Will Johnson toe US President Donald Trump's line? If so, will Britain's withdrawal spell doom for the deal? Boris Johnson, who became the United Kingdom's newly elected prime minister on July 23, is a hard-line euroskeptic politician. While Europe is keenly following how Britain's Cabinet would proceed with Brexit under Johnson's leadership, in the Persian Gulf, Iranians are concerned about the fate of the Iran nuclear deal, or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in the post-Brexit era.
The US is openly playing Hong Kong as a card to exert strategic pressure on China amid the trade negotiations and escalating contention between the two countries, said Chinese experts, as senior US officials, institutions and foundations have increasingly lent support to prolonged riots in the special administrative region.
Recently, China announced a slew of measures to further open its financial market. The 11 new measures encourage overseas financial institutions to participate in the establishment of, and invest in, asset management subsidiaries of commercial banks. They also allow them to set up and invest in pension management companies. Investment restrictions of overseas personal insurance companies will be completely scrapped in 2020. Those measures serve as a milestone, marking a new stage of China's financial opening-up.
Chinese experts sounded the alarm at a seminar on China-U.S. trade ties in Beijing, warning that protectionist moves by the U.S. that further escalate trade tensions will disrupt the global economy. Experts noted that China and the U.S. are the biggest trading partners and important investment destinations. They say that time has always proven that China and the U.S. stand to benefit from cooperation, and lose from confrontation.
Shares of Cathay Pacific Airways closed nearly 5 percent lower in Hong Kong on Monday after the company sent a sternly worded internal letter to employees during the day warning them not to participate in any illegal protests. On Friday, the company received a scathing air safety warning from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The warning pointed out that the carrier's flight personnel had participated in violent street protests, with serious hidden threat on aviation safety.
Use of the renminbi is an increasingly common choice of countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. Some Western scholars misunderstand the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative believing it is a means to promote the internationalization of the renminbi. In fact, although there is a certain relationship between the initiative and yuan's internationalization, they are two different issues.
Seated opposite us in a conference room, Tulus Martini, a young Indonesian mother, was answering our questions in fluent Chinese. A blue sign was hanging on the wall. It read "Jawa 7 Coal-Fired Power Plant. "In 2017, China Energy Engineering Group Zhejiang Thermal Power Construction Co Ltd started building this power plant in Kota Serang in the northwest region of Java, Indonesia. The plant is a key project of Indonesia's medium-term plan to add 35 million kilowatts of generation capacity, as well as China's first overseas mega-kilowatt class thermal power project.
The China-US trade war began over a year ago, the US' economic bullying has since spread to the financial and currency sectors as the US has designated China as a currency manipulator.This is not the first time the US has waged a trade war, and China is not its first victim. Looking through history, the US has always gained upper hand and left its opponents with a "lost decade" or decades. In this history, there are lessons to be learned.
China and the United States need to establish a new balance of trade, finance and technology cooperation, while avoiding a full-blown confrontation amid intensified tensions, experts said. Their comments came as Washington threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods starting Sept 1, and labeled China "a currency manipulator".
On Tuesday, 41 developers belonging to the Real Estate Developers Association (REDA) of Hong Kong issued a joint statement voicing their opposition toward increasingly violent protests and vandalism in the city, saying these incidents are seriously encroaching on Hong Kong's core value of the rule of law and increasing the economic downward pressure on the city.
The thundering trade war between China and the U.S. shows no sign of cooling down. The latest round of escalation came when the United States threatened to slap 10 percent tariff on an additional 300 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese goods and China responded by suspending new imports of American agricultural goods. China and the U.S. are still far from reaching a consensus, but the consensus of the world at large is: the trade war is wreaking havoc the global economy.
Three administrative documents released by the Chinese government, Special Administrative Measures on Access to Foreign Investment (2019 edition), Free Trade Zone Special Administrative Measures on Access to Foreign Investment (2019 edition) and Catalogue of Industries for Guiding Foreign Investment , came into effect on July 30, 2019. The latest revision includes new opening-up measures in services, manufacturing, mining and agriculture, allowing full foreign ownership in more sectors, with no additional limits added. Three changes highlight the new negative list.
On August 9, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report saying that the renminbi (RMB) is not being significantly undervalued or overvalued, and a more flexible exchange rate will provide greater room to solve China's domestic problems. This statement is bound to disappoint the Trump administration. The U.S. Treasury Department, which labeled China as a "currency manipulator," had originally hoped to seek backing from the IMF.
The world has been taken by surprise by the violence and the duration of the ongoing turbulence in Hong Kong. While demonstrations in Hong Kong do occur on occasions, the violent eruptions coming out of this demonstration was unexpected. However, it is probably not "spontaneous."
Through a presidential order, the Indian government on August 5 scrapped Article 370 of Indian Constitution, which granted special status to the India-controlled Kashmir. The move means the region, an internationally recognized disputed territory between India and Pakistan, was forcibly transformed into alleged Indian territory by New Delhi. This is unacceptable to Pakistan and has triggered a serious confrontation between the two countries.
Mobile payments have taken China by storm. Whether it's shopping, buying a meal in a restaurant, taking a taxi, purchasing cinema tickets or paying utility bills, almost every financial transaction can be managed on a mobile phone by scanning a QR code. Over the past five years, as cash and bank cards have been abandoned in favor of hundreds of millions of virtual wallets, China has emerged as the world leader in mobile payment, in terms of users and value.
For numerous reasons the book is essential reading for anyone studying China's rise. But its importance lies above all in its "Chinese characteristics" - in showing how the framework of thought created by China's age of struggle and rising era is the most accurate guide to current international events. It outlines the basis on which the success of the Chongyang Institute was created. In addition to its importance for China itself if Western leaders read it they will make far fewer mistakes in understanding China.
Escalating financial friction between China and the US as a side effect of the trade war is becoming a hot topic among Chinese economists, with some of them cautioning that the trade row might worsen into a finance war between the two countries.
Chinese internet users expressed safety concerns for US society after two mass shootings claimed dozens of lives. Some users said the US had already lost its appeal through its hostile polices against China, with the shootings just adding fuel to the fire. US society is grappling with two mass shootings in two cities over the weekend, which left 20 people dead in El Paso and nine others killed in Dayton.
On Monday 5 August China tested an economic nuclear weapon – it allowed the RMB’s exchange rate to fall. In addition to the drop itself it took it below the psychologically important 7.0 level. Financial markets understood immediately the impact of this drop in the RMB’s exchange rate – the US S&P500 share index fell by 3% in a single day, the worst daily decline of 2019. This sharp fall on US share markets repeated the experience following the RMB’s devaluation in 2015.