The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, defended the EU's efforts to negotiate a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) with China by calling the investment deal "a huge step in the right direction," according to an AFP report on Tuesday.

The Biden administration is considering an investigation into neodymium magnets from China, with the aim of boosting the resilience of US supply chains for vital goods, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Monday a plan to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to all adults above the age of 18 as the federal government takes over the inoculation program from the state governments starting from June 21, according to media reports.

The spectacular growth in China's trade with India outperformed the former's trade performance with other major trading partners from January to May, an indication of the resilience within the China-India economic and trade relationship even amid political headwinds.

Under the easy money policy by world's central banks, the rapid surge in global food prices may have more to do with financial market turbulence. It is misleading for the public when some Western media outlets link this challenge to Chinese demand.

A recent Pentagon report cleared two drones made by China's largest drone maker DJI for US government use, The Hill reported on Wednesday, citing a summary of the report they obtained.

In a letter to the National Basketball Players Association on Tuesday, the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) called on American basketball players to end endorsement deals with Chinese sportswear companies including Anta and Li-Ning that use cotton sourced from Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

India's ambition to rise as a great power is being questioned as never before. After recording its worst economic performance in more than four decades, India's badly wounded economy still faces great uncertainty created by a huge second wave of COVID-19 infections that has apparently derailed its recovery.

While it is uncertain whether the Biden administration's helicopter money policies will spur a new round of economic growth, it is already clear that spending spree will first mire the US economy in a bottomless pit of inflation.

With the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand set to meet on Sunday for the first time in 15 months, some Australian media outlets appeared to be using the timing to drive a wedge between New Zealand and China, but that may only underscore their increasing envy of their neighbor's apparent advantage in trade with China.

Some Western politicians have long trumpeted their support for free trade, but in reality, its becoming common to see them issue prejudicial warnings against normal trade practices that go against their political interests.

New Zealand announced on Tuesday to suspend its quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia's Victoria state due to a new cluster of COVID-19 cases reported there.

New Zealand's independent China stance appears to be under increasing pressure these days, as reflected by the Pacific island nation's sudden warning of a possible cooling of ties with Beijing.

With the increasingly fierce competition in the global semiconductor industry, there are undoubtedly some obstacles facing China in developing its own self-reliant chip-making production capacity. At the same time, skepticism and pessimism are on the rise regarding China's domestic semiconductor industry, but such external factors won't sway the country's determination in gaining core technologies crucial for its long-term development.

At a time when China-EU cooperation faces delicate moment amid headwinds for a bilateral investment deal, some may consider Lithuania's latest announcement of withdrawal from the "17+1" cooperation platform as another indication of EU's tough stance toward China, which, in fact, may be more like a testimony of the complicated voices within the 27-nation bloc.

While a potential Belt and Road project may face risk of suspension in the Pacific island nation of Samoa, a minor setback like this will not affect the long-term trend toward mutually beneficial cooperation in other countries which are participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

You can never wake a person who pretends to be asleep, a proverb highly recommended for some Australian politicians and business leaders, who recently surfaced to blame the Morrison administration for going too far in attacking or confronting China.

While the US and the EU seem to have taken an important step toward a truce on their trade war, reaching common ground on passing the buck to China is not the right way to resolve trade disputes, and is a worrying indication of lack of sincerity from both sides.

While the combination of a massive fiscal stimulus and coronavirus vaccination campaign appears to put the US economy on track of a powerful recovery, several economic indicators issued recently have thrown the market into confusion, which may serve as an early warning that America's re-opening may enter an unchartered territory.

A vital hydropower project in Nigeria has been entangled in a legal dispute between a local company and the government, putting financing of the project from China on hold, according to a Bloomberg report.

The Biden administration appears to be considering changing the US' much-maligned tariff policy that has pushed the country into trade conflicts with all of its major trading partners and inflicted grave damage on US consumers and businesses.

