China

<strong>China’s EV Expansion Faces Roadblocks in Brazil amid Tariff Calls on BYD</strong>
2Jun mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
Asia, China

China’s EV Expansion Faces Roadblocks in Brazil amid Tariff Calls on BYD

China’s EV expansion in Brazil is facing mounting challenges as domestic automakers push for higher tariffs to counter the influx of low-cost Chinese vehicles. BYD, which has captured 47% of Brazil’s EV market, has stockpiled over 70,000 unsold vehicles in ports, anticipating tariff hikes. Brazil reinstated import duties in January 2024, starting at 10% and rising to 35% by mid-2026. Despite BYD’s dominance, local manufacturers, including Volkswagen and Toyota, are ramping up EV production. With Chinese automakers controlling 90% of Brazil’s EV market, policymakers face pressure to accelerate tariff increases. The outcome could reshape global trade policies. BYD has rapidly expanded its presence in Brazil since entering the market in 2021, leveraging aggressive pricing strategies t...
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<strong>Central Bank Struggles to Contain China’s Banking Crisis</strong>
28May mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia, China

Central Bank Struggles to Contain China’s Banking Crisis

China’s economic landscape is facing unprecedented turbulence, as revealed by the latest report from the People’s Bank of China. While Beijing has long projected an image of strength and stability, the central bank’s findings expose eight interwoven crises that threaten to unravel the nation’s economic and social fabric. These crises—spanning deflation, real estate collapse, local government debt, weak consumption, financial system risks, export declines, unemployment surges, and capital flight—are not isolated issues but rather a self-reinforcing cycle of decline. China’s consumer price index (CPI) fell 0.1% year-on-year, while the producer price index (PPI) dropped 2.3%, signalling sustained deflation. The central bank acknowledges weak demand and calls for price recovery—an unus...
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Poorest 75 nations face ‘tidal wave’ of debt repayments to China in 2025, study warns
27May mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China

Poorest 75 nations face ‘tidal wave’ of debt repayments to China in 2025, study warns

Vulnerable countries to pay record $22bn this year, mostly relating to loans issued under Xi Jinping’s belt and road initiative The most vulnerable nations on Earth are facing a “tidal wave” of debt repayments as a Chinese lending boom starts to be called in, a new report has warned. The analysis, published on Tuesday by Australian foreign policy thinktank the Lowy Institute, said that in 2025 the poorest 75 countries were on the hook for record high debt repayments US$22bn to China. The 75 nations’ debt formed the bulk of the total $35bn calculated by Lowy for 2025. “Now, and for the rest of this decade, China will be more debt collector than banker to the developing world,” the report said. The pressure to repay was putting strain on local funding for health and educatio...
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26May mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China

‘Tidal wave’: How 75 nations face Chinese debt crisis in 2025

Developing countries to pay a record $22bn this year, mostly linked to loans from China’s Belt and Road Initiative. But many nations are also indebted to private Western lenders. Many of the world’s poorest countries are due to make record debt repayments to China in 2025 on loans extended a decade ago, at the peak of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, a report by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute think tank has found. Under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a state-backed infrastructure investment programme launched in 2013, Beijing lent billions of dollars to build ports, highways and railroads to connect Asia, Africa and the Americas.But new lending is drying up. In 2025, debt repayments owed to China by developing countries will amount to $35bn. Of that, $22bn is set to be ...
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China stimulus lies behind a Great Wall of assets
24May mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China

China stimulus lies behind a Great Wall of assets

A great wall of debt may not be an obstacle to Xi Jinping’s effort to boost spending in the world’s second-largest economy. By some measures, China’s president has already dug deep to prop up slowing GDP growth. Now officials are taking a broader view of the country’s balance sheet. This may open up a new fiscal chapter for the People’s Republic.Despite a de-escalation this month of a global trade war, China still faces additional 30% tariffs on its exports to the United States. A property crisis, deflationary pressure and unemployment fears mean savers are hoarding money instead of spending it. Yet there is limited space to unleash further stimulus according to orthodox rules. In the past, the State Council rarely budgeted a deficit larger than 3% of GDP, a threshold similar to th...
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How is China’s economy faring?
23May mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China

How is China’s economy faring?

