It's Wednesday, May 14, 2025. I'm Albert Mueller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

So many interesting things with worldview dimensions swirling around us. And perhaps today we can take a look at some of these. I'm going to start with

the fact that the United States and China have indicated at least the beginning of a joint process

to lower tariffs and to ease tensions on both sides. And so just about everybody saw this coming.

The White House has made statement saying that it is doing this because of its determination to try to reach a

proper accord with China, and it insists that the U.S. is not backing down. However, at least to some extent,

that's exactly what the U.S. is doing. On the other hand, this is not a one-way situation.

By definition, it's a bilateral relationship. So China's got to back down a bit as

well. I don't think anyone knows exactly what's going to come out of this, but the point is, we are

living in a world that's being transformed before our eyes. The world order, and every particular

moment in the modern world has some understanding of world order. The current world

order is being threatened by all kinds of disequilibrium. And so it's interesting to note that

if you look at the end of the 20th century, people particularly in the West were fairly certain

that we had entered a period of unprecedented prosperity and peace. The fall of the Soviet Union,

the fall of the Berlin Wall, other major events seemed to indicate what one famous historian,

Francis Fukuyama said, was the end of history. History had simply ended with this, a new

permanent or seemingly permanent stability. Well, it didn't last. It didn't last long at all.

Now, on the trade and tariff issue, there is no doubt that what was known as the basic economic

theory of neoliberalism had really won the day, particularly in the West, but also in much

of the developing world, and especially in the fastest part of the developing world.

And so you go to places like the Pacific Rim, quite honestly.

There was an understanding that emerging nations faced an unprecedented opportunity.

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