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Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good

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February 5, 2022

Fareed: Look Beyond China's Olympic Spectacle

"It's a tale of two Olympics," Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column, hearkening back to the 2008 summer games, held in Beijing as "China was dazzling the world with its economic prowess and technological sophistication, determined to impress with its soft power."
 
Much has changed since then. Under President Xi Jinping, China has clamped down on freedoms at home and irked other countries. The US, UK, and Australia have all boycotted the games diplomatically, amid reports of human-rights abuses in Xinjiang, which China denies.

China's economic growth has been impressive, but Fareed suggests looking more closely: "Beijing has succeeded wildly in some areas," Fareed observes, "but that same government has made major mistakes, from persisting with the one-child policy to accumulating mountains of debt. The black box that is China's government always looks more impressive from the outside. The United States' openness and competition—economic, political, social—often looks chaotic, but over the centuries it has endured while many seemingly efficient models of government have failed."

Splinter Olympics

The Olympics usually highlight global unity, but this year's games "symbolise a world divided," The Economist writes.
 
"How the world has changed" since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the magazine muses. "The West worried about China then, too. The country had been waging a fierce campaign to crush unrest in Tibet following widespread protests there. Human-rights groups were calling for boycotts. But many Western officials still believed that engaging with China might nudge it towards acceptance of the Western-led global order, or at least help tame the rise of anti-Western nationalism. America's president, George W. Bush, and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, attended the opening ceremony."
 
Since then, hopes for Chinese openness and liberalization have collapsed, The Economist writes. At Nikkei Asia, Richard McGregor recalls the now-"quaint"-seeming 2008 promise by China to allow Olympic protests in designated areas.
 
Then there are the burner phones. Sport or security officials in multiple countries have warned of potential cyber snooping on foreign athletes by China; with the FBI advising US competitors to leave their personal phones at home, Wired's Matt Burgess dubs these games "the burner phone Olympics." So does The Wall Street Journal's editorial board, which surmises that "the attraction of Chinese wealth and power are gone."

Athletes' freedom of speech is a touchy subject, too. As the Journal notes, a Chinese Olympic official warned that competitors could be punished for any statements that go "against the Olympic spirit, and especially against Chinese laws and regulations." It's not inconceivable that an athlete would speak out against China's repression in Xinjiang, for instance, on social media—China says it will not restrict the Internet for athletes, as it does for its citizens—nor is it clear what would happen if one did, David S. Goodman writes for The Conversation.

Leaderless Again, ISIS Still Poses a Threat

After the leader of ISIS died in a US raid this week, The New Yorker's Robin Wright suggests this will deal a setback to the group, which was already seen by some as rudderless in recent years. But as others have, Wright suggests killing leaders is no magical answer: Such victories are "tactical, not strategic," as one former US official tells Wright, given that terrorist leaders are replaced and groups recover.

Interest Rates: How Steep Are We Talking?

With inflation arriving in force, interest rates will have to rise, The Economist writes in a new cover story; the question is by how much. 
 
"In the long run any upward shift" in interest rates set by central banks "is likely to be small," the magazine predicts, partly thanks to aging and saving populations. "However, between now and then there is likely to be a sharp and potentially painful rise in rates. The world's debts have reached 355% of GDP, making firms and households more sensitive to even small rate rises. There are few examples of central banks taming inflation without the economy suffering a recession. The last time America's inflation fell from over 5% without a downturn was over 70 years ago. Fighting inflation could put the world in a slump. If so, the prospect that rates will one day fall back again would be only some consolation."

Not Your Grandfather's Latin-American Leftists

Move over, Che Guevara: Latin America has an emerging wave of leftist leaders, but they're far from the traditional mold of anti-imperialist Marxists who dominated the region's left wing in the 20th century and beyond, Benjamin N. Gedan and Richard E. Feinberg write for Foreign Policy. 
 
"Since 2018, left-of-center candidates have won presidential elections in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru, and leftists lead in the polls in this year's campaigns in Brazil and Colombia," Gedan and Feinberg note. But unlike Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro or Cuba's ruling order, the members of this new left—epitomized in some ways by 35-year-old, tattooed, newly elected Chilean President Gabriel Boric—are more akin to center-left social-democrats and are more supportive of democratic freedoms. The US shouldn't view them as something to fear, Gedan and Feinberg advise.