There was a place in Venice called the Fondaco dei Turchi where one traded with the enemies. While the Serenissima and the Ottoman Empire were fighting on the seas, business continued in the Santa Croce district. Death and trade were… Read More ›
Trade & Investment
China is buying up Europe
For more than a decade, China has been stealthily buying up European companies in strategic sectors, particularly in technology and energy. China appears to be using these European assets to help fulfil the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ambitions of becoming… Read More ›
$6 billion Laos-China railway on track to somewhere
The US$6 billion Laos-China railway that starts operations on December 3 – following the 46th anniversary of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic on December 2 – is definitely a game-changer for the land-locked communist country of 7 million people, which… Read More ›
China to develop new heavy icebreaker for ‘Polar Silk Road’
China plans to develop a new heavy icebreaker and semi-submersible heavy lift ships – so big that they can carry other ships – in the next five years to support its expanding maritime activities. The heavy icebreaker is to be… Read More ›
China’s trade practices come under fire
China’s trade policies have come under strong criticism during a review at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The US accused China of “skewing the playing field” by using “unfair trade practices” such as preferential treatment for state businesses. Meanwhile Australia… Read More ›
China’s economy weakens, then gets even worse and now there’s a global shipping crisis. What’s next?
The world is waking up to the fact that maybe being dependent upon China for its goods is not such a good idea. In 2019 at about the same time the US was closing on the trade deals with China,… Read More ›
Chinese loans leave developing countries with $385 billion in hidden debts
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has caused dozens of lower- and middle-income countries to accumulate $385 billion in “hidden debts” to Beijing, a new study has claimed. AidData, an international development research lab based at Virginia’s College of William &… Read More ›
China’s Belt and Road plans losing momentum as opposition and debt mount
China’s vast Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is in danger of losing momentum as opposition in targeted countries rises and debts mount, paving the way for rival schemes to squeeze Beijing out, a new study showed on Wednesday. President Xi… Read More ›
China is decoupling from the world, not the other way around
Eighteen months ago, international manufacturers were considering the impact Covid-19 would have on their concentrated manufacturing processes and supply chain integrity. In particular, companies that depended heavily on manufacturing in China, the early epicentre of the pandemic, started to move… Read More ›
A lesson in political economy on investments in China
Paul Krugman, the eminent Nobel laureate in economics, recalls how companies are different from nations and their reasons. Business managers have different perspectives. It is economists – not managers – who place the question of foreign trade, the balance of… Read More ›
The vanishing allure of doing business in China
It is nothing new for foreign firms to endure shakedowns by the Chinese Communist Party. As far back as revolutionary times, Chairman Mao’s victorious troops did not directly confiscate foreign-owned assets as their Bolshevik forerunners had done in Russia. Instead,… Read More ›
China’s biggest private companies are in chaos. It’s all part of Beijing’s ‘plan’
China’s crackdown on private enterprise has wiped out more than $1.2 trillion in market value for many powerful Chinese companies and stoked fears about the future of innovation in the world’s second largest economy. But the end goal of Beijing’s… Read More ›
‘Made in China’ products are running into new international shipping problems
Chinese companies wanting to go global are running into shipping problems. Access to cheap manufacturing at home gave Chinese businesses an advantage overseas. But it’s turning into a disadvantage now, as the pandemic and trade tensions disrupt international supply channels…. Read More ›
China looking at expropriating foreign-held tech shares
Those foreigners who hold shares in Chinese tech companies are being warned that all is not well. It is China expert Gordon Chang who explained at Gatestone Institute, where he is a distinguished senior fellow and a member of the… Read More ›
US sanctions Chinese solar firms for Uighur human rights abuses
The United States on Wednesday restricted exports to five Chinese companies that it said were implicated in Chinese human rights violations, including large producers of polysilicon for the solar panel industry. The companies were listed over human rights violations and… Read More ›
The G7 countries want to help poor countries with infrastructure, without the debt trap and strings China imposes
The Group of Seven, a group of seven wealthy industrialized nations, supports a new global plan to help poorer nations build different types of infrastructure. According to the White House, this is an attempt to challenge China’s so-called Belt and… Read More ›
China’s Strategy to Defeat the US in the Non-military Wars
Plan for Long-term Victory In the long run, China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) will bring economic growth to developing countries and expand China’s market there. It will enable China to switch lots of its exports from the US to… Read More ›
