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Third quarter 2025 GDP growth impressive despite tariff burden: CEI analysis
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Competitive Enterprise Institute posted the following news release:* * *
Third quarter 2025 GDP growth impressive despite tariff burden: CEI analysis
*
After a shutdown-related delay, the initial estimate for third quarter GDP is in - a strong 4.3 percent growth. That's impressive in the midst of damage wrought by Trump tariffs, says Ryan Young, CEI Senior Economist:
"Although today's release has some qualifiers, it remains good news.
"First, data collection is incomplete due to the shutdown. The third quarter ended on September 30, and ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Competitive Enterprise Institute posted the following news release: * * * Third quarter 2025 GDP growth impressive despite tariff burden: CEI analysis * After a shutdown-related delay, the initial estimate for third quarter GDP is in - a strong 4.3 percent growth. That's impressive in the midst of damage wrought by Trump tariffs, says Ryan Young, CEI Senior Economist: "Although today's release has some qualifiers, it remains good news. "First, data collection is incomplete due to the shutdown. The third quarter ended on September 30, andthe initial estimate was supposed to have come out on October 30. This advance estimate is typically revised twice over the following months on a set schedule. Today's estimate combines the first two estimates and will be revised only once. Even when finalized, it will likely not be as complete as typical GDP estimates.
"Second, the rapid growth was driven mostly by consumer spending. While this is a sign of confidence, people's continued ability to spend depends on the labor market staying strong. It could also add to debt problems if people are spending beyond their means.
"Finally, the fact that GDP grew as fast as it did despite a shrinking manufacturing sector is impressive, though the Trump administration is unlikely to turn to this as a talking point. Likely due to tariffs, manufacturing has now shrunk for nine months in a row."
***
Original text here: https://cei.org/news_releases/third-quarter-2025-gdp-growth-impressive-despite-tariff-burden-cei-analysis/
Manhattan Institute Issues Commentary to New York Post: Race Bait - To Skirt the Law, Colleges Incentivize Applicants to Write 'Identity Essays'
NEW YORK, Dec. 23 -- The Manhattan Institute posted the following excerpts of a commentary on Dec. 22, 2025, to the New York Post:* * *
Race Bait: To Skirt the Law, Colleges Incentivize Applicants to Write 'Identity Essays'
By Wai Wah Chin
Attention high-school seniors: Deadlines are coming up! Polish your dream-college applications, hit send, and hope the admissions game isn't rigged with "race proxies"!
To stay ahead of the curve, consider including your "subjective social status" -- what's good enough for the governor of California should be good enough for admissions officers.
Education ... Show Full Article NEW YORK, Dec. 23 -- The Manhattan Institute posted the following excerpts of a commentary on Dec. 22, 2025, to the New York Post: * * * Race Bait: To Skirt the Law, Colleges Incentivize Applicants to Write 'Identity Essays' By Wai Wah Chin Attention high-school seniors: Deadlines are coming up! Polish your dream-college applications, hit send, and hope the admissions game isn't rigged with "race proxies"! To stay ahead of the curve, consider including your "subjective social status" -- what's good enough for the governor of California should be good enough for admissions officers. Educationgatekeepers are always hunting for fresh metrics to cherry-pick students, especially after the Supreme Court's 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ruling banned racial preferences in college admissions.
Some elite schools produced expected racial shifts post-SFFA, others amazingly kept racial proportions similar to pre-SFFA. Was this by feigning compliance using stealthier "socioeconomic status" preferences?
"Socioeconomic" is deceptive. It sneaks in the term "economic" to win over generous Americans who support helping those with genuine financial need.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post (https://nypost.com/2025/12/22/opinion/race-bait-to-skirt-the-law-colleges-incentivize-applicants-to-write-identity-essays)
* * *
Wai Wah Chin is the founding president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York.
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Original text here: https://manhattan.institute/article/race-bait-to-skirt-the-law-colleges-incentivize-applicants-to-write-identity-essays
[Category: ThinkTank]
Last Christmas, I Gave You My ... Tax Dollars?
PHOENIX, Arizona, Dec. 23 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Goldwater Institute posted the following news:* * *
Last Christmas, I Gave You My... Tax Dollars?
*
Christmas is a time for giving. Unfortunately, some government officials believe that means they can hand out public tax dollars to special interests at year's end. That needs to stop.
Earlier this year, the Goldwater Institute raised concerns that the city of Phoenix illegally spent millions of dollars to subsidize a number of private organizations, some of which promote controversial and ideological causes. Several city departments treated ... Show Full Article PHOENIX, Arizona, Dec. 23 [Category: ThinkTank] -- The Goldwater Institute posted the following news: * * * Last Christmas, I Gave You My... Tax Dollars? * Christmas is a time for giving. Unfortunately, some government officials believe that means they can hand out public tax dollars to special interests at year's end. That needs to stop. Earlier this year, the Goldwater Institute raised concerns that the city of Phoenix illegally spent millions of dollars to subsidize a number of private organizations, some of which promote controversial and ideological causes. Several city departments treatedbudget categories like "Sponsorships," "Miscellaneous," "Grants and Subsidies," and "Emerg[ency] Assist[ance]" as slush funds for preferred groups. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes' investigation into those payments is ongoing more than seven months after Goldwater submitted a formal complaint.
