The Chinese media story of Xi-Trump diplomacy is a story of diminishing expectations. In 2017, official media could still present personal diplomacy as opening a new phase of pragmatic cooperation and great power diplomacy (a term entertain
China’s 15th Five Year Plan, spanning 2026-203 was approved by the National People’s Congress in its March 2026 session. The plan, a good 80,000 Chinese characters long, offered few major surprises. This is for two reasons: one there is a l
The latest OECD long term scenarios, released without much fanfare in September last year, suggest that India will overtake be the largest economy by the 2060, and will be almost twice the size of China by the end of the century (Figure 1).
Since I have not seen yet the official translation I compiled a number of tweets of the All India Radio News to get the Tianjin Declaration of the Shanghai Security Organization. The organization, which started in 1996 as the “Shanghai 5” b
[Note: this is a more elaborate version of a comment I did for the Hinrich Foundation. Do read that one if you like shorter pieces!]The first months of the second Trump administration has been a wild ride. On day one, Trump announced diseng
China’s annual feast of democracy is on its way. The sessions of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC) took off on March 4 and 5 respectively, the latter being of more releva
I wrote this one together with my colleague Tan Chia How of the East Asian Institute. Hope you enjoy it,Thanks for reading Bert’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Trump’s Tariff TantrumFor United State
Note: hours after publication of this post, the CPC released the decision document. The post below is based on the communiqué . I am still digesting the Decisions, but here is the link: Decision Document (Chinese)First impressions from the
The third plenum of the 20th Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has finally been scheduled for July15-18 2024. Previous 3rd plenums, among which that of the 11th (reform and opening up), the 14th (socialist market
The highlight of China’s political year is usually the “Two Meetings” or Liang Hui, China’s Parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the China People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). This year was the first time that
David Dollar, who passed away on October 6, was the World Bank’s country director for China and Mongolia from 2004 to 2009. David was also my boss, mentor, and friend and we remained in regular touch ever since our days in Beijing. David wa
I had the pleasure to make a few trips to China in recent months, and in many respects it was a joy to be back, visit old friends in government and academia, and enjoy the clear skies in Beijing and Shenzen, no doubt partially due to the as
In his latest tour to Europe this May, China’s minister of foreign affairs Qin Gang was on a mission. He had a clear aim: to prevent Europe joining the US in its endeavour to limit China’s access to advanced technology. He called on his Ger
I just published my first note on Substack Notes, and would love for you to join me there!Thanks for reading Bert’s Newsletter! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Notes is a new space on Substack for us to share lin
After all the excitement of the “Two Sessions,” China’s annual festival of democracy, a less exciting, but possibly more important event took place in the week after. The Communist Party of China and the State Council together issued the “"
"Heaven is looking at what humans are doing. The firmament has eyes" (人在干,天在看,苍天有眼). These were Premier Li Keqiang’s parting words for his colleagues in the State Council, China’s cabinet. This year’s meeting of the National People’s Congre
I shall use this page to distribute the government work report, budget report and planning report as they become available to me. Check for regular updates!Here is my Live Twitter feed on the Government Work report by Li KeqiangAnd here is
China’s rapid economic rise has had a major impact first and foremost on China’s people, but increasingly on the rest of the world. These consequences are increasingly geopolitical in nature. Indeed, today we are living in the era of “geoec
It is no surprise that China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) quarterly press releases on its GDP statistics are closely followed. After all, it is the second largest economy in the world—the largest on some count—so much is at stake.
The pictures China’s President Xi Jinping puts up on his bookshelf during his traditional new year’s speech provide rich food for thought for China watchers. This year, the most prominent new pictures was that of President Xi with his two p