Global challenge: Stay enlightened

There's a lot of gloom in the world these days - war, famine, poverty, disease, pollution, power grabs, political and religious repression. It can be downright depressing.

But a recent article in The Wall Street Journal by Harvard psychologist and author Steven Pinker tells a different story. Pinker highlights the remarkable progress civilization has made since the dawn of the Enlightenment - an epoch of reason that reached full flower in the latter part of the 18th century. He makes the startling, and reassuring, assertion that 2018 is the best time to be alive.

China might agree. Its own progress across a wide spectrum has been astonishing since reform and opening-up germinated under Deng Xiaoping. While problems remain, the country's momentum is unmistakable - from alleviating extreme poverty to building a prosperous middle class; from edging into the world's top rank in science and technology to cleaning up its environment; from sustained economic growth to reaching out to build a global community.