出國趣

Science & technology | Well Informed The chemicals that reduce wrinkles Vitamins, applied properly, can partially reverse the effects of ageing Jun 5th 2026|3 min read  ABIOCHEMISTRY textbook sometimes feels like essential reading when shopping for wrinkle-reducing products. Their labels list molecules like retinoids, antioxidants, peptides and exfoliating acids. The names might be familiar, b...

The World Cup doesn’t understand America John Prideaux, our executive editor, on why America is a spectacular place to host the football tournament   Jun 27th 2026|3 min read Fans of soccerball love to complain about America. With its unbridled capitalism, it has the gall to treat football as a business. “Hydration breaks” have been introduced in this year’s World Cup. Fans suspect these are the f...

China’s high-tech rise is leaving much of the country behind That could make a** starkly unequal** country even more so Jun 2nd 2026|TIANSHUI|6 min read Listen to this story LIKE MANY cities in China’s hinterland, Tianshui, in the western province of Gansu, is full of dusty and disused factories. But over the past decade it has also become an unlikely high-tech hub. New industrial parks have sprou...

Sex tourists fuel outrage about vice in Japan The debates do not have women’s interests at heart Jun 4th 2026|Tokyo|4 min read MAI, a 34-year-old woman in Tokyo, used to work at a hospital. But when covid-19 overwhelmed the wards, she found her work too stressful. A single mother, she also needed money for her family. Lured by higher pay, she entered the sex trade, first working as a porn actress...

How to fight back against Gen-Z socialism The me-first doctrine is a threat to prosperity Jun 4th 2026|5 min read Something new is stirring on the left. A fresh crop of socialists want to remake the economy with price controls,** hefty **wealth taxes and a spree of nationalisations. Supercharged by fury over Gaza, they are winning voters at a formidable pace. Many rose to prominence only recently,...

Leaders | Don’t look back in Changhua How East Asia should respond to its China shock As they deindustrialise, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan must reform May 28th 2026|4 min read AMERICA’S artificial-intelligence** boom** has put the rich economies of north-east Asia into overdrive. Taiwan’s output is growing at a blistering 14% annual pace, thanks to soaring sales of chips and servers for data cen...

The secrets to a good employee survey Likert or not Mar 19th 2026|4 min read 1. “This sentence is false” is an example of a logical inconsistency known as the liar paradox. If this sentence is true, then it is indeed false. But if this sentence is false, then it must be true. This is the kind of thing that makes philosophers go weak at the knees and gives normal people a headache. 2. A small echo...

The world wants Chinese tech. China is determined to keep it China’s rivals are learning how to get what China won’t share Apr 20th 2026|5 min read THEY USED to gripe about too much technology transfer in China. But in the past year or so, foreign business and political leaders** have started to fret that too little is happening.** No longer do they worry so much about Western tech landing in Chin...

China | Chaguan Xi Jinping wants China to read more—as long as it’s the right books A new campaign to put down phones and pick up classics Apr 27th 2026|5 min read THE BINHAI library, often called China’s most beautiful, is** breathtaking**. *Swirling shelves* of books rise in gravity-defying stacks to a high ceiling in a light-dappled room: a modern cathedral to learning. No wonder the library, i...

Ageing workers in East Asia are essential. More are needed Yet they often face high barriers to employment and unpalatable options Apr 27th 2026|SEOUL AND TOKYO|6 min read HONDA TAMIKO began working as a child on her family’s farm back when Japan was at war with America. Now 93, Ms Honda still puts in a hard day’s toil as a janitor at a McDonald’s branch in Kumamoto, in southern Japan. Ms Honda sa...

China | A hawkish turn Public opinion in China is hardening on America and Taiwan A rare poll shows the views of ordinary Chinese are changing Mar 19th 2026|3 min read CHINA IS having a moment in Western public opinion. Communist Party mouthpieces crow that the country is increasingly “cool”. Young Westerners on social media are “Chinamaxxing”: adopting Chinese habits like drinking hot water (not...

On the front lines, Russian soldiers pay officers to stay alive The war against Ukraine has created a corrupt economy of blood money Apr 1st 2026|Altai and Luhansk|5 min read The newly built one-bedroom flat is nicely decorated, with parquet floors, an aquarium, a shower cabin and a full kitchen. The downside is the location: underground in the trenches near Baihavka, a village in the occupied reg...