Even after single-handedly driving China-Australia ties to a near-frozen state, the Morrison government appears to be dead set on further escalating regional confrontation by substantially increasing investment in defense and national security - apparently to maintain its role of an attack dog for the US' so-called Indo-Pacific strategy aiming to contain China.

With the US relentlessly imposing supply chain restrictions on Chinese companies citing unsubstantiated "national security concerns," it is bitterly ironic to see a US business organization complain about fear of unfair treatment in the Chinese market.

Mass vaccination and aggressive government spending appeared to have brought the US economy almost back to pre-pandemic levels, but the recent alarming jobs data suggested that there may be still dangerous reefs and currents ahead amid a highly unusual economic recovery push.

The thickening embarrassment between China and the EU after the imposition of tit-for-tat sanctions over Xinjiang issue, appears to have thrown their mutual investment treaty into doubt as many feared.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Wednesday that she expects to meet her Chinese counterpart "in the near term" for conversations that will influence the trajectory of bilateral trade ties.

The May Day holiday has once again demonstrated China's rapid economic recovery, with an explosive spending spree lifting many sectors across the country to pre-epidemic levels. Such strong momentum has not only injected new vitality into the Chinese economy but also strengthened the country's confidence and ability to deal with rising challenges at home and abroad.

Since Joe Biden took over the White House on January 20, the US has been pushing for what it calls an allied approach against China on trade and other issues. So far, that approach appears to be gaining some traction, as the US and some of its allies, including the EU and Japan, are reportedly mulling harsher trading rules targeting China.

In the latest statement made public on Wednesday, Tesla said it has actively reached out to the Tesla car owner who protested at the Shanghai Auto Show, and proposed further communication to address the consumer's grievances.

In an editorial article published on Sunday, The Wall Street Journal once again displayed its double standard and ideological bias by describing Australia's move to tear up the state of Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) agreement as a “backlash” against China's “economic coercion.”

The Port of Darwin lease with a Chinese company could be the next target of Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne, after tearing up the state of Victoria's Belt and Road contract with China, the country's defense minister Peter Dutton suggested on Sunday.

While relationship between China and the US seems to have ebbed to their lowest level in many years, the story in the financial sector may be completely divergent, with Chinese companies lining up to float in the US stock market recently.

The Australian federal government on Wednesday used a new anti-China law to tear up agreements signed between the state of Victoria and China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in an unreasonable and deliberate provocation against China.

US electric carmaker Tesla is under serious fire in China in what could be the biggest public relations crisis for the otherwise highly popular company in the Chinese market. Even after the firm issued a lengthy apology on Tuesday night, the firestorm continued on Wednesday, with criticism from various authorities. A local market regulator even ordered Tesla to "unconditionally" turn over data to an owner involved in an accident.

At the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in South China's Hainan Province, Chinese officials once again send an unmistakable signal that China's resolve to open up to the outside world and welcome more foreign investment remains unwavering, even amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a complex geopolitical landscape.

The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) kicked off in South China's Hainan Province on Sunday, at a critical time when much of the world remains under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, while Asian economies led by China are seeing both robust recovery and rising external risks posed by the US.

Cooperation on tackling the climate crisis seems to have the potential to become the biggest common denominator among China, the US and the EU.

The photovoltaic industry appears to be the latest target caught up in the political farce orchestrated by anti-China forces over their cooked human rights abuse in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Over the past 24 hours, two things have happened that have highlighted the completely different attitudes of the US and Chinese governments toward bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

China's foreign trade got off to a robust start in 2021, surging 29.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, official data showed on Tuesday. In breakdown, the country's trade volume with its major trading partners, ASEAN, the EU, the US and Japan, all recorded significant gains of 26.1 percent, 36.4 percent, 61.3 percent, and 20.8 percent, respectively.

China's leading position in developing and testing its digital currency, appears to be another source of disgruntlement by politicians in Washington, whose obsession of defending the US dollar hegemony is unlikely to impact China's current momentum to accelerate digital yuan test and deployment.

