The Hot Mic: Divided US Congress, German Tanks and China’s COVID Catastrophe

The two hosts are back to examine three issues yet again. 

Divided US Congress

The election of the speaker of the House of Representatives turned out to be a bitter and protracted affair. Republicans just could not agree to back Kevin McCarthy and it took him many rounds of voting to finally get elected. The extreme elements of the Republican Party can now turf out McCarthy in a jiffy. In fact, just one Congressman can defenestrate the speaker.

German Tanks

Germany has finally agreed to send tanks to Ukraine. Clearly, the zeitenwende (epochal tectonic shift) that Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced had not quite transpired. Germany’s traffic light coalition of the Social Democratic Party, the Free Democrats and the Greens is naturally pacifist. Their colors are red, yellow and green, earning them the name of the traffic-light coalition. This coalition is keen not to escalate the conflict and Scholz has to tread carefully to retain their support. Furthermore, Germany has had a deeply anti-war culture since the end of World War II. It is finding it very difficult to adopt a more robust foreign and defense policy.

China’s COVID Catastrophe

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made a U-turn on his zero-COVID policy. All restrictions were dropped overnight. Officials admit that 80% of China’s 1.41 billion people have caught COVID. This means a whopping 1.2 billion have COVID. China’s vaccination program has been found wanting. Antiretroviral drugs have been in short supply. Fundamentally, Xi and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had more than two years to prepare for this surge of cases but have been caught with their pants down. This will hurt Xi’s legitimacy and the CCP’s hegemony.

The views expressed in this podcast/article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.