On the agenda for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year – as it has been for many years before – is the South China Sea dispute. Singapore, as chairman of ASEAN will go into the year with the foundations towards dispute resolution seemingly made. Last November, China and ASEAN formally announced the start of negotiations for a Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea.

A pile of rusty pipes and materials are all that remain of Lanzhou New Area’s tram project. Only a year ago it was a flagship public-private partnership for the planned city in Central China, before it fell victim to President Xi Jinping’s debt clampdown."The project is dead," said a guard at the office, who gave only his surname, Le.

If the resilience of emerging markets to rising interest rates is all about the growth outlook, then data from China this week will be key.The country, the world’s biggest emerging market, releases gross domestic product statistics on Thursday.Less than a week after Angola abandoned its dollar peg, another African nation – Morocco –is due to make good on a promise it made several years ago to relax its currency regime.And policy makers in South Korea, South Africa, Turkey and Indonesia are du

Whispers of protectionism have now turned into screams and shouts.

China, poised to become the world’s biggest aircraft buyer, will finalize orders for 184 Airbus SE A320 family aircraft soon, French President Emmanuel Macron said after talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.The previously unannounced orders are mainly for the A320neo jets, with deliveries to 13 airlines scheduled in 2019 and 2020, an aide to Macron told reporters in Beijing on Wednesday, without elaborating or providing the value of the deal.

Asia’s stock rally to record highs looked to take a breather on Wednesday as investors consider the impact of a jump in bond yields. The yen strengthened for a second day, with traders fixating on prospects for scaled-back debt purchases from the Bank of Japan.Reduced asset purchases by the world’s top central banks, rising commodity prices and looming U.S. debt sales all support the case for higher bond yields, in a potential test to surging equity valuations. Yields on 10-year U.S.

The company with the biggest grip on Thailand’s brick-and-mortar retail market is expecting a partnership with China’s JD.com Inc. to help it do the same in online sales.Central Group, which controls Thailand’s biggest operator of shopping malls and department stores, expects online sales to account for as much as 15 percent of its revenue in five years, from 2 percent now.

China took another step to clamp down on leverage in the financial system, ordering banks to ensure they aren’t exposed to risks from their entrusted loan business.Banks can only act as intermediaries when arranging entrusted loans, and must not provide guarantees or get involved in decision-making, according to new rules posted in a statement on the China Banking Regulatory Commission’s website over the weekend.The entrusted loan business, which normally involves companies providing finance

For the last decade or so, China’s economy has been on something of a roller coaster ride. As 2018 begins, is the country approaching a new ascent, a steep drop, or something in between?Prior to the global economic crisis a decade ago, the Chinese economy was growing at a breakneck pace. But when the crisis hit, the growth rate fell relatively sharply.

China’s central bank will make modest increases in money-market rates in 2018 as it aims to keep up the pressure on deleveraging and prevent too much divergence with U.S. policy, according to a Bloomberg survey.The People’s Bank of China is seen raising interest rates on reverse-repurchase agreements by five basis points three times this year, starting in the first quarter, the survey shows.