to that fortunate tranche. Mr Trump would give them even more. The price would be paid by others. It would mean fewer dollars for infrastructure -- another forgotten campaign promise -- and fewer to shore up entitlements that Mr Trump convinced voters he would protect."
"Would it have been worth the effort? In the short run, maybe. Mr Trump would join the ranks of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush in lightening America's tax burden. Republicans would have a record to run on for the 2018 midterm elections. The stock market would be happy. The party's donors would have received bang for their buck. That is how the merry-go-round works." | | Why Kenya Should Cancel Tomorrow's Election | | | Kenyans are set to head to the polls Thursday to take another shot at electing a president after the first election was annulled in September by the country's Supreme Court. But little has changed since last month, writes Maina Kiai in the Washington Post. If the election takes place as scheduled, Kenya could be torn apart.
"The same people, processes and systems responsible for the annulled election are still the ones responsible for Thursday's election. A second election would almost guarantee state and political violence and generate a crisis beyond the capabilities of Kenyan institutions to resolve," Kiai writes.
"The crisis is so bad that some opposition supporters are talking about secession and asking the electoral commission to consider a referendum that would split Kenya up. While the protests might lose some momentum, this discussion will not. Unfortunately, grievances long held by those excluded from power could make secession an attractive option." | | About those Nuclear Bomber 24-Hour Alert Stories… | | Reports that the U.S. Air Force might soon place its B-52 bombers on a 24-hour "ready-to-fly posture" for the first time in more than 25 years made headlines around the world this week. The reports were premature, at best, according to VICE News. But LTG Mark Hertling suggests to Global Briefing that such a move would actually make sense.
"Given the potential from an increasingly nuclear capable North Korea and the adventurism and threats related recently from Russian President Vladimir Putin, placing a third of the triad on 'strip alert' would actually be a prudent move," says Hertling, a CNN national security analyst.
"The primary purposes of a nuclear triad -- land based missiles, strategic bombers and submarine launched ballistic missile -- is deterrence and redundancy, as well as a preparation for the potential for a second-strike capability. That second strike actually contributes more to the deterrence than anything else, given anyone who might consider a first strike against us would know we would have an overwhelming response.
"While it seems unthinkable to return to the dangers and anxiety of what we lived with during the Cold War, the changes in the environment, the President's bombastic (no pun intended) nature, and the need for continued readiness would make this a smart move."
| | The World's Most Powerful Passport Is… | | Singapore's passport is the most powerful in the world, according to a new index that ranks countries' passports based on the number of nations that it allows holders to enter without a visa.
A total of 159 countries allow Singaporean passport holders to enter without a visa or with a visa on arrival, placing it one spot ahead of German passport holders, who can enter 158 nations, according to the index, produced by Arton Capital. The top three is rounded out jointly by Sweden and South Korea; the United States is joint sixth with a total of 154 countries allowing American passport holders to enter without a visa or with a visa on arrival.
The least powerful passport belongs to Afghanistan, which only allows visa free or visa on arrival access to 22 countries. | | | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment