Rule of Law should be an expression of benevolent rectitude - benevolence manifesting in fairness to all and rectitude manifesting in adherence to good rules.
China's push for the rule of law this year is unprecedented since its reform and opening-up in the late 1970s, because China's development has come to such a turning point that the country is finding it hard to sustain its stability and growth with the former rule of government power.
As an economic phenomenon, corruption can be termed a "silent killer". High corruption prevents investments from utilizing their full potential. It also prevents people from consuming various public goods to the full extent. Corruption drains public savings and reduces resources that could have been used for creating more public goods.
China's reform experience of the past 30 years tells me that real reform should be a shift in paradigm.
Being the host of several major events including the Shanghai-based Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation week in Beijing, China has given full play to its diplomacy at home this year.
In retrospect, the relationship between China and the United States has basically shown an upward trend, and the bond between the two countries has rarely appeared so promising as it has since the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing in November.
This year, the relationship between China and Japan reached an all-time low since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972, and this is reflected in the attitudes of people in both countries toward bilateral ties.
Since entering office, the new Chinese leadership has become more confident in its diplomacy, and the country has taken a higher diplomatic profile than it did before.
'The story ended with a whole world in panic; it began in a small village in Africa." This sentence in the German magazine Zeit best describes the fatal nature of the Ebola epidemic. Since its outbreak in West Africa in February, Ebola had infected 17,145 people globally by Dec 4, out of which 6,070 died.
Islamic State is by far the most barbaric terrorist group. Founded on the war-torn ruins of Iraq and Syria, the IS is reportedly using "sex slaves" and indiscriminately executing captured Iraqi soldiers. And it excels in uploading videos of hostage executions on the Internet to spread terror.
This year has been one of military and political crises, with some involving direct confrontations between major powers. Perhaps the only exception is the disapperance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Despite being far removed from "hard politics", it brought the world together in an unprecedented global search mission.
When Ukrainian protesters camped on Independence Square in Kiev demanding their country join the European Union, they might have not known that the incident could escalate into a major crisis splitting Ukraine and triggering a confrontation between Russia and the West.
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Raymond Zhou
Op Rana
Berlin Fang
Zhu Yuan
Huang Xiangyang
Chen Weihua
