THG Recom. 12: Understanding China and Twitter's woes
Plus a podcast on the rise of the far right across the world
If you missed my earlier post about the death trap to the two billion-strong Gangetic civilization in Indian subcontinent that I saw in the Himalaya while traveling to Annapurna Base Camp, please go through this:
The China question
Let’s begin our China show with this insightful post from Noah Smith:
Want to sift through the economic side of Xi Jinping’s China? Here are two much debated pieces from the Financial Times:
China’s economy will not overtake the US until 2060, if ever
China’s GDP blackout isn’t fooling anyone
In The International Economy, William H. Overholt made similar point earlier this year:
Thinking Through the China Hype
For Nepali audience, I explained the China issue in a long piece for Setopati:
विचार सी चिनफिङले कता लैजाँदै छन् चीनलाई?
Podcast: Xi Jinping Opens a New Chapter for China on The Daily from New York Times
The Prince, the Economist podcast about Xi Jinping that I talked about in earlier post has now a bonus episode post-CPC Congress:
Podcast Bonus: 20th party congress
Twitter’s woes
A chronology of Twitter’s problems and some potential pathways to redemption:
Comprehensive Podcast on Twitter’s future:
The Guardian’s UK technology editor, Alex Hern explains why it is not only about Twitter’s survival: Can Twitter survive Elon Musk? (And can Musk survive Twitter?)
Cinema
The Nepal-EU Film festival is on and you can watch some fine movies online for free there.
Special podcast recommendation:
A Powerful Theory of Why the Far Right Is Thriving Across the Globe on Ezra Klein Show
As we approach the 2022 midterms, the outlook for American democracy doesn’t appear promising. An increasingly Trumpist, anti-democratic Republican Party is poised to take over at least one chamber of Congress. And the Democratic Party, facing an inflationary economy and with an unpopular president in office, looks helpless to stop them.
But the United States isn’t alone in this regard. Over the course of 2022, Italy elected a far-right prime minister from a party with Fascist roots, a party founded by neo-Nazis and skinheads won the second-highest number of seats in Sweden’s Parliament, Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party in Hungary won its fourth consecutive election by a landslide, Marine Le Pen won 41 percent of the vote in the final round of France’s presidential elections and — just this past weekend — Jair Bolsonaro came dangerously close to winning re-election in Brazil.
Why are these populist uprisings happening simultaneously, in countries with such diverse cultures, economies and political systems?