China

Virtually everyone (family possibly excepted) who has dealt with Donald Trump has lost money; what is worse, he sees them as suckers. Remarkably, over the decades, despite an abundance of such evidence, people get lured into his flimflam show, the final performance of which has just hit the stage, and the suckers, of course, will be the American people. To be fair, Trump’s goal — to bring manufacturing (and high-paying manufacturing jobs) back to the US — is laudable, but the reality is that the US is a high-cost economy which, together with the huge additional risk of volatile government policy, makes it highly unlikely that there will be any serious investment in the US despite it being otherwise attractive. The only way this can change is if the dollar weakens substantially to wh...

A meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and some of the country's foremost business leaders this week has fuelled excitement and speculation, after Alibaba founder Jack Ma was pictured at the event. The charismatic and colourful Mr Ma, who was one of China's most prominent businessmen, had withdrawn from public life after criticising China's financial sector in 2020. His reappearance at Monday's event has sparked a wave of discussion, with experts and analysts wondering what it means for him, China's tech sector and the economy in general. The response has been overwhelmingly positive - tech stocks, including those of Alibaba, rallied soon after the event. On Thursday, the e-commerce giant reported financial results that beat expectations, with shares ending the trading...

President Xi Jinping has reiterated his view of China’s inevitable rise – a belief that continues to drive policymaking at the highest level – at a closely watched symposium with prominent entrepreneurs, held to boost private-sector morale and shore up economic momentum. He told the assembled business leaders on Monday that the East still holds a great deal of promise and the Chinese economy remains incomparable on the world stage, according to a Friday story from Communist Party news organ People’s Daily that revealed more details of the closed-door meeting.“In the long term, the east wind is still prevailing … confidence is very important,” he said, echoing a slogan from Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China. In the 1950s, the revolutionary leader adopted a phrase ...

Inbound investment in China plummeted to a four-year low in January, as the world’s second-largest economy grapples with a flurry of headwinds. The Ministry of Commerce reported on Wednesday that 97.6 billion yuan ($13.4 billion) in foreign direct investment was utilized last month, a 13% drop from the same period last year. The weak start to the year came after a steep plunge of 27.1% in total annual foreign direct investment (FDI) last year to 826.3 billion yuan ($113.4 billion). It was the lowest figure since 2016. “The decline has narrowed compared to last year, but it is still on a downward trend,” Ling Ji, China’s vice commerce minister, said at a Thursday press conference, where multiple government departments unveiled a 20-point action plan to attract foreign capital. ...

China’s central bank governor has offered to deepen cooperation with emerging economies on a series of issues and to help them gain a greater voice in global financial governance during a series of speeches in Saudi Arabia. Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China, pledged to work with the Gulf states to promote currency stability, expand bilateral financial investment, and create integrated payment systems during a meeting with central bank governors from the region. China would also work with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members on digital currency and anti-money-laundering efforts, Pan added, according to a news release issued by the PBOC on Tuesday. China has long sought to internationalise its currency, reduce its reliance on the US dollar, and enhance its fin...

The 25 percent tariff imposed on steel imports by the US government is set to worsen the prospects of the struggling metal sector of China. The shares of major steel companies fell by up to 3 percent soon after US President Donald Trump announced the tariff. It is expected to hurt exports from China, which so far was a promising area amid lower domestic consumption and the real estate crisis. "If the tariffs were to be implemented stringently, both direct exports and transit trade would feel some impact," analysts at consultancy Fubao. China's steel industry has been bleeding. It incurred losses of USD 5 billion in the first nine months of 2024 even as the total output fell by 1.7 percent to roughly 1 billion tonnes—the lowest in five years. According to industry insiders, as many ...

Pernod Ricard and Carlsberg warned on Thursday they see few signs of a pick-up in consumer demand in China, the world's second-biggest economy, adding to a gloomy outlook for 2025 as executives try to navigate growing global trade tensions. Weak consumer spending in China, which is grappling with youth unemployment and a real-estate crisis, has been a major concern for industries including luxury goods, consumer products and clothes manufacturers over the past year. In the second half of 2024, Beijing rolled out multiple rounds of stimulus to lift the property sector from a prolonged slump, but executives see no significant recovery. Carlsberg chief executive officer Jacob Aarup-Andersen said demand in its largest market remained subdued last year, driving down volumes, and that ...

The Chinese government has rebuffed bold consumption stimulus policy. But boosting domestic household spending is precisely what the country needs to achieve healthy growth. The China boom has ended. The country’s annual economic growth rate has decelerated from a height of more than 14 percent in 2007 to less than 6 percent in 2023. Total indebtedness (including both internal and external debt) surpassed an alarming 365 percent of GDP as of the first quarter of 2024, according to the Institute of International Finance—much higher than comparable middle-income countries like Brazil (208 percent), Argentina (152 percent), and Indonesia (86 percent). The collapse or near collapse of real estate giants like Evergrande, which just a few years ago was the poster child for China’s economic m...

China has accused the US of making "unfounded and false allegations" about its role in the fentanyl trade to justify tariffs on Chinese products. The complaint was lodged with the World Trade Organization (WTO) one day after US President Donald Trump raised border taxes on Chinese goods by 10%, a measure he said was intended to address an influx of illegal drugs. In the filing, China said the measures were "discriminatory and protectionist" and violated trade rules. But experts have warned that China is unlikely to secure a ruling in its favour as the panel that settles trade disputes remains unable to function. One former WTO official told the BBC it has "no possibility of succeeding". The dispute comes as Trump's plans for tariffs - a tax he has said he wants to see imposed ...