The banking crisis emerging in the US and Europe will most likely continue, if not deteriorate, and the global capital market will keep teetering due to this evolving grave uncertainty since the 2008 subprime crisis, despite knee-jerk and scrambled attempts by governments and central banks to rescue failed lenders and inject massive liquidity to prevent a credit crunch. Another chaotic run on a weak bank may occur at any time.
Rather than helping US companies to catch up with TikTok, “Hill & Valley Forum” – an anti-China group's touting of “decoupling” and tech war will be counterproductive to the US tech industry.
The blame for current financial plight should go straightly to the US government and the Fed for they have chosen to neglect one basic economic rule – that fiscal and monetary prudence is always needed.
Participating with the US-led plan to contain China like AUKUS, Australia will put its sincerity to mend cooperation with China in doubts. Australia should be wary of dangerous US geopolitical games as Chinese investment recovers.
As for the island of Taiwan, the US' ill-intentioned chip war has become a dangerous game, during which Washington will not hesitate to hijack Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing sector as cannon fodder for the US' own interests.
India discourages foreign trade settlement in yuan out of political considerations, Reuters reported. As yuan settlement increasingly becomes a rational option for more countries to control risks of external shocks, internationalization of yuan will progress despite geopolitics.
There's a need to continue to repair Australia's relationship with China by focusing on areas of common interest, but, regrettably, there are complex challenges ahead, and the US factor cannot be ignored.
Trade negotiators from 14 member countries of the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) are reportedly set to meet in Bali, Indonesia this week for the second negotiating round of the economic framework. Launched in May 2022, IPEF is widely seen as a central part of Washington's Indo-Pacific Strategy.
Given growing specter of global volatility, institutional reforms need to be quickly implemented to help China crack the hard nuts head on, be it is a specific high-tech laggard or a potential financial risk.
A reported plan between the US and the EU to reach a trade agreement on critical minerals that aims to “reduce their dependence on China” is another push by the US to target China's leading industries through moves that are against market rules, a Chinese expert said on Thursday.
Canada said it will not force Chinese investors in three of its large mining firms to divest stakes. Months after harming the interests of Chinese firms, verbal clarification is not enough to restore Chinese investors' confidence.
Mutually beneficial cooperation and progress of BRI infrastructure projects like Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Rail will not be thrown off course by vicious attacks based on ulterior motives held in the West.
With the Holi festival approaching, some Indian media outlets have once again hyped up the issue of China-India competition, and now the focus has shifted toward "water guns." Originally published by TNN, an article was forwarded by the Times of India with the headline "Made in India finally trumps China in the war of colors in Delhi markets."
It seems that India-Australia relations are now in a sweet spot, which hopefully will become a facilitator rather than a barrier to inter-Asia trade, and can help Australia further integrate itself into Asian industrial chains.
Soaring orders for jeans rather than high-end business clothes from Western countries mirror woes in their economies. As lingering geopolitical conflicts continue to cast a pall on their economies, the myth of Western modernization has been shattered.
Japan's “Lost Decade” of recession in 1990s is the result of its asset bubbles meltdown, exacerbated by the Plaza Accord. To draw an analogy between China and Japan is seriously flawed.
The US House Foreign Affairs Committee voted on Wednesday to advance a bill that would grant President Joe Biden the authority to ban Chinese-owned short-video platform TikTok. Some people said it would be the most far-reaching set of US restriction on any social media app.
China's economic activity, measured by the manufacturing purchasing managers' index, has ticked up, as the PMI beat broad expectations, hitting 52.6 in January, the highest reading since April 2012. Barring any mishaps, the economy is projected to growth by at least 5.5 percent this year, according to a gauge by Chinese economists.
As long as the Asian economies continue to strengthen coordination and expand the scope for economic and trade cooperation, Washington's “decoupling” voices will eventually lose to rational forces in Asia.
As monthly figures released on Monday showed Hong Kong's exports took a battering at the beginning of this year, Western media outlets seem so excited to spread the news, with some of them desperately trying to use the figures as new support to undermine the city's economy.
The "China coal threat" is cooked up on the basis of false premises and judgments. China should follow its own pace and rhythm in developing coal capacity and building a green economy.
Global trade is expected to remain largely subdued this year, resulting from the stubbornly high inflation in developed economies and the US government's trade and technology protectionism.
