‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (August 28, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, why China’s economy won’t be fixed, America’s corporate giants are fighting back against disrupters (10:15) and the challenge of making wine in Palestine (21:50).
Tag Archives: China
News: Prigozhin Death Verified, US-China Trade Talks, Greenland Politics
The Globalist Podcast, Monday, August 28: A vibrant show from Monocle’s Zurich studio presented by Emma Nelson. We’ll discuss the latest from Ukraine, as well as China and the US’s latest trade talks.
Also, journalist Bruno Kaufmann examines Greenland’s geopolitical significance, we talk technology and the latest from the travel industry.
Previews: The Economist Magazine – August 26, 2023
Why China’s economy won’t be fixed
An increasingly autocratic government is making bad decisions
Whatever has gone wrong? After China rejoined the world economy in 1978, it became the most spectacular growth story in history. Farm reform, industrialisation and rising incomes lifted nearly 800m people out of extreme poverty. Having produced just a tenth as much as America in 1980, China’s economy is now about three-quarters the size. Yet instead of roaring back after the government abandoned its “zero-covid” policy at the end of 2022, it is lurching from one ditch to the next.
Prigozhin’s death shows that Russia is a mafia state
A healthy country uses justice to restore order. Mr Putin uses violence instead
As we published this editorial, it was not certain that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private jet was shot down by Russian air-defences, or that the mutineer and mercenary boss was on board. But everyone believes that it was and that his death was a punishment of spectacular ruthlessness ordered by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. And that is the way Mr Putin likes it.
News: Republican Debate, BRICS Summit Putin Speech, Zimbabwe Election Delays
The Globalist Podcast, Thursday, August 24: Republican presidential candidates have their first debate in Milwaukee without Donald Trump, the latest from the BRICS summit in South Africa, after Putin addresses the bloc leaders virtually.
Plus: the Zimbabwe elections, a literary celebration of Ukrainian Independence Day and a Scandinavian shortage in Brussels.
News: Thailand’s Leader Affirmed, Dutch Politics, India Moon Landing Nears
Preview: Foreign Affairs Magazine- SEPT/OCT 2023
Delusions of Détente
Why America and China Will Be Enduring Rivals
With U.S.-Chinese relations worse than they have been in over 50 years, an old fairy tale has resurfaced: if only the United States would talk more to China and accommodate its rise, the two countries could live in peace. The story goes that with ample summitry, Washington could recognize Beijing’s redlines and restore crisis hotlines and cultural exchanges. Over time and through myriad points of face-to-face contact—in other words, reengagement—the two countries could settle into peaceful, if still competitive, coexistence.
The End of the Russian Idea
What It Will Take to Break Putinism’s Grip
In June 17, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin staged a special ceremony on the St. Petersburg waterfront to mark the anniversary of three flags: the flag of the Russian Federation, otherwise known as Peter the Great’s tricolor, formally unfurled in 1693; the imperial Russian flag, introduced by Tsar Alexander II in 1858; and the Red Banner, the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle, adopted by the Soviet state 100 years ago and later used by Joseph Stalin. Putin watched the event from a boat as the National Philharmonic and the St. Petersburg State Choir performed the national anthem, which, thanks to a law Putin enacted in 2000, has the same melody as its Stalin-era counterpart.
News: BRICS Summit In South Africa, Australia Buys Tomahawk Missiles
The Globalist Podcast, Tuesday, August 22: We discuss the Brics summit in Johannesburg, the US sale of Tomahawk missiles to Australia and why Georgians are frustrated with Russian business owners.
Also, the latest developments in technology, a round-up of the news from Zürich and the backlog of ships in the Panama Canal.
Opinion: Germany Falters In EU, China’s Bitter Youth, Language Lessens With AI
‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (August 21, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, is Germany once again the sick man of Europe? Also, China’s disillusioned youth (10:50) and why AI could make it less necessary to learn foreign languages (17:35).
Opinion: China’s Youth Has Sacrificed Freedoms, Now Learn To “Eat Bitterness”
For generations, the Chinese Communist Party has held on to power partly through an implicit bargain with its citizenry: Sacrifice your freedoms, and in exchange, we’ll guarantee ever-rising living standards.
That deal has not held up for today’s youths.
Until quite recently, China’s young people seemed poised to take on the world — and many of them appeared to believe they would. They’ve shown a streak of hyper-nationalism, stoked by the country’s leadership and reinforced by China’s growing economic and geopolitical strength.
China’s Gen Z came of age, after all, in the wake of the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization and amid a rapid rise in incomes.
President Xi Jinping has said young people must learn to “eat bitterness” (an idiom that roughly means to toughen up by enduring hardship). Today’s youths, leaders say, are not too good for manual labor or moving to the countryside — experiences Xi and his generation once had to endure.
China’s resilience after the financial crisis, particularly relative to the sluggish recovery across most of the West, suggested China and its citizens had nowhere to go but up. Political dysfunction in many of those same Western democracies, expertly exploited by Chinese propaganda, reinforced this perception.
News: U.S., Japan & South Korea Trilateral Summit, Spain Political Alliances
The Globalist Podcast, Friday, August 18: The US, Japan and South Korea gather for unprecedented trilateral talks, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, makes a deal with the Catalan separatist party and World Cup fever takes over Brisbane ahead of Sunday’s final.
Plus: the latest papers from Zürich, a roundup of the climate news with Monocle’s Edmonton correspondent, Sheena Rossiter, and the rise of Brazilian wine.
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