Editor’s note for Monday, January 10, 2022

My thoughts today:

India-China tensions spiked up again last week. In our second story today, veteran reporter on India-China affairs Ananth Krishnan looks at the causes and likely outcome of the latest troubles.

While the various events in recent weeks don’t amount to serious escalations, they are nonetheless being perceived that way in India. It is a reminder that domestic politics can often force governments’ hands with regards to international events, especially when nationalism or populism are on the rise. This will be a danger to the world throughout 2022 in India, China, Russia, the U.S., and many other countries.

We have a new column, Phrase of the Week. Every Friday, Andrew Methven will introduce a piece of Chinese language from the Chinese political and cultural world as used in Chinese media. Click here for the archive (two columns so far).

Our word of the day is fertility incentive fund (鼓励生育基金 gǔlì shēngyù jījīn, literally “encourage birth fund”) — see our top story today for details.

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief