China has plans. The Communist Party of China released its 14th five-year economic plan as its latest Central Committee plenum wrapped up on Thursday. The themes are familiar: a shift from economic growth at all costs to “quality growth;” a shift from reliance on foreign demand to reliance on domestic consumption; and home-grown tech. Plans are just plans, but China tends to actually try to stick to these. And either way, they tell us quite a bit about what worries Beijing. Speaking of worries. Germany reported higher-than-expected gross domestic product growth in the third quarter, growing 8.2 percent compared to Q2. Other major European economies also experienced extremely strong growth – France (18.2 percent), Spain (16.7 percent) and Italy (16.1 percent) are the headliners – but amid another wave of infections and restrictions, the rebound is not expected to last. Putin open to land transfers. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was open to the possibility of Armenia transferring seven occupied regions to Azerbaijan to stop the war in the South Caucasus. Meanwhile, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the entry of Russian peacekeepers into the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh could be the “optimal solution.” And Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev […]
