🌍 Germany finally unveils its China strategy

Hi there Intriguer. The Czech Republic’s Markéta Vondroušová just became the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon, while Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz took home the men’s trophy. The last time someone other than Federer, Nadal, Murray or Djokovic won the men’s tournament, Alcaraz wasn’t even born. Feeling old?

Today’s briefing is a 4 min read:

• 🇩🇪 Germany finally unveils its China strategy.

• 🇦🇪 The UAE shares its plans for hosting COP28.

• ➕ Plus: The trauma of diplomatic typos, how the papers are covering Modi’s visit to France, and what a cheeseburger looks like in Thailand.

1. 🇰🇵 North Korea: Pyongyang’s ambassador to the UN made a rare appearance at the UN Security Council last week (13 July). He defended North Korea’s ICBM launch the day prior and blamed the US for raising tensions on the Peninsula.

2. 🇮🇹 Italy: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni joined Dutch PM Mark Rutte and EU President Ursula von der Leyen on another trip to Tunisia yesterday (Sunday). The trio finalised a long-awaited agreement aimed at addressing irregular migration.

3. 🇵🇰 Pakistan: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif broke ground on a $3.5B China-designed nuclear power plant on Friday (14 July). Pakistan currently generates 8% of its electricity from nuclear power, and hopes to lift that to 20% by 2030.

4. 🇳🇮 Nicaragua: The International Court of Justice rejected on Thursday (13 July) a case that sought to extend Nicaragua’s maritime border into territory claimed by Colombia. Nicaragua’s government promised to respect the court’s decision.

5. 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo: A leading opposition figure and former government minister, Chérubin Okende, was killed last week by unknown assailants. Moise Katumbi, who leads Okende’s political party and plans to run for president in December, called it a “political assassination.”

🇩🇪 Germany | Geopolitics

Germany's first China strategy just dropped

Germany released its long-awaited China strategy on Thursday, as the EU's biggest economy re-thinks how it approaches its top trade partner.

The strategy describes China as a “partner, competitor and systemic rival” that’s “changed" as it seeks more assertively to re-shape the world in its own image. So… Germany says:

• 🚧 It doesn't intend to impede China’s development, but

• ⏳ De-risking is now "urgently needed", particularly in “critical sectors” like medicine, lithium batteries and chip-making, and

• 💰 It calls on German businesses to plan accordingly, as they’ll have to “carry the financial risk more heavily themselves” in the future.

German businesses have been pretty positive in response, saying the strategy:

• 👍 Validates (and incentivises) what they were already doing, but

• 🤷 Some say it’s light on detail and could curb entrepreneurialism.

And for its part, an irritated Beijing said:

• 🔥 It’s a “fatal miscalculation" to see China as the source of risk, and

• 🤝 The two countries are actually “partners, not rivals”.

Intrigue's take: The West has dusted off various d-words to re-calibrate ties with China: de-couple, de-risk, diversify. So here’s another: disentangle.

Germany is entangled in a web of competing interests and concerns: human rights, Beijing-Moscow ties, EU unity, Beijing’s efforts to re-shape global norms, and China’s key role in Germany's own export-led growth.

The sheer complexity of disentangling all this, while managing internal divisions (meticulously documented by China’s state media), might explain why Berlin was still tweaking the strategy hours before it was released.

But initial reactions suggest it’s done a fairly solid job of disentangling in a way that’s coherent, if not always concrete.

Also worth noting:

• Germany’s strategy says it won’t be possible “to overcome the climate crisis without China.”

• Germany’s spy chief warned a parliamentary inquiry last year that “Russia is the storm, China is climate change.”

• Major German companies like Siemens, BASF and Volkswagen have recently released strategies that retain a heavy China focus.

📰 How newspapers covered…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending France’s Bastille Day celebrations

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🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | Climate

COP28’s leader lays out his vision

Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the oil executive and cabinet minister presiding over the UAE’s upcoming COP28 climate summit, shared his plans for the conference last week. Here are some of the key details:

1. 🌡️ 1.5C: Al Jaber says the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C will be the conference’s “single north star”

2. ⚡ Energy: He wants concrete plans to double energy efficiency and hydrogen production, and triple renewable energy capacity, and

3. 🏦 Climate finance: Al Jaber wants rich countries to deliver on their long-standing climate funding pledges to poorer nations.

Intrigue’s take: The UAE’s decision to name an oil executive like Al Jaber as its COP28 president attracted criticism at the time. But in words at least, it seems he’s leaning into the role. And we’ll find out in November/December how much of the world is willing to follow his lead.

Also worth noting:

• Al Jaber also called for the “inevitable and essential […] phase down of fossil fuels.”

• Some climate groups described Al Jaber’s vision as “incoherent” and “confusing”.

• The UAE set stricter emissions reduction targets earlier this year, aiming for a 40% cut by 2030 (up from 31%).

➕ Extra Intrigue

Your weekly roundup of the world’s quirkier headlines.

• Burger King in Thailand has announced a ‘real cheeseburger’ consisting of 20 slices of cheese between two bread buns.

• Birds in Europe are making their nests with anti-bird spikes.

• A Californian otter has had enough of surfers and has started snatching their boards.

• Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has opened an online merch store complete with Bolsonaro party hats and cake decorations.

• A French firefighter has broken the world record for the fastest 100m sprint (while on fire).

• Helsinki’s deputy mayor has been caught defacing public property.

🗳️ Poll time!

😂 Meme of the day

We were really feeling this energy after hitting send on Friday’s Intrigue then spotting typos: the Cuba and Thailand map pins were switched; the NATO summit was in Lithuania (not Latvia), and the correct quiz answer was 1 ‘d’ (Jupiter has 80-95 moons). Thanks to the many Intriguers who wrote in!

Thursday’s poll: This year's Emmy nominees were just announced. Who are you hoping will bring home the 'Best Drama' award?

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌌 Andor (10%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ☎️ Better Call Saul (9%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 👑 The Crown (3%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🐉 House of the Dragon (4%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧟 The Last of Us (10%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 💼 Succession (16%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🍸 The White Lotus (6%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⚽ Yellowjackets (2%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🤷 Who cares? (40%)

Your two cents:

• 🤷 K.S: “I usually lag behind on TV shows and wait till about a year after the hype dies down to binge & everything on my own time”

• 🌌 C: “Andor is the best Star Wars we've had since 'The Empire Strikes Back', and you can't Jedi mind trick me into thinking otherwise.”