President Barack Obama's remarks on the riots in Baltimore started off well and then went swiftly downhill.
He first noted that Baltimore residents have legitimate concerns about police conduct, but also said that "there's no excuse for the kind of violence that we saw yesterday." ...
He then suggested some policing reforms but made the case that the police alone can't solve the problems of "communities where there are no fathers who can provide guidance to young men; communities where there's no investment, and manufacturing has been stripped away; and drugs have flooded the community."
The trouble began when he explained how society should get "serious about solving this problem." Society, he said, should do what it can to "change those communities" by boosting early education, reforming the criminal-justice system and expanding job training. While Congress won't agree to make "massive investments in urban communities," he said, it might agree to some of these proposals.
Then he came to his remarkable conclusion:
But if we really want to solve the problem, if our society really wanted to solve the problem, we could. It's just it would require everybody saying this is important, this is significant -- and that we don't just pay attention to these communities when a CVS burns, and we don't just pay attention when a young man gets shot or has his spine snapped. We're paying attention all the time because we consider those kids our kids, and we think they're important. And they shouldn't be living in poverty and violence.
That's how I feel. I think there are a lot of good-meaning people around the country that feel that way. ...
That was a really long answer, but I felt pretty strongly about it.
So we know how to solve the problems of urban America, but we -- "we," that is, in the sense of "you people who don't agree with my agenda" -- just don't care enough about children in need to do so.
The problem with these remarks isn't that they're partisan. It's that they're absurd.
They don't even fit with Obama's diagnosis of the problems at hand. Do we know how to make fathers present in their kids' lives, or how to make up for their absence? No. Are we sure how we should respond to the decline in manufacturing employment? Or how to stop people from getting involved in drugs? No and no.
Simon traces the arrest and death of Freddie Gray to a police culture that's long since abandoned any pretense of probable cause when it comes to stopping and arresting young black men in the city. "The drug war — which Baltimore waged as aggressively as any American city — was transforming in terms of police/community relations, in terms of trust, particularly between the black community and the police department," he says. "Probable cause was destroyed by the drug war."
It's a fact of life that people make mistakes. Even me, and I'm awesome. However, whenever we're facing a big screw up we've made or dealing with the repercussions of another's error, it's easy to forget that mistakes are a part of life. Fortunately, for most people, our greatest mistakes on the job are minuscule compared to some of the biggest blunders in business history. It's even comforting to know that some of the richest people in the world have made costly errors but went on to accomplish great things. Here are 8 of the biggest and costliest mistakes in business history.
(1)Excite Could Have Bought Google for Less than $1 Million
Back in 1999, Excite was the #2 search engine and Google was the new kid on the block. Larry Page offered to sell Google to Excite for $750,000 (though with the stipulation that Excite would replace their technology with Google Search tech). There are several possible explanations for why Excite made this choice, but the end result is clear. Excite was eventually bought by Ask.com, which has a less than 2 percent share of the search market. Google has more than 60 percent of the US search market share and much larger share worldwide. And Google has over $130 billion in assets, so it's worth more than 173,333 times what Excite would have paid for it.
(2)Daimler-Benz Loses $20 Billion on Chrysler
Though Chrysler has always been one of the big three automakers in the U.S., they've had trouble establishing an international presence. Daimler-Benz (i.e. Mercedes) saw an opportunity here and merged with Chrysler at a cost of $30.7 billion in 1998. This didn't work out as planned. Though this was a theoretical 50-50 split, Chrysler sales made up less than a third of revenue for the merged company in 2006. In the end, Daimler-Benz decided they were better off without Chrysler and sold 80 percent of its stake in 2007 for $7.4 billion. This unhappy trip down merger lane cost Daimler-Benz over $20 billion.
(3)Kodak Had the First Digital Camera Back in 1977
Whenever technology changes the landscape of an industry, there are some businesses that adapt and thrive and others that continue doing the old thing until it's too late. For Kodak, who fell from grace due to the advent of digital camera, the situation is a little different. Kodak filed a patent for one of the first digital camera (that used a magnetic cassette to store images of about 100kb) back in 1977. However, Kodak made so much money on film, they didn't introduce the technology at the time to the public. Kodak continued their focus on traditional film camera even when it was clear the market was moving to digital camera. When they finally got into the digital market, they were selling cameras at a loss and were still unable to make strong gains against other manufacturers who had been producing digitals for years.
