Exclusive interview on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) aired on 30 September 2024.
Exclusive interview on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) aired on 30 September 2024.
Posted at 01:46 PM in Asia, Biotechnology, BRICS, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Consumption, Current Affairs, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Europe, Finance, Future, Geopolitics, History, Hong Kong, ICT, Innovation, Investment , Macao, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Politics, Population, Public health , Regional development, Science, South China Sea, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Travel, UK, United States, Urbanization, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
(My quarterly Newsletters go out to some 8,000 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my October 2024 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What is New on my website.)
Greetings! I hope you have had a rewarding and enjoyable summer!
Barring uncertain outcome of the U.S. Election, American foreign policy continues to be dictated by chauvinistic hubris and political correctness borne of decades of American primacy and exceptionalism. This translates into an obsession with shaping the world in America's own image and bending countries to suit American interests, at the expense of balkanizing the world into divided camps. China, America's perceived primary "challenger", remains the elephant in the room.
The jury is still out on how best the United States should respond to an overhyped "existential threat" from China, how it could realize sustainable peace in the Middle East, and what role it should play to resolve the bloody Russia-Ukraine connundrum for a more peaceful Europe.
Serial U.S. proactive actions or measures, whether sanctions or shuttle diplomacy, seem to be running around in circles, talking past opposite numbers, if not tilting at windmills, while humanitarian crises deepen in war zones and disruptions continue to degrade livelihoods across the globe.
Absent cool-headed analysis of viable and sustainable endgames, confrontation hardly equates to credible strategy. Apart from the scale and dimension of China's rise including the best support of its people, we now live in a very different and closely-connected world, driven by the digital Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions, rampant pandemics, and multifacted impacts of quickening Climate Change.
The following may hopefully offer some different perspectives, if not practical insights for making the world a better place.
Great Power Rivalry
To avert Thucydides Trap, US should compete with China in Olympic spirit (Op-ed in China Daily). Sanitized and abridged versions in Chinese can be accessed here and here.
U.S. and China: Edging Toward the Brink? (An Aspen Institute discussion by eminent international experts)
The Arctic Silk Road (TV panel discussion on TRT World)
Malaysia's bid to join Brics - implications (Backchat on RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)
China-Africa
China-Africa Summit 2024 - Implications (Backchat on RTHK)
China's development
Gradual increase of Mainland China's retirement age - Implication (BachChat on RTHK)
China's Third Plenum 2024 - Behind the jargons and the rhetoric (Full-length feature article in The Global Analyst)
"China needs more than hikes in Total Factor Productivity to realize its 2035 ambition" (An in-depth analysis)
How to read China correctly in the coming Third Plenum (An in-depth analyis)
China's auto industry
A CSIS podcast (An in-depth discussion by American experts)
Hong Kong
Enacting HKETO Certification Act will sacrifice Washington’s own interests (Op-ed in China Daily)
Hong Kong Editors Convicted of Sedition in "Blow to Press Freedom" (Live TV interview on Aljazeera English Channel)
Climate Change
Fast fashion typified by SHEIN invokes ecological backlash (TV panel discussionn on TRT World)
UK
2024 UK election result - implications (Backchat on RTHK)
Cheer Up and Chill Out
A 10-point Multimedia Outlook on Life (Music video)
Inspirational videos and excerpts for life's down-moments
International investment opportunities
I am on the International Advisory Board of Silk Road Partners, an international investment firm. Mr Yves Leterme, ex-Prime Minister of Belgium (November 2009 to December 2011) has joined the firm as Senior Partner. If you are interested in getting in touch with us, please give me a shout.
Consultation services
Please email me at [email protected] or text my Hong Kong mobile +852 98198987. I can also be reached on Skype at andrew.k.p.leung, LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/andrewleunginternational, Whatsapp at (852) 98198987, WeChat at Andrewkpleung, Facebook at andrewkinpongleung, and Twitter at @Andrewkpleung
Business networking and speaking platform in Hong Kong
As an Advisor to the Denmark-based Executives' Global Network Hong Kong, I welcome your suggestion of a suitable speaker for an EGN event in Hong Kong. This will be entirely at our own cost with acknowledgement of your support, provided that we are not asked to cover any speaking fee, travel or accommodation expenses.
RSS feed and weblinks
My posts are regularly uploaded under my three blogs CHINAwatch, Publications and What's New .A collection of leading China media and research sites can be found under China Links.
Please feel free to save my website on your computer, laptop, tablet, iPhone or iPad as a reference resource. If you wish instant access as soon as my postings appear, just click on “Subscribe to this blog’s feed” under RSS Feed on top of the right-hand column of each blog. Select the appropriate Google feed option. It is free of charge.
