Xi meets world leaders
As tensions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to unsettle markets, Beijing positions itself as a reliable partner through high-level diplomacy
Welcome back to What’s Happening in China, your weekly China brief.
Xi Jinping had a busy week in Beijing meeting a series of world leaders.
The list included Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed, Vietnam’s leader To Lam, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
As tensions in the Strait of Hormuz—disrupted by the U.S. war on Iran—continue to unsettle global markets, Xi told Sánchez on Tuesday that “the international order is crumbling into disarray,” as Beijing seeks to project an image of stability and position China as a reliable partner.
Let’s jump into it.
— PC
Through the Lens
In Focus
I. “The Iran war is not about China”
In Washington, great power competition has become the dominant frame for US foreign policy analysis, and there is a tendency to use it to interpret every major geopolitical event. So it is understandable that some have tried to frame the war in Iran as having a China angle. In this case, however, that framing is misleading. This war is not about China, and attempts to make it so obscure more than they clarify.
China is not a decisive actor in this conflict. It did not shape the conditions that led to escalation, it is not a military participant, and it lacks either the leverage or the willingness to impose outcomes on the primary belligerents. The drivers of this war lie in US decision-making, Israeli strategic calculations, and Iranian responses. Efforts to retrofit China into this equation say more about lazy thinking in Washington than about realities on the ground.
Read: The Iran war is not about China (Jonathan Fulton for the Atlantic Council)
Related:
Xi puts forward four-point proposal on promoting Middle East peace, stability (Xinhua)
Iran used Chinese spy satellite to target U.S. bases (The Japan Times)
China calls reports it supplied weapons to Iran ‘baseless smears’ (HKFP)
Medical scans and chips: the hidden fallout of the Iran war for China (CNN)
Why China Isn’t Pushing Iran to Accept U.S. Demands to End War (The New York Times)
What has Beijing learnt from the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz? (Observing China)
II. China’s (export) controls
As China’s mammoth trade surplus stokes global tensions, Beijing has enacted sweeping new regulations to investigate and punish foreign companies that stop using Chinese suppliers in response to political pressure at home.
Foreign business groups expressed strong concern about the vaguely worded rules, which took effect when Premier Li Qiang signed them on April 7. Analysts warned that the regulations could make it harder for foreign companies to divest from joint ventures in China or shift orders to overseas suppliers.
The new regulations are part of Beijing’s broader effort to counter what it sees as rising protectionism in the West, driven by a surge in Chinese exports and growing concerns about trade imbalances. China’s exports exceeded imports by almost $1.2 trillion last year, and the country notched another large surplus in the first quarter.
[…]
The 18-point regulations, described in state media as an effort to “prevent security risks in industrial and supply chains,” supplement the already formidable authority afforded to Chinese regulators to investigate multinational corporations for moving supply chains out of China.
Under the new rules, regulators can question employees and examine corporate records during investigations. The regulations also allow authorities to bar companies and individuals from leaving China if they are suspected of moving supply chains elsewhere under foreign pressure.
Read: New Rules Hinder Foreign Firms From Moving Supply Chains From China (The New York Times)
Related:
China shock 2.0: the flood of high-tech goods that will change the world (Financial Times)
EU firms rethinking China operations over rare earths curbs: Lobby (CNA)
Report: Exporting Control: China’s New Strategic Toolkit (European Union Chamber of Commerce in China)
China’s New Supply Chain Rules Up the Ante for Foreign Firms (Mary Gallagher for WPR)
Expanding Tools Control Foreign-Related Economic Activity (Jamestown)
III. Slow down, you’re aging too fast
So what would it actually take to restore something like demographic hope? The material substrate has to come first: housing affordability, labor market security, genuine workplace flexibility, a more equitable distribution of domestic labor between men and women. What does not work, and the evidence here is pretty clear, is top-down campaigns asking young people to embrace motherhood as a patriotic duty. Young people are not naive. They can see the gap between what the state is asking of them and what the state is actually delivering in return. That gap is what fuels the disillusionment, and slogans do not close it.
Read: Aging Before Affluence w/ Emma Zang (Isobel and The Monitor)
Related:
China’s First DINK Generation Is Growing Old (Sixth Tone)
Pushed Out as Demand Falls, China’s Obstetricians Start Over (Sixth Tone)