(4)News Corp's Myspace Meltdown
In a world dominated by social media, it's strange that Myspace, one of the grandaddies of all social media sites, is hardly on the radar. To just say that they got beat by Facebook is oversimplifying the issue, since many platforms currently co-exist with Facebook. When MySpace was on the rise, it was bought by News Corp in 2005. They paid $580 million for social media site, but managed it badly. The first few years were good and the value of Myspace was estimated at $12 billion in 2008. But three years later, Myspace declined dramatically. They failed to adapt and change with the times and people passed MySpace up for other social networking experiences. In 2011, News Corp sold MySpace for just $35 million, according to some estimates.
(5)Blockbuster Turned Down Multiple Offers to Buy Netflix
It can be hard for some to imagine now, but there was a time when video rental stores like Blockbuster Video were a regular part of your weekend plans. Online video streaming services like Netflix and small kiosk-based rental systems like Redbox destroyed the old video rental business model. Blockbuster came to the party late, even though they got an early invite. In 2000, Netflix proposed that they would handle Blockbuster's online component for them and Blockbuster could host their in-store component (thus eliminating the need for mailed DVDs). According to an interview with former Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy, "They just about laughed us out of their office." Blockbuster went belly up and Netflix went on to thrive. And since Netflix is behind such shows as House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, and Daredevil, I'd argue the world is a better place because of Blockbuster's blunder.
(6)Grade-School Math Error Costs NASA $125 Million
Decimals and fractions cause headaches for many school children, and once, they even stymied some of the greatest minds in the country. In 1999, a Mars orbiter Lockheed Martin designed for NASA was lost in space due to simple error where the engineers at Lockheed used english measurements while the NASA team used metric ones. The mismatch led to a formation on $125 million craft malfunctioning and the probe being lost. Though it was unusual for Lockheed to use english measurements for a NASA design (since NASA has stipulated using metric measures for many years), there were still numerous occasions where the error should have been caught and wasn't.
(7)Quaker Loses Over $1 Billion on Snapple
You can still find Snapple beverages at most stores, but in the 90s, Snapple was a huge hit at small retailers. Quaker thought they could make billions by buying the company and getting the product into more stores. Quaker paid $1.7 billion for Snapple, but their plans didn't work the way they planned. Other beverage makers had noticed Snapple's rise (and the amount Quaker was willing to pay for it) and they weren't going to stand idly by while Quaker cornered the fruity-drink-in-a-bottle market. With companies like Coca Cola developing Fruitopia in 1994 and the creation of SoBe in 1996, Snapple didn't turn out to be as profitable as Quaker had hoped. In the end, they sold Snapple for just $300 million to Triac in 1997. Just three years later, Triac sold Snapple to Cadbury Schweppes for $1.43 billion (to be fair, Cadbury got more than just Snapple).
(8)Out-of-Control Controlled Burn Razes 48,000 Acres in New Mexico
In order to prevent wildfires from spreading too quickly, fire departments and forestry agencies use controlled burns to remove potential fuel. This went horribly wrong in May 2000, when a controlled burn in New Mexico got out of hand. The Cerro Grande Fire started as a plan to mitigate some the wildfire risk at the Bandelier National Monument. The conditions that made the burn a seemingly good idea led to the fire spreading. In the end, 48,000 acres of land was burned, including the homes of 400 families. Though the officials were trying to preserve the monument, their mistake was costly. The GAO estimated the damages from the blaze at around $1 billion.
These are some monumentally large and costly mistakes, but many of the companies and organizations involved are still around and in some cases thriving. It's a reminder that rises and falls are a part of business and life in general. As the old saying goes, "Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm."
Delaunay初期的绘画作品,深受后印象派与野兽派画风影响。(左:「Sleeping Girl,1907」、右:「Portrait of Philomene,1907」
1911年,Sonia以色彩缤纷的几何布料,为儿子缝制了婴儿床,现今被收藏在巴黎庞毕度中心(Musée National d’Art Moderne)。这件作品的诞生,被艺评家认为是Sonia艺术风格的转折点,摆脱景深与描绘真实存在物质的自然主义(Naturalism),开始运用抽象的形与色,以及具律动感的几何图形作为画面构成。同时结合立体派的绘画理念,以不同角度来描绘目标,但却引入立体派所拒绝的瑰丽色彩,自此走入奥菲主义的艺术世界,如她首幅巨型画作「Bal Bullier,1912-13」,Sonia便以颜色与抽象几何轮廓组合,来诠释她与老公出席舞厅Bal Bullier的情景。她为诗人兼艺评家Guillaume Apollinaire的诗集《西伯利亚特快车与小杰汉娜散文集》(La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France),所设计长达2公尺的摺页书,更造成了艺评界的轰动讨论。
China’s foreign-exchange reserves fell the most on record in the last three months. A big reason for the drop: China’s central bank sold its dollar holdings to bolster the yuan’s value.
