China and the World under the Epidemic Situation
In the 49-page "White Paper on International Development Cooperation in the New Era," released on January 10, China lays out its principles for cooperative economic development with the developing world, pointing clearly to the Confucian basis on which they have built those principles. The paper gives a detailed rundown of China's involvement in assisting other countries' development, particularly since President Xi Jinping proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013.
China's policymakers hold an important regular annual economic work conference in Beijing in the last month of a year – the Central Economic Work Conference – on which they reviewed the country's economic work of the current year and outlined key tasks for the next year. At the recent such meeting concluded on December 18, 2020, the policymakers called on the country to strengthen anti-monopoly efforts and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital in 2021.
After US President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, some Chinese netizens have joked about the US ongoing partisan struggle: Why can't the US have two presidents? Others said there can be two United States: USA and USB, just like South Korea and North Korea.
Liu Zhiqin: Gauging the demand-side recovery
Aid features endogenous growth of developing countries, green development
The State Council of China on December 21 issued a China_Transport_White_Paper_2020 outlining the achievements that have been reached in uniting the nation and laying out the path forward for the nation. For China, transportation has always been the key to development. Ironically, the break-up of China in the 1800s – and the subsequent revolt and downfall of the Qing dynasty -was largely provoked by the strong popular reaction to the attempt by the colonial powers to control China’s burgeoning railroad system.
After a year of novel coronavirus onslaught, the world has entered 2021 with quite a few vaccines available. India, with confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeding 10 million now, is seen rushing into approving two vaccines for emergency usage, including one home-grown candidate which has yet to complete the phase III trials.
In a farewell address at the end of his tenure in New Delhi on Tuesday, US Ambassador Kenneth Juster said that the US has cooperated with India to counter "aggressive" Chinese actions at the Line of Actual Control. This is the first time an official confirmed US-India cooperation over the ongoing eight-month-long border standoff between China and India, according to The Hindu on Tuesday.
In what has been a very surreal U.S. election campaign, the end of voting did not put an end to the controversies. Many Republicans, not just President Donald Trump, believe that Trump was robbed of victory in the November elections.
President-elect Joe Biden will take office in two weeks. The incoming administration, with a strategic objective to "lead the world again," is determined to restore the U.S. global leadership and disperse the clout of Trumpism. However, embarking on that journey isn't easy. Restrained by Trump's foreign policy legacy, Biden is facing political and structural roadblocks.
Large parts of the world—outside of China and a few other countries—face a runaway virus, which has not been stopped because of criminal incompetence by governments. That these governments in wealthy countries cynically set aside the basic scientific protocols released by the World Health Organization and by scientific organizations reveals their malicious practice. Anything less than focused attention to managing the virus by testing, contact tracing, and isolation—and if this does not suffice, then imposing a temporary lockdown—is foolhardy. It is equally distressing that these richer countries have pursued a policy of "vaccine nationalism" by stockpiling vaccine candidates rather than a policy for the creation of a "people's vaccine." For the sake of humanity, it would be prudent to suspend intellectual property rules and develop a procedure to create universal vaccines for all people.
The beginning of 2021 has strikingly illustrated that Europe is one of the most important regions in which contradictory trends on relations with China are contending with each other. Post-Brexit Europe is in full flux. And the UK's relations with China have sharply deteriorated.
Vietnam has actively introduced a number of important initiatives and led efforts that continue to enrich the ASEAN agenda and experience.
With a recent report titled “Projections of Future Coral Bleaching Conditions,” published by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in November, Leticia Carvalho—head of the Marine and Freshwater Branch of UNEP—said on December 21 that coral reefs are the “canary in the coalmine for climate’s impact on oceans.”
In the last week of 2020, Beijing reported a new local case of COVID-19 infection for the third time after outbreaks in February and May. The case was found two kilometers away from my home. The community where I live suddenly became nervous. Over 300,000 people in the neighborhood all got nucleic acid tests within two days, and those who contacted with positive tests were all tracked and isolated. It has become more stringent to enter the community and buildings here. The number of people on the streets has decreased significantly too.
Strive to build a more open “dual circulation” new development pattern from Zhao Jinping on Jan 6, 2021.
China's signaling of its interest in joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership indicates the strong resolve of its top leadership to deepen reform and pursue opening-up at a higher level, analysts said.
China’s leadership echelons have been very apprehensive about anti-China actions the Trump Administration might take in its last days. Zhou Li, a former career diplomat who is presently senior researcher at the Chongyang Institute of Financial Research of Renmin University and Director of the China Russia Humanities Exchange Research Center, had in mid-2020 warned that China must prepare for the deterioration and “full escalation of the struggle” in Sino-US relations. He anticipated a string of punitive actions by the Trump Administration, adding that "decoupling" is ultimately inevitable and that the “difficulties and challenges China will face will be unprecedentedly complex and unprecedentedly severe”. As expected, the outgoing Trump Administration has put in place a number of legislations and executive orders. These authorise arms sales to Taiwan, assert that the Dalai Lama has a determining role in the identification of his reincarnation, and impose sanctions on Chinese Communist