The Rise and Fall of China: The Rise of the United States and the Challenges of the 21-month US-China Strategy During the First Half of the Cold War

Biden told a group of business leaders in Beijing that he was optimistic about bilateral relations over the next 30 years and praised the Chinese president for being forward- thinking.

The document, required by Congress, comes 21 months into Biden’s term. In the course of the presidency, the strategy has included a focus on rebuilding global partnerships and trying to counterbalance Russia and China.

“Around the world, the need for American leadership is as great as it has ever been. In the introduction to the strategy, Biden stated that we are competing to shape the future of the international order.

“We will not leave our future vulnerable to the whims of those who do not share our vision for a world that is free, open, prosperous, and secure,” he goes on. While the world deals with the impact of the Pandemic and global economic uncertainty, there is no better place to lead than the United States of America.

Russia poses a immediate threat to the free and open international system as it blatantly violated the basic laws of the international order in its aggression against Ukraine, according to the document. China is the only competitor that wants to change the international order with both an economic, diplomatic, military and technological power.

“This decisive decade is critical both for defining the terms of competition, particular with the (People’s Republic of China), and for getting ahead of massive challenges that if we lose the time this decade we will not be able to keep pace with,” he said.

He presented himself as the leader who had protected the nation from the ravages of the swine flue and was now focused on securing China’s rise amid a raft of global threats.

There is discontent within the Chinese people about how Mr. Xi has stuck with “zero Covidious” policies, mismanagement of the economy and alienating the West. Yet so long as Mr. Xi can point to perceived U.S.-led efforts to contain China’s development, his appeals to Chinese nationalism will continue to win these domestic debates and sideline dissent as unpatriotic. Some Chinese who are unhappy with how Mr. Xi has ruled feel that U.S. pressure is meant to undermine China’s development.

He gave praise and a warning that the nation needed to stand behind the party to be able to deal with a world he depicted as increasingly hostile. He did not mention the United States but his distrust of the world’s other great power was the main reason for that exhortation.

The president said that he should be aware of dangers during peace. Get the house repaired before the rain comes and prepare for the big tests of high winds and waves.

CNN wrote a version of the story in their Meanwhile in China newsletter which was about the country’s rise and how it affects the world. Here you can sign up.

In 2015, three years after he assumed leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi undertook a sweeping project to turn the PLA into a “world-class fighting force” that would be a peer to the US military.

China has an air force with stealth jets and a stealth bomber, the biggest navy in the world, and a rocket force that can hit targets anywhere in the world.

What Will China Tell Us About China? Xi’s Theoretical Implications for the China-UK Reunification and the Russia-Russia War in Ukraine

Doing so is not easy, as Russia’s experience in Ukraine shows. There have been numerous accounts throughout the war of Russian troops lacking air cover, or the proper supplies, or deploying the right units in the right places to block a Ukrainian offensive.

What should be even more worrying for Xi, as he prepares to secure an expected third term as both party leader and supreme commander of the Chinese military at this week’s 20th Party Congress, is that many analysts see parallels between the problems dogging Moscow in Ukraine and the potential weak spots that remain in the PLA.

“The wheels of history are rolling on towards China’s reunification and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Complete reunification of our country must be realized,” Xi told the Congress to thundering applause.

China regards the “Taiwan question” an internal matter. It is the core of China’s interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-US relations and the first red line that cannot be crossed.

Analysts say that would require hundreds of thousands of soldiers in what would be the largest amphibious operation since the Allies stormed ashore at Normandy in German-occupied France in World War II.

While the PLA Navy has been churning out ships – including a new aircraft carrier launched this year and numerous Type 055 destroyers, seen by some as the world’s most powerful surface ships – doing so has been expensive.

And as Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, points out, Taiwan has a relatively cheap way of countering them – by investing in the sort of small, land-based anti-ship missiles that Ukraine has been using to great success against Russia.

China faces a challenge in being sure that all of its forces pull in the same direction, as this issue has hampered Russia in Ukraine.

The creation of unified command structures in which naval, air, army and rocket units work together to execute a planned battle plan is still in the early stages.

Xi’s work report on Sunday cited the need to “improve the command system for joint operations” and enhance the PLA’s “systems and capacity for reconnaissance and early warning, joint strikes, battlefield support, and integrated logistics support.”

