China

The technological and strategic brilliance of its world-class companies are being swamped by macroeconomic troubles roclamations about the inevitability of China’s dominance of the global economic system, or the so-called Chinese century, were made long before Donald Trump’s attempts to stymie its trade with the US. Common concerns about coercive politics and human rights aside, some notions of China as an unstoppable economic, technological and military behemoth sit alongside others focused more on an increasingly sclerotic, over- centralised political economy, that depends on wasteful economic stimulus, and features poor governance and institutions. The fusion of these notions suggests that we may already have reached “peak China”. At the time of the 2008 financial crisis, ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday that China will remain consistent in its position on the Ukraine crisis and will continue promoting peace talks no matter how the situation evolves, CGTN reported. In his phone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi elaborated on China's principled stance on the crisis and stressed that complex issues have no simple solutions. The Chinese side is glad to see Russia and the United States maintain contact, improve their relations and promote a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, Xi said. Putin, on his part, shared Russia's perspective on the current situation of the Ukraine crisis and the recent interactions between Russia and the United States. He said Russia highly appreciates China's constructive role in promoti...

Beijing’s plan to provide a basic national subsidy of 500 USD per child each year until the age of three has brought a focus back on China’s controversial subsidy policy. Demographers are sceptical about the outcome of this policy, as many couples are refusing to have more children. Western observers and politicians have expressed deep concern over the adverse impacts of China’s subsidies on domestic producers and international trade. Their claim is that the subsidy policy is part of China’s broader strategy to manipulate both domestic and international dynamics. The subsidy for couples to have children aims to address the population decline that threatens the world’s second-largest economy. Local governments in China have tried, mostly in vain, to lift the country’s shrinking b...

China’s exports beat market forecasts in July as rising shipments to Europe, Africa and Latin America offset the impact of US tariffs China’s exports continued to accelerate in July as a fall in shipments to the United States was offset by growth in a range of markets, including Africa, Europe and Latin America, with chip exports surging by nearly 30 per cent, year on year. The world’s largest goods exporter saw outbound shipments rise last month by 7.2 per cent, year on year, to US$321.8 billion, according to customs data released on Thursday. The figure was higher than the 5.8 per cent growth rate recorded in June and beat the 5.8 per cent growth forecast in a market survey by the Chinese financial data provider Wind. China’s imports, meanwhile, rose by 4.1 per cent year...

As Beijing gathers public input on China’s next five-year plan – a mission statement for the next half-decade of economic and social policy – how best to bolster domestic consumption has emerged as a topic of considerable debate as the country seeks new avenues for growth amid a murky landscape for global trade.One point of contention among scholars and other influential thinkers is whether to set measurable consumption targets, in a similar fashion to other headline benchmarks like gross domestic product growth. Some have called for indicators such as the household consumption rate – the share of consumer spending in GDP – to be written into the blueprint, while others argue that such metrics are not operationally feasible as policy goals. Among those in favour is Chang Xiuze, ...

China’s spectacular economic development has brought up the price of its labour and dwindled Western corporate profits. Over the past two decades, the posture of the United States towards China has evolved from economic cooperation to outright antagonism. US media outlets and politicians have engaged in persistent anti-China rhetoric, while the US government has imposed trade restrictions and sanctions on China and pursued military build-up close to Chinese territory. Washington wants people to believe that China poses a threat. China’s rise indeed threatens US interests, but not in the way the US political elite seeks to frame it. The US relationship with China needs to be understood in the context of the capitalist world system. Capital accumulation in the core states, ...

While trade shock could be less severe than initially feared, evidence is mounting that it is hurting the global economy, IMF’s chief economist says The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has substantially raised its growth forecast for China this year, while also slightly revising up global estimates, as China diversifies its export partners and trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies de-escalate. The IMF now projects that China’s economy will expand by 4.8 per cent in 2025, up 0.8 percentage point from its previous forecast in April, according to its World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.The upwards revision for China’s forecast was the largest among all countries and regions included in the report, as this year’s global economic growth forecast was...