This newsletter is uploaded to my website here. You may save it for reference or reading at leisure. You are free to share it on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Twitter or other social media devices.
Courtesies
I look forward to your guidance, advice, comments, suggestions, and criticisms. You may share the above contents with colleagues or friends. You are also welcome to publish any of them with full attribution.
If you think that I may add value to your endeavors in any way, please let me know how I may help. If for any reason you do not wish to receive my emails, just ask me to delete your name from my data bank permanently.
Best personal regards,
Andrew K. P. Leung, SBS, FRSA
International and Independent China Strategist
Andrew Leung International Consultants and Investments Company Limited
Positions
Posted at 02:43 PM in Africa, Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, BRICS, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Denuclearization, Development_, e-Commerce, Economics, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Geopolitics, Globalization, Healthcare, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Terrorism , United States, Urbanization, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
(My quarterly Newsletters go out to some 8,000 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my July 2024 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What is New on my website.)
Greetings! May I first wish you and family a most prosperous and rewarding summer!
Electoral dynamics are mutating in many countries, not least the United States, the United Kingdom and France, tilting towards right-wing nationalism, xenophobia, and isolationism. These are now mixed with momentous repercussions to the global order with intensifying Great Power rivalry, a protracted Ukraine War, and a catastrophic Israel-Hamas conflict. These challenges, perhaps "not seen for a hundred years", are taxing countries' ability to transcend short-termism and self-denial.
Meanwhile, the digital, technological, and borderless Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions are transforming how people live and work, how businesses are conducted, how deep reaches on the planet and outer space may be explored, how wars are fought, and how nations interact and defend themselves. Concurrently, common challenges of Climate Change, mutating pandemics and nuclear proliferation are pushing nations closer together.
Hopefully the following may offer some useful perspectives.
World Order
With 3 wars and Taiwan, global inflection points are looming (Op-ed in the South China Morning Post)
China’s Alternative Order, and What America should Learn from It (Op-ed in Rome-based World Geostrategic Insights) Also published in French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic Related commentary on Foreign Affairs think-piece
The United States, China, and the Future of the Global Order (An Asia Society New York panel discussion)
Where Global Governance Went Wrong—and How to Fix It (Commentary on Foreign Policy think-piece)
Ode to Peace (Song by Zhou Shen at the United Nations Chinese Language Day in New York )
International relations
How the US Keeps Fighting China, Knowing It Won’t Win? (Op-ed in Rome-based World Geostrategic Insights) Also published in French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. A related in-depth analysis
Nobody Is Competing With the U.S. to Begin With (Commentary on Foreign Policy think-piece)
Anti-China Cold War, TikTok, Ukraine, Gaza - video interviews with Izvestia (Recorded interview with Izvestia of Russia)
People-to-people exchanges would keep China-US relations in balance (Op-ed in China Daily)
Premiere Li Qiang's 3-party talks in Seoul with Japan and South Korea (Live exclusive TV interview with TRT World)
Xi Jinping's Europe visit implications (Backchat with RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)
What does President Xi's visit to Europe signify? (Recorded TV interview with NTV of Russia)
US Secretary of State Blinken to visit China (Exclusive TV interview with NDTV of India)
Majority in Southeast Asia would choose China over US, survey suggests (Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute report)
China
China has become a scientific superpower (Leader in The Economist)
An era of great misunderstanding of China (Op-ed in India-based Mero Tribune)
China’s Defense of Its Human Rights Policies (Penn State Journal of Law and International Affairs)
China's economy
Challenges and Prospects of the Chinese Economy (Exclusive in-depth video interview with Rome-based World Geostrategic Insights)
China Is Still Rising - Don’t Underestimate the World’s Second-Biggest Economy (Commentary on Foreign Affairs think-piece)
China: Keeping the dragon awake (Allianz Research)
The dollar
Report of the dollar's imminent demise is over-exaggerated (A succinct in-depth analysis)
Climate Change
Xi Thinks China Can Slow Climate Change. What if He’s Right? (Commentary on New York Times Guest Essay)
Hong Kong
Hong Kong convicts 14 activists of subversion (Exclusive recorded interview on BBC Newshour)
Hong Kong government spending - how to make more with less (Backchat with RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong)
Cheer Up and Chill Out
A 10-point Multimedia Outlook on Life (Music video)
Inspirational videos and excerpts for life's down-moments
Forthcoming summer sojourn in London
I will be staying in London from the beginning of July through early September. I am open to any invitation to speak or get together in London or in the vicinity.
International investment opportunities
I am on the International Advisory Board of Silk Road Partners, an international investment firm. Mr Yves Leterme, ex-Prime Minister of Belgium (November 2009 to December 2011) has joined the firm as Senior Partner. If you are interested in getting in touch with us, please give me a shout.
