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China’s gravitational pull

April 16, 2021

There's no escaping China these days.

The Chinese economy posted record first-quarter growth of 18.3% from a year earlier, data showed today. And while that's skewed by last year's coronavirus lockdown, retail sales beat expectations, indicating the recovery is becoming more balanced.

That's good news for projections of bumper global growth this year, even if it will be unevenly spread across countries. It's also a reminder that China is on track to overtake the U.S. as the world's No. 1 economy as soon as 2028.

China's economic performance adds to the pile of topics for discussion today when Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga meets with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House. As David Wainer and Isabel Reynolds report, China's shadow will loom large over almost every aspect, from human rights to semiconductors.

That Suga is the president's first in-person foreign guest speaks to Biden's determination to focus the center of gravity of U.S. foreign policy on the Indo-Pacific. His decision to add seven Chinese supercomputing firms to the list of entities U.S. businesses can't sell to without special permission shows he's prepared to turn the screws on Beijing.

At the same time, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry was in China this week as part of Biden's policy of engagement where needed. President Xi Jinping is due to talk about climate matters with his French and German government counterparts today, although he hasn't confirmed if he'll attend Biden's virtual summit next week.

China's reach is such that it's occupying leaders on three continents on Friday alone. Not bad for a day's work.  — Alan Crawford

Xi and Biden in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Dec. 4, 2013.  

Photographer: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images AsiaPac

Click here for this week's most compelling political images and tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

Global Headlines

Wiggle room | Fresh U.S. sanctions against Russia in response to its alleged hacking of SolarWinds and meddling in last year's election weren't the knockout blow that some U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups wanted. Instead, as Nick Wadhams and Saleha Mohsin explain, it showed Biden is still holding out hope for better ties with Moscow.

  • The U.S. revealed new details about Russian intelligence's vast cyber and disinformation operations.

Deadly difference | Brazil and India — the second and third worst-hit nations from Covid-19 — are similarly matched for the scale of infections, with cases hovering around 14 million. But a divergence in fatalities is puzzling scientists, Chris Kay and Andre Romani report. In excess of 365,000 Brazilians have died, more than double the toll in India, and it's not clear why.

  • India reported record infections again today — more than 217,000 — even as the government is allowing election rallies and religious festivals attracting tens of thousands.

Relatives of a Covid-19 victim at a cemetery in Sao Paulo on March 31.

Photographer: Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images

Lula's boost | A possible new presidential run by leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gained impetus after Brazil's top court yesterday backed a ruling that tossed out all criminal convictions against him. Lula is still a popular yet polarizing figure, with a recent poll showing half of respondents may vote for him as a candidate next year compared to 38% for incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.

Covid plea | Chancellor Angela Merkel made her case to the Bundestag today to take greater control of Germany's pandemic restrictions to break the latest "very serious" virus wave. Parliament is debating a law that would grant her government the authority to impose curbs on reluctant states. "There is no way around it," she said.

Cashing in | Former Prime Minister David Cameron's work for Greensill Capital has dragged the U.K. government into a lobbying scandal and showcased the trend of politicians taking jobs at companies tapping the global tech investment boom. As Thomas Seal and Ivan Levingston explain, where finance was once the go-to place for those looking at life after Westminster, fintechs and app developers are now popular.

  • A second official took a position at Greensill while working for the civil service, raising more questions about ties between the government and the now insolvent lender.

What to Watch

  • Insurgency, unrest and rising food costs are squeezing Nigerians, more than half of whom live on less than $2 a day.
  • French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Paris, where they'll discuss tensions with Russia in a call with Merkel.
  • Merkel's CDU/CSU bloc may today decide on its candidate to contest September's German election.
  • The White House is considering singling out methane for significant reductions as part of a pledge to cut greenhouse gases before Biden's April 22 climate summit.
  • Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai was today sentenced to a total of 14 months in prison for attending unauthorized protests.

Pop quiz, readers (no cheating!). In which country do you need to hold a state loyalty card to be an early recipient of a Covid-19 vaccine? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally ... Space is full of junk, with more than 8,000 tons floating around the earth. Everything from defunct satellites to bodies of old rockets is in danger of smashing into each other and rendering large swathes of the orbit unusable. Thomas Pfeiffer and Thomas Seal report on a startup called Astroscale that's trying to solve the problem by using a spacecraft with a robotic arm to snag the garbage.

Cleaning up space might become a big business.

Source: Getty Images

 
 

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