Haven’t had time to read it yet — dropping the link here first.

Download this issue of The Economist

The core theme of this issue of The Economist is an interesting one — “Rebalancing the World” — but after finishing the whole magazine, the picture that popped into my head was something else entirely: a mahjong table with four players. One has just won a big hand, one is still bitterly waiting to draw the winning tile, one is counting tiles, and one is getting ready to flip the table and walk away.

The President’s Contradictory Posture

In public, President Trump has spent weeks deriding Zohran Mamdani as an extremist, a communist, and a threat to New York City. He has also insisted that he is “much better looking” than the 34-year-old Mamdani.

But in private, according to two people who disclosed the president’s remarks on condition of anonymity, Trump has described the New York City mayor-elect as a talented politician — sharp-minded and quick with an argument.

The Rare-Earth War

—— China’s strategic confidence and resource sovereignty amid the reshaping of global geopolitics

Preface

I studied geology at China University of Geosciences. As an undergraduate, as part of an academic activity organized by the university, I wrote a short paper titled “The Rare-Earth War.” Back then, the “war” was mostly a metaphor in the academic sense, an exploration of the relationship between resource competition and technological rivalry. Many years on, the world has shifted beyond recognition, and the scenarios once argued on paper are now playing out in reality. Taking up the pen again to rewrite “The Rare-Earth War” fills me with emotion.

TikTok Meets Trump: All the Wrong Moves, Somehow Still Alive

Driven to the edge, TikTok found its way to survive: hand the stage, the applause and the glory to Trump, as lavishly as possible

TikTok: the most watched piece on the geopolitical chessboard.

In Washington it is seen as a Trojan horse from the East, poised to gather intelligence for China and lay the groundwork for manipulating public opinion; in other eyes it is a pitiful sacrificial pawn, trembling under the crush of the superpowers, waiting for judgment at the negotiating table.

TE 202511

The whole world is getting smarter; I just want to live wisely

Main Text

Politics and Diplomacy

• The issue details how US-China rivalry in trade and technology keeps escalating: Washington rolled out a new round of chip controls, and Beijing answered with supply-chain resilience and domestic substitution.

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