Word: partly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...passed over as normal strains. But no serious student of history would believe this. As China grows, as it scrapes against international norms and habits of a different era, the sparks won't stop coming from Beijing. Chinese cyberattacks, trade games, asymmetric-war experiments - all these are part of our future. They won't stop just because the Chinese are being friendlier this week. Nor will the fact that our actions, even ones intended to reassure China, will often unnerve it. We have to accept that tension with China is unavoidable and that removing tension is not a strategy...
...year with no rule of law. It is a very different place from the polite, harmony-seeking Middle Kingdom many Westerners expect. Real China can baffle Westerners and confound them as easily in political negotiations as in the sort of commercial nightmares that are only too commonplace. This is part of the reason our diplomacy toward Beijing often falters, as if Alice in Wonderland were dropped into a Roller Derby match...
...Part of the reason co-evolution could work is that it puts China alongside the U.S. in thinking about these new rules. That won't be easy. The U.S. is used to telling the rest of the world what to do. It will require energetic diplomacy. Practically, one item on Obama's agenda this week should be starting to retire the forum we now use for engaging China - something called the Strategic and Economic Dialogue - which is sort of like an annual parent-teacher conference with China. The slow-moving dialogue drives issues at a pace largely irrelevant to what...
...certainly wouldn't be the first time great powers have sparred over this land of lakes and rugged steppe, nestled in the shadow of the towering Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges. For centuries, it was part of the main Silk Road highway that connected China to the west; the ancient bazaar city of Osh to this day bears traces of its commercial past. In 751 A.D., near the modern day town of Talas - where it's reported anti-Bakiyev unrest first broke out on Apr. 6 - a vast army sent forth by the Abbasid Caliph of Baghdad defeated...
...Soldiers, however, were still meddling in politics. According to poll monitors, military officers have interfered in just about every election since 1992. Military personnel are part of the patronage networks of leading politicians, whose influence they rely upon to advance their careers in the armed forces. This provides incentive for soldiers to try to influence political outcomes. The most blatant example of such patronage came when Thaksin appointed his cousin as army chief in 2003. That move sparked a backlash among soldiers who were not part of Thaksin's patronage network. They feared the army would become a political tool...