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Dog Meat Ban Sought by South Korea Lawmakers After Global Criticism

South Korea’s ruling and main opposition party lawmakers are planning to introduce a special act to ban the consumption of dog meat after facing global calls to halt consumption of the animals.

The main opposition Democratic Party, which holds a majority in parliament, proposed Thursday to legislate the act during the last regular session of parliament, which end on Dec. 9.

Lawmakers from President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative People Power Party are also on board, bringing enough votes to pass a measure despite the opposition of farmers who raise dogs for consumption.

South Korean first lady Kim Keon Hee has pushed to end the practice, making a surprise appearance last month at activists’ news conference and vowing to work with them until the dog meat industry is eradicated, the Korea Herald reported.

EK: Wasting time and tax on less important issues – impression management overseas

NYC Climate Protests Draw Thousands Ahead of UN Gathering

Tens of thousands of protesters took to New York City streets on Sunday to call for an end to the use of fossil fuels ahead of the annual United Nations General Assembly, and they urged President Joe Biden to do more to fight climate change.

The demonstrations drew figures including New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and actor Susan Sarandon, according to footage posted by organizers on social media. Signs carried by protesters included messages such as “Youth vs. fossil fuels, Biden pick a side,” according to photos posted on social media platform X.

EK: Maybe the answer is BOTH. You can’t stop using fossil fuels all of a sudden. We are still so reliant on them. What about a gradual change?

War Over Taiwan Is the Last Thing a Slumping China Needs

President Joe Biden sparked headlines last weekend when he challenged the idea that China’s current economic slowdown might encourage the regime to speed up plans for a takeover of Taiwan. His judgment flew in the face of much conventional wisdom. It’s also correct.

Popular theories about how China, facing the prospect of prolonged stagnation, will be tempted to lash out may make intuitive sense. But they are based on thin empirical evidence and a misunderstanding of the strategic calculations of the Chinese Communist Party and its dominant leader, President Xi Jinping.

The most enduring misconception about dictatorships mired in severe economic difficulties is the “diversion” theory. Its chief claim is that autocrats on the verge of losing legitimacy because of their economic mismanagement have a strong incentive to launch a conflict to rally public support and stay in power.

If, on the other hand, a regime sends the military into battle and loses, it is unlikely to survive. That is why few dictators want to gamble on dangerous adventures. Indeed, their preferred — and time-tested — approach to economic crises is to escalate repression at home, not to launch wars against neighbors.

A more persuasive theory, propounded most eloquently by my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Hal Brands and Michael Beckley in their 2022 book, “Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict With China,” is the “peak China” thesis. It argues that rising nations become most dangerous when their power is peaking as China’s is, since they can see they have a better chance of winning a war today than in the future.

Moreover, it’s not clear Chinese leaders believe their nation’s power has peaked. To be sure, no Chinese leaders expect high growth in the future. Still, most remain optimistic that China will grow faster relative to the US and so further close the gap between them.

They may not be wrong. Demographic ageing, often touted as China’s most serious obstacle to future growth, won’t profoundly affect China until after 2030 when the country’s median age is expected to reach 42.7 years (compared with 39.7 years for the US). In the short-to-medium term, unemployment, not a shortage of labor, will be China’s primary economic challenge.

Most importantly, as an upper-middle-income economy, China’s growth potential remains much higher than that of the US. The country’s main problems aren’t incurable weak fundamentals, but economic mismanagement and a brewing real estate crisis.

EK: More problems to solve at home in China, no time for conflicts outside.