World Events Summary: 20th-26th February 2018

Xi Staying On: the long-rumoured intention of China’s president, Xi Jinping, to retain power beyond the two-term threshold was confirmed. The removal of term-limits sweeps away any remaining vestiges of the rule-by-consensus process which followed the tyranny of Mao. Western countries may now be emboldened to confront China more aggressively as existing policies are here to stay. 

U.S./China Trade: Apple moved the digital keys to Chinese iCloud accounts inside the borders of China. The U.S. approached the WTO regarding new Chinese web access rules – including the prevention of VPN use by multinationals in the country. The U.S. blocked another Chinese takeover. 

Infrastructure: Australia’s government told Trump its compulsory pension funds (Superannuation – AUM c.US$2tn) would like to invest in his mooted infrastructure investment plan. This could cement ally relations while filling a large part of any funding gap. The Islamic Development Bank (AUM US$150bn) announced plans to co-invest with the AIIB (US$100bn) in African infrastructure building.