How Joe Biden is transforming America’s Asian alliances | The clock is ticking on an old deal between America and China | Xi Jinping dominates Brics summit as leaders endorse Beijing-led expansion | Financial Times

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Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium How Joe Biden is transforming America's Asian alliances - The Economist    The rivalry between great powers involves much jostling over alliances. What does this mean in practice and who is winning? The past month has provided a chance to examine two competing alliance-building efforts. One is the push, led by China, to create a bloc of emerging economies that acts as a counterweight to the West. This was the aim of the brics summit held this week in Johannesburg, attended by Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping, the leaders of India and China. The other is America’s strengthening of its defence network in the Pacific. Of the two efforts, America’s is more convincing. The gathering of the brics brought together Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The stated goals were to expand the club’s membership and deepen its capabilities in areas such as development lending and financial payments. The event showed a widespread appetite for a less Western world order: six countries were invited to join the brics starting in January 2024, including Argentina, Iran and Saudi Arabia. But it also showed how such a disparate group will struggle to be effective. If the aim is to project common values, it hardly helped that Vladimir Putin had to address the summit by video-link—for fear that the South African hosts would have to enforce a global arrest warrant against him for war crimes. As the group expands, tensions may rise: India fears its influence will be diluted, giving more sway to China. Defence co-operation is probably out of the question. The effort to create a common financial infrastructure (let alone share a currency) looks too ambitious for countries with very different economies and politics. Rather than a body capable of acting widely and consistently in a coordinated way, building global norms and institutions, the brics may end up with a significant but more limited role. Its members may co-operate on narrow issues where they agree, such as rich countries’ obligations in the energy transition, and sometimes act together to attack or try to block Western-led initiatives. Continued here You Might Like � � � � � � � � � The clock is ticking on an old deal between America and China - The Economist    America and China established full diplomatic relations on January 1st 1979. By the end of that month they had also signed the Science and Technology Co-operation Agreement (STA). The deal didn’t commit either side to much, but it laid out a shared desire for collaboration in these areas. Its terms call for renewal “by mutual agreement” every five years. For decades that happened with little fuss. Now, though, things are looking shaky. The deadline is August 27th. China wants to stay in the deal. America is seeking a sixth-month extension so that it can negotiate changes to the pact. President Joe Biden is under pressure from Republicans to ditch the agreement. Some have written letters to Antony Blinken, the secretary of state. In one, ten congressmen claimed that China “has previously leveraged the STA to advance its military objectives and will continue to do so.” America, they added, must “stop fuelling its own destruction”. Backers of the STA say it has symbolic value, being among the first bilateral agreements signed by the countries after ties were established. And it has produced tangible benefits, too. They say that joint research enabled by the STA has helped prevent spinal birth defects and led to the regular monitoring of influenza strains, which is needed to formulate vaccines each year. They also cite achievements in seismology, agriculture, clean energy and other fields. Continued here Xi Jinping dominates Brics summit as leaders endorse Beijing-led expansion - FT    South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa was the official host of the Brics summit this week that agreed to more than double the membership of the emerging-markets bloc, but the true VIP was his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The Chinese president was given special treatment from the minute he arrived ahead of the other leaders for a state visit that saw him inducted into the 'Order of South Africa', a recently created honour. "The people of South Africa salute you, President Xi Jinping," Ramaphosa said after he met Xi at the airport, an honour none of the other leaders were given. Even India's Narendra Modi, leader of the second biggest Brics economy, was greeted by Ramaphosa's deputy. Continued here

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