China on Tuesday reported $3.73 trillion in currency holdings as of the end of the first quarter, down $113 billion from the previous three months. Some analysts attributed the record fall to a strengthening U.S. dollar, which they say might have shaved $130 billion off the dollar value of China’s reserves by reducing the value of its reserves held in other currencies such as the euro and the yen.
China doesn’t disclose the makeup of its currency reserves. According to latest data from the U.S. Treasury, China held $1.2237 trillion of Treasury debt at the end of February, while Japan owned $1.2244 trillion of U.S. government securities. It’s the first time since the financial crisis that Japan had dethroned China as the U.S.’s top creditor.
A strengthening dollar aside, there is a bigger reason for the plunge in China’s reserves: the People’s Bank of China spent an estimated $231 billion in March to prevent the yuan from sliding further against the dollar, according to analysts at Reorient Research.
The central bank intervened in the currency market by purchasing the yuan and simultaneously selling its dollar holdings. The intervention was aimed at preventing too much capital from flowing out of the country because of a falling yuan, according to the analysts.
The move also underscores Beijing’s intention to keep its currency relatively stable at a time when China’s weakening economic growth is fanning fears of greater capital outflows. Indeed, yuan positions on the PBOC’s balance sheet, a gauge of capital flows, declined a record 251.1 billion yuan ($41 billion) in the first quarter.
Even though a falling yuan could help Chinese exporters by making their goods cheaper in foreign markets, the benefit has become increasingly limited thanks to China’s reduced reliance on export growth to boost growth. Meantime, by keeping the yuan largely stable, China’s leadership also has its eyes abroad: it is gunning for the International Monetary Fund to declare the yuan a reserve currency later this year, like the dollar, the euro and the yen. A stable currency certainly can bolster Beijing’s bid for that status.
Growth in China’s foreign-exchange reserves has slowed in recent years thanks to China’s shrinking trade surpluses, and most recently, increased signs of capital outflows. The country’s senior leaders have made better management of the reserves a top priority as the reserves are often viewed as national patrimony and routinely described as xue han qian – money earned by “the blood and sweat” of Chinese workers.
China doesn’t disclose the composition of its reserves, nor its returns. But overall, China has traditionally paid more in interest to foreigners than it earned on its overseas assets. According to official data, China last year received income payments of $183 billion on its assets overseas, but paid 243 billion in interest to foreigners. One reason for the negative income flow: more than 60% of China’s assets overseas are in the form of its currency reserves.
Officials at China’s central bank expressed little surprise that Japan surpassed China as the U.S.’s biggest creditor, pointing to Beijing’s continued effort to shift its mammoth foreign-exchange reserves toward higher-yielding assets – such as foreign corporate bonds, equities and real estate – and away from the safe-but-dull Treasury bonds.
A big priority for the central bank in the coming years, they say, is to help finance the leadership’s ambitious plan to finance roads, railways, ports, telecommunications networks and other infrastructure to better connect the Chinese economy with the rest of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. As part of those initiatives — sometimes dubbed the Silk Road Economic Belt, China has formed a Silk Road fund with $40 billion in initial funding provided by the central bank.
The U.S. market remains key to how China allocates its foreign-exchange reserves, according to advisers to the central bank, especially in light of a strengthening dollar that is expected to make it more attractive for Beijing to invest in dollar assets. “It’s such a huge pie,” said a person with knowledge of the central bank’s thinking, who referred to China’s $3.73 trillion world-beating reserves. “It’s very unlikely China will significantly change its overall allocation to U.S. assets.”
Indeed, China has increased its holdings of U.S. corporate debt and stocks in the past few years, according to some Chinese officials and analysts, though U.S. government debts – among the most liquid of all assets – still make up for the vast majority of China’s foreign-exchange holdings.
