Which country is the greatest threat to the United States? The answer, according to a large proportion of Americans, is clear: China. Half of all Americans responding to a mid-2023 survey from the Pew Research Center cited China as the biggest risk to the U.S., with Russia trailing in second with 17%. Other surveys, such […]
Can the South Asian economy break from the past and find a route to stability?
Sri Lanka has a new president and prime minister – but a change in who leads the crisis-hit South Asian nation alone will not solve the country’s severe economic problems. Ranil Wickremesinghe – who on July 20, 2022, was voted in by lawmakers to replace fleeing former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa – and his appointed premier […]
Why China’s shrinking population is a big deal – counting the social, economic and political costs of an aging, smaller society
Throughout much of recorded human history, China has boasted the largest population in the world – and until recently, by some margin. So news that the Chinese population is now in decline, and will sometime later this year be surpassed by that of India, is big news even if long predicted. As a scholar of […]
Jiang Zemin propelled China’s economic rise in the world, leaving his successors to deal with the massive inequality that followed
By the summer of 1989, a series of problems were threatening China’s stability. Soaring inflation was undermining the economy at home while the violent suppression of Tiananmen Square demonstrations had left it largely a pariah state abroad. Yet within a few years the nation rebounded – beginning two decades of high economic growth, membership in […]