If the lack of an external enemy since the end of the Cold War has made America weak and feckless, as some argue, then can the rise of China give America a newfound vigor and sense of purpose? Probably not.　There are several differences between the former Soviet Union and contemporary China that help explain why the USSR came across as so much more threatening. The Soviets had a string of leaders who were well suited to play movie villains. Stalin murdered millions and radiated evil. Khrushchev

For a nation of supposedly “stubborn Gauls,” as President Emmanuel Macron described his people last month, the French seem to have taken his economic reform medicine with few complaints. This should not be a surprise. Despite the cliches, surveys mainly show that the French approve of public spending cuts and the rhythm of change introduced since Macron took power in 2017.　Yet clearly Macron is not loved, either. His dwindling approval ratings invoke unfavorable comparisons with predecessors lik

Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology is a rare example of a Chinese national champion that’s also become a global leader. But the very ties to China’s surveillance state that powered the company’s rise now threaten to check its progress.　Hikvision’s footprint has grown in tandem with China’s political agenda. Its cameras dot the western region of Xinjiang, where the government has greatly expanded its security apparatus and faces accusations of human rights abuses. The US is now considering san

Many countries present a number of different faces to the world, but Russia goes them all one better. Its government is a Janus whose faces are so at odds they might come from separate species.　One of these faces got a lot of airtime last week. First, Gen. Viktor Zolotov, head of Russia’s National Guard, published the video of his out-of-control rant against anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny, who had accused him of involvement in corrupt procurement practices. Zolotov runs an armed force o

Build it and they will come. Maybe.　President Xi Jinping’s grand plan to bind Hong Kong and Macau with the southern tip of China using the world’s longest bridge and a cross-border bullet train faces some large roadblocks.　The “Greater Bay Area” is an attempt to create an economic cluster rivaling those in San Francisco and Tokyo, by deepening links between China’s former European colonies and nine cities in neighboring Guangdong province.　The project has plenty going for it from an economic sta

When I served as commander of the US Southern Command, my first four-star assignment, I visited every country and territory in Latin America -- except Venezuela. By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had destroyed relations with the US, cratered the country’s economy and polarized its electorate.Death by violence soared, hitting levels 10 times that of the US, and 50 times higher than Western Europe. The nation’s abundance of oil became a curse, as

Watch out car companies, here comes the long arm of the Chinese state.　Toyota Motor Corp. is preparing to hand Beijing the technology behind the Prius, its almost-eponymous hybrid car, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. The move comes as Chinese officials push for bluer skies and cleaner vehicles, but it’s an aggressive overture for a company that had, until recently, a passive presence in the world’s biggest car market.　For Toyota’s peers, the agreement would set a scary precedent. Sharing know-

Barely three months after they met in Singapore, President Donald Trump says he would be happy to sit down again with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. One might justifiably ask why, given how little the North has conceded since their last tete-a-tete. There is room to make tangible progress, however, if the US rethinks its negotiating strategy.　Talks between the US and North Korea have foundered in part because of a fundamental contradiction in worldviews. It’s impossible for the US to imagine

By late spring, Fan Bingbing, China’s most popular actress, had become a cultural juggernaut. She had 63 million followers on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social network, and high-profile endorsement deals with some of the world’s most prominent luxury brands. Besides roles in major Chinese and Hollywood films, she’d just enjoyed a prestigious turn as a juror at the Cannes Film Festival. If Anne Hathaway and the Kardashians merged, they would still have fallen short of Fan’s ubiquitous stardom.　T

The big state-owned Chinese enterprise is back. But this time, it isn’t looking sturdy enough to prop up the economy.As growth stumbles, Beijing is falling back on a tried and trusted solution: using large, government-backed companies to spur activity. That’s squeezing out private and small firms.　The economy certainly merits concern. Trade frictions and Beijing’s crackdown on the underbelly of the financial system have combined to sap confidence. Higher borrowing costs, weak household spending

