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Why China's Xi Jinping needs Jack Ma
Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of tech giant Alibaba, was once synonymous with entrepreneurship in China. But in 2020, he disappeared from public view after criticizing the country’s financial system amid President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on the tech sector. Recently, however, it seems Jack Ma may be back in the Communist party’s good graces. On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer spoke with China analyst and Sinocism author Bill Bishop about the meaning behind Ma’s apparent reemergence and rehabilitation. He appeared alongside Xi at a symposium for business leaders in February, an indication that the Chinese president is trying to engage with the private sector as he works to revive China’s sluggish economy. But is this a fundamental realignment of Xi’s priorities or a temporary reprieve?
“I don't think there's a lot of people who believe that the Communist Party changed its view of private business, which is they're there to be harnessed and managed and controlled,” Bishop explains “But they understand that they need people like Jack Ma, they're not just the best entrepreneurs in China, they're some of the best entrepreneurs in the world.”
Watch full episode: China’s next move
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
China’s next move
As the Trump administration continues to reshape US foreign policy and retreat from global commitments, does that create an opportunity for China to step in? On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer is joined by Bill Bishop, writer of the Sinocism newsletter, for a wide-ranging conversation on China's political and economic landscape under President Xi Jinping and global ambitions in the wake of Trump 2.0. So far, 2025 is off to a decent start for China—the release of DeepSeek sent tech stocks soaring and Chinese diplomats have cast Beijing as a “steadfast” global partner while the US ramps up criticism of European allies. But China’s economy is still struggling from a property market in crisis, high youth unemployment, and the specter of deflation. So what’s next for the People’s Republic? How strong is Xi's hold on power? Will Beijing benefit from US retrenchment and increasing global uncertainty, or will its domestic issues hold it back?
“One of the big goals of the Chinese over the last several years has been to pry the US and EU apart,” Bishop says, “From Beijing's perspective, Trump has just created more space and opportunity.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
US TikTok ban: China’s complaints are a double standard
Beijing blocks US technology companies like Facebook, Google, and X from operating in China. So why is the Chinese government so upset over the proposed TikTok ban in Congress? US Ambassador to China Nick Burns discussed China’s double standard when it comes to foreign tech firms on GZERO World with Ian Bremmer. The US has been pushing for TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app’s US operation, and millions of nationalist netizens on Chinese social media are decrying it as another example of the US limiting China’s global rise.
Burns says the idea that American firms could operate in China by following Chinese data and national security laws isn’t a convincing argument because a wide swath of US tech has been blocked for years, and China’s “Great Firewall” was set up to insulate Chinese people from the rest of the world. China’s rationale for US tech companies’ absence in China, he says, is fundamentally anti-democratic.
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week on US public television (check local listings) and online.
- China’s tech crackdown & the Jack Ma problem ›
- TikTok, Huawei, and the US-China tech arms race ›
- US-China tech tensions: the impact on the global digital landscape ›
- US-China tech “Cold War” is on ›
- US-China relationship at its most stable in years as Yellen visits ›
- Why the US-China relationship is more stable than you might think - GZERO Media ›
Where the US & China agree - and where they don't
“This is largely a competitive relationship,” Burns tells Bremmer. It’ll likely be a systemic rivalry well into the 2030s between the two largest economies in the world and the two strongest militaries in the world, so what happens here is very consequential.”
Catch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer every week on US public television (check local listings) and online.
The US-China Cold War fallacy?
A steady stream of headlines today suggests that a metastasizing confrontation between China and the United States has put an end to what we’ve known as globalization, the flow of goods, services, and money across international borders at unprecedented speed and scale.
It’s true that US-China relations have become more contentious than at any time since (at least) the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, and every time it appears things might improve, some new revelation or provocation has officials in Washington and Beijing threatening some new action. High tariffs between the two countries for all kinds of goods have remained in place for the past five years.
It’s also true that the US and China are fragmenting the flow of the globalized economy by remaking supply chains to reduce dependence on the other side for critical resources and products where they believe a shortage might threaten their national security. Yes, competition in the tech sector, especially for products like computer chips, has created an increasingly disruptive rivalry.
We also cannot ignore the reality that China’s President Xi Jinping has expressed some limited support for Russia and its president at a time when Russian forces occupy territory inside NATO-backed Ukraine and are killing Ukrainian civilians.
Washington and Beijing clearly have an increasingly contentious relationship that’s getting worse, and the globalization we’ve known over the past three decades is fragmenting in some ways.
And yet … did you know that US-China trade volumes set a record in 2022?
