Month: March 2025

Film-makers in China have long tried to find the secret sauce for movies that wow audiences while pleasing the Communist Party. The epics that evolved became known as zhuxuanlu, or “main melody” films, because they are in tune with the party line. But the heavy doses of patriotism that they usually involve have fallen out of favour. Instead, one Beijing studio has struck gold with a cartoon reimagining the tale of a “demon child” from a 16th-century novel. The Economist

It is not often that the world’s two superpowers hold state-of-the-nation addresses back-to-back. But thanks to a quirk of scheduling and the magic of time zones, it happened this week. Li Qiang, China’s prime minister, gave his annual report to the country’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, in Beijing on March 5th. A few minutes later, President Donald Trump began a fiery speech to a joint session of Congress in Washington. The contrast was instructive. The Economist

WHEN PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP stands before a joint session of America’s Congress on March 4th, no one knows what he will say. Policymaking in the world’s biggest economy has become unpredictable, a swirl of executive orders, social-media posts and congressional wrangling. In recent days, for example, Mr Trump has taken to social media to announce a new 10% tariff on China, on top of a similar levy imposed in February, causing Chinese stocks in Hong Kong to fall by over 3% on February 28th. He has also urged Congress to…