Good evening. “Xi Jinping Thought” — articulated in texts by China’s leader and dissected in two new books — has the power to reshape China for decades to come. So what exactly does Xi Jinping think? That’s the subject of this week’s cover essay by Jude Blanchette.
Elsewhere we have infographics on how China’s economic ties with Israel are shifting; an interview with Pietra Rivoli on how we get the goods we buy; a reported piece on the sticking points of creating a U.S. stockpile of critical minerals; and an op-ed on why the EU’s duties on EVs are a turning point in EU-China relations. To read this issue of The Wire, as well as our extensive archives, please subscribe here.
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Is Xi Jinping a Marxist?
Xi Jinping is too big a figure to think we already know him. As Jude Blanchette considers in this week’s cover story, jointly published with China Books Review, we know less than we think — including the central question of what Xi’s guiding ideology actually is, and what it owes to Marx, Lenin or Mao. Two books under review on the subject offer different takes, one by Steve Tsang & Olivia Cheung and one by Kevin Rudd.
The Big Picture: How China’s Economic Ties With Israel Are Shifting
How have China’s relations with the Middle East changed in the past year? Our infographics by Noah Berman look at the sometimes marked changes in trade and investment flows between the world’s second-largest economy and countries from Israel to Iran.
A Q&A with Pietra Rivoli
Pietra Rivoli is a professor emerita at Georgetown University and the author of Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. The book, which was first published in 2004, traced a T-shirt’s lifecycle from a cotton farm in Texas, to factories in China, and then to the backs of people all over the world, explaining in the process how U.S. trade policies affect global supply chains. In this week’s interview with Noah Berman, she discusses how global supply chains have changed in the years since and what she sees happening as the U.S. tries to de-risk from China.
Pietra Rivoli
Illustration by Kate Copeland
Stockpile Sticking Points
Policymakers from Kamala Harris down think the U.S. should build up its critical mineral reserves, but many details remain unclear. Eliot Chen reports.
The EU’s Duties on EVs are a Turning Point in EU-China Relations
Besides taking defensive action against Chinese imports, Europe needs to better harness its own potential, argues Alicia García-Herrero in this week’s op-ed.
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