So, what does Christmas have to do with it?
In July, Goldwater sent a follow-up letter to the attorney general highlighting several specific organizations and expenditures that likely violated Arizona law. One of these flagged expenditures raises eyebrows not only due to its amount and budget category, but also for its timing.
On Christmas Eve last year, the city's Office of Arts and Culture sent $24,815.64 to the Sagrado art gallery in South Phoenix as an "Emerg[ency] Assist[ance]" payment.
Why did the city send nearly $25,000 in taxpayer dollars to a private art gallery without consulting the Phoenix City Council? Why did the Sagrado need emergency assistance on Christmas Eve? And why should taxpayers be on the hook for it?
Most of the answers remain unclear. What we do know is that in 2023, the city began allowing its departments to spend up to $32,000 at a time without seeking council approval. That's nearly four times the previous limit of $8,600.
We also know that year-end spending sprees are not a problem unique to Phoenix.
For example, our friends at Open The Books have long documented the problem of "Use-It-Or-Lose-It" spending sprees that occur at the federal level at the end of the federal fiscal year in September. That recurring problem has led Open The Books to declare that "Christmas comes in September, not December, for federal contractors."
Similarly, the Arizona Commerce Authority, which administers a film subsidy program being challenged by the Goldwater Institute, approved more than $750,000 in refundable tax credits during the final three weeks of 2024, more than 83% of the total amount approved for that entire year.
And just last week, the Governor of Wyoming and the Wyoming Energy Authority announced a $100 million "award" (i.e. taxpayer-funded subsidy) for a new nuclear facility, arguing in a public statement that such handouts "are not about government picking winners," even though that's exactly what these types of expenditures do.
Not only is government picking winners and losers when it gives tax dollars to private organizations wrapped in ribbons and bowsit's doing so with your money.
Renowned economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman explained that one problem with public officials spending tax dollars on various projects and causes arises from the fact that when spending someone else's money, concerns about cost are diminished. And when money is spent on someone else, rather than on oneself, less care is taken as to the quality of goods and services. That's one reason why government spending at most levels is so out of control, and why the public is generally dissatisfied with the results.
Generosity and philanthropyespecially at year's endare best accomplished by private individuals and organizations, not bureaucrats and politicians. Government entities everywhere should refrain from burning through piles of public cash during the holiday season on pet projects or causes, however deserving they might seem. That's as true for art galleries and film production as it is for nuclear facilities and other private projects.
The Goldwater Institute will continue to fight these and other abuses of taxpayer money across the country. Maybe next year, tax dollars won't be given to special interests.
Parker Jackson is a Staff Attorney at the Goldwater Institute.
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Original text here: https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/last-christmas-i-gave-you-my-tax-dollars/
Jamestown Foundation Issues Commentary to Eurasia Daily Monitor: Russians Protesting Mounting Problems, But Not Yet Against Putin
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 -- The Jamestown Foundation issued the following commentary on Dec. 22, 2025, in its Eurasia Daily Monitor:* * *
Russians Protesting Mounting Problems, but Not Yet Against Putin
By Paul Goble
Executive Summary:
* Residents of the Russian Federation are facing a growing tide of problems, and some are now taking to the streets to protest. There were more such actions over the last 12 months than in any of the previous four years.
* Those protests have occurred east of the Urals, take place only with permission from local officials, and avoid attacking Russian President ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 -- The Jamestown Foundation issued the following commentary on Dec. 22, 2025, in its Eurasia Daily Monitor: * * * Russians Protesting Mounting Problems, but Not Yet Against Putin By Paul Goble Executive Summary: * Residents of the Russian Federation are facing a growing tide of problems, and some are now taking to the streets to protest. There were more such actions over the last 12 months than in any of the previous four years. * Those protests have occurred east of the Urals, take place only with permission from local officials, and avoid attacking Russian PresidentVladimir Putin, giving the Kremlin another way to gauge popular attitudes and control regional leaders.
* There are few signs that these protests will grow into a movement that might threaten the Kremlin leader or even lay the groundwork for solving Russia's problems and radical change once he departs the scene.
The dimensions of the problems confronting Russians are so daunting that many assessments assume that they will sooner or later rise against the regime responsible and force radical change. Observers both inside Russia and abroad have been encouraged by the growing number of protests that have taken place, with the number of popular actions in the Russian Federation over the last 12 months exceeding the figures for any of the previous four years, and with this increase especially marked in the last three months (Novaya Gazeta, December 16). The potential effects of these protests, however, should not be overstated. Most are small and take place only when local officials give their approval and set the terms of their behavior. Moreover, most are not linked to others focusing on the same issues, and nearly all take place far from Moscow, most often east of the Urals.
These protests are confronted by a regime that has enormous coercive resources and significant reserves of support because of the improvements it made after the crises of the 1990s. The regime also benefits from widespread assumptions among Russians that politics is a dirty business they should stay out of and that, while boyars, as local and regional powers, may be bad, the tsar, whatever his title may be, is fundamentally good--even if sometimes isolated and misinformed by those who represent him. In the case of the most recent protests, participants have appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene on their behalf against officials who are oppressing them, even though they are suffering from policies Putin has set and that regional authorities have little or no power to modify (Levada Center, November 26).
