In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and senior editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss Barack Obama’s final trip to Europe as U.S. president. For the Report, Damien Ma talks with Peter Dörrie about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s reform agenda for China and the Communist Party. Listen:Download: MP3Subscribe: iTunes | RSS Relevant Articles on WPR: The Risks of Re-Election Fever in Latin America Will Geert Wilders’ Rise Change the Face of the Netherlands? Can Xi Pivot From China’s Disrupter-in-Chief to Reformer-in-Chief? Trend Lines is produced and edited by Peter Dörrie, a freelance journalist and analyst focusing on security and [...]
Earlier this month, German Finance Minister Sigmar Gabriel spoke frankly with his Chinese counterpart, Gao Hucheng, about his concerns over Chinese takeovers of German firms, while also dismissing rumors of a serious trade dispute. In an email interview, Björn Conrad, the vice president of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, discusses Germany’s trade tensions with China. WPR: What is the current size and scope of trade relations between Germany and China, and how important is bilateral trade to both economies? Björn Conrad: China remains one of Germany’s most important economic partners. Overall trade volume makes China Germany’s third-largest trading partner [...]
Standing at about 6 feet tall, Chinese President Xi Jinping cuts an imposing figure, especially compared to the famously diminutive Deng Xiaoping, the transformative leader who, after Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, guided China through monumental reforms from 1978 until his formal retirement in 1989. Xi’s baritone and precise Mandarin, surprisingly uncommon for former top Chinese leaders, projects added self-assuredness and gravitas. This aura of confidence seems only appropriate for someone of Xi’s political stock: a princeling descended from communist revolutionaries who were present at the creation of modern China under Mao. Perhaps that is why many commentators have deigned [...]
