Countering the security threat from the rise of China will be an important part of Nato’s future rationale, the alliance’s chief has said, marking a significant rethink of the western alliance’s objectives that reflects the US’s geostrategic pivot to Asia.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said China was already having an impact on European security through its cyber capabilities, technologies and long-range missiles.
The FT reported over the weekend that China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August, demonstrating an advanced long-range weapons capability that surprised US intelligence and underscored the rapid military progress China has made on next-generation weapons.
The military alliance has spent decades focused on countering Russia and, since 2001, terrorism. The focus on China comes amid a shift in US orientation away from Europe to a hegemonic conflict with Beijing.
Stoltenberg, who is set to step down next year after almost eight years at the helm of Nato, told the FT:
“China is coming closer to us . . . We see them in the Arctic. We see them in cyber space. And of course they have more and more high-range weapons that can reach all Nato allied countries.”
Do you think Nato is right to pivot towards China? Email your thoughts to me gordon.smith@ft.com. Thanks for reading FirstFT Americas. Here is the rest of today’s news.
Five more stories in the news
1. Goldman Sachs granted full ownership of China securities venture The green light was given by China’s Securities Regulatory Commission and will allow the Wall Street bank to expand in China as Beijing eases restrictions on foreign companies in its finance industry. “This marks the start of a new chapter for our China business following a successful 17-year joint venture,” Goldman said in a memo to staff earlier today.
2. Apple’s privacy changes create windfall for its ad business The tech group’s advertising business has more than tripled its market share in the six months after it introduced privacy changes to iPhones that obstructed rivals, including Facebook, from targeting ads at consumers.
3. Democrats opposed to Biden spending bill raise record funds Moderate Democrats in the Senate and the House of Representatives who have stood in the way of Joe Biden’s $3.5tn “Build Back Better” agenda raised record sums of money in the third quarter. There were big contributions from the oil and gas, pharmaceutical and financial services industries, filings released over the weekend show.
4. Man held under Terrorism Act after killing of British MP A 25-year-old British citizen has been named as the terror suspect arrested for the killing of Conservative MP Sir David Amess on Friday. Amess, the representative for Southend West in Essex, on the south coast of England, was stabbed multiple times during a meeting with constituents.
US universities turn on spending taps Some of the most prestigious universities in the US are heeding calls to spend more on students and staff after their endowments notched the strongest returns in decades thanks to booming asset prices. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College last week joined Harvard, which said in April it would increase distributions from its endowment fund that gained a third in a year.
Coronavirus digest
China’s economy grew at 4.9 per cent year on year in the third quarter compared with the previous year and just 0.2 per cent on a quarter-by-quarter basis. Is China’s economic model broken? Global China editor James Kynge and Beijing correspondent Sun Yu discuss the question in this video.
The Biden administration will drop US travel restrictions for vaccinated foreign nationals from November 8.
A panel of top US scientists on Friday recommended approving Johnson & Johnson’s application to provide a second shot of its Covid-19 vaccine. Sales of BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna jabs are forecast to almost double in 2022.
The UK’s weekly death rate last week stood at 12 per million, three times the level of other major European nations. Data journalist John Burn-Murdoch and health reporter Oliver Barnes explain why.
The day ahead
Jury selection begins in Arbery trial Jury selection will begin in the trial of the white Georgia men charged in connection with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man. (NBC News, FT)
2022 Beijing winter Olympics torch lighting ceremony Two activists opposing the 2022 Games over China’s human rights record were arrested in Athens yesterday ahead of the torch-lighting ceremony. (Reuters)
What else we’re reading
Does Uber deserve its $91bn valuation? Despite its valuation, the ride-hailing company still loses money. For more than a decade, investors have accepted billions of dollars of losses. Now, Uber is pledging to balance the books but it faces legal challenges as our Lex team explains.
Supply chain lessons from Long Beach Port disruptions have shed light on bigger problems in the global economy, from incompatibilities of skills and jobs, to an over-reliance on China as the provider of any number of crucial goods, writes Rana Foroohar.
Developing economies could fall off the convergence process Globally, macroeconomic challenges are mounting, from higher inflation to supply chain woes. Less attention has been paid to the vulnerability of developing countries. This goes well beyond the short term, writes Mohamed El-Erian.
How to navigate the ‘next normal’ at work Psychotherapist Esther Perel writes that understanding more about human relationships will help business leaders minimise the pandemic’s effects on staff. “We do not disassociate from the outside world — or from our internal states — between 9am and 5pm,” she writes.
FT Executive MBA Ranking 2021 A French, a Chinese and a joint US-Hong Kong programme have held on to the three top spots in the FT’s 2021 Executive MBA Ranking, in a year marked by continued pandemic disruption to work and study. Read the rankings table in full and a summary of the data in charts.
Technology
A one-stop cooking pot and a coffee machine that talks are among four new gadgets for the smarter home.
Source: Economy - ft.com
