Author: HeraldStar

By Qaiser Nawab, Chairman BRISD The United States State Department recently sent a diplomatic letter to 35 countries, urging them to make a binary choice in global artificial intelligence competition. The message was blunt: alignment with one bloc or the other, with implicit threats of exclusion for those who venture across the divide.Yet as this diplomatic ultimatum circulates through government channels, a different story is unfolding on the ground. Across development platforms, academic institutions, and private companies worldwide, millions of engineers and researchers are making their own choices—not based on geopolitical instructions, but on practical utility and technical merit. The…

By Qaiser Nawab In August, the U.S. Federal Reserve faced a familiar dilemma: the economic data offered no clear path forward. Inflation remains stubbornly elevated, employment figures sent mixed signals, and producer prices show no sign of easing. The result is a central bank caught between competing pressures, with rate cuts appearing increasingly unlikely in the near term. For global markets—including Pakistan—this prolonged period of higher American interest rates carries significant implications that deserve careful scrutiny. The recent economic indicators paint a complicated picture. The U.S. Consumer Price Index rose 3.4 percent year-over-year in July, with core inflation at 2.5…

By Qaiser Nawab, Chairman BRISD It is universally acknowledged that made-in-China products have reshaped global markets. From air conditioners that European households are relying on to cope with scorching summers, to solar panels that enable millions of families to navigate volatile energy prices, to AI components powering the next generation of digital technologies… The ubiquitous presence of Chinese manufacturing could incur closer examination. However, framing its export strength as excess capacity might risk overlooking something more important. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the world’s manufacturing centers have never remained static. First was Britain. In 1880, its industrial output…

By Qaiser Nawab, Chairman BRISD China’s foreign trade crossed 25 trillion yuan in the first half of 2026 — roughly $3.75 trillion — marking the first time it has surpassed that threshold in any first-half period. The 16.9 percent year-on-year increase is impressive in a difficult global environment. Exports rose 13.4 percent to 14.73 trillion yuan, while imports grew faster at 22.1 percent to 10.74 trillion yuan. On the surface, these are more superlatives from the world’s manufacturing powerhouse. Look closer, however, and the figures reveal something more interesting: tentative but meaningful signs of rebalancing in China’s economic model. Stronger…

By Qaiser Nawab, Chairman BRISD Beijing has released its 15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption, setting an ambitious target: lifting total retail sales of consumer goods toward 60 trillion yuan (roughly $8.8 trillion at current exchange rates) by 2030. Coming after China crossed 50 trillion yuan for the first time only last year, the goal marks a significant shift in economic strategy. For decades, China’s five-year plans focused on investment, manufacturing, and exports. This one centers on getting ordinary Chinese households to spend more. A target that is also an instruction Sixty trillion yuan is not a passive forecast but…

By Qaiser Nawab, Chairman, BRISD Global AI governance had a busy week. Days after the United Nations held its first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, 29 countries signed the founding agreement of the World AI Cooperation Organization (WAICO) in Shanghai, where the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) also produced a run of governance outcomes: a UN industrial AI governance framework developed with Chinese and British institutions, initiatives on interoperability and trust among AI agents, an international action plan on AI ethics, and Chinese pledges of training and cooperation for developing economies, among many others. Behind it all, China…

By Qaiser Nawab, Chairman BRISD As Tropical Cyclone Maila approached Papua New Guinea in April, meteorologists were not relying on conventional forecasting tools alone.On China’s cloud-based early warning platform, images from Fengyun meteorological satellites tracked the evolution of the storm, while forecasts from the China Meteorological Administration’s CMA-GFS numerical weather prediction system and its AI-powered Fengqing model provided projections of the cyclone’s path, winds and rainfall. Ruben Wamuni, a meteorologist at the Papua New Guinea National Weather Service, said the AI model accurately captured the strengthening and subsequent weakening of winds over Port Moresby, while also identifying the rainfall process…

By Qaiser Nawab, Chairman BRISD Ten years after a car accident left him with impaired hand function, a patient at Shanghai’s Huashan Hospital received the world’s first commercial implant of a regulator-approved invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) on July 13. The surgery utilized Neuracle Technology’s NEO system, which collects and decodes epidural brain signals to restore hand mobility through external assistive devices. The landmark surgery took place four months after the NEO system secured Class III medical device registration from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) on March 13, 2026—making it the first implantable BCI medical device cleared for commercial prescription…

BY HADIA SAFEER CHOUDHRY The latest round of tariffs announced by the United States has once again reminded the world that trade policy is no longer guided solely by economics. Decisions once driven primarily by comparative advantage and market efficiency are increasingly shaped by domestic priorities, industrial policy, supply-chain resilience, and broader strategic considerations. Whether one agrees with these measures or not, they signal that global commerce is entering a new phase—one in which governments are more willing to intervene in markets they once sought to liberalise. Tariffs themselves are not new. They have long been used to protect domestic…

The China-Sri Lanka Readers Forum on Xi Jinping: The Governance of China (Volume V) was held on July 3 in Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka, bringing together nearly 300 participants including government officials, business leaders, scholars, and media representatives from China and Sri Lanka. Jagath Wickramaratne, speaker of the parliament of Sri Lanka, remarked that the new volume offers valuable perspectives for the world to better understand China’s governance approaches, development vision, innovative concepts and proposals for international cooperation. He noted that China-Sri Lanka ties have continued to deepen in recent years, with high-quality Belt and Road cooperation entering…