In the 10-plus years that Xi Jinping has ruled in China, the share of China’s exports headed for the United States, Europe, and Japan has barely moved at all. Whatever sympathy Xi has for Putin, he appears to believe that economic growth is crucial to the future of China – and its ruling party – and that economic growth depends on pragmatic relations with America and its most prosperous allies.
It’s crucial too that other wealthy countries continue to see the necessity of strong economic relations with China. US-friendly democracies in Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Canada remain closely aligned with Washington on security questions, but none of their leaders have taken action that suggests they believe China can be economically isolated as Russia has been.
In short, there is recognition in the United States, China, Europe, India, and every country that profits from a globalized economy that no one can afford a 20th-century-style division of the world into two blocs separated by a wall made hastily from cheap East German cement. Globalization may retreat for now into a surging number of regional trade deals, as we’ve seen over the past 15 years, but it has become too big to fail, and those in positions of power know the headlines don’t tell the full story.
That’s our assertion, but we’re also watching areas of the US-China conflict – and potential confrontation – that are genuinely disruptive.
Have a look and tell us what YOU think. Write to us here.- Ukraine dam sabotage: not enough evidence to speculate - GZERO Media ›
- US-China: Commerce Secretary Raimondo visit a success - GZERO Media ›
- US CEOs too influential on China policy, says Rahm Emanuel - GZERO Media ›
- Ian Explains: How is America's "Pivot to Asia" playing out? - GZERO Media ›
- The complicated US-Japan relationship - GZERO Media ›
- Where the US & China agree - and where they don't - GZERO Media ›
- Is President Trump's Russia pivot a win for China? - GZERO Media ›
- Will America's global retreat open new doors for Beijing? Insights from Bill Bishop - GZERO Media ›
The Graphic Truth: US-China: Cold War or Cold Cash?
In the 10 years since Xi Jinping took power as China’s leader, trade volumes between the world’s top two economies have continued to grow. The same is true of Chinese trade with key US allies like the EU and, to a lesser extent, Japan.
In fact, US-China trade has continued to rise despite the Great US-China Trade War of 2018-2020, when the Trump administration and Beijing slapped tariffs on some $730 billion of each other’s goods. In 2022, US-China trade reached a dizzying record high of $689 billion. For comparison with the actual Cold War — US-Soviet trade throughout the entire 1980s amounted to less than $50 billion.
That said, while overall trade continues to rise between China on one side and the US and its allies on the other, this trade is steadily becoming less important as a part of China’s overall global commerce. That is, China is relying ever more on trade with the rest of the world, and less on Uncle Sam and friends.
To show what that looks like, we track China’s trade with the US, EU, and Japan, and look at how that has figured into China’s total trade between 2012 and now.
A Cold War may come one day, but for now, cold cash is still king.
US-China trade, Afghan exodus, EU inflation, Mexican journalists
$200 billion: The US says China failed to meet its “Phase I” trade deal commitment to increase purchases of certain American goods and services by $200 billion in 2020-2021 compared to 2017 levels. Having met 60% of its commitments, according to some estimates, Beijing says it has done its best to implement the Trump-era deal despite pandemic-related economic disruptions.
1 million: Over a million Afghans have fled southwestern Afghanistan since October, setting off down one of two major migration routes to Iran. Economic collapse and fear of prolonged Taliban rule have prompted the mass exodus in recent months.
4: A Mexican lawyer and journalist was gunned down in the western state of Michoacán on Wednesday, marking the fourth killing of a journalist in the country over the past month. The murders reflect the dangers faced by journalists working amid ongoing political corruption and drug-fueled violence.
5.1: The Eurozone recorded an inflation rate of 5.1% in January, slightly exceeding an earlier record set the month before. Indeed, the rising cost of gas, food and other staples is likely to be a decisive factor in upcoming elections in France.U.S. President Joe Biden speaks virtually with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from the White House in Washington, U.S. November 15, 2021.
Joe Biden & Xi Jinping talked. US-China tensions remain.
Just hours ago, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping held their first bilateral videoconference together. The three-hour virtual meeting was, as expected, cordial despite sharply diverging views on many issues. (An effusive Biden even managed to elicit something between a Cheshire Cat grin and an outright smile from the famously stone-faced Xi.) Without much detail, both sides agreed to continue working together on climate following their COP26 joint pledge, and to return to normalcy on trade. On Taiwan — by far the prickliest of many prickly topics including Hong Kong and Xinjiang — Xi warned America to not "play with fire" while Biden responded that both countries are responsible for avoiding open conflict over the self-governing island. Nevertheless, the two leaders showed, at least in the brief part of the call that was open to the public, that they can deal with each other face to face in a respectful way, which puts at least some "guardrails" (the precise word Biden mentioned) on a bilateral relationship that is otherwise spiraling in slow motion toward confrontation.