the verge of another revolution in iran? the images of mostly young people rising up against the regime have captivated all of us. i will talk to an iranian writer who explains what the protestors want. and at a time when economies are struggling around the globe and russia is already getting a billion dollars every few days in oil and gas revenues, why did opec slash production? everything has a price. energy security has a price. we will explain. but first, here s my take. one of the few issues on which there is a consensus in washington these days is that american policy toward china was built on an intellectual tariff. liberals and conservatives both believe that beijing s embrace of free markets and integration with the global market would fundamentally change china. but they didn t, so the consensus goes, we should recognize this was a naive belief in the power of markets and trade. in fact, viewing china on the eve of the 20th party congress, i m struck by how
he determined that economic liberalization was transforming china pro-fundally in a bad way. he believed the communist party was becoming irrelevant with a society dominated by consumerism. so he cracked down in every sphere imaginable, attacking the private sector, reviving communist ideology, purging the party of corrupt officials and ramping up nationalism, mostly anti-western, in word and deed. in this regard, xi follows a familiar paren. in dictatorships where liberalization that have produced a middle class, the regime s response is to maintain its hold on power. when taiwa- economic liberalization there gradually led to a growing middle class. and calls for greater political