Any members of the elite who might be considering, or even exploiting, such widespread protests to force a change in policy or personnel are themselves products of that regime and share many of its values. Unless such people were to be replaced entirely--as happened in 1917, but not in 1991--there is less chance of fundamental change than many now suggest is inevitable. There is a much greater chance, however, that whoever succeeds Putin will ultimately continue his approach, regardless of promises to the contrary. Such an individual would act just as the current Kremlin leader has done (MOST.Media, December 15). That does not mean that an examination of the major problems confronting Russia is unnecessary or that the protests cannot ever play a positive role, at the margins, in transforming national culture. It means, however, that these factors must be kept in mind even as commentators, ordinary Russians, and academic experts suggest that in 2026 both the problems and protests about them will increase further (Kasparov.ru, December 4; Levada Center December 9; The Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, December 16).
Russians are facing numerous pressing problems under current conditions, some of which have already sparked protests. First, the war against Ukraine and the problem of returning veterans are continuously concerning issues in Russian society. Even if a settlement is reached, Putin's war against Ukraine is not ending as a problem for the Russian people. It is only changing shape--and perhaps becoming even more serious. Russian attention to the enormous loss of life and substantial amount of money diverted from other purposes to fund the fighting continues. Russians, however, are focusing more of their attention to the effect of returning veterans. This return appears to be sparking a radical rise in crime. Additionally, Putin's effort to make the veterans the new elite is not only threatening the lives of ordinary Russians but raising questions about the fate of members of the current elite (see EDM, October 9; Window on Eurasia, December 1, 14; Verstka, December 9).
Second, Russia is facing mounting economic difficulties as the war continues. Russian officials have acknowledged that the country has entered a recession, and some even talk about the more serious threat of stagflation, the result of both enhanced sanctions and Moscow's failure to repair or replace existing infrastructure and machinery. As a result, not only is production in many sectors, especially in consumer goods, falling, but workers in an increasing number of cases are not being paid or are losing their jobs. Inflation is hurting everyone, the less well-off in particular (see EDM, October 27, November 20; Window on Eurasia, November 2, December 14).
Third, Russia is experiencing a rise in collapsing housing and infrastructure. With the arrival of winter, an increasing number of Russians are living without heat, electricity, or plumbing because the authorities have failed to repair or replace aging housing and other facilities. Those problems--most widely covered when they hit apartments, hospitals, and stores--are characteristic of Russian infrastructure as a whole, including transportation and communication links, mines, and gas and oil fields (see EDM, November 4; Window on Eurasia, December 11; Govorit Moskva, December 16).
Fourth, the environment is degrading. The Putin regime has always prioritized economic development over environmental protection or the people who depend on it. For the last year, Russians have been watching as volunteers have tried to clean up oil spills both in the south and in the north without much help and often with the opposition of the government. They now face a challenge in Lake Baikal, where Putin has signed off on legislation that will open the way to almost unrestricted economic development of the shoreline, which is almost sacred to most Russians. They continue to try to cope with the construction of new trash dumps in places near where people live. Many of the protests focus on these problems as NIMBY ("Not in my back yard") issues, but there is growing recognition that they are more than that (Meduza; The Moscow Times, December 15).
Fifth, transportation and communication problems are mounting. Rising prices and taxes are ending the era of mass car ownership in Russia, highways and railroads are in trouble, and air travel is becoming more difficult as Moscow closes airports and regional carriers shut down. Moscow has had to cancel or at least postpone various projects that Putin has personally invested in (Nezavisimaya Gazeta; Govorit Moskva, December 3). At the same time, Russians face increasingly frequent internet disruptions, which are already having grave social consequences (Window on Eurasia, October 7, 12, and December 16).
Sixth, Russia is seemingly becoming ever "less Russian." Russians, including the Kremlin, are worried about demographic changes arising from the influx of Central Asian and Caucasian migrant workers and the high fertility rates among many non-Russians compared to the radical decline in those rates among ethnic Russians (see EDM, October 7). The combination of those two factors is leading to an ever less Russian Russia, with some predicting that the country will have a Muslim majority by 2075. Even if that is extreme, changes in the country's demography are intensifying ethnic and religious tensions and conflicts (see EDM, December 2; Window On Eurasia, December 15).
Seventh, Russians have a sense that they are increasingly losing prestige as a country and a civilization. They now face far greater travel restrictions, the number of non-Russians seeking to acquire Russian citizenship has cratered, and signs in Chinese have gone up in the Russian Far East, one of the consequences of Putin's turn to the east since the start of the expanded war in Ukraine (see EDM, October 26, 2023). Moreover, they have suffered several technogenic disasters that have received much attention abroad. The latest of these was an explosion at the Baikonur space facility in Kazakhstan (Svobodnaya Pressa, November 28; Novaya Gazeta, December 15; The Moscow Times, December 16).