The PLA war-gamed a blockade of Taiwan after it visited, sending missiles to the main island and bombarding the Air Defense Identification Zone.

The Second Xi-Military War in China: Nuclear Control, Security, and Security for the People’s Liberation Army

According to a report from the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs, four top officers of China’s Central Military Commission have reached their normal age of retirement and will be replaced by younger officers as President Xi is about to get his third term in office.

When four officers left thePLA they were in charge of the actual fighting forces, not the two that come from the military’s political ranks, as was written by the Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief.

Analysts have warned that the language could be used as a smoke screen for a more sinister purpose, like how Putin refers to his invasion of Ukraine as a special military operation.

On August 4, 1942, the rocket force of the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army launched a missile against designated maritime areas to the east of Taiwan.

However, Chinese state media have done their best to play the order down, saying it could cover actions such as participating in international peacekeeping operations or providing disaster relief.

According to the Xinhua news service, the outlines aim to prevent and neutralized risks and challenges, handle emergencies, protect people and property, and safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests.

He wrote in July that the new guidelines on non-war operations would be “a next step in bringing [China’s] military presence out into the world – and likely another step away from the peaceful rise it once promised to the global community.”

The United States and China could get through a very dangerous period if they both agreed to take voluntary steps back from the brink.

The long-term risk is that there will be an overextension of the country where the tendency to counter a potential threat or challenge makes it difficult to concentrate on achieving positive priorities and outcomes. Competition in the United States could cause domestic divisions and undermine democracy. Already, increased xenophobia and anti-Asian violence in America, along with ramped-up efforts to protect research security, have led more than 60 percent of Chinese-born scientists working in the United States — including naturalized citizens and permanent residents — to consider leaving the country.

Large scale military exercises around Taiwan formed an effective blockade and halted dialogue with the US in a number of areas, from drug traffickers to climate change.

China and the United States: a single trip to China for the second time since Russia invaded Ukraine and the fate of the future of the Korean peninsular

Friday’s one-day trip to Beijing is Scholz’s first as Germany’s chancellor. After the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress gave the Chinese leader a third term as party secretary, he met with the head of state. The visit to China of a European leader is the first since Russia invaded Ukraine and has strained ties between Western European countries and Beijing.

“On the issue of Ukraine, China has already made its position clear many times. It will not change simply because of the talks with the US President. On North Korea, since March last year, China has already stopped treating the denuclearization of North Korea as a fundamental element of its Korean Peninsular policy,” he said.

In the days leading up to Scholz’s trip, he went against the advice of many advisers and cabinet ministers to approve a 24.9% stake in the port of Hamburg by Chinese state-run shipping giant COSCO, a move that 69% of Germans polled by Deutschland Trend called a “wrong move.” In addition, the U.S. voiced doubts about the deal.

Scholz and Li were at a press conference after his meeting with the Chinese premier. The United Nations will protect the rights of ethnic minorities in China, and so calling for those protections is not interference in China’s internal affairs, according to Scholz.

Li stated that the world can’t afford a worse situation in Ukraine. He said that China is an attractive place for investment and Germany supports multipolar solutions to international problems.

A meeting between the leaders of China and the United States ended in Indonesia on Monday with both of them saying they were willing to mend their relationship that’s been compared to a second Cold War.

On Monday, the two leaders are set to meet each other for another honest exchange in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit. The mood in the room will probably not be as nice as the surrounding location.

Biden, meanwhile, arrived in Asia following a better-than-expected performance by his party in the US midterm elections – with the Democrats projected to keep the Senate in a major victory. Biden said he was confident that the results would allow him to go into Monday with a better hand. “I know I’m coming in stronger,” he told reporters.

The Biden-Beitre sit-down as a way to make the United States look like a nuclear power plant: A message from Washington and Beijing

Other key topics on the agenda include Russia’s war in Ukraine – another significant point of tension, as well as areas where the US hopes to cooperate with China – such as North Korea’s ongoing provocations and climate change.

The world suffers when Washington and Beijing are not talking to each other, as evidenced by the fact that these issues have not been addressed together in recent months.