Consultation services
Please email me at [email protected] or text my Hong Kong mobile +852 98198987. I can also be reached on Skype at andrew.k.p.leung, LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/andrewleunginternational, Whatsapp at (852) 98198987, WeChat at Andrewkpleung, Facebook at andrewkinpongleung, and Twitter at @Andrewkpleung
Business networking and speaking platform in Hong Kong
As an Advisor to the Denmark-based Executives' Global Network Hong Kong, I welcome your suggestion of a suitable speaker for an EGN event in Hong Kong. This will be entirely at our own cost with acknowledgement of your support, provided that we are not asked to cover any speaking fee, travel or accommodation expenses.
RSS feed and weblinks
My posts are regularly uploaded under my three blogs CHINAwatch, Publications and What's New .A collection of leading China media and research sites can be found under China Links.
Please feel free to save my website on your computer, laptop, tablet, iPhone or iPad as a reference resource. If you wish instant access as soon as my postings appear, just click on “Subscribe to this blog’s feed” under RSS Feed on top of the right-hand column of each blog. Select the appropriate Google feed option. It is free of charge.
This newsletter is uploaded to my website here.You may save it for reference or reading at leisure. You are free to share it on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Twitter or other social media devices.
Courtesies
I look forward to your guidance, advice, comments, suggestions, and criticisms. You may share the above contents with colleagues or friends. You are also welcome to publish any of them with full attribution.
If you think that I may add value to your endeavors in any way, please let me know how I may help. If for any reason you do not wish to receive my emails, just ask me to delete your name from my data bank permanently.
Best personal regards,
Andrew K. P. Leung, SBS, FRSA
International and Independent China Strategist
Andrew Leung International Consultants and Investments Company Limited
Positions
Posted at 06:08 PM in Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, BRICS, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economics, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, Ethics, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Future, Geopolitics, Globalization, Healthcare, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Life, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Terrorism , United States, Urbanization, Vietnam, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
(My quarterly Newsletters go out to some 8,000 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my October 2023 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What is New on my website.)
Global car revolution
How China shifted gears on electric vehicles - and why it matters (An in-depth analysis in The National Interest)
EU
China-EU economic row (Live interview with Press TV)
Cheer Up and Chill Out
Download A-10-point-multimedia-outlook-on-life-egn-2-5-tested-1-2 (Edited)
2023 Summer vacation in London, Wales and Scotland (A YouTube music video)
International investment opportunities
I am on the International Advisory Board of Silk Road Partners, an international investment firm. Mr Yves Leterme, ex-Prime Minister of Belgium (November 2009 to December 2011) has joined the same Board. If you are interested in getting in touch with us, please give me a shout.
Consultation services
Please email me at [email protected] or text my Hong Kong mobile +852 98198987. I can also be reached on Skype at andrew.k.p.leung, LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/andrewleunginternational, Whatsapp at (852) 98198987, WeChat at Andrewkpleung, Facebook at andrewkinpongleung, and Twitter at @Andrewkpleung
Posted at 02:11 PM in Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, BRICS, Business promotion, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Gas, Geopolitics, Globalization, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Life, Lifestyle, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Television, United States, Vietnam, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
(My quarterly Newsletters go out to some 8,000 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my July 2023 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What is New on my website.)
Cheer up and chill out
I have added a new entry "A Flash of Inspiration" and some other translations to a repertoire of inspirational music, videos, songs and words.
My coming London sojourn mid-July through August
I will be staying in London from 17 July to 31 August, where I remain open to business meetings, interviews, speaking engagements, lectures, social get-togethers etc.
International investment opportunities
I have joined the International Advisory Board of Silk Road Partners, an international investment firm. See its corporate profile. Mr Yves Leterme, ex-Prime Minister of Belgium (November 2009 to December 2011) has joined the International Advisory Board. If you are interested in getting in touch with us, please give me a shout.
Consultation services
Please email me at [email protected] or text my Hong Kong mobile +852 98198987. I can also be reached on Skype at andrew.k.p.leung, LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/andrewleunginternational, Whatsapp at (852) 98198987, WeChat at Andrewkpleung, Facebook at andrewkinpongleung, and Twitter at @Andrewkpleung
Posted at 06:30 PM in Africa, Asia, Banking, BRICS, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Future, Geopolitics, Globalization, Hong Kong, Investment , Japan, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Pakistan, Politics, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, South China Sea, Southeast Asia, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Television, Turkey, United States, Vietnam, Warfare, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
(My quarterly Newsletters go out to some 8,000 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my April 2023 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What is New on my website.)
