Optimists think the crisis won’t affect Western countries too badly because their exports to China account for a small share of their output. Real estate and its related sectors account for nearly 30 percent of China’s gross domestic product, according to a 2020 paper by the economists Ken Rogoff and Yuanchen Yang. Last month Donald Trump described the rule of China’s president, Xi Jinping, as “smart, brilliant, everything perfect.” The truth is closer to the opposite. China’s richest people have also left the country in increasing numbers during Xi’s tenure — a good indication of where they think their opportunities do and do not lie. President Biden was off the cuff but on the mark this month when he said of China’s leaders that “when bad folks have problems, they do bad things.” In other words, as China’s economic fortunes sink, the risks to Taiwan grow.

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Persons: don’t, Optimists, Ken Rogoff, Yuanchen Yang, Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, Xi, “, ”, Xi’s, Biden Locations: China, Taiwan, South China, United States, Ukraine, Russia, Beijing, Taiwan Strait