Wait what CC Sabathia???

EV endgame: Stalling China’s export surge in Europe’s southern neighbourhood – European Council on Foreign Relations Chinese electric vehicle brands are adapting to Western trade barriers by increasing their presence in the Middle East and North Africa. Europe’s response must

📖 Chinese EV brands are adapting to Western trade barriers by increasing their presence in the MENA, challenging Europe's interests in the global EV competition and deepening China's influence in the region. @camillelons.bsky.social @byfordt.bsky.social @jonathanfulton.bsky.social buff.ly/BUMR8Eh

I haven’t read either column, but I suspect the titles are doing a lot of the work here, and we all know how rarely the author gets any input into a title for these pieces

EV endgame: Stalling China’s export surge in Europe’s southern neighbourhood – European Council on Foreign Relations Chinese electric vehicle brands are adapting to Western trade barriers by increasing their presence in the Middle East and North Africa. Europe’s response must

📖NEW @ecfr.eu brief by @camillelons.bsky.social, @byfordt.bsky.social & @jonathanfulton.bsky.social: Chinese electric vehicle brands are adapting to Western trade barriers by increasing their presence in the MENA region. Europe's response must go beyond merely closing the loopholes 🧵 buff.ly/desxCDF

APNewsAlert: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — #Iran issues its own ceasefire proposal, calling for war reparations and sovereignty over Strait of Hormuz.

China Auto Dealers Sink Deeper Into Losses Amid Brutal Price War More than half of dealerships lost money in 2025 as discounting intensified and regulators curbed finance commissions

Caixin: "The China Automobile Dealers Association said in a report that 55.7% of dealerships lost money last year, up 14 percentage points from 2024, as intense competition forced them to sell vehicles below cost."
www.caixinglobal.com/2026-03-20/c...

New by me and Andrew England: Gulf leaders opposed a strike, but they are now caught between wanting the conflict to end and fear that — if Trump suddenly stops — the war will leave a wounded, emboldened and more hardline Iran.

Today, we're publishing Don't Steal This Book - a (mostly) empty book from almost 10,000 authors, protesting the theft of their work by AI companies.

🧵 1/3

[COPY] China and Iran: A Reading List For those of you looking to get up to speed on China-Iran relations, I put this reading list together in October 2024, four days before the Israeli bombing campaign that took out a lot of Iran’s air d...

substack.com/@jonathanful...

With the Iran War, the U.S. Is Making Beijing's Case for Multipolarity I’ve avoided doing media spots mostly since this war broke out.

open.substack.com/pub/chinamen...

They killed 180 children and their teachers in a double-tap strike on a school. The girls were 7 to 12 years old.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards commander said the Strait of Hormuz is closed and Iran is to set any ship trying to pass on fire, Iranian media reported. Live updates ➡️ reut.rs/4aK7TEn

Another friend put it to me like this: "ICE has made the classic Nazi mistake. They've invaded a winter people in the winter."

China and Iranian Protests. I was on a client call yesterday with an international financial institution and the topic was the protests in Iran.

In addition to commentary, today’s post includes a China-Iran reading list and 6 video conversations with experts on the China-Iran relationship: open.substack.com/pub/chinamen...

Dozens of Chinese EV makers under pressure to fold or trim operations: analysts Grappling with expiring cash subsidies and tax incentives, China’s car market is forecast to see deliveries slump next year.

www.scmp.com/business/chi...

Fun Christmas read

Who Can Solve Iran’s Many Problems? Not I, Says the President.

Who Can Solve Iran’s Many Problems? Not I, Says the President. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/w...

Beijing’s Gulf trade charm offensive meets familiar resistance A GCC-China trade deal (free trade agreement / FTA) promises multilateralism but threatens nascent Gulf manufacturing

When Wang Yi came to the Gulf the China-GCC FTA was high on his agenda. In my latest column for AGBI I write about why I don't see a FTA any time soon: www.agbi.com/opinion/trad...

At a time when the Islamic Republic has lost most of its influence in the Middle East it looked especially vulnerable. That it gets to host troops from Russia, China, India and the rest of the SCO members gives Tehran a bit of a lift.

SCO Runs Sahand 2025 Joint Exercises in Iran Plus: Syria-Xinjiang analysis, Chinese investment in Egypt's SCZone, ChinaMed analysis on Moroccan FM visit to China, UAE delegation to PRC on education and AI

The SCO is running Sahand 2025 joint security exercises in Iran. Not to inflate the organizational significance of the SCO, but it does represent a well-timed gift for the Iranian government. chinamenanewsletter.substack.com/p/sco-runs-s...

I suspect a turn away from great power competition will result in a lot more regional competitions, and less predictability in international politics.

Nobody in the Western hemisphere wants to be part of a MAGA-led bloc, and most of Asia's advanced economies are repelled by Xi's PRC.

Since neither Trump nor Xi have especially compelling models for how the world's supposed to work, I don't see this spheres of influence model being very successful.

That the US is being terribly governed and mismanaging its international relations doesn't make up for the fact that the same is true for China.

I take issue with the triumphalism expressed by some of the Chinese think tankers and and academics here, but I haven't actually been to China since 2019, so maybe the mood is more optimistic than I hear from Chinese friends and colleagues.

A Newly Confident China Is Jockeying for More Global Clout as Trump Pulls Back Feeling empowered after a clash over trade, Beijing is looking to exploit America’s inward turn.

A sobering read from @yarotrof.bsky.social: www.wsj.com/world/china/...

Up next: Canada First, Not Canada Alone by @asamckercher.bsky.social and @achapnick.bsky.social. One chapter in and really enjoying

Exclusive | Trump, After Call With China’s Xi, Told Tokyo to Lower the Volume on Taiwan Japan, a U.S. ally that had angered China on Taiwan, found the message worrying.

Nothing's shocking: www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

Visits by Canada and South Korea show the UAE is not all about the superpowers Visits to the UAE from leaders from Canada and South Korea remind us that there is still room for countries other than the US and China

In my latest column for AGBI I looked at recent visits to the UAE from South Korean President Lee and Canadian PM Carney. Middle powers in the Middle East: www.agbi.com/opinion/trad...