America's only rare-earths producer has agreed a deal to ship output from its new processing plant to Japan, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The move comes amid a push by Washington to upgrade relations with allies and reduce China's role in their critical minerals supply chains.
A train hauling coal derailed in the US state of Nebraska on Tuesday, marking at least the fourth time in less than a month that a freight train has come off the rails in the US, the Washington Post reported. The derailment has once again raised concerns about infrastructure challenges in the US, following the train derailment and subsequent chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.
Relying on its multiple advantages, China continues to strengthen and solidify collaboration with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In recent years, one of the most striking areas which attracted global attention is a number of rail projects.
The market volatility on Wall Street shows no sign of subsiding, as traders are unnerved by the increasingly hawkish remarks from the Federal Reserve policymakers that they will continue to raise interest rates to rein in inflation, which has remained stubbornly elevated.
As China keeps consolidating its advantages in manufacturing despite US "decoupling" and crackdown, an increasing number of foreign companies are expanding production in China, which supports their sales both in the Chinese market and exporting.
Lithium Chile, one of three Canadian miners hit by Ottawa's decision to block Chinese investment in some critical minerals, said it regrets losing an "incredible shareholder with a valued expertise in lithium brine," Canada's Financial Post reported, noting that Chinese-owned Chengze Lithium International has sold its stake in Lithium Chile.
As the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and India this week will hold a new meeting on the issue of global debt, Western media and some politicians are trying to shift the blame to China. They again hype the "debt trap" in order to discredit China. The West does not seem have the sincerity to solve the debt problem. Their real intention seems to defame China and drive a wedge into partnerships between China and other developing countries.
China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, recently released data saying aggregate bank savings increased by 26.3 trillion yuan ($3.92 trillion) in 2022, including 17.8 trillion yuan of household savings. In January this year, Chinese households' deposits at the banks rose a whopping 6.2 trillion yuan, setting a new monthly record high.
It is not surprising that Marco Rubio, an infamous anti-China senator, is spouting his trademark nonsense again. His latest target was CATL, China's leading supplier of batteries for electric vehicles (EV).
When the global semiconductor industry is facing a downturn now, Buffett's sudden sell-off showed the deepening predicament of TSMC.
Politicians' attempts to downplay Ohio train disaster and chemical spill expose the chronic affliction in the US economic and social governance – inefficiency resulting from bipartisan power struggle.
After US aerospace giant Boeing announced one of the largest orders in its history, some claimed the deal reflects the strength of the US-India economic partnership. These assertions are oversimplified and overoptimistic.
Over the past week or so, many foreign media outlets have been hyping an incident on February 6 involving Chinese and Philippine vessels in the waters off the Ren'ai Reef, which is part of China's Nansha Islands. US officials, in particular, have been clearly trying to use the incident to undermine China-Philippines ties and instigate tension in the South China Sea.
TikTok, the popular short-video app banned in India since 2020, has reportedly closed its remote sales support hub in India and laid off its roughly 40 remaining workers in the country. No further details were released but the current reports have aroused widespread concern among people who are following the country's internet economy. Some analysts said if proved true this might mean TikTok's hope to resume operations in India is very slim.
Although there are still great uncertainties ahead, the Chinese economy is likely to rebound strongly in 2023. This observation is based on two rationales. First, because of the low base GDP growth rate of 3 percent in 2022, the base effect will play an important role in shaping China's growth rate in 2023. Second, China still has ample room to implement expansionary macroeconomic policies to stimulate the economy when necessary. Barring "black swan" events, China's GDP growth rate in 2023 should exceed 5 percent. To boost confidence, the Chinese government could set the GDP growth target at 6 percent for 2023.
The US Labor Department is scheduled to release its consumer price index (CPI) for January on Tuesday. Although the CPI rose by 6.5 percent year-on-year in December 2022, the sixth consecutive month of cooling inflation, now an increasing number of analysts forecast that the optimistic expectation of continued decline in US inflation is facing challenges.
As China moves decisively to escape from the haze of the COVID-19 pandemic amid a sharp recovery in economic growth, it is sincerely hoped South Korea won't miss out on a free ride on its neighboring country's economic rise, but how much it can benefit from China's growth depends on Seoul's China policy.
China's property sales and housing construction are expected to pick up considerable momentum throughout 2023, inspired by the central government's steady policy support since late 2022. The sector has been struggling for some time, with various large developers mired in debt, and the three-year-long COVID-19 pandemic made things worse to some extent.
