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The Economist: Seize the moment 

Countries should seize the moment to flatten the climate curve

Following the pandemic is like watching the climate crisis with your finger jammed on the fast-forward button. Neither the virus nor greenhouse gases care much for borders, making both scourges global. Both put the poor and vulnerable at greater risk than wealthy elites and demand government action on a scale hardly ever seen in peacetime. And with China’s leadership focused only on its own advantage and America’s as scornful of the World Health Organisation as it is of the Paris climate agreement, neither calamity is getting the coordinated international response it deserves.

Lifting lockdowns: the when, why and how

Since China locked down the city of Wuhan on January 23rd, over a third of the world’s population has at one time or another been shut away at home. It is hard to think of any policy ever having been imposed so widely with such little preparation or debate. But then closing down society was not a thought-out response, so much as a desperate measure for a desperate time. It has slowed the pandemic, but at a terrible price. As they seek to put lockdowns behind them, governments are not thinking hard enough about the costs and benefits of what comes next.

America is determined to sink Huawei

IF AT FIRST you don’t succeed, try again. A year ago America forbade its high-tech companies from selling to Huawei, a Chinese maker of smartphones and mobile-network infrastructure. American officials worry that Huawei-powered phone networks could aid Chinese spying (something the firm denies), and about China’s growing technological prowess more generally. But the embargo turned out to be puny. Loopholes allowed American firms to carry on supplying Huawei from overseas factories. The Chinese firm’s revenues rose by 19% in 2019, to $123bn. Thanks to its efforts to stockpile parts, its purchases from American suppliers rose by 70%, to $19bn.

On May 15th America tried a different tack. It announced new rules that target Huawei’s in-house microchips, which power many of the firm’s products. The rules are aimed at the factories that take such designs and turn them into working silicon, such as those owned by TSMC in Taiwan and SMIC in China. They specify that no American tools can be used to make Huawei’s products. Since every big chipmaker uses some American tools, the effect is to freeze Huawei out completely. The Chinese giant denounced a “pernicious” decision that “threatens to undermine the entire industry worldwide”.

Check out more at: https://www.economist.com/printedition/2020-05-23

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