“When the value of the [foreign currency] is seriously distorted in relation to the dollar, this country cannot continue to act as though free trade is a reality.” “Times have changed. And just as we can no longer tolerate the predatory practices of our trading partners, neither can we take American competitiveness for granted.” “America will not be competitive again until we relearn the lesson that economic survival depends on government, labor, business and agriculture work

Zhang Yimou’s 1991 film, Raise the Red Lantern, depicts the lives of four women, concubines of a wealthy man in China’s warlord era. Each day, they struggle, roiled in the politics of the domestic household, attempting to gain the favor of their master by beautifying themselves and attempting to catch his attention. He is one who gives lavishly but with a fickle heart, and with a host of unsaid, dangerously ambiguous conditions attached. Every evening, the favored concubine h

Last week, the attention of the political world was gripped by the midterm elections in the United States, where exceptionally high voter turnout and a resurgence of political interest amid the presidency of Donald Trump led to the Democratic Party regaining control of the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, an altogether different election was held elsewhere, a special election for certain seats of a state legislature and a national lower house. Generally a less grand a

Every four years, in the United States, we get wrapped up about who will become the president: a nine-month sporting match from the first primaries in February until election day. Many of us become joyful as a result, many upset. But with rare exception, we are stuck with the same president chosen as the result of our ballots for a predictable four years, with the midterm election sometimes serving as a referendum on the approval of the current government. I lived in Au