Hope rises for peace on Peninsula

This year will be critical for the Korean Peninsula. All the countries engaged in the Six-Party Talks have seen leadership transitions in the past year or so and, therefore, they may change their policies on the Korean Peninsula issue in accordance with the changing international situation.

The bane of domestic consumption

Retail sales in China grew 14.3 percent in 2012, ending with an encouraging year-on-year increase of 15.2 percent in December, and consumption (including government consumption) accounted for 51.8 percent of GDP.

Letters

Corruption must be eliminated

From the Chinese press

New traffic law justified

Consumption cannot be only driver

China's economy is at a crossroads. As 2013 begins, foreign and domestic observers alike are asking which path the country's economic development should take in the next decade. How can China ensure stable and sustainable growth in the face of significant internal and external challenges, including slowing medium- and long-term growth, rising labor costs, and growing inflationary pressures?

Cartoon

Global governance in a changing world

Each year in January the World Economic Forum brings together leaders from business, government, academia and the media at its headquarters in Davos, Switzerland, for five days of lectures and discussions about issues of global importance.

Obama's opportunity

US President Barack Obama began his second term on Sunday, with daunting tasks facing him both at home and abroad. Some believe Obama, now more confident, may be emboldened to take a harder line on foreign policies. However, when it comes to Sino-US relations, caution and a win-win strategy would be more pertinent.

Technological upgrading

China's exceptional GDP growth, 11.4 percent in 2007, is now a thing of the past, and the country must tap its technological potential if it is to maintain stable growth in the coming decades.

Monetary-policy delusions

The politicization of central banking continues unabated. The resurrection of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, pillars of the political system that has left the Japanese economy mired in two lost decades and counting, is just the latest case in point.

China, India must heed call of the times

Doha has never been hospitable for contentious North-South dialogue. The negotiations on climate change that signed off in the Qatari capital in December 2012 have proved that again. And, of course, it is difficult to forget that the negotiations on trade liberalization held under the auspices of the World Trade Organization in Doha remain deadlocked even after about a decade.

Letters

Fighting for clear air