Wall Street Journal (May 5)
“With China now an economic and military powerhouse, Taiwan’s lack of preparedness is increasingly dangerous. Taiwan’s economy is two-thirds larger than Israel’s, but Taiwan spends almost two-thirds less as a percentage of gross domestic product on defense.” Especially in light of Ukraine’s invasion, this has to change and just an extra percent of military spending could prove decisive. “Through the force-multiplying miracle of modern weapons, we can help make Taiwan a porcupine and deter aggression that could have profoundly negative consequences for Taiwan, China and the world.”
Tags: Aggression, China, Dangerous, Economic, GDP, Invasion, Israel, Military spending, Porcupine, Powerhouse, Preparedness, Taiwan, Ukraine, Weapons
The Economist (April 30)
China cannot keep fighting a “forever war.” The nation’s “martial rhetoric will not help it defeat covid. And “victory, as Xi Jinping defines it” in terms of defeating or containing covid will only prove “an elusive goal…. Most countries have accepted that covid cannot be eradicated.” China, too, must learn “to live with the virus.”
Tags: China, Containing, Covid, Defeat, Elusive, Eradicated, Forever war, Live with, Martial rhetoric, Victory, Virus, Xi
Wall Street Journal (April 26)
“Worries about the war in Ukraine, China’s Covid-19 outbreak, a U.S. or European recession and surging global inflation are making a long-spurned asset increasingly popular with Wall Street’s top money managers these days: cash.” Increasingly asset managers “are looking to move funds into low-risk, cash-like assets. That marks a shift from recent years, when steadily climbing equity indexes trained investors to buy every dip and not miss out on gains by holding cash.”
Tags: Asset, Asset managers, Cash, China, COVID-19, Dip, Europe, Inflation, Investors, Low-risk, Money managers, Recession, Shift, Spurned, Surging, U.S., Ukraine, Wall Street, War, Worries
CNN (April 25)
“Oil prices fell sharply Monday as lockdowns in China stoked concerns that the country’s zero-Covid strategy will sap energy demand in the world’s second-largest economy.” The concerns over China “could create one positive for consumers: They may ease pressure on prices at the pump.” On Monday, “US oil dropped as much as 6.7% to a two-week low of $95.28 a barrel.”
Tags: China, Concerns, Consumers, Demand, Ease, Energy, Lockdowns, Oil prices, Positive, Prices, Pump, Zero COVID
CNN Business (April 17)
“Nearly 400 million people across 45 cities in China are under full or partial lockdown as part of China’s strict zero-Covid policy.” Collectively, they contribute $7.2 trillion, nearly 40%, of China’s GDP. “Analysts are ringing warning bells, but say investors aren’t properly assessing how serious the global economic fallout might be from these prolonged isolation orders.”
Tags: $7.2 trillion, 400 million, 45 cities, Analysts, China, Economic fallout, GDP, Global, Investors, Isolation, Lockdown, Strict, Warning bells, Zero-Covid policy
Washington Post (April 15)
“The world has been understandably transfixed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine,” but we must still stay alert to threats elsewhere. “President Xi Jinping has been quietly taking advantage of the West’s distraction by expanding China’s sphere of influence in the South Pacific. If Washington doesn’t wake up to this threat, China’s efforts to dominate the region will gain dangerous and perhaps irreversible momentum.”
Tags: China, Dangerous, Distraction, Dominate, Horrific, Influence, Invasion, Irreversible, Putin, Russia, South Pacific, Threats, Transfixed, U.S., Ukraine, World, Xi
Wall Street Journal (April 14)
“Events in Hong Kong and Shanghai have demonstrated that a ‘zero Covid’ strategy can look very effective for a long time—until suddenly it isn’t, either because a more infectious variant changes the game or because success itself breeds overconfidence.” Unless the Chinese government moves “quickly to vaccinate and boost its elderly, and start spending much more heavily on hospital capacity, then the human and economic consequences could be disastrous.”
Tags: Boost, China, Consequences, Disastrous, Elderly, Events, Government, Hong Kong, Hospital capacity, Infectious, Overconfidence, Shanghai, Vaccinate, Variant, Zero COVID
Washington Post (April 5)
“Two years ago, China was being lauded by the World Health Organization for its success in beating the coronavirus.” Today, clinging to a “Covid Zero” policy leaves the nation “increasingly isolated as other countries … wean themselves off harsh countermeasures and return to a semblance of pre-pandemic life.” China may have little choice. Relaxing the policy would likely result in at least “630,000 infections a day,” a figure which could rapidly overwhelm “China’s patchy hospital network.”
Tags: China, Coronavirus, Covid Zero, Hospital network, Infections, Isolated, Lauded, Overwhelm, Patchy, Pre-pandemic, Success, WHO
Wall Street Journal (March 31)
“China’s support for Russia is the most serious but far from only reason Europe is losing patience. Beijing has launched an economic war on EU member Lithuania over its upgraded ties to Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party’s human-rights record remains abysmal. Bullying behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic and stonewalling of the origins investigation hurt China’s credibility. The question is what Europe will do beyond condemnations, token sanctions and the occasional lawsuit.”
Tags: CCP, China, Condemnations, COVID-19, Credibility, Economic war, EU, Europe, Human rights, Lawsuits, Lithuania, Russia, Stonewalling, Taiwan, Token sanctions
Reuters (March 15)
“China posted a steep jump in daily COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, with new cases more than doubling from a day earlier to hit a two-year high, raising concerns about the rising economic costs of the country’s tough containment measures.” The nation’s “zero tolerance approach is not only becoming more costly, but also suffering diminishing returns against the highly infectious Omicron.”
Tags: China, Containment, COVID-19, Diminishing returns, Doubling, Economic costs, High, Infections, New cases, Omicron, Zero tolerance
