US-China decoupling

The United States should prepare for an “ascendant” Communist-led China, according to a report released by Rand Corporation, the US government-funded think tank. The compilers of China’s Grand Strategy: Trends, Trajectories and Long-Term Competition examined how successful the Chinese Communist Party was likely to be in achieving the goals it has set for the country by 2050. They considered four possible futures in which China is “triumphant” (having achieved all of its goals), “ascendant” (having achieved some), “stagnant” (having failed in its ambitions) or “imploding” (the regime is under threat). Compiled for the US military and published last week, the report concluded that “ascendant”

Americans’ negative views toward China have reached a “new historic high” amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report published by the Pew Research Center on Thursday. “Around three-quarters (73%) of Americans have an unfavorable view of China today – the most negative reading in the 15 years that Pew Research Center has been measuring these views,” wrote the authors of the report, Laura Silver, Kat Devlin and Christine Huang. “The percentage who say they have a very unfavorable view of China is also at a record high of 42%, having nearly doubled since the spring of 2019, when 23% said the same.” Pew’s survey is the latest piece of evidence in an impossible-to-miss trend: distrust

Every Tuesday and Thursday, Inkstone Index features one important number about China to give you insight into the rising power. 14%: How much China accounted for India’s overall imports in 2019. Last year, commerce between India and China was worth about US$85 billion, making it Delhi’s second-most fruitful trading relationship, behind only the US.  Nearly one-third of India’s imports from China are electronics, such as smartphones and telecommunications equipment. India also heavily imports materials for nuclear reactors and organic chemicals.  But the close economic ties are under threat after a deadly border conflict in June, igniting wide anti-Chinese sentiment in India. The Indian gover

Tzu-i Chuang, the wife of the US consul general in Chengdu, said 35 years of exchanges between Beijing and Washington had been consigned to history following China’s closure of the American consulate in the southwestern city. The Taiwanese food writer, who is married to Jim Mullinax, the US consul general in Chengdu, wrote a Facebook post describing her sadness at the closure, which was in retaliation for the US ordering the shuttering of the Chinese consulate in Houston over alleged espionage activities. Chuang – who posts regularly to more than 605,000 followers on Weibo and nearly 70,000 on Facebook – described the impact on the mission’s 100-plus local staff, and on the 23 US diplomats a

Beijing is trying to walk a fine line with Washington as it seeks to present a hardline stance to its domestic audience without causing irrevocable damage to the relationship. Analysts say that despite the so-called Wolf Warrior attitude of Chinese diplomats, official rhetoric and nationalistic online sentiment, Beijing has stopped short of overly provocative steps and has been unwilling or unable to retaliate with equal force to American diplomatic volleys. Tensions flared last week when the US ordered China’s consulate in Houston to close within 72 hours over alleged espionage activities. Beijing reacted by closing the American consulate in Chengdu, rather than shuttering a high-profile of

The US consulate in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu closed on Monday under orders from Beijing, in a tit-for-tat move following last week’s forced closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston. China’s foreign ministry confirmed on the WeChat social media platform that the consulate had closed at 10am local time, and Chinese officials entered to take over the compound. The American embassy in Beijing posted a farewell to the facility on China’s Twitter-like Weibo. “Today, we say goodbye to the US consulate in Chengdu. We will miss you forever,” it said. Several vehicles and dozens of Chinese workers were seen leaving on Monday morning, while police blocked off roads. Earlier, at 6.24a

When senior Chinese and American diplomats met in Hawaii last month, for the first time in nearly a year, the stakes were unusually high amid fears their acrimonious tensions are drifting imperceptibly towards war. The secret meeting between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Yang Jiechi, the top diplomatic aide to Chinese President Xi Jinping, took place at Pearl Harbor. The military base was the scene of a pivotal moment for the US and world history when it was bombed by the Japanese nearly 80 years ago. The two superpowers are decoupling their economic and technological cooperation amid an unfolding new Cold War. Beijing and Washington have engaged in a global blame-game over the deadl

China’s President Xi Jinping has promised leading international business executives that China will stick to its “peaceful development” path and continue to reform and open up its domestic market. In a bid to win the hearts and minds of the global business community amid rising tensions with the United States, Xi’s letter to the Global CEO Council stated that the long-term economic fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain sound and “will not change” despite the impact of the coronavirus. A summary of the letter was published by the official Xinhua News Agency on Thursday, shortly after China announced its economy grew by 3.2% in the second quarter of 2020. This followed the historic 6.8% d

As US-China relations hit new lows, Washington is redoubling efforts to address a major Achilles’ heel: its dependence on Beijing for rare earth elements – essential materials in various hi-tech products from smartphones and electric car batteries to Javelin missiles and F-35 fighters. Republican senator Ted Cruz recently introduced a bill to spur US production of critical minerals, one of several bills before Congress prompted by rising concern that China could use this as leverage. “It’s making people in Washington wake up and say this is not sustainable,” said Martijn Rasser, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “If China really is willing to restrict exports, we’re in for

China is seeking to become the world’s only superpower by usurping the United States with a government-directed “campaign of theft and malign influence,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday. In a wide-ranging attack on Beijing’s behavior on the world stage delivered at the conservative think tank Hudson Institute, Wray said that the counter-intelligence and economic espionage threat from China represented the “greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality.” China’s “generational fight” to usurp the US was playing out in fields ranging from local politics to industries including aviation, agriculture, robotics and healt