One issue managers of China’s currency reserves are wrestling with is a potential increase in the U.S. interest rates later this year. The possible move, according to advisers to the central bank, would drive down prices of the Treasury bonds, potentially leading Beijing to reduce its Treasury holdings. On the other hand, they say, China will remain cautious about increasing its exposure to U.S. stocks amid concerns over U.S. corporate profits.
China in Africa
China first started investing in Angola in 2004, when a Chinese program of road investments was agreed in exchange for a share of Angola's vast oil reserves.
Five years later, China became the biggest trading partner not only of Angola, but for the whole of Africa. Last year, China pledged investments of $20 billion in African infrastructure alone. But there is much more than roads and bridges: Chinese investments in Africa are in the tens-of-billions of dollars, and cover everything from real estate to minerals to financial services.
Countries like Chad and Niger now owe to China about 15 times what they receive from the International Monetary Fund (chart below).
Even in Sierra Leone, which received a new wave of IMF funds to fight ebola, China leads the way by far.
This chart compares current open loans granted by the IMF in its development projects in Africa with Chinese direct investments between 2008 and 2014:
IMF vs China In Africa
Data: IMF, Heritage Foundation/Graphic: Stefano Pozzebon/BI
Chinese investment is mainly intended at sourcing raw materials to feed China's manufacturing sector, with almost no other local processing than shipping them from the mine to the harbour.
Africans are already complaining of the downside of this practice: "We lose all the job creation opportunities, because all the jobs are still made by Chinese in China," Joseph Onjala, senior research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi, told Al Jazeera【中国得改】.
(Bloomberg) -- Japan has invested more in project financing in Africa than China as Asian nations continue to strengthen their economic influence on the continent, according to Linklaters LLP.
Japanese investors accounted for $3.5 billion of the $4.2 billion of project funds that Asian nations poured into Africa last year to improve roads, water and sanitation and build oil and gas pipelines, according to the London-based law firm.
“Japan now ranks as the most active Asian project finance sponsor in Africa, investing almost three times as much as China, which is often regarded as the most active Asian investor on the continent,” according to the report published Monday.
Sub-Saharan African nations are seeking to reverse years of under-investment by moving forward with road and rail projects to help boost economic growth, which is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to expand 4.9 percent this year, more than double the rate of advanced economies. Asian investors are among those seeking deals to develop oil, gas and mineral deposits in African nations, which are exploiting their natural resources to boost revenue to fund development plans.
China ranked as the second-biggest Asian financier of projects in Africa, committing more than $11.9 billion over the past decade, with more than half spent in South Africa, while India placed third, Linklaters said.
Below Radar
“Japan has a much quieter and below-the-radar approach, less headline-grabbing than Chinese investment,” said Andrew Jones, head of Linklaters’ Africa unit, in an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa. “We had a phase 10 to 15 years ago where there were some big Japanese investments into Africa and now there’s a new wave of investment coming.”
A significant amount of Japanese investors’ money for projects went into Morocco last year, according to the study. The North African country said in September that Japan will provide the majority of funds to build a coal-fired power plant in the western city of Safi, which will produce 1,386 megawatts, or 25 percent of the country’s needs.
“We’ve seen a mixture of securing fuel and natural resources, but also selling equipment like turbines for power stations,” Jones said of Japanese investment in Africa.
Nigeria, South Africa and Mozambique have attracted the most project financing from Asian investors in Africa over the past 10 years, according to Linklaters.
Project financing is a method of funding whereby debt repayments are sourced primarily from the forecast cash flows of a venture and security is limited to its assets.
In the next few months, the U.S. Air Force will decide which military contractor will win the right to charge the government for billions in cost overruns for the next few decades. Oh, and the winner will have to build a new bomber, too.
They are separate but related questions: How exactly does the military plan to avoid the fiasco that was the previous long-range bomber project, which resulted in a cut from a planned fleet of 132 to just 20? More important, how exactly do manned aircraft fit into the future of warfare? On these and other issues, Congress needs to demand answers.
The first question is more immediate. The $55 billion contract is for 100 planes -- which has most budget experts struggling to keep a straight face, given that the previous-generation bomber, the slow aforementioned B-2, ended up costing $2.2 billion apiece. Moreover, the military has gone all-in on its new F-35 fighter, a $400 billion contract that can no longer be scaled back significantly given that 45 U.S. states have some employment stake in its production and a host of allied nations are waiting on deliveries. So if the U.S. wants to slow the annual increases in Pentagon budgeting, as it should, something else will have to give.