US President Joe Biden delivered his second State of the Union address to a joint session of the US Congress last week, during which he was booed and jeered by the opposition Republican Party lawmakers. The yelling of "liar" and other vulgar terms at the 80-year-old president and the heavy security presence around the Capitol Hill are clear reminders that partisan extremism and political confrontation are becoming deeply rooted in US politics and society, even though two years have passed since Donald Trump supporters' raucous rampage on the Hill.
The seasonal drop in Chinese auto sales in Jan won't drag growth on recovery in 2023. China's auto market is still in a strong position, and it will remain an important market for global auto manufacturers.
It would be deeply disappointing if the normal use of surveillance #cameras hinders the hard-won atmosphere for expanding cooperation between China and #Australia. We should not take risks just because of some politicians' narrow-minded geopolitical thinking.
Western media's “inflation threat” hype on China's economic recovery does not hold water. China's recovery is the biggest certainty in the global economy in 2023. Western countries should drop political bias and try to take advantage of China's rebound.
Short-video platform TikTok has nothing to do with the recent airship incident, but that didn't stop some US politicians from trying to maliciously connect the two and using the incident and the hysterical overreaction of shooting down the civilian airship as leverage to ban TikTok. By ramping up anti-China hysteria, political elites can accumulate political capital, but it may become a cancer that erodes the US economy.
While the Japanese government maintains its COVID-19 border control rules for travelers from China, which were strengthened late last year, some Japanese media outlets continue to report that the country's tourism sector has been eagerly awaiting the return of the Chinese, the largest contingent of visitors to Japan before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Expectation in the tourism market has made Tokyo's border control increasingly embarrassing.
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on Monday held a video meeting with Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell, the first meeting between a Chinese commerce minister and an Australian trade minister in three years. Both sides described the meeting as an “important step” in bringing China-Australia economic and trade relations back onto the right track and agreed to maintain communication. At the meeting, Wang invited Farrell to visit China at “an appropriate time” and Farrell confirmed he will visit China “in the near future.”
At a time when the Biden administration is reportedly preparing an executive order to restrict US investors' investment in China's key technology industries, US investors' growing favor for China's AI sector reflects their confidence in the Chinese economy and optimistic expectations in China's high-tech progress. The US government's "decoupling" approach is undesirable and unrealistic.
To encourage foreign automakers to test their vehicles in India, import duty will be removed for automobiles brought in for testing at the country's vehicle testing agencies such as International Center for Automotive Technology (iCAT), the Economic Times reported on Monday. The exemption of import duties is undoubtedly conducive to the development of India's automobile manufacturing industry and should therefore win applause from all directions, but it should be pointed out that the country may still has a long way to go to become a "global testing hub."
In 1986, Japan was forced by the US into an agreement that led to the dismantling of its once world-leading chip industry. Now, Japan wants to revive the sector, but it must take orders from the US again to target China.
The beleaguered business empire of Indian multi-billionaire Gautam Adani, reportedly a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is swirled in an evolving “credibility crisis” after a US investment company accused it of financial frauds.
Chinese electric vehicle battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) is planning to raise at least $5 billion by listing global depositary receipts (GDR) in Switzerland as early as May, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
It is the US government's approach to politicize and weaponize technology, economic and trade issues that will truly endanger the US' photovoltaic industry.
Boeing Co Chief Executive Dave Calhoun on Tuesday pointed toward future increases in narrow-body jet production and voiced hopes that "an upcoming visit to China by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken would lead eventually to robust plane orders," Reuters reported. It's not difficult to read Boeing's ardent expectation for Chinese orders from Calhoun's words.
China and India have massive potential to cooperate and contribute to global development, but hurdles are rising, as the US steps up its attempt to loop India into its containment strategy against China.
Samsung, South Korea's largest company, said profits at its chip division plunged more than 90 percent to 270 billion won ($220 million) in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to media reports. Diving profits at the South Korean electronics giant's chip unit amid intensifying US disruptions to global supply chains are not surprising, but it is still worse than most industry analysts expected.
US semiconductor giant Intel is reportedly cutting 201 jobs at its offices in Santa Clara, California, which is home to the chipmaker's headquarters, effective Tuesday. This is among hundreds of layoffs the company makes in recent months, and it indicates more job cuts are expected to come.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently warned about the consequences of failing to raise the debt limit. If there is a debt crisis or, even worse, a government default, it could do irreparable harm to the US and the world economy. At the moment, some Western media outlets hype up China-related issues, but this prejudice against China will only make things more complex and will not help to resolve problems.
