Jacob Dreyer

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MundoAsiaReflexionesNaturaleza, ,

At first glance, Xi Jinping seems to have lost the plot.

China’s president appears to be smothering the entrepreneurial dynamism that allowed his country to crawl out of poverty and become the factory of the world. He has brushed aside Deng Xiaoping’s maxim “To get rich is glorious” in favor of centralized planning and Communist-sounding slogans like “ecological civilization” and “new, quality productive forces”, which have prompted predictions of the end of China’s economic miracle.

But Mr. Xi is, in fact, making a decades-long bet that China can dominate the global transition to green energy, with his one-party state acting as the driving force in a way that free markets cannot or will not.…  Seguir leyendo »

Barcos oxidados en la arena de Uzbekistán. Moynaq fue en su día un próspero puerto en el mar de Aral, pero ahora es una ciudad desierta desde que desapareció el mar. Carolyn Drake/Magnum

ReflexionesNaturaleza, ,  

Caminar entre los restos, cada vez más reducidos, de lo que solía ser el mar de Aral en Uzbekistán fue como entrar al infierno.

Todo era un desierto sin vida, con la excepción de los matorrales de saxaúl. El polvo se arremolinaba bajo un sol rojo y punzante a una temperatura de 43 grados Celsius. Llegué a la orilla de uno de los lagos desperdigados, que son todo lo que queda de lo que alguna vez fue una enorme masa de agua. Me quité los zapatos y caminé por el agua, tan llena de sal que se sentía viscosa, no del todo líquida.…  Seguir leyendo »

Rusting boats in the sand in Muynak, Uzbekistan. Muynak was once a thriving port on the Aral Sea but is now a desert town since the sea disappeared. Carolyn Drake/Magnum

ReflexionesNaturaleza, ,  

Walking toward the shrinking remnants of what used to be the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan was like entering hell.

All around was a desert devoid of life, aside from scrubby saxaul trees. Dust swirled in 110-degree Fahrenheit heat under a throbbing red sun. I reached the edge of one of the scattered lakes that are all that remain of this once-great body of water. I took off my shoes and waded in. The water was so full of salt that it felt viscous, not quite liquid.

In the nearby town of Muynak, black-and-white newsreels in the local museum and pictures in the family photo albums of residents tell of better times.…  Seguir leyendo »

Do We Really Need to Have a Cold War With China?

MundoAméricaMundoAsia,

I wore red underpants for much of last year.

It was the Year of the Tiger, my Chinese zodiac sign, when tradition says that ill fortune will seek you out. Red underwear is supposed to keep you safe because Chinese demons supposedly fear the color red.

It didn’t work.

It was a rough year. For most of 2022, we remained sealed off from the world by China’s strict pandemic policy. Shanghai, my home for the past decade, endured a particularly traumatic Covid lockdown that kept us confined at home for two months starting in late March, scrambling to obtain groceries. While locked down, we found out that my wife, who is Chinese, was pregnant.…  Seguir leyendo »