A journalist asks Jacinda Ardern if she met with Finnish PM Sanna Marin just because the two are "similar in age" and have "a lot of common stuff".
It goes about as well as you'd expect.
Complicated guy, super complicated legacy. But at least one thing is for sure: no other Chinese paramount leader of the past 100 years (since Sun Yat-sen) would have deigned to sit for an interview like this, much less have performed so ably (with such flair) in this setting:
Amazing photos coming from the Communication University of China, Nanjing, where students are protesting, making their voices heard at a time of growing unrest in light of zero Covid, following the Urumqi fire.
I was cited in this report (@shenlulushen). On the absence of woman on the CCP Politburo: Most reports mistakenly see it as indicative of elite politics changes on gender. But the Party has never changed its patriarchy nature. https://t.co/sxQz8MQr9Q
Only Martin Wolf could summarize China's economy so perfectly in a single sentence.
"The fundamental macroeconomic problems are excess savings, its concomitant, excess investment, and its corollary, growing mountains of unproductive debt"
https://t.co/FsXe77Uo8V
1/2
Most analysts have cut their 2022 GDP growth expectations for China to between 2.8% and 3.3%. To me, however, the real story is not the decline in expected GDP growth but rather the terrible deterioration in the quality of growth.
https://t.co/zLDYyUVL8P via @scmpnews
I will say, though, that I think Pelosi’s visit is a stupidly selfish act of political showmanship that serve’s no one’s core interests. The timing is horrible for this kind of stunt. That said, I do expect some basic rationality from actual foreign policy hands on both sides.
The biggest worry Beijing has over Speaker Pelosi’a trip to Taiwan is that it could lead to a “domino effect:” The trip could encourage other world leaders to visit Taiwan, bolstering its international standing. For now, Beijing’s focus remains on deterring it from independence.