Beijing Cleans Up its Bar Scene Ahead of the Games | Newsweek Periscope

POLITICS
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary Of State Nominee
12/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
Hillary Clinton's selection to serve as Barack Obama's secretary of State follows her strong race for the 2008 Democratic Party presidential nomination against him. Clinton was among a number of top national security officials named by Obama on December 1. Obama said he would nominate Robert M. Gates to remain as defense secretary, and nominated Gen. James L. Jones, a retired Marine commandant, for national security adviser, Eric H. Holder Jr. for attorney general, Susan Rice as ambassador the UN, and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano for homeland security secretary.
TRANSITION
The Real Security Challenge
John Barry 12/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
"Ninety-five percent of American foreign and security policy is bipartisan. That's why Congress argues so hard about the last 5 percent. We have to persuade voters they're getting value for their votes." That characteristically dry observation came from the late Les Aspin, who was, for 20 years, one of the brightest defense brains on Capitol Hill. President-elect Barack Obama's picks for his top defense and foreign-policy jobs, announced Monday morning, suggest he shares Aspin's view. Critics of Obama's choices misunderstand them. They don't spell "continuity." Quite the contrary: they signal a shift away from the going-in approach of the Bush administration—a core belief in the unilateral power of America to shape events—back to the traditional post-World War II center in U.S. foreign policy. Back, in other words, to Aspin's "95 percent."
CHINA
Naked Attempts to Steal
Melinda Liu 11/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
The Chinese government has long been filled with crooked cadres who take the money and run. But as the nation's economy slows down, grassroots resentment toward official corruption is brewing. In particular, Chinese Netizens are buzzing about "naked officials": apparatchiks who connive to earn permanent resident status overseas by gradually stashing relatives and assets abroad. Once the noose begins to tighten back home, the unencumbered (or "naked") bureaucrats flee the country.
GLOBAL AGENDA
China: Don’t Isolate, Integrate
Richard N. Haass 11/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
The single most important challenge for the new administration—one with the potential to shape the 21st century—is China. As goes China, so go 1.3 billion men, women and children—one out of every five people on the planet.
A Path Out Of the Woods
Fareed Zakaria 11/22/2008 12:00:00 AM
For weeks the world has eagerly awaited word from the Obama transition team about the people who will head up the next American administration—the new secretaries of state and Treasury, the attorney general. But one of the more crucial positions in the Obama administration probably isn't going to be filled for months and will likely get little attention when it is—the post of U.S. ambassador to China.
PEACEKEEPING
How China Could Quietly Play A Key Role In Afghanistan
Melinda Liu 11/22/2008 12:00:00 AM
Is Beijing, which is famously allergic to intervention, about to get involved in Afghanistan? It sounds crazy, yet there are intriguing signs. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently floated the notion at a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations, calling it a "possibility for the future."