Politics has a nasty habit of surprising us – especially in a country like China, where there is little transparency and a lot of intrigue. Five months ago, President Xi Jinping jolted his countrymen by abolishing the presidential term limit and signalling his intention to serve for life.
United States (US) President Donald Trump’s inability to think strategically is undermining longstanding relationships, upending the global order, and accelerating the decline of his country’s global influence – or so the increasingly popular wisdom goes. But this assessment is not nearly as obvious as its proponents – especially political adversaries and critics in the mainstream US media – claim.America’s relative decline was a hot topic long before Trump took office.
Finance ministers and central bankers from the top 20 economies of the world on Sunday ended two days of talks in Buenos Aires. They began against a backdrop of concern with a burgeoning trade war that had risked spilling into currency markets.
No one yet knows what deals United States (US) President Donald Trump may have struck with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their private two-hour meeting in Helsinki. But it is already clear that Trump’s self-congratulations for striking a deal to “denuclearise” the Korean Peninsula during his Singapore summit with Kim Jong-un are ringing hollow.
At their much-anticipated presidential summit, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were at pains to talk up a reconciliation in fractured ties between the United States (US) and Russia.But Trump's failure to condemn the Kremlin's alleged role in directing a campaign of manipulation in the US elections will dominate coverage in Washington, where it triggered outrage.
After months of anticipation, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin meet Monday to put to the test the United States (US) president's ambition to forge a personal bond with the Kremlin chief.If Trump's instinct is right and he finds common ground with Putin, then the pair's Helsinki Summit may take the heat out of some of the world's most dangerous conflicts.
No matter how much chaos and disruption United States (US) President Donald Trump causes – to trade, business, and even America’s core alliances – his supporters regularly insist that Trump is a leader who gets things done.
United States (US) Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo is back in Pyongyang for his third visit to the hermit kingdom, for further discussions on denuclearisation on the back of the historic summit between the leaders of both states in Singapore last month. Since that meeting, Trump has remained optimistic on the prospect that North Korea will hold up their end of the bargain and give up its nuclear arsenal.
In the last few years, for many people and their leaders, globalisation has become a scourge to be purged in favour of greater protectionism and unilateralism. This represents a sharp departure from the recent past, when globalisation was widely regarded as a positive force. What changed, and why?Key components of globalisation include greater cross-border mobility of goods, labour, and capital, each of which promises significant overall benefits for economies.
The United States (US) dollar’s best quarterly run of Donald Trump’s presidency is no doubt causing discomfort in Asia. But while the greenback is getting expensive, it’s not yet scarce. To gauge the risk of a shortage, you have to read the political tea leaves from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi and Beijing.Suppose you’re an Indian bank. A customer wants US$100 for three months.
President Donald Trump’s moves to protect United States (US) trade interests are creating unusual bedfellows in Asia.India and China, longstanding economic and strategic rivals, are seeing a thaw in relations less than a year after the most serious border flare-up since a war in 1962 threatened ties between the two Asian giants.Since May, China has made it easier for India to export non-Basmati rice, removed import duties on anti-cancer drugs and agreed to share data that predicts river flows
Xi Jinping vowed to match Donald Trump blow for blow in any trade war. Now as one gets closer, some in Beijing are starting to openly wonder whether China is ready for the fight - an unusually direct challenge to the leadership of the world’s second-largest economy.In recent weeks, prominent academics have begun to question if China’s slowing, trade-dependent economy can withstand a sustained attack from Trump, which has already started to weigh on stock prices.
