Xi Jinping is greeted warmly in North Korea on his first state visit there as China’s president. He has backed North Korea’s new focus on economic development, saying in a speech in the capital that the nation under leader Kim Jong-un had ‘initiated a new strategic line of economic development and improving people’s livelihoods, raising socialist construction in the country to a new high tide.’ North Korea remains heavily dependent on aid, mainly from China and food security is a constant concern.
Continue reading...Category Archives: Xi Jinping
Sound of Hong Kong’s defiance reverberates in Beijing
Beijing’s public support for Hong Kong leader likely hides private fury, but letting her go would be another humiliation
The most obvious casualty of Hong Kong’s extraordinary uprising against chief executive, Carrie Lam, and her campaign to tie the city more closely to China, will be the bureaucrat-turned-politician’s own career. If she stays on, it will only be as a lame duck leader.
But the city’s turmoil is also a major challenge to her boss and patron, Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Continue reading...Ice cream and cake: Vladimir Putin hosts birthday party for Xi Jinping – video
Russian president helps Chinese counterpart celebrate 66th birthday in style on Sunday, giving him Russian ice cream and sharing champagne before a summit in Tajikistan. The two leaders reportedly consider each other to be close friends.
Discussion of senior leaders' private lives is extremely rare in China and their exact birth dates are considered a state secret.
Continue reading...China expected to retaliate over Trump tariff hike, economic adviser says
Larry Kudlow says ‘We may know more today or this evening or tomorrow’ after Trump raises spectre of a full-blown trade war
The US expects China to retaliate over the Trump administration’s latest tariff hike, chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Sunday.
Related: Tariffs: Donald Trump's trust in trade war tactic is big electoral gamble
Continue reading...US-China trade war: Beijing vows to retaliate as tariffs raised – Business live
US has hiked the tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods to 25% overnight, from 10%, escalating the battle between the two economic powers
- Latest: UK growth jumped to 0.5%
- China urges US to meet it halfway
- Summary: Tariffs kicked in overnight
- But goods already sailing to US will be spared
- Full story: Higher tariffs come into effect as talks continue
Britain’s construction sector grew by 1% in the last quarter, as building firms got busier.
But Clive Docwra, managing director of construction consulting and design agency McBains, says Brexit is still hurting the sector.
“Today’s figures mark another increase in output, coming after last month’s statistics showed unexpected moderate growth during February.
“However, this was driven by repair and maintenance - there was no growth in new work across the first quarter of the year, including a decrease in private commercial and housing work.
Britain’s politicians are predictably split on whether the UK is romping along healthily, or simply scrambling to protect itself from Brexit.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, takes an upbeat view on today’s growth figures, pointing out that we’ve now enjoyed nine years of growth.
“Today’s figures show the economy remains robust, with growth of 0.5% in Q1 benefitting every major sector.
“The economy has grown for nine consecutive years, debt is falling, employment is at a record high and wages are rising at their fastest pace in over a decade.
“It’s not surprising to see households and businesses protecting themselves against a potentially disastrous Tory No Deal Brexit.
“With this government increasingly resembling a business entering administration it’s time they admitted the failure of their approach and stood aside for a General Election.
Continue reading...Belt and Road forum: China’s ‘project of the century’ hits tough times
Raft of countries including Turkey have refused to attend latest summit amid growing concern about debt diplomacy
As China fetes its Belt and Road initiative at a summit this week, Chinese officials will be working hard to defend the flagship project from growing international criticism.
The three-day forum starting on Thursday is meant to promote Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s “project of the century”, a foreign policy initiative launched in 2013 to revive ancient trading routes between Asia and Europe, as well as build new links in the Middle East, Africa, and South America.
Continue reading...Macron’s mini-summit in Paris is a snub to Trump’s trade policy | Larry Elliott
European leaders and China’s Xi Jinping put on a show of unity in the face of US tariffs
Donald Trump was not on the guest list for Emmanuel Macron’s mini-summit in Paris, but the presence of the US president was still very much felt as Europe’s leaders sat down to talk trade, business deals and geopolitics with China’s Xi Jinping.
At one level, the message from the meeting of China’s leader with Macron, the German chancellor Angela Merkel and the European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was obvious: this was a show of unity in the face of Trump’s tariffs aimed across both the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron hosts Xi Jinping in attempt to strengthen EU-China relationship
French president invited Angela Merkel to talks with Chinese leader in Paris
Emmanuel Macron has launched a charm offensive towards his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, talking of multilateralism and cooperation while tiptoeing around subjects such as human rights.
In a meeting during a bilateral three-day state visit to France, the French president took the unprecedented step of inviting the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, to Paris for the talks.
Continue reading...Italy and China in plan for new Silk Road-style trade network
Xi Jinping visits Rome as Italy becomes first G7 country to back Belt and Road initiative
Italy has become the first G7 country to endorse a contentious plan by China to build a Silk Road-style global trade network, irking its EU and US allies.
The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) that could lead to Italy’s participation in China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI), an ambitious project that envisages Chinese investment in a network of infrastructure projects connecting Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
Continue reading...Italy pulls out red carpet for Xi Jinping in trade charm offensive
Bocelli to sing for China’s president as Italy becomes first G7 nation to back ‘Silk Road’ plan
Rome gave a lavish welcome to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, his wife and entourage on Friday as Italy and China controversially pledged to strengthen trade and investment ties.
