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South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks on the government budget at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, 25 October 2022.
Hard Numbers: Yoon gets a raise, China sets record trade surplus, California Dems are ready for Trump, Ryanair wants drink limits
3: Despite being impeached and having a warrant out for his arrest, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol received his scheduled 3% pay raise on Monday, raising his annual salary to 262.6 million won, or $178,888.
1 trillion: China’s trade surplus reached nearly $1 trillion last year, far outpacing any trade surpluses recorded globally over the past century. But while it’s flooding the world with its products, it’s hardly importing thanks to its lagging domestic economy.
$50 million: California Democrats have reached a $50 million deal to lead a resistance against Donald Trump. The deal will provide funds for the state to challenge the administration in court, to fend off Trump’s mass deportation agenda, and to support legal and immigration nonprofits. Meanwhile, Republicans are criticizing state leaders for focusing on the deal as the state battles devastating wildfires.
2: Ryanair wants European airports to enforce a limit of two drinks per passenger as the budget airline pursues legal action to recover nearly $16,000 in costs related to a plane that had to be redirected mid-flight because of the disruptions of an overly intoxicated passenger last year.
Friedrich Merz
Talk vs. tariffs: Two strategies to tackle Donald Trump
As US President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, leaders in the world’s two largest trading blocs — China and the EU — are revealing their starkly different strategies for dealing with his “America First” trade policies.
In Europe, Friedrich Merz, the German opposition leader and leading contender for chancellor in next month’s national elections, is advocating for the negotiation ofan EU–US free trade agreement. Instead of retaliatory tariffs, Merz argues the EU should reignite its competitiveness, starting with lower taxes, and then tell the Americans: “Yes, we are prepared to face this competition with you, too.”
“This competition,” of course, includes China, which is taking a polar opposite approach anddoubling down on its trade war with the US. This week, Beijing added 28 American defense-related companies, including Raytheon, Boeing Defense, and Lockheed Martin, to its export control list, effectively banning exports of dual-use items. The move coincides with a ban on rare earth minerals to the US to “safeguard national security and interests.”
What both Bonn and Beijing agree on, however, is the need to act before Trump takes office — and in Merz’s case, before he does as well. We’ll be watching for the follow-through — and whether talk or tariffs proves the more successful strategy.
Hot topics at the IMF-World Bank meetings
Delegates at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings have been giving rosy outlooks to the press while the cameras are rolling, but GZERO Senior Writer Matthew Kendrick heard a different story in private settings. He told Tony Maciulis that the global outlook depends heavily on US policy continuity — which is highly unlikely under a second Trump administration — and successful efforts in China to revive its own floundering economy.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Delegates are eager to point to success stories, including in Ukraine and Sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting how the world’s leading development banks can make a real impact on some of the most fragile economies and vulnerable populations.
Watch to learn more about what Matt heard on the ground.
Watch more from Global Stage.
Residential and office buildings are seen in Beijing, China, January 10, 2017.
Hard Numbers: Chinese house prices drop, Maryland governor pardons cannabis convicts, Nuclear spending soars, Putin visits Kim, Record migration through Mexico
3.9: China reported Monday that home prices across the country fell at a faster rate in May than at any time since last summer. They’ve dropped3.9% since last May, and they’ve now reached their lowest level since 2014. Housing prices are especially sensitive in China because property was once a primary engine of high growth, but the sector is now deeply in debt.
175,000: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order on Monday to pardonmore than 175,000 cannabis-related convictions. The use of marijuana remains a crime at the federal level, but 24 states have legalized it and another 14 allow marijuana use for medical purposes.
3,000: A nuclear watchdog reports that the world’s nine nuclear-armed states together spent $91.4 billion in 2023. That’s nearly$3,000 per second. The report says the United States spent $51.5 billion, which is “more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together.” China spent $11.8 billion. Russia spent $8.3 billion.
