Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy has a bias of Center. This is an initial rating; AllSides provides Foreign Policy's bias rating with low confidence.
An October 22, 2019 independent review by an AllSides staffer found that Foreign Policy clearly distinguishes news and analysis on its website, labeling each piece as "report" or "argument." It does not clearly slant articles or information to favor a left- or right-leaning perspective, though some articles do seem to have a left-leaning bent.
AllSides found Foreign Policy does engage in mild editorializing in its news pieces. For example, in a piece titled "Trade War Pause Leaves Few Happy," FP uses words like "spiraling" and "bucked up" which are mildly sensationalist (read more about sensationalism: 11 Types of Media Bias) FP also claims a Trump deal with China will "disappoint nearly everyone" and writes "many have long suspected..." without quoting sources or providing specifics [emphasis ours]:
U.S. President Donald Trump’s mini-deal with China to keep the trade war from spiraling further bucked up stock markets and will likely defer another tariff escalation—but it will also disappoint nearly everyone, including both U.S. businesses and consumers forced to pay billions more for imported goods and China hawks in his own administration who hoped to use U.S. leverage to force real changes to China’s economic model.
While Trump said this week that he was after a comprehensive deal, many have long suspected he would settle for a tiny truce and call it a victory. He has long been at odds with his more hawkish trade advisors, especially Peter Navarro, who wanted to use the leverage of massive U.S. tariffs on Chinese exports to force Beijing to change its entire economic model, especially when it comes to industrial policy, subsidies, and intellectual property, and who also want to decouple the two biggest economies in the world. None of those long-standing, structural issues with China were addressed by the trade truce announced Friday.
Some left-leaning content is to be found on the site: an Oct. 15, 2019 Foreign Policy special report claims the U.S. government is "failing women in foreign policy," noting that "women accounted for one-third of the U.S. government’s foreign-policy staff as of 2018, significantly less than their share of the country’s total workforce (47 percent)." Those on the right might argue this gender inequality isn't a failure of the U.S. government, but is a natural consequence of women's personal choices to focus on family instead of high-powered foreign policy careers. By framing this as a "failure," FP's piece appears to have a left-leaning bias — however, the piece is behind a paywall, so it's unclear if FP notes this perspective later on in the piece.
Another piece labeled news, titled "Trump’s Weak Sanctions May Only Help Erdogan," also reads more like analysis, displaying editorializing and a mild bias against Trump's decision [emphasis ours]:
U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to destroy Turkey’s economy if its troops misbehaved after he greenlighted the Turkish invasion of northern Syria. Instead, even in the face of reports of Turkish atrocities and other offenses, Trump slapped Turkey’s wrist on Monday, announcing that he would levy sanctions against a trio of government ministers and the country’s steel industry.
This editorializing, however, doesn't represent a clear Left or Right bias, so FP maintains a Center rating. AllSides grants Center ratings when source does not predictably publish content favoring either end of the political spectrum — conservative or liberal. It does not mean the source is unbiased or neutral.
About Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy bills itself as "The Global Magazine of News and Ideas." It is "devoted to the coverage of global affairs."
According to its website, "Through Foreign Policy Magazine, our website ForeignPolicy.com, and FP Events, the FP Group reaches an international audience of millions and has become a trusted source of insight and analysis for leaders from government, business, finance, and the academic world. FP is committed to continuing to innovate through partnerships that utilize new technologies, new media and creative new approaches to bring together those leaders to better understand and address the most urgent and important issues of our time. FP is a division of the Graham Holdings Company."
Headline Roundup
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Within two decades, China’s retirement-age population is projected to surpass the entire population of the United States. By 2040, an estimated 402 million people, or 28 percent of China’s population, will be older than 60 years old—the current legal retirement age for most men in the country—more people than the expected 379 million in the United States that same year. This trend means the end of China’s comparative advantage in cheap and skilled labor and the rise of the daunting financial challenge of caring for its rapidly aging population.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is determined to achieve technological self-reliance, hoping that innovation will improve China’s labor productivity and offset any potential future labor shortage. But even if Xi’s initiatives are successful, they will do little to address the financial burden posed by China’s underfunded social security and pension system. A 2019 report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) warned that as the worker-to-retiree ratio declines, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), established in 2000 to finance China’s future pension obligations, would likely be depleted by 2035.