David Abraham
2/11/2011

Late last month, Japanese PM Kan proclaimed 2011 to be the “third opening of Japan”, equating his agenda to the great waves of transformation that swept the country in the mid-19th century and in the years after World War II. That will sound hyperbolic to anyone familiar with economically moribund, politically fragmented Japan, but his aspirations should not be dismissed out of hand. Kan can reopen his nation’s economy–the world’s third largest–to competition, and Kan has shown that he understands Japan’s competitiveness problem and has managed to push forward some substantive changes. This suggests that Kan has at least some capacity to address it.

Abraham is a Hitachi international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and previously worked as a sovereign analyst at Lehman Brothers.

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Harsh V. Pant
1/25/2011

The long partnership between India and Indonesia is deepening against the backdrop of a more menacing China. The basis of the India-Indonesia partnership dates to the founding of these nation’s founders–Jawaharlal Nehru and Sukarno–who offered a distinct worldview that drew on their shared colonial experiences. Economic engagement between New Delhi and Jakarta is growing rapidly and has gained further momentum with the signing of the India-Asean free-trade agreement last year. Pant concludes that by wooing Indonesia, India is signaling that it is indeed serious about its presence in Southeast Asia.

Pant is a professor of defense studies at King’s College, London.

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Dana Milbank
1/20/2011

American reporters had a unique opportunity on Wednesday to question Chinese President Hu Jintao directly on his country’s human rights record. The very first question at the state dinner press conference addressed the matter and Hu Jintao attempted to deflect by claiming difficulty in translation. But a persistent press corps forced him to address the matter, however mildly, in a way that would have been plainly impossible in any other circumstance.

Milbank writes about political theater in the nation’s capital.

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Joseph Sternberg
1/20/2011

There are deeply rooted reasons–from banking habits to government policy–why the Chinese are unlikely to increase consumption anytime soon. For starters, China lacks the infrastructure of modern consumer finance and is years–possibly decades–away from building it to the standards of the developed world. Its banks face significant structural and regulatory barriers to offering more consumer-finance products. China needs to reallocate capital and labor to orient itself toward producing goods and services that its consumers want. China’s investment-driven growth may already be witnessing declining marginal returns. Shifting to a new model for GDP growth will require changes at every level, right down to the bank branch.

Sternberg is an editorial page writer for the Wall Street Journal Asia.

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Yang Jianli
1/19/2011

The author makes an appeal to President Obama to consider human rights and the democratization of China when he meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao this week. He suggests that President Obama politely but pointedly ask President Hu about his father’s denunciation by the Communist Party and draw the parallel between Hu’s father and political prisoners like Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. Obama could ask why Liu Xia, wife of Liu Xiaobo, remains under house arrest without being accused of any crime (Chinese law makes no provision for imprisonment without cause). Obama could then press Hu toward a more democratic approach to government, which would be in the best interest of the United States, China, and “all humanity,” says Yang Jianli. While the writer understands the potential awkwardness of such an encounter between Obama and Hu, he also recognizes the opportunity.

The writer is president of Initiatives for China and a Harvard fellow. He served a five-year prison term in China, from 2002 to 2007, for attempting to observe labor unrest. He is the liaison to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee on behalf of Liu Xia, the wife of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, who is serving 11 years in prison for his writings.

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Kelly Currie
1/12/2011

Chinese President Hu Jintao arrives in Washington for a state visit next week as the Obama administration’s thinking on the US-China relationship has evolved. Curry suggests that Obama may give greater prominence to human rights as he recalibrates relations with Beijing. She thinks freedom of expression should be the leitmotif of the summit. The summit provides an opportunity to contrast the weaknesses of the Chinese political system with the strengths of the American one. Aspects of the visit involving freedom of expression should be non-negotiable. If the Chinese side objects, the White House should be willing to cancel events of importance to Beijing’s protocol-obsessed leaders.

Currie is a senior fellow with the Project 2049 Institute.

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Rick Carew
1/10/2011

The conventional wisdom, propagated by senior businessmen, pundits, and policy makers, holds that the 21st century is China’s for the taking, says Carew. He reflects on a book by Carl E. Walter and Fraser J.T. Howie who argue that China isn’t immune from normal economic laws as its cheerleaders argue. Scratch the surface and China’s economic model is less impressive than it looks. The authors discuss unacknowledged bad loans piling up within China’s system (implying that leaders have misallocated capital), and put its public debt at 76% of GDP. With an aging population and a weak social safety net, China cannot afford a banking crisis in the next decade. If and when one comes, Beijing could regret not creating a more resilient, genuinely capitalist market.

Carew is a former Asia M&A reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

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John Lee
12/22/2010

As social unrest rises exponentially each year throughout China, the Communist Party remains as insecure as it has ever been. A regime that is awkward in its own skin and uncomfortable among its own people is always in danger. Beijing sees Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize as part of an international strategy to contain China’s rise. Chinese leaders observe that awarding the prize to past winners like Poland’s Lech Walesa, Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi, and Iran’s Shirin Ebadi weakened the legitimacy of authoritarian regimes in those countries. Lee notes that Beijing’s official line has always been that reforms will only occur “when the time is right.” It had better democratize soon or domestic discontent will destabilize it.

Lee is a foreign policy fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney and at the Hudson Institute in Washington, DC.

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Selig S. Harrison and John H. Cushman
12/13/2010

The North Korean shelling of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island was just the latest act in a long series of naval clashes between the two Koreas resulting from a dispute over the Yellow Sea boundary imposed by the United Nations forces. The authors say to end the dispute the United States should redraw the sea boundary, called the Northern Limit Line, moving it slightly to the south. They show how President Obama has this authority as a result of a 1950 United Nations Security Council resolution. This would help defuse tensions and keep the peace and can help lead to the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons and establishing diplomatic relations with North Korea.

Harrison, the author of “Korean Endgame,” is the director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy. Cushman, a retired Army lieutenant general, commanded the United States-South Korean First Corps Group from 1976 to 1978.

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