Wednesday, August 5, 2020

What Will Be The Pandemic's Geopolitical Aftershocks?

Mohan Malik, The Strategist: The Pandemic’s Geopolitical Aftershocks

The triple crises of geopolitical power shifts, the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic disasters that flow from it will shape global politics, restructure global supply chains and bring an end to unregulated globalisation. The post-pandemic world is yet to take shape, but it’s likely to be as divided and bifurcated as occurred after World War II.

We are entering a new cold war with eyes wide open, not sleepwalking into it as some would argue. The vast Indo-Pacific region from the western Pacific to the western Indian Ocean is its ground zero.

Every crisis has winners and losers. China emerged as a winner after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 global financial crisis. The world’s worst pandemic will also have winners and losers. China could emerge bruised and much weakened in a post-Covid-19 world that is fragmented and has a more regulated style of ‘guided globalisation’.

China’s economy is particularly susceptible to declines in foreign investment, technology controls and export markets. A prolonged economic slowdown caused by the pandemic, war or natural disasters, potentially made worse by the exodus of multinational corporations (aka Chiexit), could even threaten the stability of China’s one-party regime.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: With most countries now wanting to decouple from China, I cannot help but feel that when this is all over, the biggest geopolitical aftershock will be on China and its place in the world.

1 comment:

Jac said...

China is already feeling the backlash of its policy. This will continue because the trust is broken, and that is the main driver in business. IMHO, the question is: how Xi Jimping will react? He is a very strong dictator who never accept a defeat. This make that guy dangerous.