China woes: Charismatic or not, how long can Xi Jinping keep smiling?

China woes: Charismatic or not, how long can Xi Jinping keep smiling?

Sol W. Sanders   In a troubled world, the obstacles to continued growth and stability in Communist China are staggering compared to the crises of the Euro and Sequestration. Most foreign observers are either willfully blind to the growing evidence or, facing a possible period of worldwide economic decline, they still hope growth in China […]

When world leaders talk about ‘human rights’ and when they do not

When world leaders talk about ‘human rights’ and when they do not

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The spectacle of the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh did more to lay bare the problems, conflicts and paradoxes of relations among the region’s wildly different and widely scattered nations than to resolve them. The fact that at least three of the leaders at this year’s ASEAN summit […]

And now proof, if any was needed: All is not well with China and its secretive regime

And now proof, if any was needed: All is not well with China and its secretive regime

Sol W. Sanders [See Archive Authoritarian governments are paranoid, but just because they are, as the saying goes, doesn’t mean they aren’t threatened. The Chinese regime is no exception. We currently see a demonstration in shadowy but slashing decisive action by a normally ultracautious regime to purge a leading member. This political drama results from […]

High stakes: Obama’s ace, Iranian oil and the 2012 election

High stakes: Obama’s ace, Iranian oil and the 2012 election

Sol W. Sanders President Barack Obama has launched new international diplomatic poker with “a trailing hand”. It is impossible to exaggerate the forces at play, economic as well as political, foreign and domestic, and their interplay. When he signed Dec. 31st the latest Iran provisos, Mr. Obama was handed new clout to cut Iran’s energy […]

The Euro is dead, long live the euro!

The Euro is dead, long live the euro!

Sol W. Sanders In the spring of 1947, I was on deck as one of that dying breed of transatlantic liners was tugged into Le Havre. Despite decades of experience there was incredible confusion as French stevedores hassled over tying up ropes. A rail companion, a French Jewish refugee returning from American wartime refuge, declaimed, […]