Asia-Pacific When we wrote our forecast last year, tensions between the United States and North Korea were the highest they had been in a long time. Unfortunately, we focused too much on that continued trajectory, outlining military or containment options. What we did not forecast was a major diplomatic breakthrough , though we took the opportunity throughout the year to correct ourselves in our quarterly forecasts. In March, we said "ensuring North Korea's denuclearization would be a tall order, fraught with American suspicions of Pyongyang's duplicity and challenges in verifying its compliance." That has certainly been the case . This past year was an important one for China both politically and economically. We said that, at the start of his second term, Chinese President Xi Jinping would find it imperative to maintain his unrivaled authority.