| | | | Meet the Most Powerful Man in the World | | President Xi Jinping has consolidated his hold over China in a way not seen since Mao Zedong. In the process, he has become the world's most powerful leader, The Economist editorializes as the country's Communist Party prepares this week to reappoint Xi for another five-year term. That could be dangerous for China – and the world.
"The fate of the Soviet Union haunts him, and that insecurity has consequences. He mistrusts not only the enemies his purges have created but also China's fast-growing, smartphone-wielding middle class, and the shoots of civil society that were sprouting when he took over. He seems determined to tighten control over Chinese society, not least by enhancing the state's powers of surveillance, and to keep the commanding heights of the economy firmly under the party's thumb," The Economist argues. "All this will make China less rich than it should be, and a more stifling place to live. Human-rights abuses have grown worse under Mr Xi, with barely a murmur of complaint from other world leaders."
"One-man rule is ultimately a recipe for instability in China, as it has been in the past -- think of Mao and his Cultural Revolution. It is also a recipe for arbitrary behavior abroad, which is especially worrying at a time when Mr Trump's America is pulling back and creating a power vacuum. The world does not want an isolationist United States or a dictatorship in China. Alas, it may get both."
| | Will Populist Millennials Rule Europe? | | Austria's voters have likely handed the keys of power to a 31-year-old whose party ran on an anti-immigration platform, writes Emily Schultheis in The Atlantic. Expect plenty more politicians like Sebastian Kurz.
"By dragging the [Austrian People's Party (ÖVP)] sharply to the right on immigration and migration, his signature issue, he seeks to co-opt the political space previously monopolized by the Freedom Party," Schultheis writes.
"As traditional centrist political parties across Europe reel from historic losses, Kurz's strategy in Austria seems to have paid off. With his victory, he'll no doubt serve as an example for other ambitious young center-right leaders looking to rebuild support and come out ahead of their right-wing populist challengers. As a polished, anti-immigration millennial who successfully worked to remake his party, Kurz could be a sign of what's to come from the next generation of European leaders -- one that is running and governing in a time of turbulent political change across the continent."
| | What the Somalia Attack Does and Doesn't Mean | | The devastating double car bombing that claimed almost 300 lives in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday is a reminder that an Islamist extremist insurgency "is far from defeated despite years of U.S. counterterrorism operations," write Kevin Sieff and Abdullahi Mire in the Washington Post. But don't expect a significant U.S. military build-up in response.
"The Pentagon refuses to say precisely how many Americans are deployed to Somalia -- believed to be a few hundred at most -- but Defense Secretary Jim Mattis indicated earlier this year that the Trump administration would consider sending more personnel if asked by the Somali president," they write.
Yet, "[a]s in other unstable parts of Africa, the U.S. strategy in Somalia has been to support allied forces by sharing intelligence, providing training and equipment, and conducting precision airstrikes — but not doing the fighting for them," they write. But the incident "also highlights the urgency with which the Trump administration needs to prioritize its Africa counterterrorism policy. The attack provides insights into the increasing role that the U.S. Africa Command -- which oversees American military operations in Africa -- is playing to prevent and to combat violent extremism on the continent." | | How China Outmuscles America in AI | | China is pumping billions into developing artificial intelligence in an effort to dominate the industry, writes Louise Lucas for the Financial Times. And it's not clear whether the U.S. will have the resources to keep up.
"U.S. and Chinese tech companies alike are ploughing money and talent into AI, but Beijing's blueprint for investing in artificial intelligence -- creating a $150 billion industry by 2030 -- underlines its desire to beat the U.S.," Lucas writes.
"'When it comes to government data, the U.S. doesn't match what China collects on its citizens at all,' says James Lewis, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'They have a big sandbox to play in and a lot of toys and good people.'
"China's checkbook is also unmatched in the U.S., where budgets are being cut. 'The Chinese invest billions, we [the U.S.] spend millions. It's hard to see how you wing it when you are being outspent a thousand to one. We are not going to win when we are outgunned to that extent; even if they are half as efficient it's still 500:1.'"
| | The 19th National Congress of China's Communist Party begins Wednesday. The Guardian's Benjamin Haas suggests that officials determined to portray President Xi Jinping as a man of the people have worked to make this year's meeting less ostentatious than previous gatherings. "In a break with previous years, officials attending the meeting will not be welcomed by large banners and extravagant flower arrangements, according to Wang Lilian, who managed delegate hospitality for the three previous party congresses," Haas writes, also noting that free fruit and haircuts have been scrapped.
Spain's government has set a new deadline of Thursday morning for Catalonia's president to clarify whether his administration has officially declared independence. The Guardian editorializes that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy should, "at all costs," resist the temptation to implement article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which would suspend the region's autonomy. "Any attempt at direct rule from Madrid would risk precipitating the situation from a constitutional crisis into a catastrophe."
Japan holds a snap parliamentary election Sunday that polls suggest will return Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party with a strengthened majority. "The election will spell the demise of Japan's liberal left," writes Koichi Nakano in the New York Times. "A conservative two-party system without real checks and balances is emerging in Japan, and the gap keeps widening between the country's politics and the people's preferences." | | | | | | |
