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☆ The Red Sea crisis tests China’s global ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Nectar Gan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

China’s responseThe Houthi rebels in Yemen started firing missiles and drones at ships in the Red Sea in mid-November, in what they say is an act of solidarity with Palestinians. Chinese officials repeatedly stressed that the Red Sea crisis is a “spillover” from the conflict in Gaza, citing an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as the top priority. Beijing’s reluctance to wade into the Red Sea crisis reflects these geopolitical calculations. The Chinese government readout of the meeting between Wang and Sullivan did not mention the Red Sea. Egypt is losing millions of dollars per day from the reduced traffic at the Suez Canal at the northern end of the Red Sea.

Persons: Houthi, “, ”, Mordechai Chaziza, Xi Jinping, Israel, ” Chaziza, Wang Yi, Jake Sullivan, Iran ”, we’re, Wang, Sullivan, Ebrahim Raisi, Yan Yan, OOCL, Kuehne + Nagel, Jonathan Fulton, “ can’t, ” Fulton, William Figueroa, Xi Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Ashkelon Academic College, Beijing, Iran, People’s Liberation Army Navy, Britain, United Nations Security Council, Global, Western, Chinese Foreign, White House, Reuters, Chinese Foreign Ministry, China, Shanghai Shipping Exchange, Atlantic Council, University of Groningen, Xi’s Global Security Initiative, GSI, Hamas Locations: Hong Kong, Red, Israel, Ashkelon, United States, China, Europe, Yemen, Gulf, Aden, Djibouti, Beijing, Gaza, Bangkok, Iran, Tehran, Africa, Switzerland, Francisco, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, Egypt, Suez, Sea, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands

☆ Multipolar world opens up surprising safe havens
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Felix Martin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

This new-look cap table leaves the U.S. much more vulnerable to the vagaries of foreign investors than before. In a crisis, foreign investors would rush to buy even more U.S. debt. Reuters GraphicsA less orthodox option would be to invest in emerging markets instead. The last time net equity investment in the U.S. NIIP dipped close to negative territory was as the dot-com bubble was deflating in 2001. In the next six years the U.S. saw net equity outflows equivalent to nearly 30% of GDP.

Persons: Hubert Védrine, Xi Jinping, Joe Biden, ’, Donald Trump’s, exceptionalism, NIIP, Peter Thal Larsen, Streisand Neto, Thomas Shum Organizations: Reuters, French, U.S, United, United States, Treasury, Equity, U.S . Treasury, Japan, Democratic, Cooperation Council, Peterson Institute for International, Fed, ECB ”, Thomson Locations: United States, tatters, United, U.S, China, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, India, Chile, Democratic Republic of, Congo, Washington

Here are the meanings of the least-found words that were used in (mostly) recent Times articles. — Ireland’s Medieval Beacon (April 16, 1995)2. natant — swimming or floating (and a frequent guest on this list):I love the word natant. — Mexico’s Last Countercultural Coast (Feb. 3, 2020)6. tali — plural of talus, an ankle bone:T.I.L. (Today I Learned) that tali is another word for “anklebones.” — Long Story Short (Jan. 3, 2022)7. atilt — askew:The facade is atilt, the S.U.V. Wrestler Taps In Against Concussion Deniers (Oct. 26, 2022)The list of the week’s easiest words:

Persons: abbacy, Norman Leinster, —, peplum, hegemon, tali —, tali, ” —, atilt — askew, Stacey Abrams, ’, ”, Alessio Mortelliti, tallit — Organizations: Sun, —, University of Maine, National Science Foundation, Dolphins Locations: Glendalough, abbacy, China, Beijing, lantana, California, tatters, Ukraine

☆ In China, Blinken Faces Clashing Agendas and a Question: Will Xi Show Up?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Edward Wong | David Pierson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

What is China likely to say? China is expected to raise a litany of grievances reflecting Beijing’s view that the United States is a declining hegemon determined to cling to power by containing China economically, militarily and diplomatically. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has described Taiwan as “at the very core of China’s core interests” and has accused the United States of supporting “pro-independence” forces and meddling in China’s internal affairs. China is also likely to express deep frustration over U.S.-led efforts to restrict Chinese access to advanced semiconductor chips and manufacturing equipment. China sees the ban as an example of “zero-sum competition” that is driving the two countries toward confrontation.

