This column has been previously published in L’Opinion on 12th april 2023 Beijing has forgotten that the history of the 20th century teaches us that democracies lose out at first but end up as the winners when their governments tell their people the truth. President Emmanuel Macron should take comfort from the fact that he is not the first — nor will be the last — Westerner to come back empty-handed from a trip to Beijing. To hope that President Xi Jinping…

“Letter from Asia” published in L’Opinion, 14th February 2023. The world has to get used to a less than 5% growth rate for the Chinese economy, which is based on development in the tech sector but limited by increasing government control. The main thing that we learned from the People’s National Congress that has just taken place in Beijing was not the forecast of relatively little growth in 2023, expected to be only 5%. Rather, it was what President Xi said about…

“Letter from Asia” published in L’Opinion, 14th February 2023. The Chinese “weather balloon” episode tells the West more about China than it tells China about the United States. It is already extremely rare for China to officially apologize to another country, so, given the present situation, it is even more surprising that it has apologized to the United States. The explanation is undoubtedly to be found in the lack…

Letter from Asia published in L’Opinion, 17th January 2023. The big question in 2023 is not the economic upturn but President Xi’s attitude to the U-turn that has been forced upon him. Even in China, the economy will have its way and ends up getting the better of ideology. President…

This column was previously published in L’Opinion on december 9th 2022 The U-turn with regard to the zero Covid policy is no answer to the real question over the plan that Xi Jinping intends to propose to his people for the next decade. It has only taken a few weeks to see why the Communist Party granted full powers to President XI during the 22th Party Congress. With four crises that China has to face — in the fields of public health…

This column was previously published in L’Opinion on november 16th 2022 The 1930s taught us — with Mussolini, Hitler and Pétain — that only extremely weak countries officially grant full powers to one single man. Is present-day China an exception to this? The surprise that has come at the beginning of President Xi’s third term of office is the end of the balance of power that prevailed for the last 40 years between the Shanghai clan and the League of Communist…

This column was previously published in L’Opinion on october 25th 2022 Public health, real estate and demographic crises have all come at the same time and are forcing those in power to use nationalism as a weapon, with all the risks that that entails. As often happens in China, the most instructive part of any lengthy speech is what is left unsaid. President Xi kept to this tradition at the opening of the 20th Congress, by omitting to mention the three main concerns…

This colum was previously published in L’Express on october 13th 2022 Xi Jinping’s third mandate will at least be in line with one particular Chinese tradition: China’s excessive love of paradox. China’s recent history has accustomed us to contradictions. The new five-year mandate is no exception and promises to be an explosive mixture of increased control internally and disruptive chaos externally.

This column was previously published in L’Express on 15th september In the highly uncertain world that may soon be upon us, Western managers would do well to learn from their Chinese counterparts with their ability to adapt and their speed of implementation. An industrialist from a CAC40 company told me that, during the first quarter of 2022, he had seen…