Posted at 10:00 PM in Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, Books, Business promotion, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Cities, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Europe, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Geopolitics, Globalization, Healthcare, History, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Life, Manufacturing , Middle Class, North Korea, Philosophy, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Television, United States, Urbanization, Vietnam, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
(My quarterly Newsletter goes out to some 8,000 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my January 2023 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What's New on my website)
Greetings! May I first wish you and your loved ones a Happy Holiday Season and a rewarding 2023!
As we experience some festive relaxation, dark clouds continue to gather on the horizon. How would the Ukraine war pan out, with Russia losing or regaining the upper hand? Is a new multipolar World Order beginning to take shape, or will American hegemony continue to endure? Would US-China relations stabilize into a new normal, flashpoints like Taiwan notwithstanding? How would China's population, a fifth of humanity, cope with a sudden transition from a "dynamic zero-Covid" strategy to "living with the virus", as the pandemic appears to morph into a less deadly endemic like many other countries?
Testing uncertainties remain. The following may hopefully offer some useful perspectives, including sunshine in the horizon.
World Order
How Xi’s Saudi Arabia visit shows rise of new world order beyond US hegemony (Op-ed in the South China Morning Post)
China-Arab ties enter new era Op-ed in China Daily national and global version; republished on Rome-based World Geostrategic Insights.
Momentum building for more inclusive global order (Op-ed in China Daily, national and global version). The Hong Kong version is titled US still mired in a 'Cold War' mindset, but the tide's turning Also published in Chinese by Hong Kong's Chinese media and by Rome-based World Geostrategic Insights in French, Spanish and Russian.
Russia's Medvedev met with President Xi alluding to emergence of new world order? (Exclusive live interview on RT)
China, including HK, could turn ‘winter of despair’ into ‘spring of hope’ (Op-ed in China Daily) Republished with attribution by World Geostrategic Insights in French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and by Chinese media outlets (some abridged): 來論|冬天來了,春天還會遠嗎?; 文匯論壇 | 香港如何在全球變局中轉危為機?
The West is misreading China’s Party Congress at the peril of world stability (Op-ed in Rome-based World Geostrategic Insights), republished in French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. Also appeared in China Daily
Cambridge Poll shows 70% of World Now Supports China (An analysis)
How the World Order is transforming into a Multipolar Contest for Global Power (and if a Brave New World is possible?) (An 80-slide PowerPoint presentation)
China urges US to abandon its bullying to reign in the Asian country’s development (Live discussion on Press TV)
Xi: China opposes interfering in other countries' domestic politics, opposes double standards (Interview with Press TV)
Forum MEDays 2022, Tangier, Morocco, 2-5 November; "From Crises to Crises; Towards a New World Order?" (Conference highlights)
China's Party Congress
Deciphering China's 2022 National Party Congress (Live TV interview with WION, India)
China's ruling party approves sweeping reshuffle at end of week-long gathering in Beijing (Live interview with Press TV)
President Xi opening the Party Congress - Hong Kong and Taiwan (Live interview with WION TV of India)
China's Party Congress underway (Live interview with NDTV of India)
20th Party Congress - Common Prosperity (RTHK Backchat)
应抓住世界百年未有之大变局加快粤港澳大湾区融合发展 (Chinese transcript of a talk "Seizing the opportunity of century to accelerate Greater Bay Area integration")
China's Covid strategy
Is China hiding its COVID-19 numbers? (TV panel discussion on TRT World)
China: dilemma of Zero-Covid strategy (Live TV interview with WION TV of India)
Is China's Covid model broken (Live interview with India Today TV)
China's Protests
Rare anti-Xi protest in Beijing days before China's Communist Party meet (Live TV panel discussion on India Today TV)
Taiwan
President Xi doubles down on Taiwan; praises Hong Kong for emerging from chaos to governance (Interview with Press TV)
Ukrainian delegation visits Taiwan - why and wherefore (Live interview with RT)
North Korea
North Korea says needs indigenous missile program for self-defense (Live interview with Press TV)
North Korea: Missile tests self-defense against direct US military threats (Live panel discussion with Press TV)
Cheer up and chill out
Experiencing Tangier, Rabat, Chefchaouen (Blue City), and Casablanca (A music video clip)
I have added a new entry "Enjoying Nature to the Full" on Song Dynasty poet Lu You (陆游) and some other inspirational translations to my repertoire of inspirational music, videos, songs and words.
Speaking and lecturing opportunities
I will be having a month-long sojourn in London in March 2023. During my stay, I remain open to invitations or proposals for interviews, speaking engagements, visiting lectures or tailor-made electives as a visiting/adjunct professor.
International investment opportunities
I have joined the International Advisory Board of Silk Road Partners, an international investment firm. See its corporate profile. Mr Yves Leterme, ex-Prime Minister of Belgium (November 2009 to December 2011) has recently joined the International Advisory Board.
