Trade war between the US and China

In 2017, China told the world it planned to become a world leader in artificial intelligence (AI). Two years later, that promise came to dominate the Chinese, if not the global, conversation about technology. At a conference this past May, John Kerry, the former US secretary of state, said Chinese President Xi Jinping’s announcement was not the “wisest” move. “It would have probably been smart to go try to do it and not announce [the plan], because the announcement was heard in Washington and elsewhere,” he said. His words foreboded a storm approaching Chinese AI firms. Reports days later indicated Washington was considering placing several Chinese surveillance companies on the US Entity Li

In what could complicate efforts to end a trade war between the world’s two largest economies, the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the US should not strike a final deal with China until two Canadians detained in the country are released. “We’ve said that the United States should not sign a final and complete agreement with China that does not settle the question of Meng Wanzhou and the two Canadians,” Trudeau said in an interview with TVA, a French-language Canadian TV network, according to the Associated Press. The Canadians, the former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, have been detained in China for more than a year, officially on national security groun

The US and China have reached consensus on the terms of a “phase one” trade deal, multiple US media outlets have reported. Intended to be the first in a series of incremental agreements to resolve the trade war, the deal has the approval of US President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported, citing several unnamed people briefed on the matter. As part of the agreement, the US would not only postpone tariffs on around $160 billion of Chinese goods scheduled to go into effect on Sunday, but also make cuts in duties already in place, Myron Brilliant of the US Chamber of Commerce told CNBC, citing US administration sources who had briefed him on the plans. Neither the White House nor the Office of th

China’s former commerce minister has issued a strong rebuff against “unthinkable” suggestions that the world’s two largest economies could disengage from each other due to the ongoing tensions caused by the trade war, with Chen Deming saying: “To hell with decoupling!” The US and China have found themselves linked for the past 40 years, but with the 18-month trade war having led to the straining of the relationship, suggestions have been made that a broader economic and technological decoupling could happen. “Is globalization falling into ‘hemispherization’ or is the whole process halted? Whoever insists on decoupling …. will fall behind and even be phased out in the advancement of science a

Looking out over her small restaurant in Huizhou city on the north of the Pearl River Delta, known to be the beating heart of China’s manufacturing industry, Li Bing can still picture the hustle and bustle of a throng of customers from a nearby factory. But now, as Li looks up from her broom, she is gr eeted by empty tables, a sight that has been familiar for the last two months, and one that is replicated around the local industrial complex, located in the southern Chinese province of Guandong.  The reason behind the downturn is simple: the closure of Samsung’s complex in Huizhou, which until October was the South Korean company’s last smartphone factory in China. Li’s restaurant had bene

US President Donald Trump may have his critics in China, but some internet users have suggested, albeit sarcastically, that he has been a positive force for the country.  They joke that he is acting as a catalyst for much-needed reforms. In social media circles and even on some academic forums, the American leader earned the nickname Comrade “Chuan Jianguo,” which translates as “Trump Building the Nation.”  The backhanded compliment stems from the assumption that, by starting a trade war with China, Trump unwittingly forced the country into a program of domestic reforms to counter its impact. Such is people’s familiarity with the nickname that Wang Manchuan, head of the public administration

Someday, perhaps soon, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump will sign an agreement resolving the US-China trade war. But the trade dispute has exposed more fundamental cleavages between China and the community of democratic nations. The most important clashes between China and the West concern not soybean exports nor the protection of patents, but free expression and open inquiry. Nowhere are those clashes taking place more vigorously than on university campuses. Consider the case of Nathan Law, the Hong Kong student who became a leader in the city’s 2014 “umbrella movement.”  Law was jailed for his activism and barred from legislative politics, but was accepted into a graduate program at Yale Unive

This week, the People's Republic of China marked its 70th birthday with a grand parade in Beijing.  Over the past seven decades, the country has evolved from a battle-scarred backwater to a rising potential superpower. Last year, China contributed one-fifth to the global economy, as measured by purchasing power parity. It has come a long way.   Check out the following nine graphs to get a sense of the monumental changes that have taken place in the country:  GDP per capita In 2010, China overtook Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy. But GDP per capita remains below the global average and only one-fifth that of other advanced economies.  Trade China is currently the world’s to

Soybeans are among the worst-hit products in the US-China trade war. Prices for the crop hit a 10-year low this week amid further escalating tensions between the countries. Watch the video above for more.

There has been an enormous amount of nonsense reported in the last couple of months about the state of economic relations between the European Union and China. First we heard that the EU was adopting an altogether more assertive, even confrontational, stance towards Beijing. Brussels had declared China to be a “systemic rival,” European politicians were slamming the Chinese government’s protectionist industrial policies, and the EU was vowing to stop the Chinese from obtaining cutting-edge technologies by acquiring European companies. Relations, it seemed, were rapidly deteriorating. Then, miraculously, the skies cleared, with much of the international media proclaiming “a breakthrough” trad