Thailand’s media-bashing, brash, stubborn, and quirky Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej passed up an opportunity to resign Thursday morning in a speech to the nation that some had predicted would become his swan song. Instead, the embattled premier vowed to remain in power indefinitely to “protect democracy.” But in fact, only Mr. Samak’s departure can pave the way for resumption of the remarkable progress in democratic deepening Thailand achieved in the 1990s—progress brought decisively to a halt under the premiership of populist Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra after his ascendancy to power in February 2001.
Posted September 5, 2008

If the Beijing Olympics were, as the International Olympic Committee’s Jacques Rogge claimed in his closing remarks, an opportunity for the world to “learn more about China,” then a great teachable moment was lost when the transformation of Confucius from has-been to hero between Mao’s day and the present was glossed over in television commentaries. These routinely trotted out the cliché of China having “5,000 years” of continuous history—but just as routinely ignored the discontinuity that has marked how the story of that past gets told in different periods.
Posted August 30, 2008

For years, whenever faced with a difficult decision, China’s leaders have used a convenient way out: Let’s wait until after the Olympics. At least two Communist Party Congresses, where national strategy is debated and fixed, have danced around the major issues for the past decade. The full legitimization of private property, the redefinition of the role of the Communist Party, the development of a credible system of social protection, and the much-talked-of decentralization have all been touched upon but left for “after the Olympics.” So, what is going to happen when the Games are over and the Olympics excuse is gone?
Posted August 23, 2008

China is a country run by engineers, and the tremendous success of the Beijing Games can, from the Chinese perspective at least, be seen as a triumph of engineering. The Chinese central government established a blueprint years ago for how the Games would play out—from how the Olympics venues would be constructed to how many gold medals the country would win—and stuck to their plan with an uncanny tenacity, even in the face of strong criticism, as the Games approached. The rest of the world, with whatever reservations remain, can be nothing less than enormously impressed by how well this plan was realized.
Posted August 26, 2008

In 1976, China’s disastrous Cultural Revolution ended. In 1977, the system of college entrance exams, suspended in 1966, resumed. For our generation, that resumption symbolized the ending of a hopeless age. In the fall of 1978, I passed my entrance exams and went to university. I’d just left a collective farm. Like millions of others during the Cultural Revolution, we were sent to the farm to be “re-educated” by the peasant class, which Mao believed had higher moral standards. The day I left the farm was the happiest day of my life.
Posted August 21, 2008.

Media reports say the Chinese people overwhelmingly support the Olympic Games and the government. Yet last week, long-term residents evicted from their homes clashed with neighborhood guards near Tiananmen Square, and two men in western China killed 16 paramilitary troops. In late spring and summer, there were bus bombings, police killings, and large-scale demonstrations across China. One protest attracted an estimated 30,000 citizens. In light of the antigovernment turbulence in the country, should we believe that the Chinese people are truly enthusiastic about the Games?
Posted August 15, 2008

Intersection of the Beijing Olympics with the Chinese public’s well-organized response to the Sichuan earthquake has sparked extensive speculation that China may be on the cusp of a major political reform. Some believe it could even be a step or two closer now to democratization. Sadly, such speculation does not consider certain crucial facts in the current trajectory of Chinese political development, which is by no means democratic.
Posted August 7, 2008

The Punjab has spoken. The provincial assembly in Lahore was the first assembly to call upon President Pervez Musharraf to resign or endure a no confidence vote in the national parliament by an overwhelming majority of 321 to 25. This was the beginning of the end for Mr. Musharraf, who will likely resign in the next few days, once his safety is guaranteed, either inside Pakistan or in exile abroad.
Posted August 16, 2008.

From an economic perspective, no country better represents the Olympic motto—“faster, higher, stronger”—than China. During the last 30 years of opening to the outside world and economic liberalization, China has grown to be the world’s third-largest trading nation and fourth-largest economy. More important, the increase in economic freedom has widened the range of personal choices and given millions of people the opportunity to leave the state sector and “jump into the sea of private enterprise.”
Posted August 11, 2008

Twenty years have now passed since Burma started its struggle for democracy in what is famously known as the “8-8-88 Movement.” It was a nationwide uprising calling for the removal of the military dictatorship and a restoration of the democratic government.
Posted August 8, 2008

The most watched event during the Olympic Games may well be an unscheduled one in which China is the only contender. That competition involves Beijing’s struggle over the penumbra of air pollution from dust, cars and coal-fired industries that so often hangs over the city.
Posted August 12, 2008

During a recent trip to Asia, President Bush pressed North Korea to dismantle its nuclear armaments, limit its ballistic missile activity and improve its respect for human rights. But as the U.S. government marches toward improved relations with North Korea—including dropping Pyongyang as a sponsor of terrorism as early as this month—the Bush administration ignores one of its most important obligations: requiring North Korea to account for over 8,000 American Prisoners of War and Missing in Action from the Korean War (1950-1953.)
Posted August 14, 2008

A cloud of nationalism hung over the latest elections in Cambodia. Phnom Penh and Thailand faced off in an intense border dispute around the Preah Vihear temple and as the two sides transported troops, artillery and tanks to the border, ruling party members were busy galvanizing Cambodian support against perceived Thai aggression.
Posted Aug. 1, 2008

They have been called the “Fifty Cent Party,” the “red vests” and the “red vanguard.” But China’s growing armies of Web commentators—instigated, trained and financed by party organizations—have just one mission: to safeguard the interests of the Communist Party by infiltrating and policing a rapidly growing Chinese Internet. They set out to neutralize undesirable public opinion by pushing pro-Party views through chat rooms and Web forums, reporting dangerous content to authorities.
Posted July 4, 2008
Chinese translation - 中文翻译