In The News

Japan Times: Japan Plans for Foreign Worker Influx

November 7, 2018
Japan has an aging population due to low fertility rates and strict immigration laws. The nation’s median age is 46.9, second only to Monaco. Officials are overhauling regulations as Japan prepares to welcome 40,000 more foreign workers in April 2019 and hopes to curb abuses of the health “insurance system, which caps an insured person’s monthly payment of medical bills depending on age and...

Korea Herald: Rise of Startups in North Korea

Cho Chung-un October 30, 2018
Economic sanctions against North Korea over the past decade increased unemployment and poverty, but also encouraged innovation. As a result, the country reports a rise in startup businesses as North Korea engages in more dialogue with South Korea and the United States. Choson Exchange is a nonprofit based in Singapore that has trained more than 2,300 North Koreans on economic policy and...

BBC: Trade Tensions Drive Japan, China Closer

October 27, 2018
The United States under Donald Trump has unleashed a protectionist agenda and that is pushing Asian economies closer together – including China and Japan, two bitter foes before and during World War II. “Tokyo and Beijing have long been at odds over past military confrontations and present territorial disputes,” reports BBC News, but now Asia’s two largest economies are aiming for more trade,...

Asia Sentinel: China Empties the Seas

Gregory McCann October 19, 2018
The Chinese have reduced fish stocks along their coastline so fishermen turn to other waters: “Today thousands of Chinese ships are trawling international waters from Guinea to Liberia and Senegal to Taiwan, Palau and Fiji and beyond to Chile and even beyond that, Chinese fishing vessels are scouring the seas for anything that swims, vastly underreporting their catches to the UN Food and...

Caixin: “Competitive Neutrality” for China’s SEOs

Zhang Chunlin October 17, 2018
Some of China’s trade partners accuse the country of unfairly subsidizing its state-owned enterprises, and this is part of the reason the United States has imposed tariffs on many Chinese goods. Zhang Chunlin of the World Bank proposes competitive neutrality, a principle advocated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: restricting SOES from using state tools to increase...

Bloomberg: Nafta’s China Clause

Josh Wingrove October 10, 2018
After much fanfare about scrapping the North America Free Trade Agreement, US President Donald Trump reached a new deal with neighbors called the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. A new clause stipulates that if members of the North American pact reach a trade deal with a non-market economy then they would be ineligible for some USMCA benefits. Given Trump’s fiery rhetoric about launching a trade war...

South China Morning Post: Concern Over Chinese Leaders of Global Bodies

Sarah Zheng October 9, 2018
Interpol is the world’s largest international police organization of 192 member countries that cooperate on solving and fighting crimes, and so the sudden disappearance of Interpol’s president activated immediate global attention. The detention of Meng Hongwei during a trip to China, followed by a bribery accusation with little explanation and his resignation, has shaken confidence in Chinese...