In The News

Confucius on the Campus

Glenn Anthony May March 4, 2011
Since 2001, China has funded nonprofit Chinese language institutes in nearly100 countries. The institutes have since branched out into business and other areas while also funding scholarships and study in China. In an article for the Asia Sentinel, Glenn Anthony May of the University of Oregon points out that the centers of study come with conditions, including support for a one-China policy that...

The Experience Economy

David Brooks February 24, 2011
Consumers snap up the latest in electronic devices and regularly use sites like Facebook or Twitter. But such new inventions contribute a fraction of direct jobs produced by the automobile industry, notes David Brooks in his column for the New York Times. Brooks quotes Tyler Cowen’s e-book, “The Great Stagnation,” in suggesting that the US had a history of strong economic growth because of easy “...

Thank God Columbus Lost His Way

Pranay Sharma November 8, 2010
India once walked a foreign-relations tightrope between the Soviet Union and the United States, yet was still inspired by the younger nation's culture, education and democratic principles. Two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, India finds itself on a similar tightrope with the US alone. “Our contradictory emotions about America explain why it hasn’t outraged us as much as it should...

UN Report Warns of Threat to Human Progress From Climate Change

Larry Elliott, Mark Tran November 5, 2010
The United Nations' annual human development report mixes good news with bad. Despite global financial crisis, the vast majority of nations have made progress in poverty elimination, jobs, education continues, and only three – the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe – show declines in human development since 1990. Fast-growing emerging economies in Asia demonstrated the most progress. However, a...

Needing Students, Maine School Hunts in China

Abby Goodnough November 5, 2010
Growth can deliver economic revival. Though an anti-immigration stance enjoys populist success in some regions of the US, other politicians recognize that immigration contributes a quick budget recharge. Courting foreign students for education programs provides some of immigration's benefits with no permanent ties. A public schools superintendent in Maine hopes to balance his budget by...

The Perils of American Stupidity

John Berthelsen November 3, 2010
Science and education deliver prosperity. Yet some populist US politicians denounce education as elitism, a stance that invites comparisons with the Cambodia's Khmer Rouge and its vilification of intellectuals. John Berthelsen rejects the comparison in the Asia Sentinel, yet expresses alarm: “[T]he impulse to banish knowledge as a means of securing political power is a dangerous strategy...

Chinese Investors Flock to London to Buy Real Estate

Julia Werdigier, Bettina Wassener September 29, 2010
An influx of wealthy Chinese are snapping up high-end London properties. Representing 5 percent of buyers and growing, they are favored by brokers for paying in cash in an effort to evade Chinese capital regulations. To cash in on the influx, brokers hire Mandarin and Cantonese speakers and even open offices in China; some buildings omit the number four, considered unlucky by Chinese. The...