On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Focus is releasing a comprehensive study that seeks to answer the question: Is China an imperial power in the image of the West in its relationship with the global south? Over the last 15 years, there have been increasing accusations of Chinese state enterprises and private...

 Emerging relatively unscathed from the banking crisis of 2008, China has been viewed as a model of both rampant success and fiscal stability. But beneath the surface lies a network of fissures that look likely to erupt into the next big financial crash. A bloated real-estate sector, roller-coaster stock market, and rapidly growing shadow-banking sector have all...

originally published by Rappler.com On July 19, 2011, three of my colleagues in Congress and I landed on Pag-asa Island in the Spratlys. Our mission: affirm our country’s sovereignty over nine islands and maritime formations in our possession amidst China’s increasingly aggressive behavior in the area. In the days before our trip, Beijing condemned the mission and...

Yes, this behavior from stupid corporations is increasingly common. This was the appropriate response to overweening corporate power: Resist. Then sue the bastards for $10 million. They picked on the doctor because he was Asian and thought he would submit meekly. Stereotyped, racist thinking leads to big, big trouble.

The boy tries out his toys, and he decides he likes them. Press this button and that delivers an airstrike 10,000 miles away.. Press that button and that sends a naval task force to a conflict zone on the other side of the world. Hey, hey, this is fun! Now what would happen if I press this button that reads WARNING: DO NOT PRESS UNLESS UNDER MISSILE ATTACK? Really,...

Francis Fukuyama, who famously said in the 1990’s that the “end of history” had arrived, with countries having no other path than to evolve towards western-style liberal democracy, came on the air on National Public Radio this morning and said liberal democracy is now in big trouble throughout the world, including the US. In Fukuyamanese, he said...

(Delivered at Coalesce Conference, sponsored by Ateneo Lex, Ateneo de Manila, March 18, 2017.) Most of you had not yet seen the light of day when the EDSA Uprising took place in February 1986. To my generation, this event was a memorable step in the Philippines struggle for democracy. The three decades that followed were marked by the reign of liberal democracy as...