On that score, one aspect of this contract is already worrisome. There are only two bidders on the nascent project: Northrop Grumman, which built the B-2, and a joint bid from Lockheed Martin and Boeing. This has led to concerns that the loser may quit the combat-aircraft industry entirely, further consolidating the so-called defense-industrial base. As concerning as this is, however, it cannot be a consideration in choosing the winner.
No matter who wins, the larger questions are strategic. What are the greatest threats the U.S. is likely to face during the bomber's lifespan, probably between 2025 and 2060? Will stealth or speed be more effective in countering them? What is its exact role in the so-called pivot to Asia and in the Pentagon's official new doctrine of "Air-Sea Battle" (which centers on ensuring free access to the "global commons")? What place will it have in our nuclear-deterrence triad? And, to reiterate, how important will manned bombers be in an age of drones and other unmanned technologies?
The primary threats to U.S. interests in the medium term remain terrorists and non-state actors (such as the stateless Islamic State). And even as potential adversaries catch up, the trio of U.S. bombers -- the slow but stealthy B-2, the aging B-1 Lancer, and the ancient but dependable B-52, which has been in service since the late 1940s -- continue to be retrofitted and updated and remain capable of most offensive and reactionary missions, especially in combination with the Navy's nuclear-powered submarines and other assets.
U.S. taxpayers will end up paying for these new bombers. And while the Pentagon may be justified in keeping many details of this contract classified, it needs to provide some answers to Congress and taxpayers. This is a once-in-a-generation decision that will have a profound effect not only on the military's budget but also on America's ability to defend itself. It's not too much to ask that the Air Force be more forthcoming about it.
《美国外交政策杂志》
2015.04.01 Xi Jinping Forever Is China’s increasingly powerful president angling to break tradition and extend his rule indefinitely?
【习近平准备一直到2017年都大全在手】
Foreign and Chinese observers surprised at Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s maneuvers to shake up the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — and at the same time arrogate powers of the party, state, and military to himself — may be in for another shock. Just two and a half years into his reign, Xi appears to be angling to break the 10-year-tenure rule for the country’s supreme leader, with the aim of serving longer than any Chinese ruler in decades.
According to three sources close to top CCP officials, Xi and several top aides are making plans to ensure that the strongman will rule until at least 2027, when he will still be a relatively sprightly 74 years old.
“Xi’s total dominance of the party-state-military apparatus — and the fact that he has so far not groomed any successor — indicates that he will remain China’s supreme ruler irrespective of whether he gives up his post of CCP general secretary in 2022,” said one of the sources, all three of whom asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of discussing elite politics. While much could happen to derail Xi’s plans — including pushback from rivals, an international or domestic crisis, or health issues, among other things — Xi appears to be planning to stay in office for as long as he can.
Xi’s desire to rule for longer than a decade is best evidenced by his refusal to publicly groom potential successors
Xi’s desire to rule for longer than a decade is best evidenced by his refusal to publicly groom potential successors. In China, leaders are often classified by their generation. Xi, a member of the fifth generation of leadership — a reference to cadres born in the 1950s — has failed to groom potential successors from the sixth or seventh generation.
Consider, by contrast, the actions of his predecessor Hu Jintao, CCP general secretary from 2002 to 2012, who was born in 1942 and was the core leader of the fourth generation. Not long after ascending to the elite Politburo Standing Committee (PBSC) in 1992, Hu started preparing to elevate fifth-generation cadres, including Xi Jinping (then Zhejiang province party secretary) and Li Keqiang (then Liaoning province party secretary and now China’s premier) to the 25-member ruling body, the Politburo. He also elevated slightly lower-ranking officials: By the mid 1990s, roughly 20 fifth-generation rising stars had achieved the rank of vice minister or above.
Equally significantly, in the years leading up to 2007’s 17th Party Congress, a major meeting that happens twice a decade, Hu picked roughly 30 sixth-generation rising stars and prepared them for major promotions.
By 2005, Hu and Jiang appear to have decided to install Xi and Li into the PBSC, as successors to Hu and then-premier Wen Jiabao. And by the end of 2005, a few dozen sixth-generation cadres had attained the rank of vice minister or higher.