Canberra has continued to beating around the bush in addressing the current trade frictions with its biggest trading partner, constantly pouring cool water on the hope that it could genuinely reevaluate and rectify its past speeches and deeds that sank its relations with Beijing.

Following a multi-year crackdown campaign, the US is seeking to further escalate its rivalry against China in the technological field. Among a series of recent action plans, the US Senate Commerce Committee is set to hold a hearing on a bipartisan bill, titled the Endless Frontier Act, which is aimed at bolstering US technological research and development, Reuters reported on Thursday.

In an email sent to the media Tuesday evening, the US State Department said that it was looking for a coordinated approach with its so-called partners and allies toward the participation in the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. A spokesperson for the department added that the US “certainly [wishes] to discuss” a potential joint boycott with allies, according to Reuters.

The Biden administration appears to gear up for a more localized semiconductor supply chain, adding fuel to the speculation about a high-stake “chip war” between the US and China.

There are some key diplomatic engagements between Europe and India scheduled for this month and later this year. Several senior European officials, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, are scheduled to visit India to pursue a so-called Indo-Pacific strategy. The EU is also reportedly aiming to hold a summit with India.

US Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr on Tuesday urged to further ratchet up the US' crackdown campaign on Chinese telecommunication firms Huawei and ZTE, seeking to further bar the firms' equipment from US networks. In making the call, Carr did not simply invoke the old cliché of national security concerns. He actually suggested the move was aimed at “forced labor” in producing electronic devices.

The US on Monday announced the suspension of all diplomatic and trade engagement with Myanmar following recent violent developments in the Asian country. In a statement, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that the suspension will remain in effect until “the return of a democratically elected government.”

In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, the newly installed US Trade Representative Katherine Tai indicated that the US doesn't have plans to remove tariffs on Chinese products in the near future, while suggesting tariffs could be “leverage” in potential trade talks.

While some in Australia claim to be seeking talks with China to address bilateral trade tensions, ironically those Australians never stop playing political games by insulting China, drifting such a talk further away.

The US and the EU have agreed to restart a bilateral dialogue on China, Reuters reported on Thursday. With the US attempt to woo allies to form an anti-China front shifting from Asia to Europe, the signals from the EU are both disappointing and regrettable.

With China-US ties strained, some US politicians are now seeking to make Taiwan an issue of contention, a well-practiced move for many in Washington.

India seems to be on verge of breaking the ice in economic and trade exchanges with China, which is a welcome development but necessary caution may be still required in the market.

The prospect of declining iron ore prices may offer an opportunity for Australia to reflect on its structural economic challenges.

If China could achieve annual 5-6 percent economic growth rate in the next 10 years through 2030, it will become the world's largest economy, renowned economist Justin Lin Yifu said at the China Development Forum 2021 over the weekend.

On Thursday local time, the first meeting of the China-US high-level dialogue opened with a head-to-head quarrel in Anchorage, Alaska. That came as a complete surprise for many who were watching the show. A number of media outlets and individuals thought it was bizarre that what they were worried about the most actually happened.

Katherine Tai was confirmed on Wednesday as the new US trade representative in a rare 98-0 Senate vote.

Some Western media outlets will never give up smearing China by creating conspiracy theories, assaulting Chinese overseas investment projects.

Since neighboring Myanmar plunged into a political crisis, China has strictly observed its long-standing diplomatic tradition of noninterference into other countries' internal affairs and advocacy for peaceful resolution of conflicts. However, many Western governments and political activists have been inclined, not only to interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign country, but also to pressure others into taking their side.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is scheduled to visit India in April, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

After several Chinese-invested factories in Yangon of Myanmar were smashed, looted, vandalized or burnt, the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar urged the local government on Sunday to take effective measures to stop violence and punish the perpetrators.

