Bear backed: Xi heads to Moscow

Nigeria sorely needed the enormous oil refinery built by Aliko Dangote, who was already Africa’s richest man. We ask what that new capacity means for him, for Nigeria and for the continent. We speak to the surprisingly large and diverse Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles. And how a ...  Show more

Control of the Strait of Hormuz has become the focus of the war in Iran. The options available point to an acute risk of a broadening regional conflict. China is making great strides in building humanoid robots—but so far they are more about entertainment than utility. And a look ...  Show more

The visit of Xi Jinping, China’s president, to Moscow may seem like the solidifying of a simple, anti-Western alliance. But China is walking <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2023/03/19/what-does-xi-jinping-want-from-vladimir-putin?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=a ...

As the presidents of China and Russia <a href="https://www.economist.com/china/2022/09/08/xi-jinping-will-at-last-venture-abroad-again?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&ut ...

As China re-shapes the existing world order, its officials argue that the values behind it are Western and not universal. Western leaders worry that China is merely trying to make the world safe for dictatorships. Do universal values exist? The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, D ...  Show more

Panzhihua used to be a state secret. The steel-making city, buried deep in the mountains of Sichuan, formed part of Mao Zedong’s Third Front, a covert plan to move core industries inland in case America or the Soviet Union attacked. David Rennie, The Economist’s Beijing bureau ch ...  Show more