Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good Seeing this newsletter as a forward? Subscribe here. June 30, 2021 What China Thinks the US Thinks About China Does the US want to weaken China, interfere with its politics, and frustrate its ambitions at any cost? While US attitudes toward China are clearly skeptical, Wang Jisi writes for Foreign Affairs that conventional wisdom in Chinese governing circles holds that America is downright hostile.
"The [Chinese Communist Party (CCP)]'s official line remains that bilateral ties should be guided by the principle of 'no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect, and win-win cooperation,' as Chinese President Xi Jinping described it in his first telephone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden, in February," Wang writes. "Nevertheless … conventional wisdom in Beijing holds that the United States is the greatest external challenge to China's national security, sovereignty, and internal stability. Most Chinese observers now believe that the United States is driven by fear and envy to contain China in every possible way. And although American policy elites are clearly aware of how that view has taken hold in China, many of them miss the fact that from Beijing's perspective, it is the United States—and not China—that has fostered this newly adversarial environment, especially by carrying out what the CCP views as a decades-long campaign of meddling in China's internal affairs with the goal of weakening the party's grip on power."
Wang isn't the only analyst concerned about potential miscalculation between the two superpowers: In the same Foreign Affairs issue, Oriana Skylar Mastro joins a chorus of observers warning that the US and China could find themselves at war over Taiwan. Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has died at the age of 88, and a New York Times obituary notes his unusual career—the only US Defense Secretary to serve two nonconsecutive terms, Rumsfeld was also both the youngest and oldest to hold the position—and his unapologetic posture on one of America's most controversial wars, which began during his tenure: the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Known for clashing with rivals in the George W. Bush administration and for a testy public persona, Rumsfeld was also renowned for a terse management style involving "snowflakes"—brief notes sent to subordinates, as thoughts came to him. One of Rumsfeld's most famous bits of analysis—the distinction between known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns—earned him consideration as an epistemologist among observers, only partially in jest. As for the wars the US initiated under Rumsfeld's watch, the first—against Taliban-controlled Afghanistan—became America's longest and is producing grave concerns as it winds down. Reaping the Pandemic's Productivity Windfall Will the pandemic be followed by a boom in productivity? Writing at Foreign Affairs, James Manyika and Michael Spence predict pandemic-era adaptations could "result in a productivity growth rate twice as high as the rate after the 2008 global financial crisis, and in the United States, it would expand per capita GDP by roughly $3,500 by 2024."
Whether it happens right away is a different question. In 1987, economist Robert Solow identified the "Solow paradox" in the absence of productivity growth in the early computer age; gains came later, as firms adopted new technologies more widely between 1995 and 2005. When it comes to things like telemedicine and e-commerce that have proven successful during the pandemic, Manyika and Spence write that if consumer demand and business competition nudge firms to adopt them widely, we could see big post-pandemic improvements in efficiency.
They're not the only ones who see a boom in the offing: The Economist has suggested as much, while other scholars have posited the US economy is at the bottom of a "productivity J-curve," poised for a post-pandemic uptick. 'Critical Race Theory,' Deconstructed If you're confused as to why "critical race theory" has suddenly become the topic du jour in American politics, you are not alone. At The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum writes that what has taken the form of debate has arisen seemingly from nowhere. As for what it is, exactly, Applebaum identifies "critical race theory" as but one of many critical modes, like Marxism and feminism, that are useful in understanding the world—but which are by no means all-encompassing or mutually exclusive.
Finding fault with both sides, Applebaum chides worked-up conservatives who seem not to want history or law interpreted through a racial lens; equally wrong, in her view, are any left-leaning theorists who view critical race theory as the only acceptable style of analysis. Europeans Hope to Stay in the UK The UK has separated itself from Europe, but The Economist writes that Britain, as it turns out, is "more European than anybody thought."
"June 30th is the deadline for citizens of European countries, who used to be able to move freely to and from Britain, to apply for settled status," the magazine writes. "At the last count 5.6m applications had been received, from about 5m people. Some nationalities proved far larger than official statisticians had thought. Romanians, the second-biggest European group in Britain after Poles, filed 918,000 applications by the end of March—about twice as many as their estimated population in 2019. Italians, who made 501,000 applications, were also twice as numerous as expected. Charities that work with EU citizens say they are sure there has been a big surge of applications in June." |