If you are interested in getting in touch with us, please give me a shout.
Consultation services
Please email me at [email protected] or text my Hong Kong mobile +852 98198987. I can also be reached on Skype at andrew.k.p.leung, LinkedIn at andrewleunginternational, Whatsapp at (852) 98198987, WeChat at Andrewkpleung, Facebook at andrewkinpongleung, and Twitter at @Andrewkpleung
Business networking and speaking platform in Hong Kong
As an Advisor to the Denmark-based Executives' Global Network Hong Kong, I welcome your suggestion of a suitable speaker for an EGN event in Hong Kong. This will be entirely at our own cost with acknowledgement of your support, provided that we are not asked to cover any speaking fee, travel or accommodation expenses.
RSS feed and weblinks
My postings are regularly uploaded under my three blogs CHINAwatch, Publications and What is New on wwwandrewleunginternationalconsultants.com A collection of leading China media and research sites can be found under China Links.
Please feel free to save my website on your computer, laptop, tablet, iPhone or iPad as a reference resource. If you wish instant access as soon as my postings appear, just click on “Subscribe to this blog’s feed” under RSS Feed on top of the right-hand column of each blog. Select the appropriate Google feed option. It is free of charge.
This newsletter is uploaded to my website here.You may save it for reference or reading at leisure. You are free to share it on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Twitter or other social media devices.
Courtesies
I look forward to your guidance, advice, comments, suggestions, and criticisms. You may share the above contents with colleagues or friends. You are also welcome to publish any of them with full attribution.
If you think that I may add value to your endeavors in any way, please let me know how I may help. If for any reason you do not wish to receive my emails, just ask me to delete your name from my databank permanently.
Best personal regards,
Andrew K. P. Leung, SBS, FRSA
International and Independent China Strategist
www.andrewleunginternationalconsultants.com
Positions
Posted at 07:11 PM in Asia, Banking, Books, BRICS, Business promotion, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Cities, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economics, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Europe, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Gas, Geopolitics, Globalization, Healthcare, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Life, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, North Korea, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Television, United States, Urbanization, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
(My quarterly Newsletter goes out to some 8,000 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my October 2022 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What's New on my website)
Greetings!
The world we have known for decades has now been turned upside down. A sense of uncertainty, anxiety and foreboding permeates everywhere. The Ukraine War is dragging on to a shivering European winter. Hell-bent on racking a revanchist Russia, it is threatening to engulf the rest of the world with nuclear Armageddon. Historic inflation and Fed rate hikes are ravaging economies across the globe. Extreme drought and weather conditions bear witness to worsening global Climate Change. Far-right neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist political parties are having a field day in hitherto liberal European democracies. All these are set on the grand stage of a no-holds-barred smokeless war of titans mounted by the United States, the extant world hegemon, against China as its perceived challenger, at the expense of collateral disruptions in four corners of the globe.
To make some sense of all this chaos, the following may offer some helpful perspectives.
As an invited sponsored Speaker, I will be appearing in person at the 14th MEDays Forum to be held in Tangier, Morocco, from 2 - 5 November, 2022 on the theme of "From Crisis to Crisis: Towards a New Global Order?" I will be sharing my presentations in quarterly newsletters in due course.
Speaking and lecturing opportunities
Separately, I am planning a month-long sojourn in London before summer 2023. During my stay in London, I remain open to invitations or proposals for interviews, speaking engagements, visiting lectures or tailor-made electives as a visiting/adjunct professor.
International investment opportunities
I have accepted the invitation to join the International Advisory Board of Silk Road Partners, an international investment firm. See its corporate profile. If you are interested in getting in touch with us, please give me a shout.
Consultation services
Please email me at [email protected] or text my Hong Kong mobile +852 98198987. I can also be reached on Skype at andrew.k.p.leung, LinkedIn at andrewleunginternational, Whatsapp at (852) 98198987, WeChat at Andrewkpleung, Facebook at andrewkinpongleung, and Twitter at @Andrewkpleung
Business networking and speaking platform in Hong Kong
As an Advisor to the Denmark-based Executives' Global Network Hong Kong, I welcome your suggestion of a suitable speaker for an EGN event in Hong Kong. This will be entirely at our own cost with acknowledgement of your support, provided that we are not asked to cover any speaking fee, travel or accommodation expenses.
RSS feed and weblinks
My postings are regularly uploaded under my three blogs CHINAwatch, Publications and What is New on wwwandrewleunginternationalconsul
Please feel free to save my website on your computer, laptop, tablet, iPhone or iPad as a reference resource. If you wish instant access as soon as my postings appear, just click on “Subscribe to this blog’s feed” under RSS Feed on top of the right-hand column of each blog. Select the appropriate Google feed option. It is free of charge.
