China Decoded is Newsweek’s in-depth newsletter about China’s growing influence on the world. It goes beyond the headlines to examine how Beijing thinks, how its policies travel beyond China’s borders, and what they mean for the United States and its allies. The newsletter is written by journalists with deep experience covering China.
Didi Kirsten Tatlow, Senior Correspondent for International Affairs and Investigations, has reported extensively on Chinese politics, influence and security. John Feng, China Editor, is based in Taiwan and covers China’s domestic politics, foreign policy and the strategic competition between Beijing and Washington. Below, for Newsweek Members, we are reproducing the latest edition of China Decoded in full: There are seven “in the house” now—seven members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are set to take their seats in the U.S.
House of Representatives, that is. With the true scale of the full-throated rejection of President Donald Trump by the American electorate in the midterm elections still being counted that number may change. Many other DSA members were elected to other positions at state and local level.John and I will be asking: What does it mean for U.S.-China relations?
Here, it’s important to remember that the DSA is not a political party but a political organization. Their candidates usually run on the Democratic Party ticket as the party’s “left left” (that’s not an official term, but I find it a useful one). And either way, Trump has two more years in power.
Presidents who are domestically weakened traditionally focus more, and not less, on foreign policy. Things could get even wilder. Yet with the DSA so far nearly quadrupling its representation in the House from two seats to at least seven they’re clearly increasingly relevant and that means internationally too.
The DSA has a useful tracker here that covers how they did in all the votes on Nov. 3 at federal, state and local level. Among other things, it tells us which candidates are nationally endorsed and which are not. The DSA is a broad and often fractious organization and that goes for its foreign policy too.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
