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Inside Out & Outside In

Inside Out & Outside In
In wide-ranging columns appearing twice a week, David Dodwell, executive director of the Hong Kong-Apec Trade Policy Group, strives to understand and describe the distinctive characteristics at the heart of Hong Kong's continuing competitive advantages. It promises to be a fascinating journey as he seeks to understand and describe the forces that have shaped and are changing Hong Kong, and the role it is playing for China and in the region as we move steadily closer to 2047.
last updated:
9 September, 2024
US president-elect Donald Trump speaking at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, US, on December 16. Photo: Reuters
United States

Outside In | Does Trump’s tariff-happy team realise China is playing weiqi, not chess?

Much depends on how successfully Trump seduces leaders away from multilateral rule-making and how firmly China resists the siren call of bilateralism.

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Hong Kong society

Outside In | US insurer murder a warning as Hongkongers worry about medical bills

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US-China trade war

Outside In | Trump’s destructive impact on world trade could take decades to unravel

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Ukraine war

Outside In | It’s goodbye to ‘peace dividend’, hello to wars and defence binges

Global spending on defence is rising at the expense of social needs. The ‘peace dividend’ years are over.

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Military cadets light candles to commemorate the 1,000th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in front of the Motherland monument in Kyiv, Ukraine, on November 19. Photo: Reuters
United States

Outside In | ‘Trump-proofing’ is distracting the world from far graver challenges

From G20 and Apec to the WTO and Nato, global cooperation on climate, security and open trade and investment must be quickly restored.

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China-EU relations

Outside In | Italian fuss about China’s tiny tomato exports has bigger implications

Tomatoes are only China’s 708th biggest export. But the world is realising China can swamp markets with even small output shifts.

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Climate change

Outside In | Nature needs saving but where will the West find the money?

However leaders feel about biodiversity and global warming, there is almost no money where their mouths are.

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A ranger reaches out towards female northern white rhino Najin, one of the last two northern white rhinos on the planet, in her enclosure at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya on August 23, 2019. Photo: AP
Hong Kong economy

Outside In | For Hong Kong’s poorest, cheapflation hits harder than shrinkflation

Worryingly, prices are rising faster for cheap products than premium items as AI boosts retailers’ dynamic pricing abilities.

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Hong Kong economy

Outside In | It’s been grim for Hongkongers. Lee’s policy address must address that

After almost four years of adversity, the fragile economy needs support and many remain stressed and sceptical about prospects.

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United States

Inside Out | Port workers’ stance against automation will only hurt US competitiveness

Anxiety remains over the contentious and emotional issue – described as tantamount to inviting Chinese spies into US ports – with union negotiations set to resume in January.

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Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association union, which represents roughly 45,000 workers, protest outside Maher Terminal, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, US, on October 1. Photo: Reuters
Millionaires and billionaires

Outside In | Why global tax on super rich is least bad option to tackle crises

Amid the current wave of adversity, the wealthiest among us must acknowledge they are obliged to dig deeper into their pockets.

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US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, posing for a photo with fashion designer Aurora James, attends the Met Gala in New York City on September 13, 2021 wearing a dress printed with the words “tax the rich”. The slogan has been a rallying cry for Democrats as they seek to remake the social safety net in the US. Photo: Getty Images / AFP
Diplomacy

Inside Out | China-Africa summit a fitting showcase of Global South’s rise

The deals sealed and friendships renewed at FOCAC summit underline China’s role as a prime force of global power rebalancing.

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Hong Kong economy

Outside In | Can Hong Kong bring its ‘ghost bridge’ back to life?

With the new Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link boosting prospects for the Greater Bay Area, Hong Kong must move fast to improve transport links with nearby cities.

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Climate change

Inside Out | Big Oil threatening to turn Cop29 into fight over industry’s future

Opec and top oil firms are fiercely opposing efforts to reduce oil and gas demand, seeing economic doom if climate goals are given priority.

