In The News

In “Umbrella Revolution,” China Confronts Limits of Its Power

David Lague, James Pomfret and Greg Torode October 2, 2014
The “one country, two systems” approach in Hong Kong is not working well for China. A free press, critical of controls, and independent courts that have already released student leaders are weakening China’s control of the island: Chinese authorities “need to contain the campaign for democracy in one of Asia’s leading financial hubs without the tools employed on the mainland to suppress dissent...

Internet Power Balance Tilts Toward Asia

Eva Duo, Juro Osawa and Wayne Ma September 22, 2014
The initial public offering from Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd., China’s largest e-commerce company, demonstrates a shift of technological and market dominance towards Asia, suggests an article in the Wall Street Journal. With Alibaba hitting the market, four of the top 10 most highly valued web companies in the world are based in Asia, the others being Baidu, JD.com and Tencent Holdings. Nearly...

Tiny Sellers Can Now Reach Across the Globe

Marcus Wohlsen August 29, 2014
Online distributors like Amazon allow tiny businesses to market their products across the globe – and deliver within a few days. “In 2006, Amazon launched a service that allowed US sellers to use its network of warehouses to ship their goods,” reports Marcus Wohlsen for Wired. Now the company has started a program called Fulfillment. “Merchants in the US who want to expand globally can list their...

The Social Laboratory

Shane Harris August 4, 2014
Big data – “emails, phone logs, Internet searches, airline reservations, hotel bookings, credit card transactions, medical reports” – can point to patterns in motivation and behavior. Eager to expand such programs for security purposes, some US officials envy Singapore’s law-and-order attitudes and the uninterrupted power of the People's Action Party since 1959: “They are drawn not just to...

Personal Privacy Is Only One of the Costs of NSA Surveillance

Kim Zitter July 30, 2014
Politicians in the United States have not considered the economic ramifications of intrusive National Security Agency surveillance, bulk collection of data stored for future examination and a cavalier attitude that security fears trump privacy protections. Exposure of the surveillance capabilities have “had a profound impact on the economy, the security of the internet and the credibility of the...

Delhi Gets Its First Internet De-Addiction

Durgesh Nandan Jha July 28, 2014
Addiction is when a substance or activity gets out of control, consuming so much time that it interferes with work, family relationships or health. Video games, online shopping, mobile-phone use and constant internet browsing join the list of addictions. “Worried over the complete lack of socialization arising out of an internet-driven lifestyle among children, an NGO has launched Delhi's...

US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue

July 14, 2014
Tensions run high between the world’s two largest economies over trade and currency, cyberhacking, and maritime disputes in the East and South China seas. Top officials of the United States and China meet annually to review economic, financial and security concerns, and the most recent US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue was held July 9 and 10. “The S&ED is now the main event in the U.S...