The announcement of a drop in a growth rate that, nevertheless, remains high and that ensures China will, in any case, maintain major global positions, is under the spotlight of this issue of “Longitude”, the magazine directed by Pialuisa Bianco and available at newsstands as of 4 April, whose analysts examine the causes and effects of the “phenomenon”.
How many and what are the “situations” created by Germany, also within the European context, for which it is almost impossible not to say they’re right, and what is the future of “intelligence” – the issue’s other two cover stories. An editorial by Minister Giulio Terzi examines transatlantic relations, particularly between Europe and the United States, in “times of economic crisis”.
Transatlantic relations and new emergencies
Politicians, economists and diplomats, Terzi writes, argue about whether to “redefine” some “concepts” that form the foundation of “transatlantic relations” in the wake of the economic crisis and “new emergencies”. The minister’s response contains the conviction that “transatlantic collaboration” will continue to be a “driving force” also for the “global market”, and that the close relations between Europe and the United States will continue to “consist of common values”.
China at a new crossroads
In her editorial, Managing Editor Pialuisa Bianco explains why China has come to a crossroads, while a series of other articles look into the nature of the country’s growth as well as its prospects. The announced plan for economic reforms and liberalization should be useful in “confronting” the partly physiological “growth contraction”, to “weather the crisis” and avoid getting involved as other major economies when they get to a “turning point”. A significant example of how China is dealing with the “transition” is treated in the magazines inquest in the region of Kashgar, one of the last areas of the country under special statute, a former rural region now urbanized and turned into a pilot-area for the Chinese economic development system. But will the economic reform process have an influence on “political” spheres? Reformers and conservatives currently co-exist in delicate equilibrium at China’s political and economic summit. And, at least in the economic arena and in the society, that “equilibrium” translates into reforms executed with conservative methods.
The articles and analyses on China are accompanied by maps showing income, social conditions and internal migration, which is another yardstick for measuring the country’s economic growth.
To complete the cover stories, some analyses concern the phenomenon of emigration in Europe: the number of foreigners in the various European countries and projections on what they will be 12 years from now; the phenomenon of shrinking farmland, which is going on especially in Africa; and a panorama of original photos of the society, customs and contradiction between “modernity” and “tradition” in Iran.
