United States of America eSeries: At 100, China’s Ruling Party Faces Headwinds

At 100, China’s Ruling Party Faces Headwinds

Posted by :

View this email in your browser

Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good

Seeing this newsletter as a forward? Subscribe here.

June 24, 2021

At 100, China's Ruling Party Faces Headwinds

On July 1, the Communist Party of China will observe the 100th anniversary of its founding with a "grand ceremony" and "[l]arge-scale exhibitions … display the glorious course, great achievements and valuable experience of the CPC over the past 100 years," as the party-affiliated Global Times put it.

But despite China's meteoric rise in recent decades, outside assessments point to difficulties ahead.

In a Foreign Affairs issue dedicated to the question of whether China can "keep rising," Jude Blanchette writes that the ambitious President Xi Jinping may prove to be an obstacle to the country's future success, as he courts risk by abandoning the measured, domestically focused strategies of his predecessors. China has multiplied its share of global GDP several times over since the 1990s, but Daniel H. Rosen argues in the same Foreign Affairs issue that China's economic growth may have reached a limit under its current, heavily state-regulated paradigm—and that the liberalization needed for further expansion could entail a rough ride.

In the current issue of Washington Quarterly, Scott Rozelle and Matthew Boswell write that China has a big economic problem on its hands: Its hundreds of millions of rural citizens—who comprise roughly 7% of all humanity—suffer from underemployment, a lack of education, and little opportunity to either participate in or contribute to the country's middle-class boom. The problem, they suggest, could be knotty enough to prevent China from entering the ranks of high-income countries anytime soon.

For Some Central American Migrants, Staying in Mexico Proves Appealing

In the US, the Biden administration recently dispatched Vice President Kamala Harris to Mexico and Guatemala to address the flow of migrants heading toward America's southwestern border. But The Economist writes that "many migrants are stopping short of the United States, and claiming asylum in Mexico instead. In 2015 there were 3,424 requests; by 2019 the number had increased to 70,302 … this year looks set to break new records."

Central American migrants may find opportunity and an easier transition, the magazine suggests, as Mexico "is becoming a destination in its own right, says Mark Manly of UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency. 'You can spend years trying to get into the United States, or spend those years building a life in Mexico,' says Rafael Alonso Hernández of Colef, a Mexican think-tank and college."

Keeping Resistance Alive in Belarus

A nod between strangers in a grocery store, a small display of the opposition flag's red and white colors, a neighborhood newsletter published anonymously: These are the acts of resistance in which some Belarusians are quietly engaging nearly 11 months after President Alexander Lukashenko kept power following an August 2020 election largely cited as fraudulent, Christina Hebel writes for Der Spiegel. Interviewing five women in a forest near Minsk, where they met for fear of being seen or heard, Hebel depicts a society permeated by government "eavesdroppers" and police who "continue to regularly patrol residential districts of Minsk on the lookout for regime opponents."

Another Vaccine Proves Effective

The pool of effective Covid-19 vaccines has a new entrant, The New York Times reports, as Novavax's shot—based not on mRNA but on older technology—reported 90.4% efficacy in a phase-three clinical trial conducted in the US and Mexico. The company may not apply for emergency FDA authorization immediately and says it will likely gain its first approval somewhere else, the Times reports.

Despite the presence of multiple shots on the market, effective vaccines are still badly needed, as World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently told Science's Jon Cohen that the world is still "failing" to distribute shots equitably. At The Atlantic, Hilda Bastian writes that "the success of Novavax should be A1 news" as its above-90% efficacy puts it in line with the mRNA-based vaccines, while its "older, more familiar science" might help it overcome skepticism.