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Lee Myung-bak.

Lee Myung-bak.

If you think the NSA is bad …

SEOUL, South Korea — Americans are apparently blasé about government eavesdropping. In the days after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that Washington spies extensively on its own citizens, polls found that about half of Americans have no problem with such snooping, as long as it protects them from terrorism.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Jul 18, 2013

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Obituary: Korea’s unification movement (1998-2013)

SEOUL, South Korea — Now that North Korea has recalled its workers from the Kaesong Industrial Zone — an area north of the DMZ where hundreds of South Korean managers oversee 51,000 North Korean laborers — it’s farewell to hope for a peaceful unification, at least for now.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Apr 8, 2013

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North Korea: All talk, no action?

SEOUL, South Korea — If North Korea decides to back up its words with action, what could it really do? Most experts agree a full-blown war or a nuclear attack on the peninsula is off the cards. But the two Koreas have dialed up the rhetoric over the past week, raising fears that Pyongyang could launch a quick but containable provocation against the South in the coming months.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Mar 13, 2013

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South Korean election: Vice and vanity in Seoul

SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans assumed that Lee Kun-hee was the equivalent of royalty, an untouchable oligarch at the helm of one of the world’s largest companies, the Samsung Group.

By Geoffrey Cain
PRI’s The World

Dec 18, 2012

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What to read next:

How China Perfected the Surveillance State

Geoffrey Cain on Investigative Journalism, Authoritarian Power, and The Perfect Police State | In a wide-ranging conversation with Jennifer Grossman, CEO of The Atlas Society, investigative journalist Geoffrey Cain reflects on years spent reporting inside some of the world’s most restrictive regimes — and on the research behind his book The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China’s Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future.

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Thanks to AI, Apple’s China problem is only getting worse

For years, Tim Cook insisted Apple could change China from the inside. Instead, China changed Apple.
The latest evidence? Apple spent billions developing cutting-edge electric vehicle battery technology with Chinese automaker BYD, only to watch its innovations become the cornerstone of BYD’s rise to global electric vehicle dominance. Apple walked away with nothing. China walked away with everything.
This isn’t just another story about corporate research and development gone wrong. It’s a cautionary tale about how even America’s most valuable company has become trapped in China’s web of technological control — and how that web is about to tighten even further.

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