Tag: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy

China’s New Premier Needs to Revive Growth. How Far Will Loyalty Get Him?

Chin@Strategy

Before Li Qiang was appointed China’s No. 2 leader this past week, he oversaw Shanghai, a city that, for a time early last year, was celebrated for trying to contain Covid with relative restraint. City officials wanted to avoid the economic devastation of a full-scale lockdown and instead opted for limited restrictions that applied to, in one instance, a single milk tea shop. But as cases spread, the central government in Beijing intervened. Suddenly, the pragmatism and business-friendly character that had long defined Shanghai’s spirit gave way to “zero Covid,”…

China, Still Trying to Play Down Balloon, Finds It’s Getting Harder to Do

Chin@Strategy

BEIJING — Since the spy balloon saga started, China has tried to play down the incident and prevent it from further inflaming relations with the United States. But as American alarm and accusations have mounted, that strategy is increasingly coming under strain — forcing China into an awkward, at times self-contradictory position. Beijing has continued to maintain that the United States is overreacting to what China called a civilian vessel gathering mainly meteorological data, though the US says it has found evidence of surveillance equipment. But as Washington has begun…

Blinken Postpones Trip to China After Balloon Is Detected Over U.S.

Chin@Strategy

China’s Ministry of National Defense, which usually comments on military issues, did not comment. “China is a responsible country, always strictly abides by international law, and has no intention of violating any sovereign country’s territory or airspace,” Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, told a regular news briefing on Friday afternoon. But she said then that the authorities needed to check the reports. The Global Times, a Communist Party-run newspaper that has become a vehicle for pugnacious, sometimes quasi-official reactions from Beijing, suggested that the balloon reports were…