The Morning Dispatch: U.S.-China Leaders Seek to Ease Tensions

Plus: Is Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Behind Europe’s latest border crisis?

Happy Wednesday! We wanted to give you an early heads up that there will not be a Morning Dispatch on Saturday, January 1, 2022 because a) it is a Saturday b) it is New Year’s Day and c) HBO Max’s just-announced Harry Potter 20th anniversary special debuts the night before.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

  • Pfizer announced on Tuesday it has formally requested Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its COVID-19 oral antiviral, Paxlovid, which it claims reduced the risk of hospitalization or death for high-risk adults by 89 percent in a clinical trial when taken within three days of the onset of symptoms. The Biden administration reportedly plans to spend about $5 billion stockpiling 10 million courses of the drug for the United States, while Pfizer said it will license the drug to a global health nonprofit so generic drugmakers can increase supply and bring down prices for low-income countries.
  • The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that retail sales increased 1.7 percent from September to October, a sign the American economic recovery is still going strong despite COVID-19 and inflationary concerns.
  • The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the Biden administration plans to announce the United States will engage in a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, with neither President Joe Biden nor any other top U.S. government officials attending the Games in response to the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses. The move is not expected to affect American athletes planning to participate.
  • Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter to congressional leaders on Tuesday warning that the United States could default on its debt shortly after December 15 if lawmakers do not act to raise the country’s borrowing limit before then.
  • Germany’s energy regulator temporarily suspended the approval process for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline on Tuesday, saying the companies behind the project need to form a German subsidiary in order to receive an operating license. European natural gas prices spiked on the news, as it’s unclear how long the approval process will now take.
  • Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus elected GOP Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania their new leader this week. He will succeed Rep. Andy Biggs, the Caucus’ current chair, in 2022.
  • Rep. Jackie Speier of California announced Tuesday that she will not seek an eighth term in 2022, becoming the latest Democrat to announce his or her retirement ahead of midterm elections widely expected to sweep Republicans into the House majority.
  • The Senate voted 68-29 on Tuesday to confirm competition lawyer Jonathan Kanter, a prominent critic of Big Tech companies, to lead the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

Biden and Xi Attempt to Lower the Temperature

(Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images.)

The heads of the United States and China convened in a virtual meeting Monday night, signaling an effort by the world’s leading superpowers to repair bilateral ties following a period of heightened tension. President Biden—broadcasting from the West Wing’s Roosevelt Room—spoke to President Xi Jinping and other leading Chinese officials for three-and-a-half hours in what both sides described as a constructive clearing of the air.

“I’m happy to have found time to meet, and I look forward to a candid and forthright discussion like all of the discussions we’ve had thus far,” Biden said to open the meeting. “As I said before, it seems to be our responsibility—as leaders of China and the United States—to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended. Just simple, straightforward competition.”

Xi, who hasn’t left China in roughly two years, expressed regret that the two leaders couldn’t meet face-t0-face, but said the virtual conversation—the first of its kind since Biden took office in January—sufficed. “I feel very happy to see my old friend,” Xi said, using the term “lao peng yo”—an indication of mutual respect and trust.

These heads of state’s exchange of pleasantries comes amid recent geopolitical strain, which some onlookers have described as a precursor to another “Cold War” stalemate. Last month, China’s aggression near Taiwan’s airspace reached its peak, with nearly 150 military aircrafts breaching the air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the first few days of October alone. Other issues—like economic competition, the coronavirus pandemic, and Beijing’s many domestic human rights abuses—have disrupted Sino-American relations since former President Donald’s Trump’s time in the White House.

But according to Craig Singleton, who researches China at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, both leaders are hoping to mend ties amid domestic priorities. “Like President Biden, Xi is facing an unprecedented number of domestic challenges, including a COVID-19 resurgence, rampant energy shortages, and a looming housing bubble burst. The last thing either Biden or Xi want right now is a major foreign policy crisis,” Singleton told The Dispatch. “That is why, at least in the near term, both men appear willing to overlook major differences in the bilateral relationship in favor of lowering the temperature.”

Belarusian Border Crisis Heats Up

We wrote to you yesterday about a concerning buildup of Russian military forces along the country’s border with Ukraine. Today, it’s a different pair of Eastern European countries whose shared boundary is in the news.

Poland first declared a state of emergency at its Bruzgi-Kuźnic border checkpoint with Belarus nearly two months ago, but Tuesday was arguably the worst day of the crisis thus far: hundreds upon hundreds of Middle Eastern and North African migrants seeking asylum in Poland began throwing stones and other debris at Polish border agents, who responded with water cannons and tear gas. At least 11 people have reportedly died at the border over the past month.

“I am angry,” 23-year-old Kurd Rawand Akram—a refugee from Iraq—told the New York Times. “Everyone is angry. This is the last thing we could do. There is no other solution if we ever want to get to Europe.”