A senior White House official said Biden wants to use the talks to build a floor for the relationship so it doesn’t fall into open conflict. The US official says the main goal of the sit-down is not about reaching agreements or deliverables, but gaining a better understanding of each other’s priorities and reducing misconception.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan reinforced the message Saturday to reporters aboard Air Force One, noting the meeting is unlikely to result in any major breakthroughs or dramatic shifts in the relationship.

While expectations of a reset of relations are low, the meetings could serve to stave off disagreements and reopen communication lines – in ways similar to the meeting between Xi and Biden.

Each side blames the other entirely for the state of the relationship and each believes they are faring better than the other in the situation, said Kennedy, who has recently returned from a weeks-long visit to China – a rare opportunity in recent years due to China’s zero-Covid border restrictions.

“The Chinese think they’re winning, the Americans think they’re winning, and so they’re willing to bear these costs. And they think the other side is very unlikely to make any significant changes,” Kennedy said. Significant adjustments are lessened by all of those things.

The fact that the two leaders are talking to each other is a positive development. Keeping dialogue open is crucial for reducing risks of misunderstanding and miscalculations, especially when suspicions run deep and tensions run high.

It’s important that you and I get in touch with each other, given that it’s possible for us to rule for life without being deposed by a military dictatorship like the one we just experienced. Sullivan said there is no one else in their system who can communicate authoritatively other than President XI Jiechi.

On Wednesday, Biden told a news conference that he wants to “lay out what each of our red lines are” when he sits down with Xi, but experts say that might not be as straightforward as it sounds.

“I would love to be a fly on the wall to see that conversation because I don’t think that the US or China has been very precise about what its red lines are. Kennedy of CSIS said that both sides have not been clear about what the other side would get if they stayed within the red lines.

Beijing and Washington said they would resume climate talks that were halted in August, after Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan which Beijing claims as its own. The White House said the leaders “agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts.”

It is widely assumed that Taiwan is going to be on the agenda when the two leaders sit down in the same room. But in a sign of the contentiousness of the issue, barbs have already been traded.

And for Xi, Yu says his further consolidation of power in the Chinese system may leave him more space for conducting diplomacy. She says that the Chinese leader wants to reestablish a mechanism and dialogue to steady the relationship with Biden.

The US said that Biden raised concerns about PRC practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. China insists these issues are of internal affairs, and warns against external interference.

Some progress on communication and access between China and the US will be considered a positive outcome, as long as it involves restoring climate and military talks.

The summit in Indonesia yielded two important outcomes, according to the US: A joint position that Russia must not use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine and an expected resumption of talks on climate between American and Chinese negotiators, a boost for the COP 27 global climate conference in Egypt.

Biden, meanwhile, reported that he stressed to Xi that Beijing also has an obligation to temper North Korea’s destabilizing missile and nuclear activity that has the Pacific region on edge.

Leon Panetta – a former White House chief of staff, defense secretary and CIA chief who dealt with US-China relations for decades – expressed cautious optimism after the talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

“If the result of this meeting is to put the relationship back on a more diplomatic plane, in which instead of beating each other up they can begin a dialogue on the kind of issues that need to be dealt with, I think this meeting could very well be pivotal,” Panetta told CNN’s John King on “Inside Politics.”

Xi-Biden Meets Beijing in the Early 2000s: First Face-to-Face Exchange since Nixon’s Cold War

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that neither side should attempt to remold the other in their own image.

So, Washington’s foreign policy has come full circle, since part of Richard Nixon’s motivation in engaging China during the 1970s Cold War deep freeze was to open strategic gaps between Beijing and Moscow.

Much has changed since that day in Beijing, when the two leaders of the world smiled for the cameras. The war didn’t turn out as expected, but it did make it clear that democracies need to push back against belligerent antidemocratic regimes and keep them from joining forces.

Today’s meeting was the first face-to-face exchange between the two since Biden became president. It took place after both leaders had just strengthened their respective political positions at home, analysts say.

Speaking after the three-hour meeting, Biden described it as an “open and candid” discussion, saying he planned to manage the China relationship “responsibly.”

“It may be a diplomatic reset of some sorts but not one in substance where both sides begin to genuinely approach each other in good faith and a preparedness to compromise,” Lee added.

