China and the Chocolate Factory

40% of the world’s cocoa beans are produced in Côte d’Ivoire. In February, China opened that country’s largest cocoa factory.

Nearly everyone loves chocolate. Increasingly, that includes those living in China, the world’s second most populous nation.

Even though chocolate was introduced to China as far back as 1705, it wasn’t until the 1990s that its popularity began to take off thanks to a rising middle class and their view of chocolate as a symbol of modernity, sophistication, and wealth. In recent times, just as in the West, Chinese consumers have also turned to chocolate—especially dark chocolate—for its perceived health benefits. Seeing the potential in China’s consumer market, chocolate producers in both Europe and the US have created innovative recipes that appeal to Chinese tastes—recipes with flavor and texture combinations like Sichuan pepper and durian.

India: Economic Growth, Environmental Realities

In terms of air quality, 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in India.

India is very much a country on the move. In 2023, it surpassed China to become the world's most populous country with more than 1.4 billion people. In 2022, it overtook the United Kingdom to become the world’s 5th largest economy, and appears on track to soon surpass Japan. India is also a global leader in digital public infrastructure, holding 46% of all global digital payments.

But as is so often the case, India’s surge has been accompanied by environmental challenges, particularly poor air quality.

From Under the Seas and Up to the Cloud

Approximately 95% of the world’s data flows through undersea fiber optic cables long enough to circle the globe 30 times.

It’s impossible to fully appreciate how nearly every aspect of daily life is becoming digitized. Tens of thousands of terabytes of data travel across an undersea network of fiber optic cables long enough to circle the globe 30 times. Ninety five percent of the world’s data flows through these cables, including texts, emails, government communications, and approximately $10 trillion in daily financial transactions. And of course, our relentless pursuit of increasingly powerful generative artificial intelligence (AI) will only accelerate our dependency on this network of fiber.

On Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and Resilience

For this edition of Stubborn Things, I offer the following excerpts from my keynote speech for the OECD’s Development and Stability Forum:

In 2023, donors from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) spent $9.2 billion for humanitarian assistance in countries identified as “extremely fragile,” but only $7.5 billion on development assistance.

If there’s an ebb and flow to human history, I think we get the sense that the pages are turning a little more quickly these days. And that, just maybe, we’ve reached a defining moment. Conflicts continue to displace millions. Economic inequality is deepening divisions within—and among—nations. Geopolitical tensions are on the rise, and new technologies are reshaping the relationship between individuals and their governing institutions.