Eighth, Russians have been facing higher and higher taxes, both direct and indirect, to finance the war against Ukraine. They have done so at a time when the government has been cutting back on medical services and other services on which Russians have traditionally relied (Window on Eurasia, November 24, December 6).
Finally, the regime in Moscow is facing problems itself. Financial stringencies resulting from the war, both in Moscow and the regions, have not only led to the cancellation or delay of many key projects but also put regional governments on the brink of catastrophe and opened the way for some governors to act more independently. It has even led to a decline in the number of police and security services on whom both the population and regime rely. The war has also led to a radical decline in the number of policemen on the beat in Russia, as officers have joined up for better-paying jobs in the military. Putin's plan to integrate veterans into the existing elite is prompting some in the elite to wonder about their own fate (see EDM, October 9, 30, November 18; Kavkaz.Realii, December 4; Window on Eurasia, December 10; Sibirskii Economist, December 16).
In most countries, this mix of increasingly serious problems would spark massive protests, changes in government policies, or the replacement of current leaders with new ones. That has not been the case in Russia despite the sharp increase in protests over the last few months. Instead, these actions have remained small, isolated, tightly regulated by local officials, and have not spread, except in a microscopically small number of cases (Gorozontal'naya Rossia, December 15). Both individually and collectively, these protests show that while Russians are anything but happy with the situation they find themselves in now and fear that it will only get worse, they are not ready to take to the streets in massive numbers either because of longstanding cultural values or the fear of repression.
In addition to those explanations for the relative paucity of protest, there are other, more immediate reasons to think that Russians as a whole are considerably happier with their lot than many suspect and that they are less likely to support a radical revision in policies or leadership than many hope. One of the most thoughtful and significant expressions of why that is the case comes in two articles by the Levada Center's Lev Gudkov, who has been monitoring what has changed and, significantly, what has not changed in Russian attitudes for decades (Levada Center, November 26; MOST.Media, December 15).
In the first of these articles published by the Levada Center, the pollster says that surveys his organization and others have conducted in recent years show that Russians have become more satisfied with their lot. He argues that the result is primarily due to the Kremlin's skill in giving them a way to channel their internal aggression by attacking minorities at home and Ukraine abroad, and thus allowing them to recover the sense that Russia is a great power. He adds that the dominant attitude among Russians has changed from one that reflected the view that "it is difficult to live, but it is possible to hold on" between 1994 and 2019 to "everything is not so bad and it is possible to live" more recently. As that more positive assessment has become dominant, the formerly dominant one of despair has declined precipitously. In 1998-1999, 61 percent of Russians said it was not possible to continue living as they were. Today, Gudkov argues, the share of Russians who feel that way is down to five percent. That limits the number of people prepared to protest about things that bother them significantly (Levada Center, November 26).
He points to five changes that explain this. These include a decline in poverty, price increases for raw materials, the rejection of the heightened expectations many had in the 1990s for improvement overnight, and "the stabilization of life under conditions of a new and authoritarian regime." This has allowed Russians to express their anger and feel that they are a great power. According to Gudkov, however, "the collapse of the basic system-forming institutions of Soviet totalitarianism ... did not affect other crucial institutions of this system, including the political police, army, courts, and education, and thus did not lead to the liberalization of mass consciousness" (Levada Center, November 26).
As a result, the sociologist continues, most Russians have retained "an authoritarian structure of consciousness." People expect, although do not demand from the state, "primarily an improvement in their standard of living, protection from arbitrary actions by the bottom of the bureaucracy and criminals, but not seeking freedom and political rights" (Levada Center, November 26). Over the last decade, he continues:
The return to great power rhetoric, to the struggle with 'color revolutions' and against 'a fifth column,' confrontation with the West after the Baltic republics joined the [European Union] and [North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)] were thus greeted by 'society' with understanding, relief and approval (Levada Center, November 26).
This popular response helps to explain the return of authoritarianism. It is not just the product of the actions of Putin and his regime, but also about the response of the still authoritarian Russian people to what he is doing. Putin pursues a more aggressive foreign policy abroad,as in Ukraine, and a more repressive one at home against migrants and other minorities to vector popular discontent away from his regime (Levada Center, November 26).
In his second article, published by MOST.Media, Gudkov argues that the hopes that Russia will fundamentally change course after Putin's departure from power are often overstated (MOST.Media, December 15). Both the degradation that Russian society has experienced under Putin and the authoritarian temptation will almost certainly continue long into the future. Given the disappointments Russians have suffered from the failure of reforms in the 1990s, they do not see any real alternative to the authoritarianism they defer to. Gudkov continues, "all preceding culture which we have had was a hypocritical adaptation to the existing order and to a repressive state" (MOST.Media, December 15). That state weakened somewhat in the 1990s, "but our people then wanted not freedom but an increase in consumption and wanted to live as in Western countries."
Even in the 1990s, he points out, only a few organizations, primarily supported by grants from abroad, genuinely wanted democracy. As a result, "the main institutions of a totalitarian society, that is, the army, [Committee for State Security (KGB)], and judicial system," remained in place even if they were renamed. The Russian population accepted this as "as a given" rather than seeing it as something that must be changed. The Putin regime has done everything it can to encourage such attitudes, the sociologist says. Any change in the bureaucracy or the population is unlikely anytime soon. There is a chance, of course, "but it is weak." Expecting that it will happen without some cataclysmic event is almost certainly an illusion (MOST.Media, December 15).