China to monitor central SOEs’ overseas assets
China will strengthen the management of overseas state-owned property rights held by centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and prevent the loss of overseas state-owned assets, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council said in a statement…. Read More ›
BlackRock’s China challenge a red flag for Biden
Janet Yellen, the soon-to-be US Treasury secretary, wasted no time telegraphing Joe Biden’s plans to be tough on China. Events at BlackRock Inc, though, demonstrate how much of an uphill slog the new president faces. As Donald Trump exited the… Read More ›
Biden’s trade rep knows China inside and out
Katherine Tai, with her Asian appearance and family name, is being watched intently and with curiosity in China after Joe Biden nominated the 47-year-old trade lawyer to be his cabinet’s principal trade advisor and negotiator. As the incoming US Trade… Read More ›
Concise history of international development
Talks about international development permeate current debates in academic and policy circles around the world. Yet, decades after its endorsement as one of the international community’s top priorities, the term continues to elude clear and univocal definitions, and it remains… Read More ›
Pakistan looks beyond the Gulf towards China
When Saudi Arabia pressed Pakistan last August to repay early a US$3 billion soft loan, Riyadh’s demand caught Islamabad’s rulers by surprise. Islamabad quickly dispatched its current army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa to Riyadh to defuse the tensions, but… Read More ›
The Bill Is Coming Due for China’s ‘Capitalist’ Experiment
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has re-awoken to a profound truth: Rich, secure capitalists are the natural enemies of authoritarian regimes. In a hybrid autocratic-capitalist model, capitalism is the means to generate wealth, but power is the end goal. Successful… Read More ›
EU-China trade agreement, step forward or tripwire?
The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) just signed between the EU and China is not the solution to commercial and economic problems, but it could be a step forward or become a tripwire for bigger problems around China and the world. In… Read More ›
China-EU investment deal: ‘landmark’ treaty greeted with a shrug by underwhelmed analysts
The China-EU investment deal agreed to in principle on Wednesday has been greeted with a shrug by economists, with some questioning whether an under-pressure European Commission has oversold a deal that will not significantly move the needle in economic terms…. Read More ›
China, EU nail down market-opening investment pact
The European Union and China’s agreement today (December 30) on a new investment pact is either a sign that Brussels is willing to sacrifice its values on the altar of trade or a clever bit of realpolitik to assert independence… Read More ›
Foreign investors in China face security review
Foreign investors in Chinese industries from defense to tech will from next year face an extra layer of scrutiny to ensure their activities do not undermine national security, the country’s top economic planner said Saturday. Under the new rules, overseas… Read More ›
China’s domestic tourism to hit $1.5 trillion
China’s domestic tourism market is expected to receive 10 billion visitors per year on average, with the annual revenue reaching 10 trillion yuan (US$1.5 trillion) in the next five years, according to a report from the China Tourism Academy on… Read More ›
Australia’s allies grabbing Australia’s lost market shares in China
At least 60 countries, many of them are Australia’s allies in the West, are taking advantages of the current Beijing-Canberra hostility, by bidding to increase their market shares in China in respect of beef, grape wine, lobster, coal, grains and… Read More ›
Biden likely won’t reverse Trump’s trade war against China
President Trump’s slash-and-burn rhetoric against China may have brought few lasting economic benefits so far, but it has succeeded in one fundamental way: No administration can now afford to play nice with the United States’ biggest rival. Trump made hostility… Read More ›
China wields coronavirus to nationalise American-owned carmaker
China enticed an American entrepreneur with the opportunity of helping build a cutting-edge automobile company in the world’s largest car market, then used the uncertainty cast by COVID-19 to steal his intellectual property, the businessman says. Steve Saleen, founder of specialty high-performance sports… Read More ›
DHL temporarily suspends Chinese import shipments to India
German logistics company DHL said on Wednesday it had temporarily suspended picking up import shipments from China to India, after border tensions between the countries led to clearance delays. Another prominent freight transporter FedEx Corp has also suspended shipments, according… Read More ›
White House adviser Navarro says China trade deal is ‘over’
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Monday the trade deal with China is “over,” and he linked the breakdown in part to Washington’s anger over Beijing’s not sounding the alarm earlier about the coronavirus outbreak. “It’s over,” Navarro… Read More ›
China says one-fifth of Belt and Road projects ‘seriously affected’ by pandemic
