China
Meloni's announcements + Population shrinks faster
Dear reader,
The election results in Italy left many in shock: Giorgia Meloni's right-wing nationalist party Fratelli d'Italia won the vote and, in all likelihood, will form the next government in Rome together with the right-wing populist Lega and the conservative Forza Italia. It is a dramatic shift to the right of a founding member of the European Union.
And Meloni's election victory could also turn into a nightmare for China, as Marcel Grzanna analyzes. Meloni had already publicly discussed Italy's withdrawal from the New Silk Road during her election campaign. But now not just the prestige project of China's President Xi Jinping is at stake. Rather, Meloni has apparently chosen a new partner – and this alliance will likely enrage China's leadership in Beijing.
Our second analysis also holds bad news for Beijing: For decades, the Chinese government tried to slow down population growth. But now China's population faces a dramatic shift as early as this year: Aging, male overpopulation and the traditional degradation of girls pose a huge challenge to the Communist Party. Ning Wang shows how the leadership in Beijing is trying to counter this trend – but has so far set the wrong priorities.