Levada Center polls show that "80 to 85 percent of Russians do not want to take part in politics, viewing it as 'a dirty business' or something for which they do not have time." Russians are unlikely to mobilize and put pressure on the state for real change and will continue to defer to it, something Putin's successors will exploit as he has. Gudkov concludes, therefore, that:
The most likely scenario is a gradual decline of Russia to the status of a regional power, weak and corrupt, a type of pariah state dependent on more powerful countries like China. In response, democratic countries will erect some kind of fence, a barrier, to isolate this disaster zone (MOST.Media, December 15).
Gudkov's arguments explain much of what is now happening in Russia, especially the relations between the Russians and their rulers, and his predictions are persuasive. Positive change will only occur if there is a radical shock, such as the loss of a war or the wholesale collapse of order inside Russia. The new wave of protests is encouraging. By itself, however, it is not going to be enough to bring about transformation, no matter how welcome it may be to see Russians act in ways that suggest at least some of them believe that they, rather than "the powers," should be in a position to make decisions for themselves and their country.
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Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia.
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Original text here: https://jamestown.org/russians-protesting-mounting-problems-but-not-yet-against-putin/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Jamestown Foundation Issues Commentary to China Brief: New Quality Combat Forces Underpin Military Modernization
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 -- The Jamestown Foundation issued the following commentary on Dec. 22, 2025, in its China Brief:* * *
New Quality Combat Forces Underpin Military Modernization
By Arran Hope
Executive Summary:
* "New quality combat forces," which refers to the integration of emerging technologies with military capabilities, are increasingly important to Chinese military modernization, according to authoritative policy documents and commentaries in Party media.
* The concept is important to the Party's attempts to design a national system that fuses economic progress and military strength ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 -- The Jamestown Foundation issued the following commentary on Dec. 22, 2025, in its China Brief: * * * New Quality Combat Forces Underpin Military Modernization By Arran Hope Executive Summary: * "New quality combat forces," which refers to the integration of emerging technologies with military capabilities, are increasingly important to Chinese military modernization, according to authoritative policy documents and commentaries in Party media. * The concept is important to the Party's attempts to design a national system that fuses economic progress and military strengthinto an overarching "national strategic system and capabilities."
* Technological progress is undermined by ongoing issues within the People's Liberation Army, such as corruption, political unreliability, and governance issues.
The last few months of 2025 have seen a proliferation of authoritative policy documents and commentaries discussing "new quality combat forces", a term that refers to the integration of emerging technologies with military capabilities. These include the Central Committee's "Recommendations" for the 15th Five-Year Plan, a commentary on the plan by Central Military Commission (CMC) Vice-Chair Zhang Youxia, and other articles in authoritative media penned by military theorists and scholars. These pronouncements provide more detailed insight into what the term means, how it relates to other concepts such as "advanced combat forces", and its increasing importance to the Party's notion of systems confrontation./[1] They also warn against over-indexing on technological development as a marker of military modernization, warning that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) still must improve in a number of other areas, such as cultivating personnel who are both technically competent and politically reliable.
New Quality Combat Forces Underpin Push for Intelligentized Warfare
The PLA has been discussing "new quality combat forces" for decades (FMSO Foreign Perspectives Brief, December 2024). But the concept has become much more prominent in PLA discourse following Party assessments that new and emerging technologies are beginning to significantly impact the nature of warfare. General Secretary Xi Jinping first used the phrase in January 2019 at the CMC's military work conference, where he called for "increasing the proportion of new-type combat capabilities" (People's Daily, November 17). It received wider attention after the Two Sessions meetings in 2024, when Xi used it in conjunction with an analogue phrase for the economic sphere, "new quality productive forces" .
PLA scholars and theorists have varying definitions for "new quality combat forces." A 2015 People's Daily article, for instance, defines the term succinctly as a "system combat capability based on information systems" (People's Daily, November 29, 2015). A more recent definition, in a PLA Daily article from June 2024, adds a little more nuance, defining the term as a "novel form of combat capability developed through emerging technological means and operational concepts" (MND, June 27, 2024). A discussion of the topic from December describes it as a "key force for winning on the future battlefield" (PLA Daily, December 4).
The December 4 article, coauthored by scholars at the Academy of Military Science and the Nanjing Political Academy, is one of the more detailed discussions of "new quality combat forces" to date. It frames ongoing developments in military technology in grandiose theoretical terms as the "acceleration of decision-making from 'carbon-based' to 'silicon-based'", and "from 'cell bodies' to 'intelligent entities'". It also argues that decision-making is "even evolving toward a 'human-out-of-the-loop' model". This evolution is based on the direction of travel "toward intelligent, unmanned, and cross-domain operations" and "toward long-range precision, intelligence, stealth, and unmanned operations in weaponry and equipment". This echoes a PLA Daily article from May 2024, which defined the "quality" in "new quality combat forces" as referring to informatized, intelligent, and precision combat capabilities (PLA Daily, May 2, 2024). The reference to a "human-out-of-the-loop" model is also echoed in other writing on "new quality combat forces," such as a November article arguing that AI-powered autonomous weapon systems are evolving "from 'execution tools' to 'intelligent nodes'" (People's Daily, November 17).