This newsletter is uploaded to my website here. You may save it for reference or reading at leisure. You are free to share it on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Twitter or other social media devices.
Cheer up and chill out
I have added some more inspirational translations to my repertoire of inspirational music, videos, songs and words.
Courtesies
I look forward to your guidance, advice, comments, suggestions, and criticisms. You may share the above contents with colleagues or friends. You are also welcome to publish any of them with full attribution.
If you think that I may add value to your endeavors in any way, please let me know how I may help. If for any reason you do not wish to receive my emails, just ask me to delete your name from my databank permanently.
Best personal regards,
Andrew K. P. Leung, SBS, FRSA
International and Independent China Strategist
www.
Positions
Posted at 11:30 PM in Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, BRICS, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Cities, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Europe, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Gas, Geopolitics, Globalization, Healthcare, History, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Life, Manufacturing , Middle Class, North Korea, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Television, United States, Urbanization, Vietnam, Web/Tech, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
At the start of the War on Ukraine, President Putin initially seemed to be losing his grip. Massive losses of armors and combatants were incurred with little territorial or other strategic gains. As a result, there was a prevailing sense of triumphalism in Washington and the US-led NATO coalition that Putin's "adventurism" has spectacularly backfired.
The Western commentariat has been busy speculating on a looming ignominious Russian defeat, the emergence of a more unified Ukraine, a more united Europe and NATO rallying behind America's global anti-Russia leadership, a probable collapse of Putin's regime, and even his eventual consignment to a health sanitorium.
For good measure, America's China strategists were quietly rubbing their hands that finally the United States would now be placed in a much better geopolitical position to concentrate on subjugating China, the “most serious long-term challenge to the international order”. "China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it", according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken's China policy address at George Washington University on 26 May, 2022, his velvet-glove rhetoric of not wanting a Cold War against China notwithstanding. Some quarters in America's intelligentsia are even cheerleading for an enduring American Century.
However, according to Ukraine President Zelensky, Russia has now controlled some 20% of Ukraine. This is seen as President Putin's "Plan B" focusing instead on occupying the Donbas region with a possible land bridge linking Russia-occupied Crimea. He has reaffirmed that Russia will not let up until all his goals are reached, banking on a prolonged war of attrition with Ukraine and its Western backers.
Europe has been bearing the brunt of energy and food shortages with resultant price hikes, inflationary pressures and prolonged economic recession fears. Now over 100 days into the War, a sense of "Ukraine fatigue" in the West coalition is beginning to set in, according to Edward Luce of the Financial Times.
Gazprom has cut off at least 20 billion cubic meters of its annual gas supplies to customers in six European countries —Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, because they failed to make payments in rubles, a retaliatory demand President Vladimir Putin made back in March. This amounts to nearly 13% of the European Union's total annual gas imports from Russia.
While some of the European countries are wriggling out of these strictures by converting their Euro payment into Russian currency at Putin's designated Russian bank, replacing Russia's readily-available piped gas-supply through maritime oil or gas imports from the Middle East or America is unlikely to be a smooth logistical and economic solution.
Even as Europe is stocking up energy supplies in preparation for the coming winter, such precautions are unlikely to be adequate for households, let alone impact on Europe's economic activities.
Additionally, Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, accounting for more than 18% of international exports. In 2019, Russia and Ukraine together exported 25.4% of the world’s wheat, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).
In addition, Russia exports nearly 20% of the world’s nitrogen fertilizers and, combined with its sanctioned neighbor Belarus, 40% of the world’s exported potassium. Most of these commodities are now off limits to the world’s farmers, thanks to Western sanctions and Russia’s recent fertilizer export restrictions. That's why the Chairman of the African Union, Senegal's President Macky Sall, called on President Putin on 3 June to ask for help freeing up Ukrainian grain exports.
Meanwhile, energy and agricultural price hikes worldwide are boosting Russian coffers, strengthening instead of weakening the ruble.
After branding Saudi Arabia as a "pariah state" over the murder of journalist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, President Biden's planned goodwill visit to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is unlikely to yield adequate results, given Saudi Arabia's long-established prudent oil production and pricing policies. Moreover, windfall energy price hikes are a bonanza to the Saudis and other major oil producers in the Middle East.
Meanwhile, President Biden's domestic ratings are back in the doldrums, raising the odds of losing Congress at mid-term elections in the autumn. Biden risks becoming a "lame-duck" President for the remainder of his term.
Nevertheless, the United States seems turbo-charged to segregate the world into two camps, framing this a contest of the century between democracy and authoritarianism.