China’s economy has suffered from slow consumer spending and a slump in the real estate market. The unpredictable trade war with the United States risks further economic problems, but the current pause in tariff increases plus persistent stimulus from Beijing are keeping the worst outcomes at bay.Following the April meeting of China’s politburo (the executive committee of the Communist Party of China) – just a couple of weeks after the United States and China had raised tariffs on one another to considerably more than 100% – the communiqué was surprisingly sanguine. At tariff rates of 145% and 125% respectively, bilateral trade would almost certainly have collapsed in what was, in effect, more trade embargo than trade war, with damaging consequences for both sides. But with a heavy...
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Hong Kong Dollar Amid ‘Asian Financial Crisis In Reverse’
21May mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
Asia, China

Hong Kong Dollar Amid ‘Asian Financial Crisis In Reverse’

The recent weakness in USD triggered the so-called “Asian Financial Crisis in reverse.” Taiwan dollar notably surged 10% against the USD amid worries that the Taiwanese government might have to agree to currency depreciation as part of trade negotiations with the US. The sudden shift in capital allocation also flooded the Hong Kong financial system, prompting the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to intervene in the foreign exchange market. The de facto central bank had to sell HKD to maintain its linked exchange rate system with the USD. How Linked Exchange Rate System works? HKMA has to acquire USD from the market whenever the HKD exchange rate is “too strong” - i.e., when it is stronger than HKMA’s trading limit of HKD 7.75 per USD - under its linked exchange rate. ...
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BYD Dealerships Failing Show Financial Pain in China Car Sector
17May mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China

BYD Dealerships Failing Show Financial Pain in China Car Sector

Car dealership groups in two provinces have gone out of business since last month in China, both of them BYD Co. retailers, evidence of the tough competition in the nation’s auto market and proof that not even selling the country’s No. 1 brand can shield businesses from financial difficulties. Car dealership groups in two provinces have gone out of business since last month in China, both of them BYD Co. retailers, evidence of the tough competition in the nation’s auto market and proof that not even selling the country’s No. 1 brand can shield businesses from financial difficulties. Xingqi Group outlets in Liaoning province have stopped delivering new cars or providing service for more than 60 customers, according to Liaoning Radio and Television Station, while more than 500 peo...
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17May mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China

Trump’s China trade breakthrough might be enough to avoid self-inflicted recession

President Donald Trump marched the US economy to the brink of a self-inflicted recession and a potential supply chain meltdown. But at the last moment, Trump decided to pull back. The US-China breakthrough unveiled Monday calls for a 90-day thaw in the trade war by slashing tariffs from suffocatingly high levels as trade was paralyzed between the world’s two biggest economies. The dramatic drop in US-China tariffs is an undeniable positive compared to just a few days ago. The breakthrough has already set off an epic party on Wall Street and is raising hopes that a tariff-driven nightmare can be avoided. Yet economists say it’s still too early to declare the US economy is out of danger altogether. Recession risks remain, even if the odds o...
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<strong>WHY USA’s TARIFFS ON CHINA MAKE SENSE?</strong>
16May mmBy Michael SmithNo Comments
China, USA, World

WHY USA’s TARIFFS ON CHINA MAKE SENSE?

China’s economic ascent has been propelled not by a level playing field but by comprehensive state intervention that skews markets in favor of domestic champions. In April 2025, data from China’s General Administration of Customs revealed a 21 percent year-on-year drop in Chinese exports to the United States—an abrupt decline directly linked to U.S. tariffs soaring as high as 145 percent—while Beijing sought to reroute shipments to other global markets. The United States Trade Representative’s 2024 Report to Congress documents China’s chronic non-compliance with WTO obligations, highlighting opaque procurement rules, forced technology transfers, and hidden subsidies to state-owned enterprises that produce goods at below-cost prices to undercut foreign competitors. These tactics inflat...
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