The State Department said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also visit China in person sometime early next year to follow up on the Xi-Biden meeting.

U.S. Policy on Taiwan and China’s Response to Xi’s bumbling comments about the G20 summit in Washington

The U.S. has done the opposite on all counts since Beijing’s perspective. Beijing decried it’s actions such as imposing the Semiconductor export bans and sanction of China’s leading technology firms.

The world is big enough for China and America to prosper together, according to a Foreign ministry spokeswoman who accompanied Xi in his meeting with Biden.

Despite intense media speculation, Biden said he did not believe there was an imminent attempt to invade Taiwan by China.

The White House said Beijing’s actions in the waters around Taiwan endanger peace and stability and jeopardize global prosperity, adding the president objected to them.

The U.S. has pushed China to take a clearer stand against Russia’s war in Ukraine, which China has tried to remain neutral on despite signing a partnership with Moscow in February.

Last year, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi put out three core demands — “bottom lines” — that China wanted the U.S. to agree to in order for relations to improve: to not get in the way in the country’s development, to respect China’s claims over places like Taiwan and to respect Beijing’s Communist Party rule.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has upped ties with Taiwan, with lawmakers including Pelosi visiting the island since August. Congress is considering drawing on the U.S. weapons stockpile to arm the island at American expense. Biden stressed in the press conference after meeting Xi that U.S. policy on Taiwan remains unchanged.

And while Biden came in to the G20 with a stronger position due to the narrow Democratic victory in the battle to control the Senate, he is up for reelection in two years himself.

Hong Kong and mainland China closed the big bang at the end of the tenth day of Beijing–Russia diplomatic relations, with an application to the stock markets

Analysts said the meeting could lay the groundwork for stronger ties between the world’s top economic powerhouses. The stock markets in Hong Kong and mainlandChina were up on Tuesday, as a result of the positive news.

Standing with Raisi, he said that China will strengthen cooperation with Iran regardless of international and regional circumstances. Remember the pledge to Russia of no limits. The vows can prove to be more than they sound.

Neil Thomas, senior analyst for China and Northeast Asia at Eurasia Group, said the goal of the meeting was to “build a floor” under declining relations between Beijing and Washington.

Ken Cheung said the meeting shows that both sides were interested in finding common ground.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng

            (HSI) Index rallied nearly 4% on Tuesday, on track to record a third straight day of gains. The index, boosted by China’s latest policy shift towards a gradual reopening of borders and a sweeping rescue package for the ailing property sector, has soared 14% since last Thursday.

Chinese technology shares, which had been hammered by a regulatory crackdown at home and rising geopolitical tension abroad, led markets higher on Tuesday. Alibaba shares shot up by 11% in Hong Kong, followed by Tencent, which was up 10%.

Xi and Albanese: How the United States can resolve the Korea-South Korea tension after the G20 G20 pandemic

They thought Biden’s reiteration of the US position on Taiwan and its “One China” policy as well as his opposition to the use of nuclear weapons by Russia were helpful.

“This was far more progress than we, or indeed most commentators had expected, and dominates what may otherwise turn out to have been a fairly irrelevant G20 summit,” the ING analysts said.

Following a three-hour meeting on Monday with US President Joe Biden in an attempt to prevent their rivalry from spilling into open conflict, Xi is talking on Tuesday with the leaders of Australia, France, the Netherlands and South Korea.

The Chinese leader and French president had a meeting early on Tuesday before they showed up at the G20 summit.

The 43 minutes of talks took place in the office of the French Presidency and saw Xi support for a ceasefire as well as peace talks to end the war in Ukraine.

France, like other European countries, has hardened its position on China in recent years, increasingly viewing the country as a competitor and security concern.

For the majority of the pandemic Xi limited his diplomatic activities to virtual summits and video conferences, choosing to stay within China, rather than travel overseas.

It was unlikely that the meeting between Xi and Albanese can completely reset the strained relations between Australia and China.

The two countries have been locked in a bruising trade dispute and diplomatic freeze since early 2020, when China slapped tariffs on Australia following its call for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.

Announcing his meeting with Xi after arriving in Bali on Monday, Albanese said having the meeting alone is a “successful outcome,” pointing to the lack of dialogue at the top level for years.

