China's Economy
A return to old-school mercantilism?
Talk is cheap. In the international system, states closely monitor each other’s actions and rhetoric becomes secondary. With the acceleration of great power competition, states…
Economic diplomacy: Duelling D-words to delineate China
Risky business
For the leader-in-waiting from a small, risk averse country, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong was remarkably quick last month to smack down the…
Analyses
Chips, subsidies, security, and great power competition
Motives in the tech competition between the United States and China pose increasingly difficult policy issues for other economies.
Foreign policy China-style: beyond protocol and alcohol
There are phases in international relations when diplomacy between some countries is unfortunately reduced to protocol and alcohol. Such phases are never entirely intentional. No…
China’s growth prospects after zero-Covid
China’s economy has had a tough time of late. The strict lockdowns associated with the earlier zero-Covid policy and Beijing’s subsequent messy reversal saw economic growth…
Xi Jinping: when enough is too much
He’s got his 2,300 hand-picked delegates lined up for the Communist Party of China (CPC) congress starting 16 October, and he’s junked the previous limit of two five-year terms as…
Water scarcity challenges China’s development model
Southern China’s longest drought on record is the latest manifestation of a slow-burning but increasingly severe water crisis. Left unchecked, it has the potential to act as a…
Under pressure: Chinese international graduates in a new China
Over the coming few weeks China is preparing for a record 10.8 million university graduates to enter the labour market. The uncertainty these young Chinese students have…
China’s “common prosperity” is a Catch-22
The events of the latter half of 2021 show that Beijing is willing to tolerate significant economic pain to deleverage its property sector. For the Chinese Communist Party, the…
Whoever controls the spice, controls the universe
In the science-fiction classic Dune, the natural resource of “spice” represents the most valuable commodity in the universe, found only on the desert planet of Arrakis. Spice…