Global south; US-China tech and financial linkages; Poverty alleviation as hit TV show; Hong Kong

I am a long-time subscriber of the China Africa Project newsletter. I thought Cobus van Staden’s commentary today on Xi’s speech at Davos was good:

The commentary pieces from Western authors I’ve seen focused on Xi’s warnings about the dangers of a new Cold War, and his call to revitalize multilateralism. Some also highlighted his criticism of countries that ‘slip into arrogant isolation,’ with the same frisson with which American news outlets used to report Iranian leaders calling the U.S. names…

In the speech, Xi said: “As countries grapple with the pandemic, their economic recoveries are following divergent trajectories, and the North-South gap risks further widening and even perpetuation. For developing countries, they are aspiring for more resources and space for development, and they are calling for stronger representation and voice in global economic governance.”

For many readers, this no doubt sounds like more of that ‘shared destiny’ boilerplate. But Global South countries don’t…