The fate of Vladimir Putin and the fate of his country – the case against Russia and NATO in the aftermath of the Kherson Operational Crimea

“It is not in Australia’s interest to not have dialogue with our major trading partners,” he told reporters, adding that there are no preconditions for the meeting.

“Core Chinese objectives such as its South China Sea, Taiwan and South Pacific policies are fundamentally at odds with Australia’s core interests,” said Australian policy expert John Lee, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington and former national security adviser to the Australian government.

Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She writes a weekly opinion column for CNN, is a columnist for The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views she gives are her own. CNN has opinions on it.

The contest between the two systems is far from over. And Biden was correct when he said it was critical to prove that democracy could deliver for the people.

The city of Kherson, which was the provincial capital that Russian invaders had conquered, was brought back to life by Ukrainian President Volody myr Zelensky.

Putin andXi declared on the opening day of the Winter Olympics that there were no limits to the friendship between the two countries. Twenty days later, after months of denying any intention to invade Ukraine, Russian troops crossed Ukraine’s borders in what they — and much of the world — expected would be a quick operation to conquer the fledgling democracy next door.

With the headway democracy just made – a poor showing for election deniers in the US midterm elections, an exodus of Russians from their own autocratic country, an upsurge of support for embattled Ukraine – democratic leaders need to show they can navigate the economic challenges of the coming months. They will face the continued efforts of ambitious autocrats such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in order to regain the upper hand.

Putin poses a grave threat. He’s all in, having painted himself into a corner. And he is not about to surrender in Ukraine. An increase in tensions between Russia and NATO remains one of the greatest dangers in the year ahead, while Biden and NATO have been careful to avoid a direct confrontation with Putin.

As he becomes a pariah on the global stage, Putin chose not to attend the G20 summit in Indonesia.

The Cold War Between China and Russia During the Fourth Xi-Mills Era: The Case for a Special Military Operation

To be sure, Biden is not the only leader with a strong hand. Xi has just secured an unprecedented third term as China’s leader, and he can now effectively rule for as long as he wants. He doesn’t have to worry about elections, about a critical press or a vociferous opposition party. He is the absolute ruler of a powerful country for many years to come.

The most urgent and daunting task facing China in the new year is how to handle the fallout from its botched exit from zero-Covid, amid an outbreak that threatens to claim hundreds of thousands of lives and undermine the credibility of Xi and his Communist Party.

Also crucial in the epochal competition between the two systems is showing that democracy works, defeating efforts of autocratic countries such as China and Russia to discredit it and proving that unprovoked wars of aggression, aimed at suppressing democracy and conquering territory, will not succeed.

The fact that it doesn’t mean Ukraine is not open to peace talks is not a bad thing. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday that UN brokered talks should start by February but only after the tribunal of Russia’s war crimes.

But the simple calculus remains unchanged; a conflict that many experts thought would be over within days or weeks has instead become a grueling war that Ukraine may be able to win, so any deal that diminishes the country’s borders or represents some form of victory for Putin would be unacceptable to Kyiv.

Even when seemingly indicating a willingness to negotiate, the Russian leader refused on Sunday to mention Ukraine itself as a relevant party and continued to couch his offer in the false pretext that it is Moscow that is defending itself with what he euphemistically calls a “special military operation.”

As has often been the case throughout the conflict, the vaguely conciliatory tone from Putin was quickly contradicted by a heavy-handed message from one of his key officials.

Lavrov also called for “the elimination of threats to Russian security from there, including our new territories” – a reference to four occupied regions of Ukraine which Russia claimed to annex illegally following sham referendums – or else the Russian military would take action, according to TASS.

“The blitzkrieg has gone terribly wrong for them and they know that, so they need more time to regroup and rebuild their troops,” Rodnyansky said, adding that it was also Kremlin’s strategy to dissuade the world from sending more military aid to Ukraine. We have to not fall into that trap.

“Putin’s December 25 statement is a part of a deliberate information campaign aimed at misleading the West to push Ukraine into making preliminary concessions,” the ISW said, adding that Moscow has stepped up those efforts in December.

Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic adviser to President Zelensky, told CNN Tuesday that Putin’s comments were likely an effort to buy time in the conflict.

NATO has remained firmly united in its support of Ukrainian resistance, with the Western nations sending billions of dollars worth of weapons and aid to the country.

