I write this as the conflict between China and the West increases, involving in particular its role in world trade. This development could have consequences for Pakistan, which I will take up in a later article. Today my focus will be on global issues.

Xi Jinping, now on his way to becoming one of longest longest-serving supreme leaders of China, is determined to bring about massive change. If he had his way, the Chinese system would work very differently, and the country's relations with the world outside would also be recrafted. In the spring of 2023, he would have assumed the presidency for another five years, having completed two terms already in this office. His term as the Chairman of the Party's Military Commission would be renewed, again for the third time, and he will be reappointed for the third time the country's president. Although the world prefers to call him President Xi Jinping, it is the first two positions from which he draws all his power. He needed to do a great deal of work at home to consolidate his hold over the process of decision-making. He did that by facing and overcoming two major challenges.

The first is what the Chinese call the "zero-Covid," an approach which aimed to reduce deaths and serious illnesses to zero from the virus the medical community calls Covid-19. The virus was first discerned in the industrial city of Wuhan on the left bank of the Yangtze River as it flowed towards the Pacific Ocean. Wuhan has a world recognised health research centre which specialises in the study of viruses. For some........

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