Why women, more than men, are abandoning rural Japan Bigger cities are, in turn, skewing more female Apr 1st 2026|NANTO|4 min read KOYASU MIWA traverses Japan, from Sapporo in the north to Miyazaki in the south, with one goal: to make the countryside less hostile to women. Ms Koyasu runs a consultancy that advises local governments, lectures businessmen on discrimination and runs workshops urging...

Self-driving cars will transform urban economies A robotaxi boom is coming. The impacts might be broader than you expect Nov 27th 2025|San Francisco|6 min read Urban Economies reflect how their residents get around. And before long, that will start to change—more dramatically than at any time since the automobile was invented over a century ago. The robotaxis now autonomously shuttling passengers...

Meta and Google face** a reckoning **over *social-media addiction* A landmark verdict in California could have far-reaching consequences Mar 25th 2026|3 min read Among the 17m American children who use Instagram, the average time spent scrolling the app each day is 30 minutes. But for Kaley, a 20-year-old who started using social media aged six, it became an hours-a-day addiction. Spending time on...

War in Iran is making Donald Trump weaker—and angrier By diminishing the president’s political superpowers, his reckless campaign may make him more dangerous Mar 19th 2026|6 min read NEVER BET against Donald Trump. No politician can defy political gravity like the man whose supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6th 2021, only for him to be re-elected in 2024 with a bigger share of the vote. An...

Obituary | God’s dictator falls Ali Khamenei hoped his legacy might last for ever Iran’s Supreme Leader was killed on February 28th, aged 86 Mar 3rd 2026|5 min read Across the decades, Ali Khamenei built up countless reasons for his hatred of the West. They began with a fiery speech he heard at 13, when at school, inveighing against the monarchy that was backed by America and its allies. As a youn...

The biggest band you’ve never heard of If you want to impress your children, tell them you listen to this South Korean boyband Feb 26th 2026|6 min read WHO MADE the second-highest-selling album in the world last year? (There are no prizes for correctly guessing who claimed the top spot—it was  Taylor Swift .) You may be tempted to name a pop juggernaut such as Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber. Country-m...

Master’s or Mandarin? China’s graduates face a whole new set of gruelling tests They prefer certainty to good pay Feb 5th 2026|4 min read Around 2024 Mr Wang, a tutor for people taking** graduate-admissions tests**, saw the number of students in his classes plummet by more than half. At first he thought something had gone badly wrong with his teaching. But comparing notes with others in the indust...

How Poland can keep its place at the heart of Europe If it turns inward, the country and continent will lose out May 22nd 2025|5 min read TWICE IT** VANISHED** from the map, swallowed up by its rapacious neighbours. After it emerged from the second world war as a Soviet satellite, it endured decades of oppression. Today, Poland has transformed itself into Europe’s most overlooked military and econ...

How Japan’s prime minister will use her massive new mandate A remarkable election victory that will reshape Japanese politics for years to come Feb 8th 2026|TOKYO|4 min read TAKAICHI SANAE gambled her position as Japan’s prime minister by calling a snap election. Her bet has paid off. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) triumphed on February 8th. The LDP won a commanding two-thirds supermajo...

Taiwan’s new opposition leader wants to talk to Xi Jinping Cheng Li-wun tells The Economist she hopes to meet China’s president early this year Jan 29th 2026|TAIPEI|5 min read RISK COMES naturally to Cheng Li-wun, Taiwan’s opposition leader. She began her career as a student activist in the 1990s, seeking independence for her homeland and castigating the Kuomintang (KMT), the ruling party at the t...

1) Donald Trump again defended the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis. The president said that  ICE agents’ killings  of Alex Pretti and Renee Good were caused by “Democrat ensued chaos”. Braving freezing temperatures, protesters took to the streets across America. Tim Walz, Minnesota’s governor, urged Mr Trump to withdraw federal agents from the state “before they kill...

Does Japan have a “foreigner problem”? Yes—but it is not what populist politicians say it is Jan 8th 2026|4 min read JAPAN is consumed by talk of a “foreigner problem”. The story goes that the country has been overrun by ill-mannered migrant workers, misbehaving tourists and opportunistic foreign investors. But Japan’s real problem is not that it hosts too many foreigners. It is that it has too fe...

China and Taiwan both see lessons in America’s** raid** on Venezuela It won’t change China’s calculus but is a case study for “decapitation” strikes Jan 8th 2026|Taipei|4 min read China’s public is used to seeing flashy footage of its armed forces parading new weaponry through Beijing, conducting peacekeeping patrols in Africa or staging elaborate drills around disputed territory, especially Taiwa...