However, notwithstanding draconian across-the-board sanctions and other restrictions, according to Wang Huiyao, founder and president of Center for China and Globalization (CCG) in Beijing, in 2021, "global trade hit a record $28.5 trillion, up 25% year-on-year and 13% higher than in 2019, before the pandemic struck. For all the talk of decoupling, U.S.-China trade swelled more than 20% last year, to $687.2 billion. Even with war in Ukraine, global trade is forecast to grow in 2022, albeit at a slower pace". "Cross-border investment also surpassed pre-pandemic levels last year, swelling to $1.65 trillion. China, in particular, is more integrated into the global economy than ever. In 2021, its foreign direct investment inflows rose by a third to an all-time high of $334 billion. In the first quarter of this year, they grew by more than 25% year-on-year". Click here "Globalization isn’t dead, It’s just not American anymore", Wang quipped.
This shows how robust China's centrality remains in the world's inter-connected supply and value chains. After all, China remains the largest trading partner for 130 nations worldwide, compared with 57 for the United States. This centrality is being cemented by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This consists of ASEAN and its main trading partners including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, representing a third of the world's population and a third of the world's GDP. China is at the trading and logistical heart of it all.
Beijing is doubling down on its global footprint. Witness the latest round of island-hoping in the South Pacific, signing a number of cooperation and law enforcement deals.
This represents a further extension of China's massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), now being reformed to address concerns about debt-sustainability, transparency, corporate governance and environmental sustainability. The BRI already covers land and sea in Asia, Africa, Eurasia and Europe. Added to this is a "Polar Silk Road" capitalizing on the now more navigable, much shorter Artic Circle route linking the Pacific with the Atlantic, thanks to Climate Change, and a "Digital Silk Road" linking businesses across the globe including undersea fiber-optic telecommunication cables.
A key strategic consideration of the BRI is to neutralize the threats posed by transit choke points such as Singapore's Malacca Strait controlled by America's Seventh Fleet. Energy and international trade, China's economic life-blood, can now transit overland, for example, through China-friendly countries in Eurasia, the Middle East, and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)., including the port of Gwadar.
Save bipartisan unanimity to confront China, the United States remains a politically deeply-divided country, undermining its overarching geographical, natural resources, technological, cultural, financial and military dominance. It is now engaged on war on two fronts, against both Russia, the world's largest landmass, and China, the world's second largest economy, soon to become the world's largest. It is struggling with how best to keep using its "exorbitant privilege" of money-printing to prop up its economy without undermining global trust in the greenback.
Meanwhile, China is pushing ahead with completing its own single-handedly-built Space Station by the end of this year. This will eventually replace the US-led 21-year old International Space Station (ISS), whose useful life has been repeatedly extended to 2031. The ISS has been excluding China right from the start.
This speaks volumes about China's technological capabilities, along with its head start in certain domains of 5G, Big Data, and Internet of Things (IoT), technologies set to change lives and how businesses are conducted in a "Fourth Industrial Revolution" of the 21st century. China already dominates the world in e-payment systems. It is fast developing a digital sovereign currency (digital yuan), which is set to challenge the dollar's hegemony on multiple fronts,considering China's status as the world's largest trader, manufacturer and logistical hub.
In addition, China is also achieving a breakthrough in nuclear fusion, a source of endless, sustainable energy, according to the South China Morning Post of 11 November, 2021. This is supported by China's leading positions in solar, wind, hydro energy capacities and as the world-largest electric vehicle production and market. Additionally, the country seems on track to realize its Paris Agreement pledge of "carbon peak" by 2030 and "carbon neutrality" by 2060.
China has launched the world's fastest programmable quantum computers, a million times more powerful than its nearest competitor, Google’s Sycamore, according to a report of 26 October 2021 in the South China Morning Post.
According to a research paper dated August 2021 of George Town University, by 2025 Chinese universities will produce more than 77,000 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) PhD graduates per year compared to approximately 40,000 in the United States. If international students are excluded from the U.S. count, Chinese STEM PhD graduates would outnumber their U.S. counterparts more than three-to-one.
Militarily, China is also catching up by leaps and bounds. China's navy has already become the world's largest in numbers. It is about to launch a third state-of-the art aircraft carrier. Apart from its Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) medium-range high-precision aircraft-killer missiles, according to a report of 18 December 2019, The New Missile Gap in The National Interest, Dan Goure, Ph.D., vice president at the Lexington Institute, a public-policy research think-tank, opines that America is losing to Russian and Chinese hypersonic weapons. This includes China's "Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS)" that can circumnavigate the globe in all directions before striking targets with guided, hypersonic, multiple warheads, neutralizing extant missile defense systems.