Why, you may be wondering, is an Iraqi refugee trying to enter Poland … via Belarus? Looking at a map of the region, it doesn’t seem to make much intuitive sense. Belarus is not a stop along the quickest or easiest route to the European Union. That’s where Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko comes in.

Often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator,” Lukashenko has been itching for ways to get back at the European Union after the body sanctioned him and dozens of other Belarusian government officials in response to the violent crackdown on protesters. The former Soviet state’s 2020 elections, widely believed to be fraudulent, sparked the unrest. The EU strengthened those sanctions over the summer after Belarusian officials diverted a Ryanair flight to Minsk in order to arrest a journalist on board.

Lukashenko has responded in recent months with what European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has labeled a “hybrid attack.” To hear the EU tell it, Lukashenko has been luring prospective migrants to Belarus with loosened visa restrictions and promises of easy passage into Poland, Lithuania, or Latvia—the European Union. Once there, the migrants are ushered by Belarusian officials to the relevant border, where they are decidedly not welcome.

Worth Your Time

  • Larry Summers—former Clinton administration Treasury Secretary and Obama administration National Economic Council director—has been warning about today’s scourge of inflation since the beginning of the year. In the Washington Post this week, he argues that it’s time for the rest of the economic world to join him. “The [Biden] administration should signal that a concern about inflation will inform its policies generally,” Summers writes. “Measures already taken to reduce port bottlenecks may have limited effect but are a clear positive step. Buying inexpensively should take priority over buying American. Tariff reduction is the most important supply-side policy the administration could undertake to combat inflation. Raising fossil fuel supplies, by relaxing regulations and deploying the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, are crucial. … While an overheating economy is a relatively good problem to have compared to a pandemic or a financial crisis, it will metastasize and threaten prosperity and public trust unless clearly acknowledged and addressed.”
  • Over the past two years, the Worth Your Time section has linked to a lot of work from Derek Thompson, The Atlantic staff writer focusing on economics, technology, and the pandemic. Thompson launched a new podcast for The Ringer this week called “Plain English,” and we can already tell it’s going to be great. Tuesday’s episode? A conversation with New York Times tech reporter Kevin Roose about the metaverse, cryptocurrency, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Are they short-lived fads, or precursors to a better online future?
  • Freddie deBoer considers himself a democratic socialist, but he’s come to a conclusion that very few of his fellow leftists have. “It’s time for young socialists and progressive Democrats to recognize that our beliefs just might not be popular enough to win elections consistently. It does us no favors to pretend otherwise,” he writes for The New York Times. “The idea that most Americans quietly agree with our positions is dangerous, because it leads to the kind of complacency that has dogged Democrats since the “emerging Democratic majority” myth became mainstream. Socialists can take some heart in public polling that shows Americans warming to the abstract idea of socialism. But “socialism” is an abstraction that means little without a winning candidate. And too much of this energy seems to stem from the echo-chamber quality of social media, as young socialists look at the world through Twitter and TikTok and see only the smiling faces of their own beliefs reflected back at them. Socialist victory will require taking a long, hard road to spread our message, to convince a skeptical public that socialist policies and values are good for them and the country. Which is to say, it will take decades.”

Presented Without Comment

Toeing the Company Line

  • In light of Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial, David’s Tuesday French Press (🔒) focuses on the law of self-defense—and the increased prevalence of open-carried rifles. “The presence of angry, openly armed men dramatically increases the sense of danger surrounding any public confrontation, and then it entrusts other angry (often) armed men to understand exactly when menace transforms into deadly threat,” he writes.
  • In this week’s Sweep, Sarah catches readers up on all things 2022, Audrey provides an update on Gov. Larry Hogan’s future plans, and Chris argues that Democrats’ pandemic response will hurt the party in next year’s midterms. “Pandemic fatigue is a major part of what’s driving voters into the arms of the GOP,” he writes. “If Democrats maintain the belief that one day the virus will be forever banished, they will continue to face a backlash.”
  • Like Sisyphys and his boulder, House Democrats maintain that they are finally—for real, this time!—getting close to passing the Build Back Better Act. Tuesday’s Uphill has all the latest on their efforts, as well as a helpful breakdown of the immigration and family provisions tucked into the bill.
  • Biologist Matt Ridley joined Jonah on The Remnant yesterday for a conversation about his new book about the search for the origin of COVID-19. Did the virus emerge from a lab? What would that mean for virological research? And how can we prepare ourselves for future pandemic?

Reporting by Declan Garvey (@declanpgarvey), Andrew Egger (@EggerDC), Charlotte Lawson (@lawsonreports), Audrey Fahlberg (@AudreyFahlberg), Ryan Brown (@RyanP_Brown), Harvest Prude (@HarvestPrude), and Steve Hayes (@stephenfhayes).

Subscribe to The Morning Dispatch

By Members  ·  Hundreds of thousands of subscribers

An essential daily news roundup, TMD includes a brief look at important stories of the day and original reporting and analysis from The Dispatch team, along with recommendations for deeper reading and some much-needed humor in these often fraught times.