Among the technologies that PLA is prioritizing, according to military scholars, are drones, including unmanned systems of all kinds, that are "transitioning from a supporting role on past battlefields to a primary combat role". Also in development are technologies that intersect with biology, such as brain science and human-machine interfaces, as well as bionic robots, and smart ammunition. And intelligent algorithms are viewed as central for decision-making, to be integrated into command chains at "every stage of the kill chain", "enabling victory before the battle begins". These novel technologies are enabling the expansion of the battlespace into the emerging frontiers of the deep sea, outer space, cyberspace, and the cognitive domain, and are leading to the development of new tactics and phenomena such as "deepfakes and information silos" (PLA Daily, December 4).
New Quality Combat Forces Key to the National Strategic System and Capabilities
A November article situates "new quality combat forces" in the context of "advanced combat forces." The exact relationship between the two is unclear: other articles state that they essentially refer to the same thing, or that the former is representative of the latter (Party Building Research, 2024; PLA Daily, December 4). The November article instead describes new quality combat forces as "leading and supporting" advanced combat forces, and as the foundations upon which an "advanced combat capability paradigm" is being built. In this sense, advanced combat forces refer to a broader set of capabilities that "emphasize the leading position of new quality combat forces but also prioritize the 'excellence' of their effective application". This view is most evident in Zhang Youxia's commentary, which calls for "accelerating the construction of advanced combat forces", including by "achieving substantive breakthroughs in new quality combat forces" (People's Daily, November 12).
In other words, the concept of advanced combat capabilities embeds "new quality combat forces" in an overarching national system. As the November article writes, the concept "shifts the focus of combat effectiveness from weaponry competition to systems confrontation" . For the PRC, the notion that future conflict will be one between national systems entails enhancing synergies between the economic and military sphere. Xi articulated this most clearly in his address to the Two Sessions in 2024, where he called for "promoting the efficient integration and mutual reinforcement of new quality productive forces and new quality combat forces" (Party Members' Net, March 7, 2024)./[2]
This utterance has been repeated frequently in the 20 months since, and especially in the weeks surrounding the 20th Central Committee's fourth plenary session in October. It appeared in identical fashion in the Central Committee's Recommendations, in Zhang Youxia's commentary, and in commentaries by PLA scholars in Guangming Daily--a newspaper run by the Central Committee--and in PLA Daily (Guangming Daily, September 4; People's Daily, November 12, November 17). This level of recitation indicates the importance the Party leadership attaches to the integration of economic and military strength.
Advancing this integration is central to what the Party refers to as the "national strategic system and capabilities" (NSCC). The NSSC, according to analysts Liza Tobin, Addis Goldman, and Katherina Kurata, refers to "the intensification of CCP efforts to integrate all available state resources to pursue national goals and increase China's comprehensive national power." They also note that, in recent years, calls to "build an integrated NSSC" have largely superseded policy discourse on the planning, and implementation of military-civil fusion (MCF) (Frohman and Rausch eds., 2025)./[3] References to "MCF" did not appear in the 14th Five-Year Plan, and do not appear in the Recommendations for the 15th either, but references to the NSSC do. In the latest document, Recommendation number 55 starts by declaring the need to "consolidate and enhance the integrated national strategic system and capabilities" . This phrase also appears in Zhang Youxia's commentary. NSCC requirements in the Recommendations also include ensuring that civilian and military standards are harmonized, that "major infrastructure fully incorporates national defense requirements", and that unity between the military and government, as well as between the military and the people, is consolidated.
The clearest articulation of current PLA thinking on the NSSC comes in the November article in the People's Daily. It states that "the interconnection, mutual influence, and mutual support among national strategic competitiveness, social productivity, and military combat effectiveness are becoming increasingly tight". As such, "new quality productive forces" are "the driving force and support for the upgrading and modernization of new quality combat forces" and a "key variable in reshaping warfare, reconstructing operational systems, and reorganizing command elements" (People's Daily, November 17).
The PLA is clear that emerging technologies are crucial to military modernization, and to building a mutually reinforcing economic and military industrial system. But it is also clear that such technologies on their own are not sufficient for achieving a world-class military. Recent technological progress in the PRC has been impressive, but it is not a panacea. And some warn that overreliance on certain technologies could lead to path dependency that will be difficult to break free from (PLA Daily, December 4).
The PLA Daily has lamented long-standing "technical gaps and capability weaknesses", as well as structural challenges and systemic obstacles (PLA Daily, March 22, 2024, June 27, 2024). Zhang Youxia spent a significant portion of his commentary warning about "harmful influences and entrenched evils", as well as "two-faced individuals". Beyond personnel issues, he also complained about "detachment from actual combat, redundant and fragmented efforts, and inefficient practices".
Conclusion
A tension has emerged in recent years between the PLA's steady progress in developing novel technologies with military applications and an apparent regress in the quality of military personnel required to use them. Even at the top of the military system, 2025 has seen considerable tumult as ongoing corruption investigations have reduced the CMC to its smallest size in decades and left key positions in the Eastern Theater Command and elsewhere vacant (China Brief, October 17, November 14, November 25).
