A growing number of countries are banning TikTok over user data privacy and "national security" concerns.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a devastating blow to the American economy, ending the country’s historic 10-year economic expansion. The impacts of the pandemic will continue to be felt across the board in Q2 and may potentially transform the country’s economic status quo.

Since joining the WTO in 2001, China’s role in the world has been under intense scrutiny. As China continues its unique path of development, it must strike compromises with the international community just as the international community must compromise with China.

Widespread lockdowns and border closures aimed at combating the COVID-19 pandemic have interrupted global supply chains and largely paralyzed the global economy. Yet, the real weakness of today’s global economy is not the vulnerability of its globalized production networks, but rather souring attitudes toward globalization – and toward China in particular.

Back in 2013, the Chinese government laid out a policy agenda that promised real reforms to an economy laden with debt and distorted by the influence of the country’s large state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector. But instead of seeing that agenda through, China chose to dodge the risks entailed by marketization, and has since reverted to what it knows best: state control over the economy and the semblance of stability that comes with it.

Globalization is going to continue, but some rules and practices may need to be adjusted. The world should be open to such adjustments but continue to oppose economic nationalism and trade protectionism.

Unlike the Cold War between the West and the USSR, a US-China cold war is unlikely, given the fact that China is heavily integrated in the global economy and that people-to-people exchange remains high.

China's Belt and Road Initiative is being tested by COVID-19, as several host countries have requested debt relief. How China proceeds will determine the overall success of the initiative.

A great deal of interest is focussed on the level of Chinese real GDP in 2020. The Chinese GDP in 2020 depends crucially on two developments—the speed of the economic recovery from the COVID-19 epidemic and the availability of additional economic stimulus.

China still lacks a high-level of openness and now faces increasing pressure from external rules. If it does not intensify its reforms, it may be encircled by those rules or even be excluded from the newly emerging international system.