Fighting back

China is pressing ahead to combat containment and, after months of restraint, a comprehensive strategy is emerging. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( After months of restraint, China’s strategy is emerging to combat what President Xi Jinping calls containment. Beijing has passed a sweeping new foreign policy law. Read it as a declaration of intent, rather than anything fundamentally new — Xi is putting together a framework to push back against “Western hegemony” and ensure his Communist Party tightens oversight of the government agencies at the front lines of implementation. Key Reading: [China’s New Law Extends Xi’s Combative Foreign Policy Stance]( [China Wants Sanctions Lifted for Military Talks With the US]( [Yellen Says She Hopes to Meet New Leaders on Possible China Trip]( [Xi Vows to Protect Foreign Investors in Charm Offensive]( A key element of that broader agenda is pressuring the US to lift sanctions against China — a condition for high-level discussions to resume between the militaries of both nations. Chinese officials had already refused a Pentagon request for a meeting between their defense chiefs at a security forum this month, citing US restrictions against China’s now Defense Minister Li Shangfu. And domestically, even as President Joe Biden’s administration is said to weigh fresh US curbs to restrict China’s access to chips that power artificial intelligence technologies, Beijing is seeking to stand its ground and take the lead. Policymakers have already set their sights on galvanizing the considerable strengths of the country’s billionaires and bureaucrats to focus obsessively on winning the global AI race. So far, Chinese retaliation against the US and its allies has largely lacked bite. But by enshrining Xi’s foreign policy plan into law, spelling out Beijing’s demands and rallying the domestic tech sector, China is readying to hit back. — [Rebecca Choong Wilkins]( A screen shows Xi speaking at the National People’s Congress in Beijing in March. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg Listen to our [Twitter Space discussion]( over the political fallout from the Wagner rebellion that spiraled into the greatest threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule. And if you are enjoying this newsletter, sign up [here](. Global Headlines Biden sought to persuade voters the US economy is thriving due to his policies, which include hundreds of billions of dollars in manufacturing and infrastructure spending. Touting the [highest economic growth]( of the world’s leading economies since the pandemic and 13 million new jobs, the president said Republicans’ “trickle-down” philosophy had failed, even as many of his measures may not bear fruit in time to boost his 2024 reelection bid. In the turbulent confrontation with Wagner mercenaries that Putin said pushed Russia to the brink of “civil war” on Saturday, a key element — ordinary Russians — was absent. Long fearful of harsh official punishments for criticism of the authorities, particularly over the war in Ukraine, many Russians took to the internet to laugh at social media memes, but most just [got on with their lives](. - Putin continued efforts to reassert his authority and project a sense of [business as usual]( after the Wagner mutiny, and will speak at an annual forum in Moscow today. - Read how the removal of Wagner troops from the front may not significantly [impact]( the war. Russia’s war in Ukraine has [cut it adrift]( from Europe, its biggest gas export market, and a lot of the infrastructure it needs to supply new customers to the east has yet to be built. The result is that Moscow now has no one to sell about 90 billion cubic meters of pipeline gas to, a reality that’s hammering budget revenue and causing authorities to seek other markets. Uncertainty surrounding the future of deeply indebted Thames Water, which serves some 15 million people in London and southeast England, is [damaging]( for Rishi Sunak since it plays into opposition Labour Party charges that his Conservatives have let UK services crumble. But as Alex Wickham and Ellen Milligan report, it’s especially bad for the prime minister at a time when his party trails in the polls and he faces other hard-to-resolve problems like soaring food and housing costs. Best of Bloomberg Opinion - [Putin Is Weakened. His System Isn’t: Leonid Bershidsky]( - [What Ukraine Needs Most Right Now Is Ammo: Hal Brands]( - [US Risks a Rerun of That 1920s Show: Adrian Wooldridge]( A government spokeswoman for the Taiwanese Presidential Office [resigned]( after a report that she’d had an affair with a bodyguard, an incident that opposition-supporting media seized on as potentially playing into the campaign for January’s elections. Separately, President Tsai Ing-wen apologized twice this month over sexual-harassment allegations involving the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, while the opposition Kuomintang have also had harassment complaints leveled at its lawmakers. Explainers You Can Use - [Heat Dome Scorching Texas and Mexico Is Set to Push East, North]( - [How Do Kwon Went From Crypto King to Fugitive to Jail]( - [Wind Turbines That Shake and Break Cost Their Maker Billions]( Clashes between French protesters and police prompted President Emmanuel Macron to hold a crisis meeting after violence spread beyond Paris’s suburbs over the police [killing of a teenager]( on Tuesday. Around 150 people were arrested throughout the country overnight, according to the Interior Ministry, after protesters attacked public buildings, including schools and local town halls, setting some on fire. Police officers near burning cars during protests in Nanterre. Photographer: Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/Getty Images Tune in to Bloomberg TV’s Balance of Power at 5pm to 6pm ET weekdays with Washington correspondents [Annmarie Hordern]( and [Joe Mathieu](. You can watch and listen on Bloomberg channels and online [here](. News to Note - The US government approved the potential sale to Poland of Patriot missile defense equipment valued at as much as $15 billion, as Warsaw seeks to [bolster its own security]( and that of NATO’s eastern flank amid Russia’s war on Ukraine. - Italy can have [excellent relations]( with China even without being part of the Belt and Road pact, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told lawmakers yesterday. - Biden has begun using a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine to treat longstanding [sleep apnea](, according to the White House. - Apple is set for a [showdown]( with European Union antitrust regulators, insisting it doesn’t need to make any more changes to its App Store after it was hit by formal charges over its treatment of music streaming rivals such as Spotify. And finally ... With the black market price for a rhino horn topping $40,000, there’s no shortage of poachers willing to risk a 25-year jail sentence to hack off one of the animal kingdom’s most sought after commodities. But, after an estimated three-quarters of the wild rhinos in South Africa were killed in less than a decade, teams combining the skills of bush pilots and frontline veterinarians are [fighting back]( by getting there first to remove the horns without hurting the beasts. A rhino cow and her calves on March 20. Photographer: Gulshan Khan for Bloomberg Businessweek Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Balance of Power newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. 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