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Asia’s largest carbon capture, utilisation and storage facility for the coal-fired power generation sector, developed by China Energy, is seen in operation in Taizhou, Jiangsu province, on June 2, 2023. Photo: Xinhua
Climate change

Outside In | The world is speeding to hell in a shopping cart

We need to move away from consumerism and find better measures of economic progress – if we want to avoid a climate catastrophe

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Shoppers in Beijing. Our “stuff-obsessed” lifestyles are simply unsustainable. Photo: AFP
United States

Outside In | Amid national security angst, US can’t see its biggest threat is at home

Paranoia over grave and imminent dangers all around is distracting America from the serious risks of domestic terrorism and political violence.

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US immigration

Inside Out | Fear of migrants needlessly inflaming tensions around global elections

International migration is a force for good that developed economies need, despite the protests of xenophobes and populists.

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Women and gender

Outside In | As world population shrinks, prepare for seismic changes

The UN projects a drop in the global population by 2100 as longer life expectancy and migration shape communities amid a collapse in fertility.

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Children play with spinning chairs at a shopping mall in Beijing. China is one of 63 countries and areas with declining populations. Photo: AP
United States

Inside Out | If Trump wins, US threats to global trade will no longer be just bark

In particular, Trump’s exotic plan to replace income tax with universal export tariffs threatens catastrophe.

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US-China relations

Outside In | It’s time American China strategists accepted some inconvenient truths

The Council on Foreign Relations’ China-focused project could be a chance to rethink flawed assumptions underpinning the rules-based order.

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Hong Kong economy

Outside In | Still too soon for Hong Kong to declare its economy out of the woods

True, no one has ever bet against Hong Kong and won. But it would be a foolhardy administration that underestimates the challenges still faced.

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Causeway Bay on July 2. There is talk of a recovery in the second half of the year but it remains far off and green shoots remain fragile. Photo: Sam Tsang
United States

Inside Out | Why US presidential debate should horrify proponents of democracy

The first US presidential debate was alarming not just for US voters but for anyone who cares about the integrity of our political systems.

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An attendee of a campaign event with former US president Donald Trump, not pictured, in Chesapeake, Virginia, on June 28. Trump kept a mostly calm demeanor during the first presidential debate, avoiding the kind of outbursts and belligerence that hurt him in his 2020 debate with Biden, but delivered responses riddled with falsehoods and exaggerations. Photo: Bloomberg
Hong Kong environmental issues

Outside In | Rat problems say more about city life than about the rats themselves

Far from being a particularity in Hong Kong, rodent problems are a fixture of urban environments the world over.

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Technology

Inside Out | China-made AI sexbots: the next national security risk for US, EU?

The rapid emergence of AI has sparked concerns about its attendant risks, and few sectors exemplify that more than the production of sex robots.

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Climate change

Outside In | Humans need a new relationship with fire to control global warming

Rather than end wildfires, humanity’s challenge is to restrain destructive fire and reduce the amount of combustion driving climate change.

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A firefighter tries to extinguish a fire burning in the Koropi suburb near Athens on June 19. Scores of Greek firefighters and water-bombing aircraft were trying to contain a large wildfire on the fringes of Athens that forced authorities to issue evacuation orders for two nearby settlements. Photo: AP
Climate change

Inside Out | Oranges just the latest food hit by climate change. They won’t be the last

After bananas and coffee, oranges are the latest breakfast staple to succumb to disease and weather as Brazil’s crop collapses.

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A man sells orange juice in Bethlehem on May 31. Global orange juice prices – already close to double from a year ago – are rising ever higher. Photo: Ian Neubauer
Trade

Outside In | A world facing a polycrisis needs multilateralism more than ever

While the end of globalisation is much touted today, nations are grappling with too many issues that cannot be solved unilaterally.

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Technology

Inside Out | Why average runners don’t need to keep pace with hi-tech shoe advances

Sports shoe tech development is moving at a sprinter’s speed, with smart shoes offering wearers more information than ever. Such advances are, however, far beyond the needs of most runners, who would be better off looking for discounts at outlet stores.

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