If Xi were following the CCP’s tradition of injecting new blood into the ruling elite, he should by late 2015 promote a few dozen seventh-generation officials to ministers and vice ministers. However, only one seventh-generation cadre — Shanghai Vice Mayor Shi Guanghui (born 1970) — has attained the rank of vice minister since Xi came to office in November 2012. It seems very unlikely that he’ll elevate many more this year.
Xi seems poised to break another unwritten rule. Ever since the late 1980s, the top level of the party has unofficially followed the policy of qishang baxia, or “seven in, eight out”: A cadre 67 years of age or younger can still ascend to the PBSC, while one who is 68 or older cannot. At the major party congresses, held every five years, PBSC members 68 and over are expected to retire, while those under 68 can stay on. Of the current seven members of the PBSC, all but Xi and Li will be 68 or older by 2017 — and therefore should retire. But who will replace the ranks?
The three anonymous party sources indicate that at least three fifth-generation candidates who are confidants of Xi — Li Zhanshu (born 1950), Wang Huning (born 1955), and Zhao Leji (born 1957) — will likely ascend to the PBSC in 2017. More significantly, current PBSC member Wang Qishan (born 1948), the nation’s top graft-buster, would likely get a second term. This is even though Wang, a fellow princeling who has known Xi since the 1950s, will be 69 years old at the 19th Party Congress in 2017. That fifth-generation leaders will likely remain the bulwark of the party leadership until the 20th Party Congress in 2022 is another indication, the sources say, that Xi will try to stay on at least until the 21st Party Congress in 2027.
Given the expectation that a supreme leader should only remain in power for 10 years, how will Xi sidestep this entrenched tradition?
Given the expectation that a supreme leader should only remain in power for 10 years, how will Xi sidestep this entrenched tradition?
The Chinese constitution bars government ministers, including the prime minister, from serving more than 10 years. However, the CCP Charter — the Communist Party’s constitution — carries no stipulation about the length of service of cadres with ranks equivalent to minister or above. Instead, there’s an unofficial rule instituted by Deng Xiaoping, China’s paramount leader for most of the 1980s and 1990s, that members of the PBSC don’t serve more than 10 years.
But it’s possible that Xi could step down as president and still remain the country’s top official. In China, while the CCP and the government often appear to exist in parallel, the CCP in fact outranks and controls the government. For example, the top official in Hubei province is the province’s party secretary; the provincial governor ranks second. The same is true at the national level. Of Xi’s three titles – president, general secretary of the CCP, and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), which oversees China’s military — the CCP position is by far the most important.
Besides holding onto the position of CCP general secretary, Xi has other options. One scenario is that Xi will revive the position of party chairman — which Deng abolished in 1982 in an apparent effort to weaken Mao’s legacy — and take the post himself. This would mean that the future general secretary would have to report to Xi, the party chairman.
Alternately, Xi could retire from the two top jobs of party general secretary and president but remain chairman of the CMC. There’s some precedent for this: Deng ruled China in the 1980s from his position as chairman of the CMC, and Jiang remained incredibly influential by holding onto that post for two years after he stepped down as president.
Moreover, in late 2013, just one year after gaining power, Xi created two super organs at the top of the party — the Central National Security Commission (CNSC) and the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms (CLGCDR) — which control the quasi police-state apparatus and economic policy, respectively. If Xi holds onto his chairmanship of the CMC and his two recently created organizations, whoever becomes general secretary of the CCP will likely have to defer to Xi.
Of course, Xi’s power grab — and his far-ranging anti-corruption campaign — could invite a ferocious pushback from members of rival CCP cliques. And having assumed control over domestic and foreign policy, Xi could find himself the scapegoat in an unexpected crisis at home or abroad.
Xi has a difficult task ahead of him. It’s possible that he will fail to consolidate power to a level that would allow him to remain in control past 2022. But Xi seems convinced that only a leader with supreme power — unencumbered by a fixed term in office — would ensure that China and the Communist Party will continue to prosper. And Xi seems convinced that he is the man to do it.
结尾
The list
Food Processing, a food industry publication, ranks thetop 100 food and beverage processorsin the U.S. by their sales in the previous year. The 26 processors that have aquired organic brands are shown here, ranked by their 2013 food sales.