The assertion that the population drop will upend China's economic rise will prove to be American wishful thinking, and another try at 'China collapse' – a falsified theory the world has heard many times in the past 40 years.
For the second time this month, the US House of Representatives has passed a bill to curb President Joe Biden's ability to tap the nation's petroleum reserves - a measure that has already drawn a White House veto threat. While the division and polarization in US politics continues to escalate, what happened in the highest hall of "US democracy" has become a political farce, leaving the US economy as the ultimate victim.
The surge in the sales of Chinese-made EVs in the Australian market is a microcosm of the cooperation potential between the two sides in the field of new energy. Strengthened cooperation with China can help promote Australia's energy transition.
Japan has shown the tendency to blindly follow Washington's "decoupling" push, especially on the US chip ban, which is actually a sign that it is losing the ability to balance external cooperation.
Before a visit to the US by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday, top Dutch trade official said the Netherlands "will not summarily accept new US restrictions on exporting chip-making technology to China," and is consulting with "European and Asian allies," Reuters reported.
With new leadership in the US House of Representatives, a clash between Democrats and Republicans over the debt ceiling faces a new round of crisis.
With Federal Reserve remaining strongly committed to lowering inflation by restraining economic growth, equity investors around the world will continue to be perplexed, scratching their heads in 2023.
Since Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang recently kicked off a tour of five African countries - Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, Benin and Egypt, some foreign media outlets have launched another round of hype over the "great powers' escalating game in Africa."
India has a huge potential in the manufacturing sector, but if the country wants to make its manufacturing ambitions a reality to become a manufacturing hub of the world, it shouldn't focus simply on attracting Western companies, but needs to pay more attention to make itself an attractive investment destination for companies from other Asian countries, including China.
The Asia Internet Coalition, an industry group that represents Meta, Amazon, Twitter, Google and other US big tech companies, has expressed dissatisfaction with the digital competition law recommended by the Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance in December, arguing that it is "regressive" and "may dampen digital innovation in India," Indian media outlet Business Standard reported on Monday.
There was some encouraging climate action in 2022, but the world remains far off track to meet the set goals of reducing global heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions and limiting future planetary warming to limit climate change. Environmentalists have called for a strong collective commitment and concerted efforts toward slashing emissions in 2023, if the world wants to keep climate extremes from becoming even more devastating.
The India-US Trade Policy Forum (TPF), a premier platform to resolve trade and investment issues between the two sides, will hold a meeting in Washington on Wednesday, the Economic Times reported. Coming at a time when Washington signals a desire for closer ties with New Delhi as tension with China builds, the upcoming forum has drawn attention to the discussion about how US-India trade relations will proceed in the future.
China's currency has continued to rally, hitting a four-month high against the US dollar on Friday, apparently buoyed by the country's move to optimize its COVID-19 response and reopen its borders to revitalize the world's second-largest economy. On Friday, the country's central bank set the USD/CNY central parity rate at 6.8912, but the onshore and offshore currency markets saw USD/CNY both close at roughly 6.83 - exposing the strong buying of the yuan.
Some of London's biggest railway stations are shut on Thursday as strikes on the railway network reach a critical peak. Britain, once the leading great power, is mired in industrial action with workers ranging from trade drivers to nurses protesting against below-inflation pay offers, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
US technology company Apple's share price fell 3.7 percent on Tuesday, the first trading day for the US stock markets in 2023, as the tech rout hit the iPhone maker, pushing its market value below $2 trillion.
After the Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA), the third international airport of Nepal, comes into operation from Sunday, Indian media outlets have given special attention to the newly-built project.
In an article titled "sleepwalking into a global trade war," Anne O. Krueger, a former World Bank chief economist, noted that the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and CHIPS and Science Act, which came into effect on January 1, 2023, will inflict so much damage on major trading partners and allies that they will almost certainly have to retaliate.
China's stock market wrapped up one of the bumpiest year in 2022 with the benchmark Shanghai composite index finishing with a loss of 15 percent from 2021. However, investors are starting to rebuild confidence thanks to the government's move to optimize anti-COVID responses.
The Biden administration has escalated its economic war against China to a new level and expanded its crackdown and restrictions from trade to technology, and financial sectors.
