Volume 20 Issue 03

Image: CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping visiting a community center in the Chaoyang District of Beijing on February 10. This visit, Xi’s first street-level public appearance in three weeks, accompanied a new messaging campaign asserting Xi’s call for a “people’s war” against the coronavirus epidemic. (Source: Xinhua, February 11)

Image: A supertanker unloads oil at a terminal in Zhoushan (Zhejiang Province), February 2018. (Source: Caixin Global). China is the world’s largest importer of oil, and it is therefore seeking closer relations with Gulf Region producers, including Iran. The fact that oil deals are usually denominated in dollars imposes additional transaction costs and exchange rate risks, providing another motivation for the PRC to seek greater internationalization of its own renminbi currency.

Image: Chinese and Indian troops line up in formation for the opening ceremony of the eighth annual China-India "Hand-in-Hand 2019" Counter-Terrorism Exercise, which was held December 7-20 in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya. (Source: Renmin Wang)

A publicity photo of the January 26 inaugural meeting of the “Central Leading Small Group for Work to Counter the New Coronavirus Infection Pneumonia Epidemic,” chaired by PRC Premier Li Keqiang. (Source: Xinhua, January 26)