Biding Time Until China’s Outlook Clears – Chris Buckley- The New York Times

English: Beijing Railway Station 中文: 北京站 beiji...

English: Beijing Railway Station 中文: 北京站 beijing zhan station at dawn (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is an insightful subjective view of China from Chris Buckley writing in the NYT. He cites a slowing economy, a campaign against corruption and the Communist Party’s grip on intellectual life left the nation in a state of waiting.

Source: Biding Time Until China’s Outlook Clears – The New York Times

Reading this article one gets a biased view of China. First and foremost, it’s a subjective time warp and gives no sense of the amazing journey and rate of change and achievement in China. In China there are enormous challenges but this true in other countries too. For example, do you think that history will be kind to Obama’s foreign policy or Merkel’s policy of Syrian refugees?

Thoughts?

Merkel: Germany Strong Enough to Handle Migrant Influx – WSJ

This is an interesting read from the WSJ. It reports that in her New Year address, German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed confidence that the country could face the challenges stemming from a record influx of migrants.

Source: Merkel: Germany Strong Enough to Handle Migrant Influx – WSJ

For me, Angela Merkel has been a formidable political leader. One criticism has been her slow decision-making style. Strangely her decision to bring in a million Syrian refugees was surprisingly rapid. Clearly, she was deeply moved by the refugees plight but one wonders if this formidable lady let emotion cloud her judgement. For so long, Germans have regarded Angela Merkel as a safe pair of hands.

Germany will be an interesting country to watch in 2016, ahead of the federal election required before October 2017.