Archives of “china” tag

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China reportedly said to expect record amount of US soybean purchases this year

  
  Analysis
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Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter

The report says that China is said to expect a record amount of US soybean purchases this year as “lower prices help to boost purchases pledged under the Phase One trade deal”.
Adding that the total imports from the US will probably reach about 40 million tonnes in 2020, which will be around 25% more than the 2017 level – the baseline year for the deal.
That said, one of the sources did provide a caveat in saying that despite the forecast and expectation, China’s imports will ultimately be decided by soybean prices and the impact of the virus pandemic i.e. no firm commitment.
I don’t think the report here is a coincidence after customs data yesterday showed that Chinese imports of US soybeans were unusually low in July this year, while imports of Brazil soybeans surged considerably.
For some context, China’s purchases of US farm goods up until July are at just ~27% of the target implied by the Phase One trade deal.
US China

India is phasing out equipment from Huawei and other Chinese companies from its telecoms networks

  
  Analysis
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The Financial Times with the report on more moves against Huawei.

Main issue seems to be over the China-India border clashes
  • no formal written ban on Chinese equipment suppliers like Huawei and ZTE, nor any public pronouncements have been made
  • but key ministries have clearly indicated that local telecom service providers should avoid using Chinese equipment
The FT cites:
  • “It’s open now that the government is not going to allow Chinese equipment,” a top telecom industry executive told the FT. “There is now clarity . . . It’s really game over.”

The Financial Times with the report on more moves against Huawei.

China health official says China has officially launched emergency use of COVID19 vaccines

  
  Analysis
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Coronavirus weekend news – Chinese media, Global Times, reports via Twitter that an official at the country’s National Health Commission:

  • says China has officially launched emergency use of a vaccine
  • the vaccine has been in clinical trial since July 22
GT also report on a more than 20,000 person phase III clinical trial in the UAE of Sinopharm’s COVID19 vaccine
  • has shown a high level of safety
  • efficacy is currently under observation
Coronavirus weekend news - Chinese media, Global Times, reports via Twitter that an official at the country's National Health Commission:
Both of the GT items are tweets only, not accompanied by further articles for more information.
There is one more that is accompanied by an article – saying that China’s first recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine made from insect cells has been approved for clinical trials by the National Medical Products Administration.
  • vaccine is being developed by the State Key Laboratory of Biological Therapy of Sichuan University affiliated West China Hospital
  • vaccine uses insect cells to multiply in the culture medium and introduces the gene of COVID-19 into insect cells, which means the cell can be used as a factory to produce high-quality recombinant vaccine proteins and purify them for refinement.
  • vaccine was tested on monkeys and other animals, and was found to have a good protective effect against COVID-19 infection, with no obvious side effects
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Given the history of how markets view vaccine news (generally positively) this threefer from the GT might be a boost for sentiment on Monday. There is still plenty of time left over the weekend for less than favourable stories to develop, stay tuned.

India, Japan and Australia have begun discussions on reducing reliance on China

  
  Analysis
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An ICYMI from this week on the three countries set to discuss a trilateral Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) to reduce dependency on China

  • No date has yet been set for initial negotiations but could come as soon as next week
  • initiative first proposed by Japan
  •  Japan is said to be in favour of launching SCRI by November

FT report: China cautious on hitting back at US companies after Huawei sanctions

  
  Analysis
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The Financial Times writes that despite mounting political pressure to unveil commensurate restrictions on US businesses in China, Beijing has historically been reluctant to retaliate. 

Analysts think officials will continue to hold back, as they are reluctant to upset the economic benefits and innovation US companies bring to China.
The US administrations targeting of China’s biggest technology groups incldueds moves against:
  • ByteDance
  • Tencent
  • as well as Huawei
Link to FT is here (may be gated).  The FT cite analysts (named in the piece) for the opinions.
If they are right perhaps US-China relations will not chill much further after all.
The Financial Times writes that despite mounting political pressure to unveil commensurate restrictions on US businesses in China, Beijing has historically been reluctant to retaliate. 

UK press (Times) report: US sends stealth bombers to counter Chinese threat

  
Analysis, Politics
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UK newspaper The Times with the info on US military assets deployed

  • Three American B-2 stealth bombers have arrived in the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia on the eve of Chinese live-firing naval exercises north of Taiwan.
  • It is the first time the nuclear-capable strategic bombers have been sent to the remote island since 2016, in an indication of the growing concern about China’s intentions towards Taiwan.
  • The bombers flew across the Pacific from Whiteman air force base in Missouri to land at Diego Garcia, part of the British Indian Ocean Territory. With their advanced stealth technology, the B-2s can penetrate enemy territory without alerting air-defence radars.
Link is here, Times (may be gated)
Seems rather a long way away:
UK newspaper The Times with the info on US military assets deployed
Taiwan escalation would be likely risk negative. This seems a bit of a small step. Let’s hope it goes no further (probably a forlorn hope).

China repeats that it will take strong countermeasures as it opposes US-Taiwan meeting

  
  Analysis
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US health secretary, Alex Azar, will travel to Taiwan this month

US China
The trip will mark the highest-level visit by a US official to Taiwan since 1979 and marks a further break from convention in US-China ties in general.
China has come out to voice their displeasure over the situation and have now said that they will be taking firm countermeasures in response.
As much as this looks to be another point of escalation in tensions between the US and China, it still isn’t leading to any material breakdown in the relationship as both countries are still willing to play their respective parts in this whole “show”.

 

From what we have seen with these “strong countermeasures” and “tit-for-tat” response by both sides recently, it has all been child’s play and there is no reason to believe that this time around it will be any different.

China infrastructure stimulus – 3 times as many pile drivers are sold as are sold in all of US & Europe

  
  Analysis
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A piece in the New York Times that makes for an interesting read.

  • The scope of China’s latest building boom is enormous
  • Thirty-seven Chinese cities are in the process of building a total of 150 new subway lines
  • The country’s high-speed rail system, which already connects more than 700 towns and cities, is expanding so fast that it annually buys three times as many pile drivers as the European and American markets combined. 
Here is the link for more (may be gated)
china infrastuctre thumbs

China reportedly blacks out English football amid ongoing spat with the UK

  
  Analysis
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Chinese state media are taking EPL matches off the air

EPL

This being reported by Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the decision. China state media television, CCTV, holds the rights to broadcast Premier League matches in China but is now said to not show the remainder of the competition.

The match between Liverpool and Chelsea (Pulisic!) yesterday was not aired and the television program schedule are also not including the next set of matches. That said, there’s only one round of fixtures left for the current season.
This comes amid the ongoing spat between China and UK surrounding the Hong Kong issue as well as Huawei, with the UK now detailing the route for Hong Kong citizens to apply for citizenship as well – a move which has angered China even more.

Hu Xijin of China Financial Times lobs some warnings to the US way

  
  Analysis
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US closes China’s Houston consulate

The US announced today the closing of China’s Houston consulate.  Now China Global Times is lobbing some warning the US way.
US closes China's Houston consulate

The warm and fuzzy feelings between US and China are not all that warm and fuzzy needless to say.  It is hard to see things getting better.

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