China

In a speech that struck all the right platitudes with this pro-globalization audience, Xi Jinping, the first Chinese president to attend Davos, slammed protectionism, defended globalization and free trade, drawing a line between himself and Donald Trump just days before the US president-elect’s inaugural address in Washington, and said he has no intent to boost China's competitiveness through Yuan devaluation.

In the latest indication that China is becoming increasingly unsettled by Trump's relentless attacks on legacy diplomacy with China, and especially the "One China" policy, two leading state-run newspapers warned on Monday that Beijing will "take off the gloves" and take strong action if Trump continues to provoke Beijing over Taiwan once he assumes office.

While US markets take the day off for MLK holiday, the rest of the trading world has been busy, perhaps nowhere more so than the sterling which continued its volatile session in advance of May's pre-hard Brexit speech, falling below $1.20 for the first time since October after the Sunday Times said May is ready to withdraw from tariff-free trade with the region in return for the ability to curb immigration and strike commercial deals with other countries.

Submitted by Federico Pieraccini via Strategic-Culture.org,

The preceding three parts of this series analyzed the mechanisms that drive great powers.

 

The most in-depth understanding of the issues concerned the determination of the objectives and logic that accompany the expansion of an empire.

 

Following Rex Tillerson’s “astonishing” and “unprofessional” comments made during his confirmation hearing, Chinese state media has predicted a “large scale war” in the South China Sea if US tries stopping China accessing its man-made islands. The former ExxonMobil CEO likened China’s island-building in the South China Sea to “Russia’s taking of Crimea” during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.