Issue 30
January 17, 2024
1 Chinese economy grew 5.2% in 2023, meeting target
2 Lacking domestic opportunities, Chinese firms encouraged to go abroad
3 OPINION Chinese growth comes at expense of everyone else
4 Navy Seals missing after intercepting Iranian-supplied weapons to Houthi rebels
5 Google AI makes better diagnoses than human doctor…and has better bedside manner
January 17 1961 President Eisenhower warns of military-industrial complex
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1 Chinese economy grew 5.2% in 2023, meeting target
China’s economy grew at an estimated 5.2 per cent in 2023, Premier Li Qiang told the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday, as he reiterated the country’s commitment to creating “favourable conditions” for foreign business.
SCMP
2 Lacking domestic opportunities, Chinese firms encouraged to go abroad
Some of China’s most prominent tycoons have been committed to reining in debt, and are also eying the overseas market for increased growth this year, despite Beijing’s attempt to play up domestic economic prospects and calls for more private investment.
“The days of runaway growth have gone … Profitability in the future can only be extracted from craftsmanship, technology and good management,” said Guo (a Chinese billionaire).
“Once you can survive the ferociously competitive home market, you can probably thrive almost anywhere,” he added. “The key is to derive profits from overseas markets by shipping and selling across the globe.” A key area for overseas expansion lies in the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s ambitious plan to cast its economic influence in more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.
SCMP
3 OPINION Chinese growth comes at expense of everyone else
One cardinal fact governs the world economy today. China produces 31 percent of global manufactured goods: it accounts for 13 percent of total consumption. The rest of us must absorb China’s increasing excess capacity. If the country is to meet the Communist Party’s growth target of 5pc over the next decade with the current hyper-investment model, it can do so only by eating further into the industrial core of Europe, America, and India. “Other major economies must be willing to reduce investment and manufacturing shares to accommodate China. Needless to say, this is very unlikely,” said Professor Michael Pettis from Peking University. Xi Jinping is not reforming the old model. He is reverting to galactic over-investment in everything from clean-tech, semiconductors, and steel – all tradeable goods that find their way onto global markets – in order to offset the deflating property bubble and to prevent youth unemployment rising further above the political danger threshold of 20pc.
This is intolerable for the world. It is ultimately even more destructive for China itself.
Beijing’s Central Economic Work Conference last month was a punch in the stomach for those hoping that Xi would take steps to end this mercantilist ratchet.
There was instead much talk of “vigorously” promoting further industrialization, underscored by his new mantra of “establishing the new before abolishing the old”.
The Telegraph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/ambrose-evans-pritchard/
4 Navy Seals missing after intercepting Iranian-supplied weapons to Houthi rebels
Ed. Note: a previous story about the missing soldiers
American military personnel recovered Iranian-made missile warheads and related components during a ship-boarding mission near Somalia last week that disrupted the weapons resupply of militants in Yemen but left two elite Navy SEALs lost at sea, U.S. defense officials said.
An “initial analysis” indicates the weapons match those that the Houthis, a group closely aligned with Iran that controls large swaths of Yemen, have used to target merchant ships, according to the U.S. military’s statement.
WaPo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/01/15/navy-seals-missing-iran-warheads/
5 Google AI makes better diagnoses than human doctor…and has better bedside manner
An artificial intelligence (AI) system trained to conduct medical interviews matched, or even surpassed, human doctors’ performance at conversing with simulated patients and listing possible diagnoses on the basis of the patients’ medical history. The chatbot, which is based on a large language model (LLM) developed by Google, was more accurate than board-certified primary-care physicians in diagnosing respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, among others. Compared with human doctors, it managed to acquire a similar amount of information during medical interviews and ranked higher on empathy.
Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00099-4
January 17 1961 President Eisenhower warns of military-industrial complex
Dwight D. Eisenhower ends his presidential term by warning the nation about the increasing power of the military-industrial complex. His remarks, issued during a televised farewell address to the American people, were particularly significant since Ike had famously served the nation as military commander of the Allied forces during WWII. Eisenhower urged his successors to strike a balance between a strong national defense and diplomacy in dealing with the Soviet Union.
Thanks for reading!
More China 🇨🇳
China unveils comics to fight spies
Foreign spies are lurking everywhere! So says the Chinese government. Officials were ruffled by the cia’s claim, made last year, that it was rebuilding its spy networks in China a decade after most of its sources disappeared. But China’s reaction seems defined more by paranoia than vigilance. The national intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security (mss), wants the entire population to be on the lookout for spies. To improve public awareness, the ministry has launched an online comic strip called “Shenyin Special Investigation Squad”. It will feature heart-pounding action, say China’s spooks. The first instalment, released on January 7th, shows the capture and interrogation of a blond-haired man, seemingly foreign, who is suspected of breaking the country’s counter-espionage law.
Economist
https://www.economist.com/china/2024/01/11/a-comical-effort-by-chinas-intelligence-agency
