Xi Jingping

The trade war isn't over

The world’s two largest economies are nearing the finish line on a trade deal that could be signed by President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as early as this month. But that doesn’t mean the trade war ends.More work remains on a deal that will ensure that Beijing will follow through on its commitments, United States (US) Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Congress last week.

6 March 2019
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Trump, Xi agree to temporary trade war truce

United State (US) President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to keep their trade war from escalating with a promise to halt the imposition of new tariffs for 90 days as the world’s two largest economies negotiate a lasting agreement.The truce between the US and China emerged after a highly anticipated dinner Saturday between Trump and Xi on the side-lines of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina.

3 December 2018
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Belt and Road buckles under own weight

Strategists in the West fear that China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) is a vast, well-laid and finely orchestrated plan to extend Chinese hegemony over much of the developing world. They should be afraid of something else: It’s nothing of the sort.What many outsiders have missed is that the BRI is a vision, not a plan.

28 September 2018
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Tough times for tough guys

Shares in strongman leaders seem to be falling. The market has not yet turned bearish, but autocrats have little reason to feel bullish.Consider China. The internal power games of the Communist Party of China (CPC) are notoriously opaque, and rarely does political infighting reach the level at which it cannot be covered up. And yet rumbles of disquiet can clearly be heard.

26 August 2018
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India's Modi threads path between rising China, uncertain US

United States (US) Defense Secretary James Mattis described India as the “fulcrum’’ of security in the Indo-Pacific region as he traveled this week to an annual security conference in Singapore, attended for the first time by an Indian leader.But if Mattis was hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would use the platform to join the US, Japan and Australia - a grouping known as the Quad - in a more muscular challenge to China’s regional expansion, he was disappointed.

2 June 2018
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US-China trade talks end in discord as demands show wide rift

Two days of US-China trade discussions ended in Beijing with an agreement to keep on talking, and little else.China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday afternoon that both sides reached a consensus on some trade issues while acknowledging major disagreements on some matters. It said they would continue discussions, without providing specifics for when they would start again.

6 May 2018
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The drums of trade war

Last month, US President Donald Trump’s administration fired the opening salvo in what is quickly shaping up to become a full-blown trade war. While trade friction has long been an issue in the Sino-American relationship, few expected such an escalation, not least because economists widely view trade wars as damaging to all parties. So how did we get to this point, and can we turn back before it’s too late?First and foremost, Trump does not seem to understand how trade works.

25 April 2018
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The Philippines’ pivot to China

Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte recently returned from China bearing gifts. The president had signed nine business agreements when he was there. “The nine business agreements signed during my visit yielded an estimated value of 9 to 8 billion dollars in investments. These are projected to generate more than 10,000 jobs for our countrymen and women,” Duterte said in his speech upon returning from China.

17 April 2018
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Xi's strong hand against Trump

The world will soon witness a historic test of wills between China and the United States, two superpowers whose leaders see themselves as supreme. In the immediate sense, it will be a battle over trade. But also at stake is the strategic leadership of East Asia and, eventually, the international order. As things stand, China holds a stronger position than many people realise.

12 April 2018
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China's “Belt & Road” gains momentum from Kunming to Mombasa

China’s massive build program to recreate trade routes stretching from Asia to Africa and Europe is gaining momentum.Since President Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road project was announced about five years ago, it gave impetus to billions of dollars of Chinese investment – some of which were already in the pipeline for several years – to build railways, roads, ports and power plants.Here’s a quick take on what Xi describes as the ‘project of the century’The program isn’t without controversy

11 April 2018
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China's Xi pledges greater openness amid Trump trade dispute

Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to open sectors from banking to auto manufacturing, in a speech that also warned against returning to a “Cold War mentality” amid his trade disputes with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump.Xi said China would increase imports, lower foreign-ownership limits on manufacturing and expand protection to intellectual property.

10 April 2018
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