China is expanding visa-free travel but more can be done to make public transport, lodging and tourist attractions more accessible to foreigners. An English QR guide at ports of entry or one-stop payment cards can go a long way towards boosting inbound travel.
Following summit between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the two sides vow to take on Washington’s ‘dual containment’ policy aimed at Russia and China. But a quasi-alliance with Moscow is hardly the recipe for Beijing to make more friends.
The West misunderstands China’s efforts at boosting innovation and satisfying domestic demand as seeking to undermine foreign competitors. While oversupply is a valid concern, a bigger problem is concentrated production among a small cluster of firms which US tariffs on China will not address.
The Chinese president’s trip to Europe did not result in any headline-grabbing developments, but that did not prevent it from achieving everything it needed to. Rejecting European complaints about China’s economic and geopolitical practices while stoking divisions between the EU and US all plays to Beijing’s interests.