In a recent White House press briefing, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said US officials will mention China's "coercion of Australia" when top diplomats from the two countries gather for their first in-person meeting in the coming week, according to a Reuters report.

The just concluded two sessions of China have passed the proposals for formulating its 14th Five-Year Plan and future targets for 2035, setting tone for the prospect of the world's second largest economy. Among dozens of plans in the proposal version, one has drawn wide attention – forming a hydropower development plan on the lower reach of the Yarlung Zangbo River.

Fresh off a massive nosedive, Tesla's stock price posted its sharpest one-day gain in a year on Wednesday, rising nearly 20 percent and rebounding amid a recent cascade of sell-offs. Behind the slump, potential reasons offered by observers including growing market competition, shortage of auto microchips, and even the turmoil bitcoin market which Tesla recently set foot in.

Facing the worst drought in 56 years, the manufacturing of semiconductors on the island of Taiwan has drawn much attention as a sudden global shortage of microchips even halted production for several global auto giants.

The US and India have seen more frequent exchanges lately, especially when it comes to the stunt of “countering China's rise.” As the world is shifting into post-pandemic era, with global industrial chains seeing adjustment, timely finding a beneficial position for India while avoid choosing sides between China and the US, will be a test for the wisdom of the Modi administration.

China's foreign trade performance came off to a brisk start this year, with its imports and exports surging 32.2 percent in the first two months. Among the resurgence of its exports, the shipments to Australia jumped 57.2 percent year-on-year, and the reasons behind deserve serious reflection by Australian policy-makers who have been ignorantly undermining bilateral relations with its largest trading partner.

After reporting a better-than-expectation 3.1 percent GDP growth for the fourth quarter in 2020, Canberra on Thursday announced a 10-year plan, aiming to boost processing capability of its critical minerals and to enhance its manufacturing industry.

China's annual two sessions, a key event on the country's political calendar, is scheduled to be held on Thursday. As the world remains trapped within the COVID-19 pandemic, how China sets its economic tone for the year has drawn global attention.

Relations between China and Australia have gone through a bleak year in 2020 suffering under Canberra's ill-conceived foreign policy. While Aussie anti-China media outlets and politicians relentlessly smashing bilateral relation, there are people in the country firmly committed to being friends of China even under pressure from inner forces. The friendship under tough times should be lauded, and will be remembered by the Chinese people.

After Chinese mainland recently suspended pineapple imports from Taiwan island due to the detection of pests, rounds of politicized hype have been heated on the island with some netizens even clamoring to ban chip exports to the mainland as a “retaliatory”. Absurd as it is, it's actually the US-led Western countries pulling the string by creating a fancy for Taiwan to overrate the strategic significance of its chip industry.

While Canada's appreciation for India's vaccine cooperation could be seen by some as a sign of the latter's success in the so-called "vaccine diplomacy," it is the South Asian nation's tremendous pharmaceutical capacity that really needs to be recognized for its importance in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Australia's largest live-fish exporter, Australian Reef Fish Traders, appears to have lost its market access to China after failing to renew its export license, Australia's ABC News reported on Thursday.

The United States is not a front-runner in creating its own sovereign cryptocurrency, but thanks to the country's enormous financial influence, the world will still be watching closely any new developments by its central bank.

While Facebook has agreed to restore its news service in Australia over the next few days, the incident has the potential to be a landmark in strengthening the resolve of global regulators to tighten their grip on tech giants.

Following a new wave of groundings of Boeing-777 planes, Boeing appears to have a longer and bumpier road to business recovery before the top aircraft maker can stand from the shadow of the 737 MAX crashes.

US President Joe Biden will hold a virtual bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday. As this will mark Biden's first (online) official meeting with a foreign leader since taking office, the event has attracted significant attention and interest from all sides.

Western media reports about a potential Chinese restriction on rare-earth exports seem to have bolstered active market performance of some Australian rare-earth producers over recent days.

