Tag: International Relations

Factories May Be Leaving China, but Trade Ties Are Stronger Than They Seem

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The United States has spent the past five years pushing to reduce its reliance on China for computer chips, solar panels and various consumer imports amid growing concern over Beijing’s security threats, human rights record and dominance of critical industries. But even as policymakers and corporate executives look for ways to cut ties with China, a growing body of evidence suggests that the world’s largest economies remain deeply intertwined as Chinese products make their way to America through other countries. New and forthcoming economic papers call into question whether the…

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Walks a Tightrope in China

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What to watch as Raimondo visits China Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, one of the Biden administration’s biggest Beijing hawks, kicked off her visit to China on Monday with a call to preserve a “stable economic relationship” between the two economic powers that “share over $700 billion of trade.” With relations between the countries at a critical juncture, Ms. Raimondo is now the fourth senior U.S. official to travel to China in less than three months. Her visit, which will include meetings with business leaders and government officials, including her Chinese…

The BRICS Group Announces New Members, Expanding Its Reach

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The BRICS club of emerging nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — was at a crossroads when its leaders arrived in South Africa earlier this week for their annual summit. Should it follow the path of more moderate members like India and try to work within the Western-dominated global system? Or should it tack toward China by adding new members that would signal stricter opposition to the United States? On Thursday, the bloc revealed its decision, adding six new countries, including the staunchly anti-Western Iran, in an…

How China Made Its Housing Crisis Worse

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In China the pension akin to Social Security in the United States pays about $410 a month to seniors who live in cities, and only $25 a month in the countryside. Public health care covers less than half of people’s costs. Unemployment insurance provides around $220 a month; the U.S. average is nearly $1,700. China’s consumer safety net is full of holes, even when accounting for lower costs of living compared to the United States. As growth has faltered in recent years, and now as a simmering real estate crisis…

What Can Replace China as a Global Economic Engine?

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This is not a trivial matter. To an extent that few Americans genuinely appreciate, global growth has been powered by the so-called Chinese miracle for almost half a century now. According to World Bank data, between 2008 and 2021 — as the world’s per capita G.D.P. grew by 30 percent and China’s by 263 percent — China accounted for more than 40 percent of all global growth. If you excluded China from the data, global G.D.P. over that period would have grown not by 51 percent but by 33 percent,…

BRICS May Add More Countries to the Group. Here’s What to Know.

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Dozens of countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, a group encompassing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that views itself as a counterweight to the West, and is meeting this week in Johannesburg. Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are thought to be among those most likely to be admitted. Iran has also expressed interest. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, backs expanding the group. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India is said to be concerned about adding nations close to Beijing; India and China have border disputes and…

China Works to Expand its Sway in Africa Amid Rivalry With the U.S.

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President Xi Jinping of China, traveling to Africa for the first time in five years, pledged greater cooperation with South Africa to enhance the voice of poor nations. He commended developing countries for “shaking off the yoke of colonialism.” And on Wednesday, he’s expected to hold talks with the leaders of the BRICS, a club of emerging nations, as he pushes for its expansion to serve as a counterweight to Western dominance. On his four-day visit to South Africa this week, Mr. Xi has sought to cast himself as a…

At BRICS Summit, Putin Tries to Rally Support

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The five-nation BRICS summit is focused on whether to expand the club and how to be a counterweight to Western powers, but the meeting opened in Johannesburg on Tuesday in the shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with President Vladimir V. Putin attempting to rally the members via video to Moscow’s side. In a speech to fellow leaders of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa group, Mr. Putin blamed the West for Russia’s exit from an agreement on Ukrainian grain exports that had helped stabilize global food supplies…

BRICS Summit Attracts Global Interest Not Seen in Years

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The leaders from the five-member group of nations known as BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are beginning a three-day summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday, where they are discussing expanding the club that harbors ambitions of becoming a geopolitical alternative to Western-led forums like the Group of 7. The latest gathering of leaders has garnered a level of international interest rarely seen since the group was first formed 14 years ago. A trade war between Beijing and Washington and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have reinvigorated the…

BRICS Debates Adding New Members

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The group of nations known as BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — represents 40 percent of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s economy. Now it is considering expanding, in a push to be seen as a credible counterweight to Western-led forums like the G7 group of advanced nations. But the challenge for the club is that it is as divergent as it is large, and hindered by sometimes conflicting interests and internal rivalries. It comprises the world’s largest authoritarian state (China) and its…