Looking back to the passing year of 2022, a majority of emerging market economies have suffered a complex crisis of food shortages, energy crunches, elevated inflation and higher unemployment. The combination of these economic problems has even triggered political upheavals in some of the economies.
China and Nepal have continued to strengthen cooperation, making progress particularly in areas including vaccines, infrastructure building, investment and trade.
China's economic resilience has been fully demonstrated amid the global economic downturn caused by the pandemic over the past few years. Now, we have reasons to believe that despite some challenges ahead, the Chinese economy will eventually emerge from the cloud of COVID-19 pandemic.
China is currently optimizing COVID-19 responses and making a transition to the managed exit from mass nucleic acid testing - a decisive step toward bringing normal work and life back. The timing for the policy change is well calculated and deemed opportune now.
India's growing population means the country has to pay special attention to food security. In the process of economic growth and its integration into the global industrial chain, how to deal with imported inflation is a subject that India must consider.
The Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) is one of the three major mechanisms of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which helps to increase the transparency of the multilateral trading system.
Auto executives aren't as confident in electric car adoption as they once were. The survey of auto executives should sound alarm bells for Washington's “reshoring” push.
The US has tried to “decouple” itself from China economically. However, this is self-inflicted harm to its own economy. The last example is Gallagher's remarks saying he plans to focus scrutiny on US investments in China.
Jonathan Tepperman, former editor of Foreign Policy magazine, wrote that the US should adjust policies to deal with a “collapsing China.” Many Western media reports have intensified “China collapse” fearmongering, which is an attempt to cover up crises in the West.
Amid a period of uncertainty for the global economy, it is crucial for China and India to enhance economic cooperation rather than hinder the development due to border disputes. But, it is regrettable to see some Indian politicians do not understand this simple truth.
As the world is facing major changes unseen in a century and the repeated impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the theme of the era of peace and development is facing severe challenges from the forces of unilateralism and protectionism.
China has been leading in researching and developing high-tech transport systems, such as high-speed railways and intra-city smarter driving, which sets the launchpad for economic takeoff.
The chip export control measures adopted by the US in Oct are in direct violation of the WTO's obligations and market rules. All countries should unite and use existing international mechanisms to fight against the US hegemony.
The US and some other Western countries recently announced an alliance to produce and buy critical minerals from countries with “stronger environmental and labor standards,” Reuters reported, saying that the voluntary alliance is expected to “reduce business with market leader China.”
In particular, the "guardrail provisions" are suspected of violating the WTO's requirements for most-favored-nation treatment and national treatment, and also does not conform to the policy logic emphasized by the US to maintain the resilience of the global chip industry supply chain. In essence, this is to eliminate the so-called "threat" to the US from actual or potential systemic competitors by creating "technological nationalism" in the era of globalization, and to ensure that the US always maintains an intergenerational advantage over its main competitors.
Though November CPI came in at 7.1%, it doesn't indicate the US Federal Reserve has succeeded in controlling inflation, as the central bank will be haunted by persistently elevated grocery prices and cost of services.
We Chinese people have reasons to believe we are well positioned to move into a new chapter. When we eventually emerge from the cloud of COVID-19 stronger, all the Western media headlines desperately wishing for a "China collapse" will again just look foolish.
US President Joe Biden is hosting leaders from across the African continent in Washington, with plans to unveil $55 billion in economic, health and security support, as part of a renewed bid to win back influence across the continent.
The US strongly demanded that China reduce or cancel the debts of underdeveloped countries, but at the same time, it did not increase its support for Africa's development. As a result, African countries had to go to international capital markets for loans, resulting in a more serious debt burden. How Africa, whose development demands are politicized by the US can control its own destiny is a thorny issue leaders of African countries face today.
Amid a global push toward de-dollarization, the Chinese yuan's internationalization has made strides, but, obviously, this is not what US politicians want to see.
Global oil prices have started to slide, after plateauing for a couple of months following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine military conflict in February, and the prices have nearly halved now from their peak as this year rapidly draws to an end.
In recent weeks, some banks have received mandates from Chinese companies looking at Australian assets, in a move which could be seen as evidence that Chinese firms are showing renewed interest in Australian acquisition targets, but “the signs are still tentative,” Reuters reported on Wednesday.
Indian authorities have reportedly prevented Vivo from exporting 27,000 smartphones, once again raising concerns among businesses. India should address such concerns in a timely manner, or it will continue to haunt its economy.