Israel has withdrawn all its ground troops from southern Gaza for “tactical reasons”, the country’s army said, raising questions about the future direction of the war as Hamas and Israeli delegations travel to Egypt for a new round of ceasefire talks. Two brigades will remain in the northern half of the Gaza Strip and in the new corridor that now divides Palestinian territory in Wadi Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said, in order to “preserve the IDF’s freedom of action and its ability to conduct precise intelligence-based operations”. We talk about it with Paolo Maggiolini, researcher at the Catholic University and ISPI associate. | It is the most serious economic test for China since Deng Xiaoping’s broader reform began in the 1990s. The country achieved 5% growth last year, but the pillars of its decades-long miracle are faltering. Its notoriously industrious workforce is shrinking: China is expected to lose 20% of its workforce by 2050. Furthermore, the wildest real estate boom in history has turned into a bust, and the global free trade that China used to enrich itself is disintegrating. Compared to 12 months ago, not to mention the boom years, the mood in China has changed. Worse. Although industrial production increased in March, consumers are disheartened, deflation is lurking and many entrepreneurs are disillusioned. As written by The Economist in a long report, President Xi Jinping’s response is to double the bold plan to renew the Chinese economy. In the meantime, however, what does the thermometer indicate on relations between the USA and China? An important test is offered by the four-day trip to China by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, her second visit in nine months. Scheduled for the former president of the Federal Reserve, among others, are face-to-face meetings with the governor of Guangdong province Wang Weizhong, with the governor of the Chinese Central Bank Pan Gongsheng and, above all, with the vice prime minister He Lifeng. We talk about it with Michelangelo Cocco, director of the study center on contemporary China, writes for the newspaper Domani, and with Lucia Tajoli, professor of Economic Policy at the Polytechnic of Milan. At the microphones Anna Maria Giordano.
08 Apr 2024