24: Russia’s Vladimir Putin arrived in Pyongyang today for a two-day visit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. It’s Putin’sfirst trip to the DPRK in 24 years, and he and Kim are expected to reaffirm the friendship between their countries. Putin is likely to want ammunition (and maybe some soldiers) for his war in Ukraine. Kim would like to have Russian technologies that can boost his country’s missile program.
177: The Mexican government reported Sunday that some1.39 million people from 177 countries traveled through Mexico so far this year trying to reach the United States without entry papers. For reference, the United Nations has 193 member states.
Two types of cicadas that resurface every 13 and 17 years, respectively, are making their rare appearance this spring.
HARD NUMBERS: Cicadas plan historic reunion, China uncorks stimulus binge, Collusion claim rocks shale, Argentina gets more IMF money, Melinda Gates walks out the door
221: Can you hear it? If you’re in the US Midwest you sure can. After 221 years, two local broods of cicadas – red-eyed, beetle-like insects that grow underground for years before emerging for a single summer of cacophonous buzzing and mating – will emerge at the same time. Brood XIII, based in Illinois, comes up every 17 years, while Brood XIX does so every 13 years. For context, the last time they were out at the same time, Illinois wasn’t even a state yet.
140 billion: As its GDP growth picks up again, the Chinese government is looking for some further stimulus, and what better way to invigorate the economic senses than $140 billion in long-dated sovereign bonds? Beijing will start selling the paper this week, putting the funds towards “modernization.” China is looking to wean itself off of an economic model that relies heavily on property investment.
10: At least 10 new class action lawsuits allege that US shale oil producers colluded to keep crude prices up, driving up gasoline prices too. The shale oil industry, which uses advanced technologies to pull petroleum hard-to-develop shale rock formations, has boomed in the past decade, catapulting the US into the global top spot in oil production.
800 million: The IMF is set to disburse another $800 million in support for Argentina after determining that new President Javier Milei’s radical austerity reforms have helped to stabilize the economy. The eccentric Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” has slashed spending since he was elected on promises to fix a moribund economy mired in triple-digit inflation. For a deeper look at how and why Milei is succeeding, see this Quick Take by Ian Bremmer.
12.5 billion: Philanthropist Melinda Gates, formerly married to Microsoft founder Bill, is stepping down from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest donor organizations in the world. As part of her agreement, she will keep $12.5 billion to direct towards her own work supporting women, minority groups, and families. To date, the foundation has given out more than $75 billion in grants to development and healthcare projects. Melinda and Bill divorced in 2021.
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.
Are the US and China frenemies now? Perspective from Nicholas Burns, US Ambassador to China
Listen: US Ambassador to China Nick Burns joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World Podcast to look at the complex and contentious state of the US-China relationship. What do the world's two biggest economies and strongest militaries agree on, and where are they still miles apart? After Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met at a summit in San Francisco last November, it seemed like frosty relations were starting to thaw. But while China and the US have committed to re-engage diplomatically after the 2023 Chinese spy balloon low-point, there is still a lot of daylight–and no trust–between the two. So how stable is the US-China relationship, really? Are we adversaries? Frenemies? Toxic co-dependents? Burns and Bremmer discuss Taiwan, aggression in the South China Sea, China’s economic woes and national security push, and where one of the most consequential bilateral relationships between any two countries in the world goes from here.
Ian Explains: Xi Jinping's nationalist agenda is rebuilding walls around China
On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer breaks down how Xi Jinping is turning China inwards at a time when it can’t afford to close itself off. Since assuming the presidency in 2012, Xi has consolidated power within the Communist Party to become China’s most dominant ruler since Chairman Mao Zedong. Under Xi’s watch, China has rolled back democratic rights in Hong Kong, implemented crackdowns on the powerful tech, finance, and real estate sectors, restricted English in schools, and even expanded the definition of espionage so broadly that basic interactions with foreigners are viewed as suspect.
President Xi’s nationalist vision has become so dominant that it's written into the Constitution and official history of the People’s Republic. But will that vision make China hostile to the very ideas that fueled its economic transformation in the first place?