Tag: International Relations

Yellen Faces a Diplomatic Test in Her High-Stakes Visit to China

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At her confirmation hearing in early 2021, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen struck a tough tone on China, describing it as America’s most important strategic competitor and pledging to confront its “abusive, unfair and illegal practices” that she said were harming businesses and workers in the United States. Since then, Ms. Yellen has emerged as a voice of moderation in the Biden administration, embracing the mantle of economic pragmatism as the world economy copes with inflation and sluggish growth. The Treasury secretary has expressed objections to China’s record on human…

Putin, Xi and Modi Meet for Shanghai Summit, Each Focused on Own Issues

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They represented the three biggest powers bidding to reshape a global order dominated by the United States, convening over video feeds at a virtual summit meeting on Tuesday. The question was whether it would be a show of unity — or of their sometimes-tense differences. For President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, that meant projecting strength in the aftermath of the uprising by the Wagner mercenary group and claiming international support for his war in Ukraine. For China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, the summit was another opportunity to assail the…

Atomic Agency Clears Japan to Release Fukushima Water

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In one of the remaining steps before Japan decides to release more than one million metric tons of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, the International Atomic Energy Agency declared on Tuesday that the government’s plan had met the agency’s safety standards. The nuclear authority’s final report concluded that the treated water would “have a negligible radiological impact to people and the environment” once it is released. Japan’s plan has provoked controversy both at home and abroad, as government officials in China and many…

Yellen’s China Visit Aims to Ease Tensions Amid Deep Divisions

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The last time a U.S. Treasury secretary visited China, Washington and Beijing were locked in a trade war, the Trump administration was preparing to label China a currency manipulator, and fraying relations between the two countries were roiling global markets. Four years later, as Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen prepares to arrive in Beijing, many of the economic policy concerns that have been festering between the United States and China remain — or have even intensified — despite the Biden administration’s less antagonistic tone. The tariffs that President Donald J.…

What Does Russia’s Wagner Rebellion Mean for China?

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Just three months ago, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, was in Moscow clinking glasses with Vladimir V. Putin and expressing his confidence in the “firm support” the Russian president enjoyed among his people. That confidence is now in question, after the Wagner private military group waged an insurrection in Russia that has shaken Mr. Putin’s image of invulnerability. Close watchers of China say that the mutiny, short-lived as it was, could lead Mr. Xi to hedge a close relationship with Russia that had already exposed Beijing to global criticism and…

How Russia’s Allies May React to Prigozhin’s Mutiny Against Putin

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Even before President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia broke his public silence on Monday about the aborted mutiny that brought rogue troops to within 125 miles of Moscow, he was on the phone to the leaders of Iran, Qatar and other friendly countries, soaking up their expressions of support while presumably promising a return to stability. For Mr. Putin, who has cobbled together a surprisingly sturdy list of countries that either back his war on Ukraine or have stayed neutral, it was a much-needed display of mutual reassurance. Russia’s message,…

If Biden Wanted to Ease U.S.-China Tensions, Would Americans Let Him?

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As tensions between their countries mount, President Biden and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, have repeatedly pushed back on comparisons to the Cold War. But efforts to repair relations may run into a problem: public opinion. Polls show striking similarities between the hostility, pessimism and militarism in Americans’ views of the Soviet Union during the late 1940s run-up to the Cold War, and how they view China today. While the parallels remain limited and the contexts different, this could complicate attempts to avert a Cold War-like clash. The parallels In both…

The U.S.-China Rivalry Is Complicating the World’s Debt Crisis

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Inside his capacious office, his tan curtains drawn against the tropical sun, the president of Suriname expressed sympathy with the striking teachers who were massing outside, taunting him while demanding higher wages. Three years of unmitigated catastrophe has destroyed spending power in this South American country — the result of global crises landing atop decades of profligate governance. Food and fuel prices have soared, worsened by Russia’s war on Ukraine. The national currency plunged, and the economy cratered just as the pandemic spread death and fear. “The heavy burden on…

China’s Extreme Floods and Heat Ravage Farms and Kill Animals

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The downpour began in late May, drenching the wheat crops in central China. As kernels of wheat blackened in the rain, becoming unfit for human consumption, the government mobilized emergency teams to salvage as much of the harvest as possible. In a viral video, a 79-year-old farmer in Henan Province wiped away tears as he surveyed the damage. The unusually heavy rainfall, which local officials said was the worst disruption to the wheat harvest in a decade, underscored the risks that climate shocks pose to President Xi Jinping’s push for…

3 Convicted of Harassing Family on Behalf of China’s Government

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Three men were convicted in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday of stalking a family in the New Jersey suburbs on behalf of the Chinese government. The defendants, Michael McMahon, 55, Zhu Yong, 66, and Zheng Congying, 27, were found guilty of stalking and a related conspiracy charge. Mr. Zhu and Mr. McMahon were also found guilty of acting as unregistered foreign agents, and Mr. Zhu was convicted on a second conspiracy charge. Speaking outside the courthouse on Tuesday, Mr. McMahon, a retired New York Police Department sergeant turned private investigator,…