Nikhil Sonnad

Members of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, fled to the island of Taiwan in 1949, as it became clear that they were losing their civil war against China’s Communist Party. Since then, Taiwan has become a democracy and no Taiwanese president has met with the leader of the Chinese Communist Party—and the Communist Party has been reluctant to meet with a Taiwanese leader for fear that it would confer legitimacy on the island’s government.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, is fast becoming the world’s most prominent China nerd. He meets with the Chinese president, reads Chinese science fiction, and of course, is very publicly trying to master Mandarin.

Skype recently announced a new translation tool that can interpret live speech in real time, across a number of languages. But the digital calling company’s demos and promo videos—currently only available as a “preview” on newer versions of Windows—are heavily edited and show people speaking from scripts.

If you’re like most people, your passwords are terrible. You might have just one insecure password that you use for everything.

Robots aren’t smart enough to do our jobs. Unless, of course, we teach them how.

Tsinghua University, arguably the most prestigious research institution in China, last week upset the normally staid world of university rankings. It grabbed the top spot in the engineering schools list compiled by US News, a position long held by MIT.

Twelve countries have reached agreement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, arguably the world biggest-ever free trade deal. It marks a watershed pact that could open up trade between the United States, its allies, and many Asian countries. But one Asian country is conspicuously missing: China. That might not last.

Are Wall Street bankers guilty of criminal activity during the 2008 financial crisis? Ben Bernanke seems to think so, according to a new interview with USA Today’s Susan Page.

All else equal, having a white guy carry out an experiment can change the results in big ways.

It’s jobs day once again. And it’s a bit disappointing.

Xi Jinping, China’s president, on Sept. 28 made his first address to the United Nations General Assembly.

Xi Jinping made a series of surprisingly ambitious commitments during his first address to the United Nations as Chinese president.

The east coast of the United States is overflowing with influential leaders this week and next. Pope Francis and Chinese president Xi Jinping already have met with US president Barack Obama in Washington. Today (Sept. 25) the pontiff is in New York, where he spoke to the UN General Assembly; New York also is on the itineraries of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, has released a video of what it calls “international students in Beijing” offering their views on Xi Jinping. They only have good things to say.

Microsoft Windows is the dominant operating system in China, but the government is trying to encourage homegrown replacements. The most popular one is called NeoKylin. We gave it a whirl to see how the hottest China-made OS looks and feels.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy may be the most interesting website on the internet. Not because of the content—which includes fascinating entries on everything from ambiguity to zombies—but because of the site itself.

Paleoanthropologists were in the limelight yesterday (Sept. 10), when they announced the discovery of a new ancient-human species. Homo naledi—named after “star” in a local South African language—is special for many reasons, but one that stands out is its tiny brain.

Singaporeans are headed to the polls today to cast their votes in an election with a predetermined result. The country’s People’s Action Party (PAP) will win, as it has in every single election since independence.

The conventional wisdom is that refugees are a burden on the country they end up in. They are usually unskilled and have little or no money, the thinking goes, so they must be supported by the limited resources and generosity of the better-off. Not exactly.

A driver in a BMW in Nanjing, China earlier this year flew through a red light at a blazing 195 km per hour (120 mph), slamming headfirst into a Mazda sedan, killing its two passengers instantly and sending their car flying several meters into a bus.

The long decline of murders in American cities has started to take a deadly upward turn. Major cities across the country are seeing the number of homicides rise from last year’s figures.

What’s the best way to deal with unsophisticated individual investors? You can always adjust this or that rate to try to make the market more robust to the volatility they introduce. Or, you can cultivate more sophisticated investors. Starting in elementary school.

Chinese state-run media released Tuesday (link in Chinese) a list of the 30 world leaders confirmed to be attending its massive World War Two victory parade, otherwise known as “Commemoration of 70th Anniversary of Victory of Chinese People’s Resistance against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War.”

As if the list of viable US presidential candidates wasn’t long enough already—now you can add Deez Nuts to it. Yes, that is the name of a candidate in the next US presidential election, who is running as an Independent, according to his Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing.