BIDEN-XI TALKS: READ THE UNDERTONES

TAYLOR Swift is the go-to muse for Wall Street to define consumer spend or market volatility. Last week, a Goldman Sachs note trilled her hit track 'All you had to do was stay' as it asked investors to channel their inner Swift while equity and bond markets yo-yoed. Swifties are useful in illuminating geopolitics too. Swift's hit single 'Bad blood' could well be the anthem of fifty-plus years of US-China relations mad love followed by bad blood.

-  SHANKKAR AIYAR

Context, they say, defines and redefines events. The world is witnessing two wars-one in Ukraine and another in the Middle East. The global economy is wracked by rising cost of capital and falling growth. Constantly evolving definitions of national security are determining the flow of capital and trade.

A glossary of phrases-decoupling, de-risking, offshoring, near-shoring and friend shoring-outline the contours of critical supply chains.

This week, US President Joe Biden met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco. Between them the two nations account for $43 trillion or effectively over 40 percent of the $105-trillion global economy. The two questions the world seeks answers to are: will wolf warrior China wage a war to annex Taiwan and whether Xi has any credible plan to pull China's economy out of what is the worst decline in decades.

The questions matter as their answers will determine the course of politics and policy. Consider the stance on the issue of Taiwan. Briefing the press, Biden stated that the US "stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits". When asked if Xi outlined the conditions under which China would attack Taiwan, Biden reiterated "there is a One China policy and that and I'm not going to change that".