Some critical technological bottlenecks remains, such as high-end micro semiconductor chips (smaller than 10 nanometers). However, to assume that China would for long be crippled technologically underestimates the nation's technological resilience.
Along with robotics and digitization, a three-child policy with measures to support child births, China is grappling with its worsening demographics with increased productivity through nationwide high-speed transport connectivity.
Long the talk of the town, China's high-speed rail network accounts for two-thirds of the global total. This will be nearly doubled to 70,000 km over the next 15 years. The will link up all cities over half a million people, while an additional 200,000 km of modern railway would connect all towns of 200,000 people and above. Even the remotest parts of the country are to be connected. This would hasten China's urbanization rate from 60.6% in 2019 to 65%, doubling China's consumer middle class to 800 million by 2035. Various city clusters are formed, capitalizing on their mutual transport connectivity. All these will boost overall productivity.
To address widening socio-economic inequality, China is adopting a strategy for "common prosperity", targeting monopolistic or predatory behavior of the nation's biggest and wealthiest conglomerates. This is part of President Xi's strategy to build "China 3.0", creating a fairer, healthier, stronger and ecologically more sustainable nation in fulfilment of the "China Dream". China's miraculous economic transformation in recent decades explains the Chinese people's overwhelming support of China's Communist Party (CCP), (over 90%), multiple ranks above many countries including the United States, according to recent Harvard Kennedy School findings.
As pointed out by Kishore Mahbubani, a world-renowned Singaporean academic, diplomat and geopolitical consultant in his book Has China Won? (Pubic Affairs, New York, 2020), while America's bottom half have seen their incomes stagnate over the past thirty years, China's bottom half have the best lives ever, for the past 4,000 years! A resounding answer to the West's continuing aspersions about the CCP's legitimacy.
When the Ukraine war eventually comes to an end, a weakened and ostracized Russia and a devastated, partitioned Ukraine are likely to ensue, along with an extended NATO encompassing Finland and Sweden. A more nervous yet resilient Russia surrounded by enemies at the gates is likely to double down on friendship with China "without limits", both countries being arch enemies of the United States.
In particular, Russia would rely on China as its largest customer for its energy and agricultural products, the latter production likely to expand thanks to global warming. China's trade and investments are likely to replace Russia's domestic markets vacated by Western enterprises and brands. As a gateway to the rest of Europe, Ukraine is also likely to resume having China as its largest customer of its wheat and other commodities, capitalizing on the BRI's deep wallets. .
Wary of the perceived "China Threat" to values and security, the European Union is unlikely to return to its former coziness with China. While relying on America's leadership and NATO's combined military might to deter an embittered Russia, leading countries like Germany, France, Italy and Spain are likely to foster growing European capabilities, including the military, to conduct the EU's own independent affairs of state.
Europe's overall attitude towards China, therefore, may not be on all fours with that of the United States. On the one hand, it would erect firewalls and safeguards against perceived threats, on the other hand, it is likely to capitalize on the EU's excellent institutions and unique traditions to foster a more constructive relationship with a more powerful China pivoting more to Europe and Eurasia in preference to a hostile United States. This is likely to translate into more EU-China trade, investments, research, and people-to-people exchanges, to say the least.
All told, the War in Ukraine promises to be a global game-changer. It exposes Russia's and Ukraine's vulnerabilities as well as resilience. It is ushering global dynamics more in tune with China's quest for its China Dream of national renaissance than with the United States' hope of not having to share power ever with a vast country of diametrically different civilization, culture, race and ideology. It would also beg the question whether the United States' current hard-wired anti-China mindset and policies needs some major modification.
Posted at 03:14 AM in Africa, Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, Books, BRICS, Business promotion, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Cities, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economics, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Eurasia, Europe, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Gas, Geopolitics, Globalization, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Manufacturing , Middle Class, Middle East, Military, Pakistan, Politics, Regional development, Russia, Science, South China Sea, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, United States, Urbanization, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
(My quarterly Newsletter goes out to some 8,500 professional contacts worldwide. The following is my January 2022 issue. Back numbers may be accessed under What's New on my website)
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Posted at 11:30 PM in Asia, Banking, Biotechnology, Books, China Business, China's politics, China's Rise, Cities, Climate Change , Consumption, Currencies, Current Affairs, Defense, Democracy, Development_, e-Commerce, Economy, Emerging Economies, Energy, EU, Europe, Film, Finance, Food and Water Security, Future, Gas, Geopolitics, Globalization, Healthcare, History, Hong Kong, Innovation, Investment , Japan, Life, Manufacturing , Middle Class, North Korea, Population, Regional development, Russia, Science, Sustainable Development, Taiwan, Technology, Television, United States, Urbanization, Vietnam, World | Permalink | Comments (0)
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