China

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...

The massive economic stimulus and boost to clean power from a 1.2 trillion yuan ($167 billion) mega-dam in Tibet has proven alluring enough for Chinese leaders to set aside concerns about potential damage to biodiversity and the impact on relations with India. The massive economic stimulus and boost to clean power from a 1.2 trillion yuan ($167 billion) mega-dam in Tibet has proven alluring enough for Chinese leaders to set aside concerns about potential damage to biodiversity and the impact on relations with India. Chinese Premier Li Qiang launched construction of the hydropower project, which is three times the size of the Three Gorges Dam, on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo river on Saturday. He also unveiled the China Yajiang Group, a new company that will manage th...

China expresses strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the European Union's inclusion of Chinese companies and financial institutions in its 18th round of sanctions against Russia, a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. Despite China's repeated representations and objections, the EU has persisted in its unilateral actions and sanctioned two Chinese financial institutions on unfounded grounds, according to the statement. China has always opposed unilateral sanctions that lack international legal basis and are not authorized by the UN Security Council, it added. Noting the EU's actions have caused serious negative impacts on China-EU economic and trade relations, the spokesperson said China urges the EU to immediately stop the wro...

The Chinese Ministry of Health has launched a big campaign to save people from the outbreak of Chikungunya fever. Another deadly disease is spreading in China five years after the COVID-19 pandemic. The hospitals in the southern Chinese city of Foshan are reportedly full and can hardly accommodate more patients. Many patients are in hospitals waiting for their turn to receive treatment. Chikungunya is the disease responsible for the increase in patients. The Chinese Ministry of Health has launched a campaign to save people from Chikungunya fever. China's Ministry of Health has launched an emergency campaign to protect people who could contract chikungunya fever. This is significant because Guangdong province has hardly ever seen cases of this illness. Hong Kong, a neighbor, is l...