China’s domestic situation must be watched very closely in the year to come, before Xi is elevated to Mao status by the next Party congress. We should not discount the rationality of many of the new rules being introduced. Read More Here
China has reassured the Taliban that it is ready to begin development activities in Afghanistan via its ambitious multi-trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative (BRI), as the war-torn country drifts toward an economic meltdown. Read More Here
The Taliban has appointed Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a close aide to the group’s late founder Mullah Omar, as head of Afghanistan’s new caretaker government, weeks after it took control of the country in a rapid offensive. The list of cabinet members announced by chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid was dominated by members of the group’s old guard, with no women […]
In a country that regularly censors opposing viewpoints, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push for “common prosperity” has triggered something unusual: A spirited public policy debate. Read More Here
Growing tension with India and the West has further pushed Sri Lanka into China’s embrace. Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government increasingly sees a friend in China who can bring much needed foreign exchange to Colombo. Since the pandemic struck in 2020, Beijing has provided crucial and timely economic and health aid support. China provided over US $2 billion […]
For members of China’s red aristocracy, the problem isn’t billionaires—it’s billionaires they’re not related to. The new rich of the 1980s onward often scrabbled to build connections to powerful families, like the relatives of Gen. Ye Jianying, for exactly this reason. Read More Here
The Chinese economy continued to lose steam in July as key economic data for the start of the third quarter fell short of expectations, although not all economists have leapt to trim their full-year growth forecasts, with some saying there is still room for further monetary easing. Read More Here
Fifty years ago, the world changed. On August 15, 1971, US President Richard Nixon slammed shut the “gold window,” suspending dollar convertibility. Although it was not Nixon’s intention, this act effectively marked the end of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. But, in truth, with the rise of private cross-border capital flows, a system […]
Some say that issuance of central bank digital currencies will transform the international monetary status quo by eroding the US dollar’s dominance of cross-border payments and greatly reducing transaction costs. But this is not going to happen. Read More Here
The Chinese population census, released last May, revealed that China’s demographic situation is already quite worrying. Population growth over the previous decade is the slowest in Chinese history. The share of the population aged sixty years or over rose to nearly one-fifth of the total population. Read More Here
looking beyond borders 