About 20% of projects under China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to link Asia, Europe and beyond have been “seriously affected” by the coronavirus pandemic, an official from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday. According to a… Read More ›
Most small businesses say they’re looking to leave China
If there is one thing the pandemic taught the world, it was that we are over-reliant on China for everything from the key ingredients used to make cleaning agents to pharmaceuticals, surgical masks to personal protection equipment. That’s not diversification… Read More ›
China ‘needs to win over Europe’ after loss of trust and impact of US rivalry
When Washington imposed tariffs on Chinese imports to set off the US-China trade war in 2018, Beijing warned Europe not to “stab China in the back”, yet the continent has since criticised China on issues including trade, the coronavirus and… Read More ›
U.S. economics chief says “pay the moving costs” of American companies leaving China
Call the moving company, and Washington’s picking up the tab. The same day Japan announced that it would spend upwards of $2.2 billion to get its corporations out of China and either back home or spread throughout southeast Asia, White… Read More ›
Be sceptical of Trump’s new trade deal with China
As with so many assertions from President Trump, skepticism is in order about his announcement Friday of a “phase one” trade deal with China. Start with the seemingly straightforward issue of exactly what Mr. Trump got in return for reducing… Read More ›
Stocks hit record on report that White House has reached China trade deal
Wall Street’s main indexes hit record highs on Thursday following news that the United States had reached a “deal in principle” with China to resolve a trade war that has rattled markets for nearly two years. Stocks were boosted in… Read More ›
Donald Trump should cancel China trade deal and raise tariffs
President Trump said last week that it may be better to wait until after his reelection to complete a trade deal with China. As a scheduled increase in tariffs on China approaches on December 15, Trump should stick with this… Read More ›
Is it possible Trump is on the right track with China?
“Trump’s trade war is losing, not gaining, support,” Paul Krugman wrote this week in his column “Why Is Trump a Tariff Man?” So why does the president avoid making the deals that might end this perpetual state of economic uncertainty?… Read More ›
Engage China, or confront it? What’s the right approach now?
Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House adviser, calls the United States’ relationship with China’s Communist Party an economic and information “war,” while Eric Schmidt, a Google founder, says American interests are entangled with China, our biggest competitor in the… Read More ›
Trump says U.S. hasn’t yet agreed to roll back tariffs, despite China’s insistence that he has
President Donald Trump dealt a blow Friday to investors who were hoping the United States and China were inching closer toward a partial trade deal that would roll back billions in tariffs. Speaking to reporters, Trump said the US has… Read More ›
China casts doubt on reaching long-term trade deal with U.S. under Trump
Chinese officials are casting doubts about reaching a comprehensive long-term trade deal with the U.S. even as the two sides get close to signing a “phase one” agreement. In private conversations with visitors to Beijing and other interlocutors in recent… Read More ›
‘I will not accept a bad deal’: Trump’s China trade rhetoric turns harsh at UN
U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a stinging rebuke to China’s trade practices on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly, saying he would not accept a “bad deal” in U.S.-China trade negotiations. Four days after deputy U.S. and Chinese negotiators… Read More ›
China has already lost the trade war
China already lost in the trade war with the U.S. Although you will never hear Chinese authorities, especially President Xi Jinping, admit it as such, the evidence is everywhere and only becoming more compelling by the day. Reuters recently reported that based on the Chinese… Read More ›
China cancels plans to visit with US farmers next week
China officials on Friday canceled plans to visit American farmers next week and were expected to cut short their trip to the US. Officials said they had to return to China earlier than planned and would no longer visit agricultural… Read More ›
China’s economy is getting worse. That makes a trade deal more likely
China’s economic slowdown keeps getting worse. That could give the country incentive to repair its trading relationship with the United States and take more steps to stimulate its economy. The country released data Monday that showed industrial production — an… Read More ›
China excludes soybeans and pork from additional tariffs in a huge win for US in trade war
China just announced that it would not be adding additional tariffs to US agricultural goods such as soybeans and pork, marking a huge win for American farmers. The superpower said via the state-owned Xinhua news agency that it would be… Read More ›
The Trump administration has reportedly discussed a China trade deal that would lift some tariffs
The Trump administration has reportedly discussed a plan to offer China a deal that would include a rollback of some tariffs, potentially defusing tensions in a more than yearlong trade war that has rattled the world’s largest economies. Bloomberg reported… Read More ›
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