China

Last week, China’s President Xi Jinping undertook a five-day tour of Europe, visiting France, Serbia and Hungary. This selection of host countries might appear odd at first, but it hides a double strategy. Officially, Mr. Xi made commemoration calls: in France, he highlighted its recognition of the People’s Republic of China 60 years ago; in […]

In a nutshell China’s close ties to Russia prevent it from being a credible mediator in the Ukraine war Beijing appears to be making a second attempt at peacemaking to court the West These endeavors may not prove convincing to Western countries   Observers familiar with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s governance style have grown used […]

A few years ago, China treated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a supplicant and the country itself with benign neglect. North Korea has enormous economic problems, and Mr. Kim’s megalomania has made the country a pariah on the global stage. It was only through the brazen testing of missiles and nuclear saber-rattling that Pyongyang […]

  At first blush, the Chinese economy is doing relatively well. Although annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged 10 percent during the first decade of this century and dropped to about 7 percent during the next, it was remarkably strong during the pandemic and is expected to reach 5 percent this year. These are […]

The United States appears unable to put forth functional candidates for the 2024 presidential election aside from Joe Biden, the incumbent who is 81 years old and showing his frailty, and former President Donald Trump, who himself is 77 years old. That makes the world wonder. European leaders are particularly concerned about the prospect of […]