Xi is in the Italian capital on a two-day state visit, along with about 200 officials. He is expected to strike a range of deals worth up to €7bn and attend a gala dinner, where the tenor Andrea Bocelli will perform, during his visit.
Continue reading...Italy rattles US and EU with likely support for China’s Belt and Road
Leaders set to endorse Italy’s role in ‘Silk Road’ trade network during Xi Jinping’s visit this week
Italy has signalled its determination to play a central role in China’s grand plan to build a Silk Road-styled global trade network, despite rattling its EU and US allies with its plan.
The country’s populist government is poised to endorse its participation in Beijing’s $1tn Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global trade project aimed at connecting Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe via a network of ports, railways, tunnels and other infrastructure, by signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) during the Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to Italy this week.
Continue reading...‘Two sessions’: Beijing locked down for China’s greatest political spectacle
Activists rounded up and dissent stifled as Xi Jinping faces public scrutiny over trade, Xinjiang and Huawei at annual meeting
China’s largest political event of the year, a meeting of legislative delegates and political advisers known as the “two sessions”, gets under way this week and comes at a time when Chinese leader Xi Jinping faces one of the most challenging periods since coming to power.
Thousands of delegates will descend on the Great Hall of the People in Beijing while authorities go into overdrive to prevent any semblance of dissent during the two weeks of meetings of the 3,000-strong National People’s Congress (NPC) , and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body.
Continue reading...Donald Trump delays tariff hike on Chinese goods after ‘great’ trade talks
The US president says he will hold a summit with Xi Jinping to conclude an agreement to end the year-long standoff
Donald Trump has said he will delay an increase in tariffs on Chinese goods that had been scheduled for Friday, citing “substantial progress” in trade talks with China over the weekend.
Related: When multilateralism crumbles, so does our rules-based order | Mark Medish
Continue reading...China’s most popular app brings Xi Jinping to your pocket
App’s amazing take-up is not entirely due to merit, the government has ordered members of the party download it
An app produced by the Chinese government has become the most popular in the country, rocketing up through the charts with a little help from the Chinese Communist Party.
The app’s name “Study (Xi) Strong Country”, is a pun – Xuexi being the word for “study” but also containing the president’s name, suggesting users are to “study Xi”.
Continue reading...Former China envoys call on Xi Jinping to release two detained Canadians
Open letter says the arrests mean diplomats are more cautious about work in China
More than 140 former diplomats and leading China experts have called on Xi Jinping to release two Canadian citizens detained last month as a diplomatic stand-off between Ottawa and Beijing escalates.
In an open letter Chinese president, former envoys to China from Canada, the UK, the US, Australia, Germany, Sweden and Mexico described how the arrests of Michael Kovrig, a Canadian diplomat on leave, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, have sent a chill through the diplomatic community.
Continue reading...‘Getting serious’: Kim Jong-un’s Beijing detour brings a second Trump summit closer
China’s endorsement has strengthened Kim’s hand, while a second US summit could show his independence
Kim Jong-un has told Xi Jinping he wants a second meeting with Donald Trump and is committed to “achieving results” amid an impasse over denuclearisation, according to state media reports of their meeting in Beijing this week.
Kim told Xi that North Korea would “continue sticking to the stance of denuclearisation” and “make efforts for the second summit between the [North Korean] and US leaders to achieve results”, Chinese state media reported.
Continue reading...North Korea’s Kim Jong-un arrives in China for meeting with Xi Jinping
Beijing meeting comes as denuclearisation talks with the US have stalled
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in China on Monday for a three-day visit at the invitation of Chinese president Xi Jinping, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.
Kim’s visit, which state media confirmed would last for three days is his fourth summit with Xi, comes amid reports of advanced negotiations for a second summit between the North Korean leader and US president Donald Trump.
Continue reading...‘All necessary means’: Xi Jinping reserves right to use force against Taiwan
Chinese leader calls for reunification and says independence would be a ‘disaster’
Taiwan independence would lead to “disaster”, Chinese president Xi Jinping has said, pledging efforts for peaceful “reunification” with the self-ruled island but warning China would not renounce the use of force.
Speaking at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on the 40th anniversary of a key Taiwan policy statement, Xi said reunification must come under a one-China principle that accepts Taiwan as part of China, anathema to supporters of Taiwan independence.
Continue reading...Trump ‘con jobs’ endanger U.S. and world, Kerry tells Morristown book fest
The President who vowed to "Make America Great Again" has lost sight of the values and sacrifices that made America truly great, leaving a vacuum that is "dangerous for our country and is dangerous for the world," former Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday in Morristown. "Russia and China are extremely busy trying to attack our leadership status," said Kerry, in town to promote his book, Morristown Festival of Books.
China persisting with intellectual property theft in violation of international commitments: report
The Australian government is being urged to escalate its responses to commercial cyber espionage as a new report finds Chinese hacking of Western trade secrets has rebounded in violation of formal commitments made by President Xi Jinping's regime. The report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has concluded that Chinese theft of intellectual property and other sensitive information - an issue at the heart of a spiralling trade dispute between Beijing and Washington - has persisted and become more advanced.