But a major climbdown would be required from the Kremlin for Putin to accept those terms. And Zelensky has not entertained the possibility of giving up any Ukrainian land, nor dropping his efforts to join NATO and the European Union, and while Western support remains strong there is little pressure for him to do so.

Since the end of the summer, a number of decisive counter-attacks by Ukrainian troops has pushed back Russian troops and led to Western optimism that Kyiv can win the war.

Towards a just peace: the first decade of the grinding war with the United Nations as the broker for negotiations, as promised by President Zelensky

But Zelensky and his officials have said throughout that they will continue to sound out the possibility of negotiations, without raising any hopes that they would achieve a truce.

Kuleba said every war ends in a diplomatic way. Every war ends as a result of actions taken by both sides at the negotiating table.

The Foreign Minister said the UN would be the most natural broker for those talks. The best place for the summit would be the United Nations, because this isn’t an effort to favor one country over another. “This is really about bringing everyone on board.”

A path to nuclear safety, food security, a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes, and a final peace treaty with Moscow are included in the steps. He also urged G20 leaders to use all their power to “make Russia abandon nuclear threats” and implement a price cap on energy imported from Moscow.

The world looks different more than a decade into the grinding war, and there’s a different dynamic between the partners.

Zelensky went to the US for the first time in a decade to keep his allies focused on the conflict.

“For me, as president, a just peace is no compromises as to the sovereignty, freedom and territorial integrity of our country, the payback for all the damages inflicted by Russian aggression,” Zelensky said during his joint press conference with Biden at the White House.

“It can succeed in the battlefield with our help, and the help of our European allies and others, so that if and when President Zelensky is ready to talk to the Russians, he will be able to succeed as well, because he will have won on the battlefield.”

Putin and the Kremlin: China’s First Day of War in Ukraine and a Step Towards Security in the Horn of the Cold War

Analysts are looking for changes in the Chinese leader’s support of the Russian president after more than a decade of war in Ukraine and as China faces an unprecedented Covid outbreak, with the Kremlin saying that the two Presidents will speak via video conference on Friday.

The two leaders will talk about their bilateral relationship and discuss regional issues with each other. Peskov said on Thursday.

Instead of an anticipated swift victory, Putin’s invasion has faltered with numerous setbacks on the battlefield, including a lack of basic equipment. Many people in Russia are facing economic hardship because of low Morale.

Russian missiles exploded in the air Thursday in one of the biggest missile attacks on Ukraine since the war started, causing damage and killing at least three people.

Ukrainian officials have been cautioning for days that Russia is preparing to launch an all-out assault on the power grid to close out 2022, plummeting the country into darkness as Ukrainians attempt to ring in the New Year and celebrate the Christmas holidays, which for the country’s Orthodox Christians falls on January 7.

China, too, is growing more isolated in its stance toward Russia, said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

Though India has not condemned Moscow’s invasion outright, Modi told Putin in September that now was not the time for war and urged him to move toward peace.

Xi, who recently reemerged on the world stage after securing a third term in power, has signaled he hopes to mend frayed relations with the West, but his nationalist agenda and “no-limits friendship” with Russia is likely to complicate matters.

She added that trade between the two countries had increased this year due to high energy prices globally – and the two leaders could “reaffirm their vows to cooperate economically.”

The New Year’s Resolution in China: The Challenges of the Covid Epidemic and Implications for the United Kingdom’s Healthcare System

The protests, Covid outbreak, and economic toll could mean less material and public support for Russia, and that’s because of Xi’s vulnerable position.

The rules that were in place for the last three years were tossed out. But China had not used the time to push for increased vaccination or stock up on certain drugs. Hundreds of millions have been infected, according to reports citing an internal estimate from China’s top health officials, and various models predict more than a million deaths.

Some countries seem hesitant to let Chinese tourists into their country because they impose new requirements for a negative Covid test before travel, even as the tightly sealed borders are gradually opening up. And just how quickly – or keenly – global visitors will return to China is another question.

“We have now entered a new phase of Covid response where tough challenges remain,” Xi said in a nationally televised New Year’s Eve speech. “Everyone is holding on with great fortitude, and the light of hope is right in front of us. Let’s make an extra effort to pull through, as perseverance and solidarity mean victory.”

