Published April 24, 2024
America Can’t Wish Away Its Toughest Challenger
Ever since Chinese President Xi Jinping secured his third term in power in the fall of 2022, he has had a rough time. Shortly after his reappointment, street protests pushed him to abruptly abandon his signature “zero COVID” policy. After a quick reopening bump in early 2023, the economy has progressively slowed, revealing both cyclical and structural challenges. Investors are leaving in droves, with foreign direct investment and portfolio flows reaching record lows. Meanwhile, Xi has fired his handpicked minsters for defense and foreign affairs in the wake of allegations of corruption and worse. His military bungled its balloon intelligence-collection program, precipitating an unwanted crisis after a stray balloon floated over the continental United States for days in early 2023. And now Xi is conducting a historic purge of military and defense industry personnel linked to China’s missile forces. Amid all this, the United States has continued to expand its alliances with China’s neighbors and countries outside the region.
These and other events have fueled the claim that China is stagnating, if not in permanent decline. Some scholars now argue that the world is witnessing “peak China” and that the country’s accelerating decline may lead it to lash out. “Welcome to the age of ‘peak China,’” wrote the political scientists Hal Brands and Michael Beckley in Foreign Affairs in 2021. “China is tracing an arc that often ends in tragedy: a dizzying rise followed by the specter of a hard fall.” Commentators, including the author and investor Ruchir Sharma, have begun to speculate about a “post-China world.” Even U.S. President Joe Biden got in the game, stating in August 2023 that China is a “ticking time bomb” that “doesn’t have the same capacity that it had before.”
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SOURCE: www.foreignaffairs.com
RELATED: China drops Russia to salvage economy as US threatens ‘most serious challenge’ to trade
China last week was warned the US was considering imposing ‘full sanctions’ on Beijing’s military businesses for helping Russia continue its invasion of Ukraine.
China and Russia have strengthened their partnership over the past two years (Image: Getty)
Published April 24, 2024
China’s has suffered a major blow after exports to Russia plunged in March, the first time data showed a decrease year-on-year since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The drop came as Chinese businesses sought to avoid the impact of the secondary sanctions Joe Biden’s administration introduced to cripple industries deemed to be helping Russia perpetuate its war efforts.
China has slowly become a pivotal lifeline to Moscow after international business started moving out of Russia in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The two nations have been strengthening their alliance, with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin exchanging visits to their respective capitals over the past year to reiterate their commitment to their partnership.
Trade between Russia and China hit record highs in 2023, with Russian oil imports and Chinese cars. Machinery and electronic exports driving the $240 billion surge.
