U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on China on Friday to address manufacturing overcapacity that she said risks causing global economic dislocation, and to create a level playing field for American companies and workers. Starting a five-day visit in one of China’s major industrial and export hubs, she raised what the U.S. considers to be … Read more
In March 2024, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) ended its years-long experiment with negative interest rates to try and stem the country’s economic stagflation. This decision came after Rengo, Japan’s largest labor union, negotiated a deal that saw some of the countries’ largest companies – including Honda, Nippon Steel, and ANA Holdings – provide their … Read more
China’s nationalist leader, Xi Jinping, called for closer trade ties with the United States during a meeting on Wednesday with top American business leaders. The gathering in Beijing came amid a steady improvement in relations that had sunk to the lowest level in years. Xi emphasized the mutually beneficial economic ties between the world’s two … Read more
When it comes to Central Asia, one of the hottest topics among Western policymakers and scholars alike is China’s engagement in the region, especially since the 2013 launch of the Belt and Road Initiative. In a recent quantitative analysis of Chinese scholarship on Central Asia, Frank Maracchione and Bradley Jardine tackled some prominent assumptions in … Read more
The great rapprochement between China and the United States in the 1970s was driven by geopolitical calculations: The Nixon administration’s gambit to form a united front with Mao’s China against the Soviet Union. But in the long run, the biggest outcome may have been economic. The reopening of China-U.S. trade lines would eventually rewire the … Read more
On March 11, the Chinese government concluded the “Two Sessions,” the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber-stamp parliament, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body. As the Chinese Communist Party asserts greater influence over state governance, the Two Sessions has become less of a platform for original … Read more
China’s “Two Sessions” (the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) closed on Monday in Beijing. The Two Sessions featured two important announcements regarding China’s economy: a 5 percent GDP growth goal for 2024, and a deficit rate of 3 percent with the issuing of 1 trillion yuan … Read more
In recent years, there has been a notable shift among certain Western politicians, media outlets and think tanks regarding their perspective on China’s developmental trajectory. The once-popular theory of an imminent Chinese collapse, famously asserted by Gordon G. Chang over two decades ago, has finally begun to lose traction. But there is still a lingering … Read more
China presents a compelling case of the growth paradox, where robust economic indicators mask underlying disparities and societal sentiments. The dichotomy between China’s impressive economic figures and the lived realities of its businesses and people indicates how these contradictions coexist. Understanding these divides and seeking solutions to bridge them can have a significant impact on … Read more
Hardly anyone in China wants to talk about COVID-19 or the zero-COVID policy that the authorities stubbornly pursued throughout most of the pandemic. Zero COVID was abruptly abandoned at the end of 2022, causing more than an estimated million deaths in the subsequent months. The authorities then brazenly declared in March 2023 that the country’s … Read more