China’s economy struggles with multiple problems and without robust reforms, Beijing is likely to face a threat to the growth prospects in the coming years, hurting its global position, according to a new report. Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center and research organization Rhodium Group on Oct. 1 released a report titled “Running out of road: Running out of road: China Pathfinder 2023 annual scorecard.” The report identified core problems of the world’s second-largest economy, warning that “structural threats to economic stability have never been greater.” “The economic malaise that policymakers in Beijing are staring down now is not caused by cyclical factors like COVID, but by a failure to reform the country’s economic system,” the report noted....Read more https://www.theepochtimes.com/china/chinas-economy-is-running-out-of-road-report-5506070
Former adversaries, the United States and Vietnam, have put aside differences and elevated their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Negotiations are underway for a significant sale of military hardware from the United States to Vietnam. This potential arms agreement has raised serious concerns for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Recent news about the U.S.–Vietnam negotiations suggests the Biden administration is considering the largest-ever arms sale between the two nations since their diplomatic relations were established. This could include the sale of F-16 fighter jets to bolster the upgraded partnership between the two countries. The agreement is anticipated to be finalized in 2024....
This autumn, China is facing a new wave of COVID-19 outbreaks. Meanwhile, officials have continued to publish obituaries to mourn the deaths of high-ranking officials, professors, experts, and elites who died of unspecified “illnesses,” including many young people. Entering the fall season, a new strain of COVID-19, EG.5, is spreading in many parts of China; with fears that a new infection peak is approaching. In a paper published in the Journal of Virology on Sept. 28, Shi Zhengli, director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, said her team has assessed the risk of human-to-human transmission for 40 novel coronaviruses, half of which are high-risk, and six of which have been found to be capable of infecting and causing disease in humans. According to the paper, another outbreak is “highly likely” to occur....
Multiple recent official reports in China reveal the setting up of Armed Forces Departments (AFDs), a paramilitary entity under the supervision of both the army and the regime that oversees China’s militia, one of the largest of its kind in the world. A major state-owned enterprise (SOE) in Shanghai, China’s commercial and financial hub, reportedly launched an AFD inside the company last Thursday. Shanghai Municipal Investment Group (SMIG), a major infrastructure construction service and property development company run by the Shanghai municipal government, held a formal launching ceremony of its AFD on Sept. 28, with the two commanding generals of the Shanghai garrison attending, according to Jiefang Daily, an official publication of China’s Army....