PLA scholars argue that the concept of advanced combat capabilities "transcends the logical limitations of Western combat capability generation theories" (People's Daily, November 17). In 2026 and beyond, how the PLA resolves this tension will be a key indicator of whether implementing its military systems design concepts will result in superior outcomes.
[1] The phrase has no settled translation in English. Some, mirroring the common translation of as "new (quality) productive forces" opt for "new (quality) combat forces." Others prefer "new quality combat capabilities," which is closer to the PRC government's preferred translation, "new combat capabilities." This article uses "new quality combat forces," as this aligns most closely to the original Chinese.
[2] Liza Tobin and coauthors note that translating as "new forces of production" better captures the Marxist origin of the term than Beijing's official English translation, "new quality productive forces." Liza Tobin, Addis Goldman, and Katherine Kurata. "System by Design: The Evolution of China's Military-Civil Fusion Strategy." in Benjamin Frohman and Jeremy Rausch eds., The PLA's Long March toward a World-Class Military: Progress, Obstacles, and Ambitions. The National Bureau of Asian Research, 2025.
[3]Liza Tobin, Addis Goldman, and Katherine Kurata. "System by Design: The Evolution of China's Military-Civil Fusion Strategy." in Benjamin Frohman and Jeremy Rausch eds., The PLA's Long March toward a World-Class Military: Progress, Obstacles, and Ambitions. The National Bureau of Asian Research, 2025.
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Arran Hope is the editor of China Brief at The Jamestown Foundation, where he also has responsibility for additional China-related publications and programming.
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Original text here: https://jamestown.org/new-quality-combat-forces-underpin-military-modernization/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Ifo Institute: Globalization Helps Women in the Economy
MUNICH, Germany, Dec. 23 (TNSxrep) -- ifo Institute issued the following news release:* * *
Globalization Helps Women in the Economy
Globalization promotes legal gender equality worldwide, especially in developing countries, according to a recent study by the ifo Institute. "We can show that globalization improves the legal equality of women and men. The more cross-border trade and cooperation there actually is, the less women are subject to legal discrimination," says ifo researcher Ramona Schmid.
The study data shows that an increase in the country globalization index by a third (which would ... Show Full Article MUNICH, Germany, Dec. 23 (TNSxrep) -- ifo Institute issued the following news release: * * * Globalization Helps Women in the Economy Globalization promotes legal gender equality worldwide, especially in developing countries, according to a recent study by the ifo Institute. "We can show that globalization improves the legal equality of women and men. The more cross-border trade and cooperation there actually is, the less women are subject to legal discrimination," says ifo researcher Ramona Schmid. The study data shows that an increase in the country globalization index by a third (which wouldmake Indonesia, for example, as internationally integrated as the US) would improve the legal equality of women and men by around 12 percent. This equality effect is strongest in poorer countries. The study also shows effects at an individual level. "People in more globalized countries more frequently hold views that support equality for women in areas such as the labor market, politics, and education," says Schmid.
The KOF Globalization Index is the basis for the degree of globalization. The degree of globalization is measured not only by institutional ties (e.g., international trade agreements), but also by the actual cross-border exchange of goods, capital, and services, for example. The basis for legal equality is the World Bank's Women, Business and Law (WBL) Index. Using data from the World Value Survey on over 300,000 people from around 100 countries, the study also shows how globalization affects personal attitudes.
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More Information
2025 Article in Journal
Mehr Globalisierung, mehr Geschlechtergerechtigkeit?
Klaus Grundler, Niklas Potrafke, Ramona Schmid, Jan-Egbert Sturm
ifo Schnelldienst, 2025, 78, Nr. 12 46-50
Learn more (https://www.ifo.de/en/publications/2025/article-journal/mehr-globalisierung-mehr-geschlechtergerechtigkeit)
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Podcast
ifo Podcast: Does Globalisation Make the World of Work Fairer for Women?
Globalisation is changing the world of work. But is it also making it fairer? Can women in particular hope for permanent employment, fairer pay and more opportunities for advancement? Or does global competition even mean that women have to work under even worse conditions? Is the pay gap between women and men narrowing or widening?
Learn more (https://www.ifo.de/en/ifo-podcast-globalisation-and-gender-equality)
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Original text here: https://www.ifo.de/en/press-release/2025-12-23/globalization-helps-women-economy
[Category: ThinkTank]
Capital Research Center: Big Labor's 'Conservative Heart' Isn't Beating
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on Dec. 22, 2025:* * *
Big Labor's "conservative heart" isn't beating
Some on the right gullibly believe Big Labor should be an ally in the battle against wokeism.
