“What in the World? Weekly Quiz" | Oct 31-Nov 6, 2022

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Last Week’s Quiz Winners

Elmedina Brkic, Jyvaskyla, Finland
Patricia Miletich, Ventura, CA
Nick McCall, Knoxville, TN
Desikan Gandarva, Redmond, WA
Peter Sharadin, Reading, PA
Lee Pasquarella, Seattle, WA
Tucker Handley, North Olmsted, OH
Adam Leff, Bethel, ME
Keeton Chestnut, Cypress, TX
Mary Wilkinson, Streator, IL
Jim Shepherd, Nashville, TN
Hannah Osborne, Chapel Hill, TN
Seth Osborne, Chapel Hill, TN
Rosa Bruggioni, Alcobendas, Spain
Sofia Stations, Bethel, ME
Tim Stewart, Nashville, TN
Emma Farley, Virginia Beach, VA
Rizwan Khan, Bellevue, WA

Hey! Are you on the list of last week winners? If you become a member of TNWAC you could be the end of the month prize winner.

MONTHLY QUIZ PRIZES ARE AWARDED TO DUES PAYING MEMBERS OF THE TNWAC WHO ARE MONG THE WEEKLY WINNERS FOR THAT MONTH.

OCTOBER QUIZ PRIZE

For decades, China’s rise to power was characterized by its reassurance that this rise would be peaceful. Then, as Susan L. Shirk, shows in this sobering, clear-eyed account of China today, something changed.

For three decades after Mao’s death in 1976, China’s leaders adopted a restrained approach to foreign policy. They determined that any threat to their power, and that of the Chinese Communist Party, came not from abroad but from within―a conclusion cemented by the 1989 Tiananmen crisis. To facilitate the country’s inexorable economic ascendence, and to prevent a backlash, they reassured the outside world of China’s peaceful intentions.

Then, as Susan Shirk shows in this illuminating, disturbing, and utterly persuasive new book, something changed. China went from fragile superpower to global heavyweight, threatening Taiwan as well as its neighbors in the South China Sea, tightening its grip on Hong Kong, and openly challenging the United States for preeminence not just economically and technologically but militarily. China began to overreach. Combining her decades of research and experience, Shirk, one of the world’s most respected experts on Chinese politics, argues that we are now fully embroiled in a new cold war.

To explain what happened, Shirk pries open the “black box” of China’s political system and looks at what derailed its peaceful rise. As she shows, the shift toward confrontation began in the mid-2000s under the mild-mannered Hu Jintao, first among equals in a collective leadership. As China’s economy boomed, especially after the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, Hu and the other leaders lost restraint, abetting aggression toward the outside world and unchecked domestic social control. When Xi Jinping took power in 2012, he capitalized on widespread official corruption and open splits in the leadership to make the case for more concentrated power at the top. In the decade following, and to the present day―the eve of the 20th CCP Congress when he intends to claim a third term―he has accumulated greater power than any leader since Mao. Those who implement Xi’s directives compete to outdo one another, provoking an even greater global backlash and stoking jingoism within China on a scale not
seen since the Cultural Revolution.

Here is a devastatingly lucid portrait of China today. Shirk’s extensive interviews and meticulous analysis reveal the dynamics driving overreach. To counter it, she argues, the worst mistake the rest of the world, and the United States in particular, can make is to overreact. Understanding the domestic roots of China’s actions will enable us to avoid the mistakes that could lead to war.

LAST WEEK’S QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

What in the World? Quiz – Week of October 24-30, 2022

1. The third British Prime Minister to resign in three years signaled a deepening political crisis in the United Kingdom. THIS Conservative Party leader misstepped on repairs to Britain’s economic troubles saying, as she offered her resignation, “I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”

A. Theresa May
B. Liz Truss
C. Keira Knightley
D. Elizabeth Mountbatten

Correct Response: B. Liz Truss
https://apnews.com/article/liz-truss-europe-economy-business-e18e6e6007c28f6e11cc1a201c545b71

2. In a move being called “Maximum Xi,” China’s President Xi Jinping was named to a third term in THIS Chinese Communist Party office, customarily limited to two five-year terms. Xi has accumulated more power than Chinese leaders since Chairman Mao Zedong.

A. Chairman
B. Secretary General
C. President
D. Chancellor

Correct Response: B. Secretary General
https://apnews.com/article/xi-jinping-china-beijing-government-and-politics-21fa1812435b563f2532effb4fe5758e

3. Italy’s first woman Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, head of a far-right coalition, began forming the next Italian government, which will include the Forza Italia party led by THIS 86 year-old flamboyant former Prime Minister. He has been criticized for his pro-Putin views underscored by recently leaked audio recordings in which he called the Russian leader “number one among his five best friends.”

A. Silvio Berlusconi
B. Mario Draghi
C. Matteo Salvini
D. Sergio Mattarella

Correct Response: A. Silvio Berlusconi
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63327290

4. Forbes reported THIS social media platform’s parent company in China, ByteDance, had planned to collect data on U.S. citizens, a charge the world’s fastest growing social media app has denied.

A. Twitter
B. Facebook
C. Tik Tok
D. WhatsApp

Correct Response: C. Tik Tok
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63339878

5. Many protestors in the women’s rebellions that have broken out across Iran have called for the removal of THIS 83 year-old spiritual leader who has overseen all aspects of the country’s rule since 1989.

A. Ali Khamenei
B. Ruhollah Khomeini
C. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
D. Ebrahim Raisi

Correct Response: A. Ali Khamenei
https://www.cfr.org/article/irans-protesters-want-khamenei-gone-who-irans-supreme-leader

6. The Election Commission of THIS country ruled that former Prime Minister Imran Khan, ousted in an April no-confidence vote in Parliament, was barred from holding office for five years as a result of selling state gifts and concealing asset as PM. Khan and his party have been battling the government to regain his political standing.

A. Bangladesh
B. Afghanistan
C. India
D. Pakistan

Correct Response: D. Pakistan
https://www.dawn.com/news/1716149/imran-khan-disqualified-in-toshakhana-reference

7. A White House spokesman said troops from THIS country were “now directly engaged on the ground,” referring to support to Russians in Crimea to launch drone attacks against Ukraine.

A. North Korea
B. China
C. Iran
D. Belarus

Correct Response: C. Iran
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/20/john-kirby-russian-soldiers-should-not-agree-to-fight-in-ukraine-00062693

8. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced THIS action in the four-regions illegally annexed from Ukraine and eight Russian regions near the border area, a sign of the Kremlin’s tightening grip.

A. Expanded conscription of service-age men
B. Expropriation of materials to support the “special military operation”
C. Martial law
D. Closure of journalistic enterprises

Correct Response: C. Martial law
https://abcnews.go.com/International/reason-vladimir-putin-imposed-martial-law-ukraine-analysis/story?id=91863245

9. The ongoing feud between THIS pro-Putin Prime Minister of Hugary and the EU took a new turn when he compared the European group to the Soviets who invaded his country in 1956.

A. Andrzej Duda
B. Klaus Iohannis
C. Alar Karis
D. Victor Orban

Correct Response: D. Victor Orban
https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-orban-lashes-eu-marking-1956-anti-soviet-revolt/

10. Forces from THIS Horn of Africa nation have intensified their support of Ethiopia, its former parent country, in the effort to battle rebels in Tigray, a restive region sandwiched between the two.

A. Eritrea
B. South Sudan
C. Djibouti
D. Somaliland

Correct Response: A. Eritrea
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/10/14/tigray-faces-a-new-onslaught-by-eritrean-ethiopian-forces/

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