The lifting of restrictions late last month led to a huge number of cases, without enough time to prepare for the increase in patients and deaths.

The country’s healthcare system is in desperate need of help: doctors and nurses are running out of time, hospitals are overwhelmed and the crematoriums are struggling to keep up.

The experts warn of the worst to come. While some major metropolises like Beijing may have seen the peak of the outbreak, less-developed cities and the vast rural hinterland are still bracing for more infections.

The outlook is grim. The death toll in China could go past one million if the country doesn’t give birth to more children with booster shots and drugs quickly.

The government launched a booster campaign for the elderly, but a lot of people are reluctant to take it due to side effects. Fighting vaccine hesitancy will require significant time and effort, when the country’s medical workers are already stretched thin.

Looking Ahead in the Intl HNK-mic: Implications for China and its Emergence from the Christmas 13th Pandemic

It will provide a major boost to economies that rely on Chinese demand if China grows at an increased rate. A lot of international travel and production will take place. The price of energy and raw materials will go up due to rising demand.

Other experts also expect the economy to recover after March. In a recent research report, HSBC economists projected a 0.5% contraction in the first quarter, but 5% growth for 2023.

Despite all this uncertainty, Chinese citizens are celebrating the partial reopening of the border after the end of quarantine for international arrivals and the resumption of outbound travel.

Though some residents voiced concern online about the rapid loosening of restrictions during the outbreak, many more are eagerly planning trips abroad – travel websites recorded massive spikes in traffic within minutes of the announcement on December 26.

Several Chinese nationals overseas told CNN they had been unable or unwilling to return home for the last few years while the lengthy quarantine was still in place. It meant missed life moments, such as graduations, weddings, births, and deaths.

Some countries have offered a warm welcome back, with foreign embassies and tourism departments posting invitations to Chinese travelers on Chinese social media sites. But others are more cautious, with many countries imposing new testing requirements for travelers coming from China and its territories.

Officials from these countries have pointed to the risk of new variants emerging from China’s outbreak – though numerous health experts have criticized the targeted travel restrictions as scientifically ineffective and alarmist, with the risk of inciting further racism and xenophobia.

As China emerges from its self-imposed isolation, all eyes are on whether it will be able to repair its reputation and relations that soured during the pandemic.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/02/china/china-2023-lookahead-intl-hnk-mic/index.html

What caused China to give up on democracy in 2022, or what did we learn from freedom house 2022-2023? An open question for China, for the Russian government

The lack of top-level face-to-face diplomacy certainly didn’t help, neither did the freeze on in-person exchanges among policy advisers, business groups and the wider public.

Communication lines are back open and more high-level exchanges are in the pipeline – with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French President Emmanuel Macron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Italy’s newly elected Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni all expected to visit Beijing this year.

Tensions over Taiwan, technological containment, as well as China’s support for Russia are expected to return in the new year, as indicated by the meeting between Xi and Putin on December 30.

PresidentXi said that China would be willing to work with Russia to stand against hegemonism and power politics. Putin, meanwhile, invited Xi to visit Moscow in the spring of 2023.

“(The war) has been a nuisance for China this past year and has affected China’s interest in Europe,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center. There is not enough damage to cause China to abandon Russia.

Notice that it was an open question. Many believed that autocracy would win and prove to be the better system. How many believe that today?

How many believe Russia, China or Iran offer a better model than an open society with all its foibles and challenges? How many believe the US would be better off with a more autocratic president?

In 2022, democracy fought back with astounding determination, conviction and, yes, idealism. Autocrats went on the defensive. Even populism started to sputter. Many of the positive trends were forged with great effort and are looking promising right now.

The autocracy brothers wanted the world to think their system was better, and they wanted to quiet any doubts at home. For 16 consecutive years, according to the non-partisan democracy monitor Freedom House, democracy was losing ground. Authoritarian leaders and illiberal forces were on the rise; only about 20% of the world’s population lived in what it calls “Free countries”, the organization’s research showed.

In 2022, while these global strongmen struggled, self-assured “geniuses” like Elon Musk – who more than once appeared to side with autocrats – revealed their own shortcomings, and oppressed populations fed up with decades of tyranny demanded change.

