Beyond the glittering towers of the major Chinese cities, nearly one billion people still live in abject poverty. Rural China has been abandoned by the government: no schools, no health care, no hope. Discontent is expressed by rebellions, which are immediately put down by a brutal police force, while human-rights activists, religious leaders, and freethinkers [...]

In Economics Does Not Lie, noted French journalist Guy Sorman examines the state of economic affairs today. Virtually everywhere, the public sector has given ground to privatization and market capitalism. The results have been breathtaking. Opening economies and promoting trade have helped reconstruct Eastern Europe after 1990 and lifted 800 million people out of [...]

The Western press these days is full of stories on China’s arrival as a superpower, some even warning that the future may belong to her. Western political and business delegations stream into Beijing, confident in China’s economy, which continues to grow rapidly. Crowning China’s new status, Beijing will host the 2008 Olympic Games. But as [...]