With Southeast Asia emerging as a crucial region for so-called "influence" competition between the US and China, whether the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be leaning toward Beijing or Washington will be closely scrutinized.

The UK House of Commons has planned to vote Tuesday on an amendment to its Trade Bill, of which one revised clause is designed to prohibit UK trade with countries that "commit acts of genocide."

China's anti-epidemic efforts achieved a phased victory in the run-up to China's most important festival, with holiday spending levels set to exceed expectations.

The fact that Australia has once again become the first country that China has warned against studying in for 2021, appears to have dashed hopes of the easing of trade tensions between the two countries, any time soon. Even worse, such a travel advisory warning is sufficient to raise concerns over whether the bilateral ties will continue to sink.

From the perspective of financial professionals, the main reason for foreign investors to buy Chinese bonds is rooted in their bullish view on the Chinese economy.

While US technology giant Apple's supply chain diversification drive may lead to concerns among industry watchers, over whether China will get to lose as the world's top factory floor, Apple's reliance on the Chinese market is unlikely to change in the short to medium term.

The US is embarking on an effort to promote domestic production of rare earths in a bid to break China's grip on previous rare earth supplies, but it is doubtful whether its effort will really make a difference.

Australia's geopolitical interest in Southeast Asia appears to be growing amid its escalating tensions with China.

As a key focus of the UK's trade plan post-Brexit, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) appears to gain rising prestige among major economies around the world, however relevant governments need to be careful to keep it open, transparent, and avoid geopolitical posturing.

Apple seems to have entered a "golden" sales period when it comes to consumer preference in China.

Australia raised concerns about the strategic threats to be posed by a Chinese fishery park project on Daru Island of Papua New Guinea (PNG), but Canberra is expected to gradually accept the fact that China has the ability and right to cooperate with and invest in Pacific island countries.

Since taking over the White House, US President Joe Biden has kept his focus on pressing domestic issues and reversing a slew of actions taken by his predecessor Donald Trump, which is understandable given the confluence of crises the US faces. But less than a week into his presidency, Biden could no longer avoid questions about the mess left by Trump in China-US trade ties.

New Zealand's deepening economic and trade cooperation with China will probably make exporters in neighboring Australia envious. On Tuesday, China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and his New Zealand counterpart signed an upgrade to their existing free trade agreement in a sign of expanding economic cooperation when it comes to trade practices.

India's free shipments of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine to South Asian countries have drawn growing attention, which is being labeled by some media outlets as "vaccine diplomacy." India itself has been brutally pummeled by the virus, and more than 153,000 Indians have died.

Public skepticism about flying on a Boeing 737 MAX plane is likely to grow after a Canadian airline cancelled a flight due to a technical issue with the aircraft.

By recording low daily COVID-19 cases in recent days, Australia is witnessing growing discussions over a potential travel "bubble," shedding a glimmer of light at the end of tunnel for revival of regional tourism.

While facing strong headwinds from supply chain disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic and Trump administration' push to decouple, China remained as one of the world's most attractive investment destinations in 2020.

Pressure is mounting on the UK financial service providers as the EU seeks to strengthen its financial standing and promote the euro's role in the world which has long been eclipsed by the predominance of the US dollar.

Index provider FTSE Russell faced strong pushback from some Japanese investors when explaining its plan to add Chinese government bonds to its flagship World Government Bond Index (WGBI) at a recent online meeting, according to Reuters.

Like the world's other COVID-19 vaccines that have been pushed to the front line of the fight against the pandemic at a fervent pace, India's vaccines are actually facing a mix response of doubt and praise.

With ASEAN countries becoming China's largest trading partner in 2020, bilateral trade between China and Vietnam witnessed particularly remarkable growth.

Given a likely 20 percent drop in India's imports from China in 2020, the trade between China and India may have reached a turning point, according to a report published on Nikkei's Chinese website on Wednesday.