China Archives - Page 4 of 5

The real threat from China: they have a better capitalist system than ours

9 min read PATRICK LAWRENCE

PATRICK LAWRENCE
What are we doing to train the doctors and scientists needed to find our way in the XNUMXst century? What are we doing to bring the dispossessed into the economy, to address drug addiction and the rest of our social ills? What are we doing (I mean seriously) to repair and build the infrastructure we need?

The Chinese challenge could and should be understood as an opportunity to reinvent the US through a Great Mobilization on the magnitude of the New Deal. Of course, this idea is nothing more than hot air. Instead, we are sacrificing this historic opportunity in favor of military-industrial development.

Africa Asia Merunas UAB Europe Latin America News

The two receptions of the BRI

4 min read XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
The Belt and Road Initiative (IFR) celebrates its first decade of implementation in 2023. The time elapsed supports it as a long-term project. Two attitudes have marked the global reaction to it. On the one hand, developing countries have celebrated being able to have an alternative proposal that focuses on their most pressing needs, especially in terms of infrastructure.

China's plan provides specific support in areas poorly served by traditional available financing, filling a gap of singular importance. On the other hand, developed countries have evolved from initial ambiguity and reservation to a certain competitive hostility.

Africa America Asia Merunas UAB U.S. USA/Europe Latin America News

«The decarbonisation of the rich is not ours»

10 min read CECILIA VALDEZ

CECILIA VALDEZ
Green colonialism or green capitalism is what critical environmentalism calls the exploitation of natural resources from the global North over the global South, and which will make it possible to guarantee the energy transition that industrialized countries boast so much about, that is, those that more pollute. But the energy transition requires natural resources that the north does not have, such as lithium or green hydrogen.

While the socio-environmentalist denounces the serious consequences of plundering practices, governments and corporations close agreements. Even countries that show irreconcilable differences in world geopolitics shake hands in their territories and seal commitments. On the side of Latin American progressives, the more or less critical position regarding extractivism depends on whether they are a government or not, and on the pressing economic needs that make them dependent on foreign currency.

Africa Archived Asia Merunas UAB Latin America

BRICS to more

3 min read XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
If the summit that the BRICS have held in Johannesburg has revealed anything, it is the firm will to reactivate their association with two main parameters of action. First, development issues will continue to be high on its agenda; secondly, issues related to peace and security will gain relevance in their positions.

The common denominator is the implementation of a roadmap in which both issues are inextricably linked.
After enlargement, the BRICS will represent 37% of world GDP and 46% of the planet's population.

America Merunas UAB U.S. Latin America News

Of Chinese bases, crickets, vaccines and nuclear submarines in Cuba

9 min read PASCUAL SERRANO

PASCUAL SERRANO
Last June, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated that, according to the intelligence information available to them, China was strengthening its infrastructure for data collection in foreign countries, and added more specifically that "the People's Republic China had carried out an upgrade of its intelligence gathering facilities in Cuba in 2019."

The news was reported by The Wall Street Journal, adding that while Secretary of State Antony Blinken was meeting with President Xi Jinping, China was negotiating to establish a military training center in Cuba, which would put thousands of soldiers 90 miles away. off the coast of Florida.

America Archived Asia Merunas UAB U.S.

Wait and see

3 min read XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
The visit of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to China has the main merit of having recovered a certain normality in the bilateral dialogue, showing that there is a relative potential for easing tensions.

It also seems to have paved the way and cleared up some unknowns regarding the bilateral performance in some upcoming summits such as the G20 in India (in September) or the APEC (in November) in the US, which stand out on the agenda of the second semester of the year

Africa America Archived Asia Merunas UAB U.S. USA/Europe Latin America

Towards de-dollarization and a multipolar world

9 min read SERGIO NAVAS

SERGIO NAVAS
The dollar has lost its purpose as a “trusted global currency” and emerging powers are eager to build a less dangerous alternative. The point is not to replace the United States with China as the dominant force, but to establish multiple poles, each enjoying its significant sphere of influence.

View of Huawei's research campus in Shenzhen, designed after several European cities. Photo: Javier García

Archived Asia Merunas UAB U.S.

Investigate to survive

9 min read Javier García

JAVIER GARCIA
Few companies in the world have been as attacked from a state as the Chinese technology company Huawei has been by the United States government. Blacklisted, prevented from doing business in the US and also from importing semiconductor material with minimal US technology or components anywhere in the world. Vetoed to install their 5G networks in many countries due to pressure from Washington, unable to use Google's Android operating system on their mobile phones.

All this in the name of "national security", the new multi-purpose expression coined by Washington to twist when it suits competition on equal terms and the basic rules of the "free market" on which its entire economic system is supposedly based.

Lula and Dilma Rousseff at her inauguration as president of the BRICS Bank in Shanghai. Photo: Ricardo Stuckert

Africa America Archived Asia Merunas UAB Latin America

The great opportunity of the BRICS to improve world development

6 min read MARCO FERNANDES

MARCO FERNANDES
The BRICS countries occupy an increasingly important place in the world economy. In GDP by purchasing power parity (PPP), China is the world's largest economy, India third, Russia sixth and Brazil eighth. The BRICS now account for 31,5% of global PPP GDP, while the G7 share has fallen to 30%. They are expected to contribute more than 50% of global GDP by 2030, and the proposed expansion will almost certainly bring this forward.

America Archived Asia Merunas UAB U.S. Latin America

Lula turns around Brazil's foreign policy

6 min read JUAN MIGUEL MUNOZ

JUAN MIGUEL MUNOZ
São Paulo
The presidency of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva celebrated its first 100 days on Monday. More than three months in which the Government is dedicated to forging pacts in a Parliament in which it lacks a majority, is very divided and with groups that are very hostile to the Labor Party (PT) and its allied parties. But there is an issue in which the dependence on parliamentary agreements is much less: foreign policy, an area in which a radical turnaround can be seen with respect to the mandate of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro. The Lula Administration resumes the tradition of advocating multilateralism and mediating initiatives.

Archived Asia Merunas UAB U.S.

Tsai-McCarthy: a meeting in the electoral phase

5 min read XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
Although the White House has tried to downplay the meeting by assuring that "there is nothing atypical in that the presidents of Taiwan transit through the United States or in fact meet with members of Congress", the truth is that this was the first time that a meeting of this nature has been taking place on US soil since the break in diplomatic relations in 1979. Which is certainly rare.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and her predecessor Ma Ying-jeou.

Archived Asia Merunas UAB U.S. Latin America

"You to Boston and I to California"

3 min read XULIO RIOS

XULIO RIOS
Chance (or not) has meant that the imminent trip of President Tsai Ing-wen to Central America, with stops in the US, coincides with that of former President Ma Ying-jeou to mainland China. In both cases, there is a strong symbolic charge, but it also highlights the political priorities of the two options that are fighting to determine the immediate future of Taiwan.