The credit goes to Putin who used his power to win the war with Ukraine. No longer was freedom a vague ideal. No longer was the battle for democracy a metaphor. This was a real war with missiles, carnage and death.

The invasion strengthened NATO, a democratic defense alliance, in a way nothing had in decades. Even countries that had long cherished their neutrality wanted to join.

The Occupy of the Women in the Republic of Iran – and the Way the World Will Step in Against Their Enlightenment

The theocracy in Iran had a repressive system of rules that women were fed up with. The regime – not coincidentally now supplying arms to Russia – responded with more violence, killing hundreds, according to human rights organizations.

The women of the group had no reason to defy the regime and its brutality. How far will they go? How far will the regime go to snuff them out? How will the rest of the world respond?

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/opinions/democracy-china-russia-2023-ghitis/index.html

The Mueller Report on the 2016 Presidential Campaign: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and the Case for the United States and the Republic of the Crimes in the Cold War

Donald Trump launched a new campaign. The British called it a lead balloon. He’s becoming an increasingly isolated, rather pathetic figure after many of his top choices failed in the midterm elections and election deniers fared badly. The new House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, didn’t deter the rebellion this week by his calls for Republicans to unite behind him. And while the struggle over the speakership may have seemed dysfunctional, it was democracy, in all its messy wrangling, on display. Legal troubles seem endless for Trump.

In Brazil, Trump’s doppelganger, Jair Bolsonaro, lost his bid for reelection. He wouldn’t acknowledge defeat or attend the inauguration of the man who defeated him. Instead, a grim Bolsonaro decamped to Florida.

Boris Johnson lost the premiership in the UK and after an unfortunate meeting with Liz Truss, he was replaced by a centrist named Rishi Sunak. Back when Johnson was leading his country out of the European Union, populists across Europe wanted their own versions of Brexit. We don’t hear that anymore. Like other European populists, Marine Le Pen had to run from her record of close relations to Putin because she could not beat French PresidentEmmanuelMacron.

In addition to fortifying NATO and strengthening alliances, President Joe Biden’s administration has accomplished with great success, and the US needs to work to prevent the creation of a unified force of aggressive antidemocratic regimes.

But the rule of the strongest doesn’t work when you can’t win, which is how Russia’s plans started to unravel, and China had to rethink its commitment.

Is the guy in with the guy out? Xi seems to want it both ways. He wants a relationship with a country that invades its neighbor without provocation, but he’s also trying to portray himself as responsible global leader, instead of the Western model.

Russia has bought weapons from North Korea, which denies any involvement in a war whose morality is beyond the pale.

Iran claimed it sold weapons before the war began, but they were not being used inUkraine. There are documents that show that the drones in Ukraine are similar to ones used in the Middle East.

Iran, whose repressive, interventionist regime has also turned it, like Russia, into a pariah to much of the world, now finds itself being courted by both Moscow and Beijing.

This week, Ebrahim Raisi became the first Iranian president to visit China in 20 years. At the invitation of Xi, the trip aims to implement an agreement the two made at a meeting of theShanghai Cooperation Organization in 2021.

The Beijing-Tehran ties have raised alarms among both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who fear China’s support could help Tehran evade sanctions related to its nuclear and conventional weapons programs, support for terrorism and human rights abuses.

There is an internal contradiction inXi’s goals. If you want to elevate your standing to that of a respected global leader, it’s hard to create an alliance of rule-breaking autocrats and assorted dictators, and then expect other countries to join enthusiastically.

Beijing is ready to present its peace proposition for Ukraine, its top diplomat announced Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, in a rare remark that referred to the Ukraine conflict as a war.

Territorial and sovereignty integrity of all countries will be respected in China’s proposal, Wang said, adding that Beijing will continue to work for peace.

Wang called on European countries to change their approach to the war as European Union leaders remain wary of Beijing.

And European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen told CNN on Saturday: “We need more proof that China isn’t working with Russia, and we aren’t seeing that now.”

Putin conceded that Beijing had questions and concerns over the invasion, in what appeared to be a veiled admission of diverging views on the war.

China’s top diplomat will also visit Russia this month, according to its foreign ministry, in the first visit to the country from a Chinese official in that role since the war began.