A chessboard, usually consisted of 64 squares with 32 chess pieces aligned on top, is the ground for chess players to freely carry out their strategies until a king is attacked by another piece. Likewise, chess games typically end with a winner; however, there are situations where there is no winner — a stalemate. This situation is when a king is not in check, and there are no legal moves players can make. The phrase stalemate goes beyond merely portraying a chessboard scene; it can be applied to real-life situations as well — conflicts that cannot be settled with a clear winner among the involved parties.

The November Issue of The Granite Tower (GT) delves into current issues facing a stalemate. In particular, the Cover Story focuses on the U.S.-China trade war that has been ongoing since 2018. With numerous parties and interests entangled together, the economic conflict has been brought to a standstill. By reviewing the history between the two countries and analyzing their current economic status, the article probes into the uncertainties related to the trade war in the international economic environment. Moreover, GT reporters have also reached out to examine economic and political domestic issues that are currently at a virtual stalemate, including the government’s financial response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) disputes of aviation corporations.

When a chess game is locked in a stalemate, the game ends in a draw. In contrast, stalemate situations in reality cannot easily come to an end as a peaceful tie. Therefore, it would be critical to carefully analyze the circumstances in order to break the stalemate — and we hope the GT articles would provide the grounds to do so.