In another society, with the benefit of a real education, Mr. Modi might have been something more than he was. Then it would be possible to imagine a place with real political differences, and not one in which left and right were divided along the blade of a knife by differences in class, language and education. But just as that other society does not yet exist, neither does that other Modi. Indians will have to make do with the Modi they have; and, as things stand, perhaps the cynics are right: Perhaps this great hope of Indian democracy, with his limited reading and education, is not equal to the enormous task before him.

So, sure, let’s celebrate the success of Asian-Americans, and emulate the respect for education and strong families. But let’s not use the success of Asians to pat ourselves on the back and pretend that discrimination is history.

China is home to roughly 20% of the world’s population. It contributes about 14% of global economic output. The size and interconnectedness of its economic activities mean that the knock-on effects are felt far and wide.

BEIJING — Driven by fears that an aging population could jeopardizeChina’s economic ascent, the Communist Party leadership ended its decades-old “one child” policy on Thursday, announcing that all married couples would be allowed to have two children.
The decision was a dramatic step away from a core Communist Party position that Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who imposed the policy in the late 1970s, once said was needed to ensure that “the fruits of economic growth are not devoured by population growth.”

BEIJING — The Chinese Communist Party’s historic decision to ease its restrictions on the number of children all married couples are allowed to have, turning its decades-old “one-child” policy into a “two-child” policy, was met with a cascade of discussion on Chinese social media Thursday evening.
Among the tens of thousands of comments, some people announced that they would start trying to conceive a second child that night. Others said they would not have another for anything in the world — children were just too expensive.

BEIJING — When the Chinese government loosened the one-child policy in 2013, Cai Wei and Ni Jun wanted to take advantage of it.
The Beijing couple already had a son, Huhu, born in 2010, and like many families they wanted the child to have a sibling.
But by the time the government announced Thursday that all Chinese couples could finally, legally, have a second child, the couple had changed their minds.
“We pay about 1,400 renminbi a month for Huhu’s kindergarten,” she said, about $220. “And that’s just the fees. Then there’s extra lessons. He loves art. Swimming is 100 renminbi an hour,” or $16. “Rollerblading. It’s all so expensive. I’d love to have a second child, but I’m afraid of the consequences.”

BEIJING — China ranks last in the world for openness among countries studied in a new report on Internet freedom by a prominent American pro-democracy group.
The report, “Freedom on the Net 2015,” the latest such annual study by the group, Freedom House, lists the many ways in which China is restricting free access to the Internet, from strengthening its Great Firewall system of website censorship to criminalizing some kinds of Internet speech. China had the worst score of 65 nations, behind Iran, Cuba and Myanmar. (North Korea was not included in the report.)

Each class opened with a patriotic video montage. Talk of Mao’s errors was minimal, restricted to the Communist Party line. The professor, a faculty member at Tsinghua, one of China’s most prestigious universities, seemed eager to mimic Mao himself, dressing in a tunic suit and referring to Maoism as a “magic bullet” for the party.

Whether it's a hairstyle or jazz music, there's a difference between honoring a culture and stealing from it
It is some consolation that, on a smaller scale, African-Americans have been able to do some cultural appropriation of their own. Once upon a time, professional sports were all white. Today, more than 77% of NBA players and 67.3% in the NFL are black. From 1950 to 2009, 81 percent of Billboard's Top 10 bestselling albums were from non-white or mixed-race groups of artists. This shift will continue over the coming decades. The Census Bureau estimates that by 2060, 56% of the population will belong to racial and ethnic minorities—a minority majority. With each subsequent generation, cultural icons truly will be based on assimilation, not appropriation.

TORONTO — The American Psychological Association on Friday overwhelmingly approved a new ban on any involvement by psychologists in national security interrogations conducted by the United States government, even noncoercive interrogations now conducted by the Obama administration.
The council of representatives of the organization, the nation's largest professional association of psychologists, voted to impose the ban at its annual meeting here.