Persons: Xi Jinping Organizations: People’s Liberation Army Locations: China, United States, Taiwan, Beijing, Washington

☆ Debt ceiling debacle is ultimate winner’s curse
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The ongoing debt-ceiling standoff, which has the potential to tip markets into mayhem, is a kind of winner’s curse. Put differently, the U.S. government has racked up so much debt because everybody else needed it to. Reuters GraphicsBy getting into ever more debt, Americans have done the rest of the world a favor. Nobody knows when that point will come, though, and the debt ceiling doesn’t seem to reflect the market’s view of how much is too much. The U.S. share of the global economy is shrinking, the debt is growing, and so is the political theater it generates.

☆ Russia's navy is flexing its muscles around the world, but it may end up paying for Moscow's losses in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Christopher Woody | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Russia's navy has had little involvement in Ukraine, losing only one major warship so far. Russia's military closed off parts of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan to practice firing torpedoes, missiles, and artillery. Russia's navy received heavy investment in the 2000s, as President Vladimir Putin rebuilt the military after a decade of post-Soviet decay. While it still struggles with its larger ships, Russia's navy now has dozens of frigates and corvettes armed with effective long-range weapons. Russian navy corvette Gremyashchiy, front, and the frigate Admiral Kasatonov in St Petersburg in July 2019.

☆ Joined-up G7 is best China deterrent
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The best chance of steering between these twin evils is for the G7 to agree on a strong deterrence strategy. This would make it harder for China to hold G7 countries to ransom if they came to Taiwan’s aid. The United States is also leaning on its allies to stop China from acquiring militarily useful technology such as advanced semiconductors. CONTINGENCY PLANSThe other plank of a G7 deterrence strategy is contingency planning for what the allies would do if China invaded Taiwan. This would ideally involve building consensus about how the United States would respond to escalating tensions.

☆ Can the U.S. See the Truth About China?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

Photo illustration by Bráulio Amado Talk Can the U.S. See the Truth About China? To see China solely as trying to displace the United States is only going to stoke more fears. The Chinese people believe that a substantially weakened Russia might not be in the interest of China, because if there were the sense that the United States needed to seek out an opponent, China would be next. And then also, the United States thinks that China wants to displace it. The industrial espionage stems from a lack of appreciation from the start of intellectual property, and the United States, by pushing China to do more intellectual-property protection, is actually good for China.

☆ Challenging the U.S. Is a Historic Mistake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Robert Kagan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

These goals are achievable, Mr. Xi asserts, because the world is undergoing “great changes unseen in a century,” namely, the “great rejuvenation” of Chinese power and the decline of American power. “Time and momentum are on our side,” according to Mr. Xi. There is no denying that China has acquired substantial global power and influence in recent decades. Left to itself, a modernizing China could one day dominate its neighbors much as a unified, modernizing Germany once dominated Europe and a modernizing Japan once dominated China and the rest of East Asia. Those powers also believed that “time and momentum” were on their side, and in many respects they were right.

☆ The bubble in predicting the end of the world
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Edward Chancellor | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers says the world faces the “most complex, disparate and cross-cutting set of challenges” he’s ever encountered. In his wittily titled “The End of the World is Just the Beginning”, the geopolitical strategist suggests that a number of countries from Germany to China face insuperable demographic challenges. The threat to America’s global hegemony from China is the subject of Ray Dalio’s “The Changing World Order”. The U.S. stock market bubble has only partially deflated, bond yields around the world trail below inflation, and global property markets are exposed to rising interest rates. The Assyrian who forecast the world would end in 2800 BC was wrong.

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