By Michael Watson
The nominal conservatives at American Compass have argued that Big Labor has a "conservative heart," and that strengthening unions would allow social policy to pursue the "common good," in the manner proposed by Pope Leo XIII more than a century ago. Noting the power of woke activists in the business world, some conservatives have ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on Dec. 22, 2025: * * * Big Labor's "conservative heart" isn't beating Some on the right gullibly believe Big Labor should be an ally in the battle against wokeism. By Michael Watson The nominal conservatives at American Compass have argued that Big Labor has a "conservative heart," and that strengthening unions would allow social policy to pursue the "common good," in the manner proposed by Pope Leo XIII more than a century ago. Noting the power of woke activists in the business world, some conservatives havesimilarly speculated that perhaps labor unions could provide a counter-balance to what then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) called "management's latest 'woke' human resources fad."
But while it's tempting to buy what American Compass is selling, it's more compelling to suspect that they are just doing the bidding of their principal leftist funder, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Big Labor has already showed what its view of the "common good" is, and it looks not conservative at all.
Bargaining for the Common Good
As an example, there is "Bargaining for the Common Good," a project of the left-wing-to-radical-left Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE).
ACRE campaigns on left-wing economic policies such as "rent cancellation," student debt forgiveness, and banning mergers. It also has campaigned for social-media censorship to control allegedly racist content. The Bargaining for the Common Good website adds two more allied groups, both labor centers within major universities.
The "advisory committee" of activists affiliated with Bargaining for the Common Good is representative of Big Labor as it is, not as one presumes American Compass (if not its Hewlett funders) wish it would be. Sitting on the committee are representatives of the AFL-CIO labor federation and the Communications Workers of America; local union officials from the SEIU, AFSCME, AFT, and NEA; and activists with various labor-union-related advocacy groups.
Two members of the advisory committee are the leaders of America's two worst teachers' unions: Cecily Myart-Cruz of United Teachers Los Angeles (infamous for telling a journalist, on the record: "It's OK that our babies may not have learned all their times tables. They learned resilience. They learned survival.") and Stacy Davis Gates of the Chicago Teachers Union (which has been the subject of not just one but two InfluenceWatch Podcasts for its terribleness).
Bargaining for the Common Good's "Concrete Examples of Bargaining for the Common Good" contains dozens of examples of ridiculous union demands for non-economic leftist dreck. Defunding or refusing to cooperate with the police is repeatedly demanded. Unions demand diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) trainings and mandatory diversity training. Resistance to immigration enforcement is also demanded.
But all that is pretty much par for the course with contemporary Big Labor. Other demands are even more outlandish, and show just how Everything Leftist the Big Labor vision of "common good" is.
The group helpfully lays out model negotiating demands that various unions have made. They are--no prizes for guessing--totally aligned with Everything Leftism on issue areas including race, education, immigration, housing, "climate justice," finance, "public services," and privatization.
Other Big Labor demands
Bargaining for the Common Good's agenda isn't theoretical. It is put into practice by government worker unions.
In Maryland, the Prince George's County Education Association (PGCEA) demanded that the Washington, D.C. suburb "endorse and encourage teachers and students to participate in the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools." It affirmed, "The thirteen guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement highlighted during this week are a means of challenging the insidious legacy of institutionalized racism and oppression that has plagued the United States since its founding." The "thirteen guiding principles" are firmly leftist, and direct "fostering a queer-affirming network," "embracing and making space for trans siblings," and "disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure," among other acts.
SEIU Florida Public Services Union (Local 8) is active in numerous Florida localities. Despite the relative hostility of its state to leftism and government worker unionism, Local 8 demands the socialist workers' paradise. It has demanded "that the city and state stop providing subsidies to companies that rely on fossil fuels as a core component of their business model," which is just the classic watermelon-environmentalism that most American unions endorse.
More ironic is this Local 8 demand: "We demand that the municipality creates its own micro-currency, which can only be spent at local businesses. This currency would comprise a small portion of every public employee's paycheck." Yes, you read that right: Big Labor here endorses payment in scrip, though it stops just shy of endorsing the "company store."
SEIU Local 26 in Minnesota demanded that US Bank "restart remittances to Somalia," which is ironic given recent revelations of massive frauds against the Minnesota government by members of the state's large Somali diaspora.
Health Professionals and Allied Employees, a health-care-sector union in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, demanded that its hospital employer "not sell any of its patients' medical debt to third-party debt-collection agencies."
American Federation of Teachers Local 59 in Minneapolis demanded its district employer "no longer purchase products made by companies owned by Koch Industries," an act of naked partisan discrimination by a municipality.
This list is not exhaustive.
Lessons
The repeated lesson of these examinations of unions' behavior is clear: Big Labor does not want to be a (small-c) conservative countervailing force against the wild social whims of the professional managerial class in business and government. Instead, as Biden administration Acting Labor Secretary and now-Century Foundation scholar Julie Su wrote long before becoming a de facto labor union organizer inside the federal government, "We build critical coalitions not only because of the enhanced potential for favorable outcomes, but also because the process of coalition-building itself sometimes changes each of us."
The critical race theory, the radical environmentalism, the Marxist socialism: That is the point of labor organizing "for the common good." Conservatives should recognize that (as they once did), because Big Labor's supposedly "conservative heart" isn't beating.
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Michael Watson
Michael is Research Director for Capital Research Center and serves as the managing editor for InfluenceWatch.
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Original text here: https://capitalresearch.org/article/big-labors-conservative-heart-isnt-beating/
[Category: ThinkTank]