How many company warnings will it take to convince President Donald Trump that his trade war is backfiring?　In the months since Trump ratcheted up trade tensions with both China and erstwhile US allies such as Canada and Europe, there’s been no stampede of manufacturers back to America’s shores. There has, however, been a growing chorus of complaints about the profit pinch wrought by US and retaliatory tariffs as well as some early warnings about price increases and job cuts. Ford Motor, Apple a

A consensus is building in both US political parties that Democrats are heavily favored to take control of the House of Representatives on Nov. 6 and to pick up half a dozen governors’ offices, while Republicans hang on to their slim Senate majority. But there’s a caveat: Politics is unpredictable with President Donald Trump in the White House.　It would be foolish to rule out the possibility that the prospect of Republican losses in the midterm election will provoke Trump to take some kind of dr

Anyone who expects China to concede defeat in its trade war with the US should read about Biobase Group.　The Chinese manufacturer of laboratory equipment once struggled to win orders even at home in an industry dominated by foreign products. But the company’s prospects have brightened as the trade war prompts customers to turn to domestic alternatives.　“The local market was heavily reliant on imports,” Biobase’s chairman was quoted as saying. “Now, it’s different. Opportunities beckon.”　The stor

There are already 170,000 small, unmanned aerial vehicles licensed in the US, and the Federal Aviation Administration predicts another half-million more of them to be airborne by 2022. Drones are everywhere, doing all sorts of things, including delivering hamburgers and beer to golfers. They’re taking group photos, scouting properties and being shot down by neighbors.　They’re also competing, and the competition is serious. Lockheed Martin Corp. has launched a $2 million competition pitting human

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made an impassioned call to his compatriots to “show our faces” against a rise in right-wing extremism. The plea is a stark warning that Germany should guard against succumbing to the kind of boiled-frog effect that ended up killing the Weimar Republic in the 1930s. There is some justification for the alarmism.Maas, a member of the Social Democratic Party or SPD, became the German right’s favorite hate figure as justice minister in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s go

An outbreak of African swine fever has China’s meat eaters, investors and bureaucrats in a panic. That should be no surprise: The country is the world’s biggest pork producer and consumer, and has a history of food-safety and health scandals that have fueled public distrust.　The government’s response, in culling 38,000 pigs, has been quick and efficient this time. But public suspicion, fanned by the handling of previous incidents, is running high. Authorities are seeking to censor social media p

Donald Trump’s absence from Asia-Pacific summits will do little harm to America’s long-term standing in the region. It might even help.　The president’s decision to skip two international meetings in November was predictably seen as evidence of American neglect of a vital region, underscoring the unilateralist instincts of Trump. The complaints are fair.　But let’s not mistake pageantry for trends that have been building for years and look inevitable. American influence is waning in ways that a fe

The stock market is a weighing machine of companies’ potential rather than their current circumstances. That is doubly true for Amazon.　Amazon on Tuesday briefly reached a stock market value of $1 trillion. It’s a meaningless (and unoriginal) milestone but a notable symbol for a company that until recently hardly looked like a world-shaking giant. Amazon’s market cap is six times what it was at this point in 2014, or a gain of $840 billion. It took Google 14 years to reach that stock market valu

It’s easy to think of sports teams as massive companies: They have huge global exposure, millions of fans, and athletes on eye-popping salaries.　In reality, though, even the biggest teams are little more than minnows. The world’s wealthiest soccer team, Manchester United, has a market value of just $4.1 billion -- less than, say, Fevertree Drinks, a maker of tonic water and mixers with just 51 employees.　While the biggest teams have millions, if not hundreds of millions, of fans, they have histo

Emerging-market stresses have been building since at least 2013. Investors may have forgotten the effect of the “taper tantrum” on the “Fragile Five” -- Brazil, India, Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa -- a term coined by Morgan Stanley to describe their vulnerability to capital outflows. Monetary accommodation, lower current-account deficits and growth disguised the underlying challenges, attracting more capital to those markets.　The textbook recipe for an emerging-market crisis requires a lar