Analysis Tracking USA VS China Trade war

[_Anonymous_]

Could you tell why these companies aren't interested in shifting production lines to India??

Why, you ask?

It takes an average of 5-10 years to set up a decent size factory thanks to red tape, co ordinating between various govt dpts, rules and regulations, etc.

Add to it local considerations like political parties, gangs, etc. God forbid, if you get caught up in a court case or a political issue then the timelines get extended or the project may end up being scrapped.

That's one of the reasons why Modi wanted to reform land laws, labour, etc. Alas! It wasn't to be.

Fact of the matter is all those companies exiting China aren't even looking at India. It's mostly S. E Asia, Central & South America or in some cases E Europe

 

[Angel Eyes]

Why, you ask?

It takes an average of 5-10 years to set up a decent size factory thanks to red tape, co ordinating between various govt dpts, rules and regulations, etc.

Add to it local considerations like political parties, gangs, etc. God forbid, if you get caught up in a court case or a political issue then the timelines get extended or the project may end up being scrapped.

That's one of the reasons why Modi wanted to reform land laws, labour, etc. Alas! It wasn't to be.

Fact of the matter is all those companies exiting China aren't even looking at India. It's mostly S. E Asia, Central & South America or in some cases E Europe

I thought Modi was able to change the situation in last 2-3 years.
So, will recent hike in import duties will be helpful somehow in shifting some of production here?

 

[_Anonymous_]

I thought Modi was able to change the situation in last 2-3 years.
So, will recent hike in import duties will be helpful somehow in shifting some of production here?

W. R. T MII, nothing of significance. And unless we reform our land & labour, nothing exponential will happen. All we can expect is incremental growth of the kind which is happening and what has been happening all along.

Negative. The impact if any will be insignificant.

 

[advaidhya]

W. R. T MII, nothing of significance. And unless we reform our land & labour, nothing exponential will happen. All we can expect is incremental growth of the kind which is happening and what has been happening all along.

Negative. The impact if any will be insignificant.

Actually, the land laws and acquisition is still in the hands of state govt and can be done easily under certain acts despite the central law. Labour laws have been bended by using contract labour in many cases.

The real problem with make in India is in technology deficit in areas of electronics and time that it would take to develop them. The technology lag was about 10 years in 2014 compared to USA in electronics and semiconductors. It was not considered feasible to use old generation electronics and hence the thrust was given on assembly and step by step incremental manufacturing. If electronics manufacturing is done in India. then a lot of the imports will be cut.

 

[_Anonymous_]

The Trump Curveball: This Is What China Didn't Expect

@sunstersun

 

[lcafanboy]

You would be surprised. Winning an election is all about harvesting the seeds of discontent correctly.

By the way was BREXIT in anyway seeded by China...
If so they succeeded in breaking European union..

 

[lcafanboy]

Could you tell why these companies aren't interested in shifting production lines to India??

No one wants to employ reservation quota chaap parasite workers with union leaders holding you on ransom. With no way to fire these goons who are ready to kill managers like they did in Maruti Suzuki Gurgaon. Now add to that corrupt politicians and government officials with begging bowl demanding their pound of flesh and you have perfect recipe for business disaster....

 

[BMD]

Taiwan's Underdog City Is Reborn in China-U.S. Trade Spat

Taiwan's Underdog City Is Reborn in China-U.S. Trade Spat


Debby Wu

BloombergNovember 27, 2018

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Taiwan's Underdog City Is Reborn in China-U.S. Trade Spat

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(Bloomberg) -- One of the biggest beneficiaries of the clash between the U.S. and China may turn out to be a gritty Taiwanese town called Taoyuan.

The former Japanese enclave west of Taipei had long suffered as local companies shifted factories to the mainland to benefit from lower wages and globalizing trade. But with tensions escalating between the world’s two largest economies, Taiwan’s biggest tech firms are now moving some production back home and many are turning to this city of 2 million on the northwestern coast. The trend may have gained a boost after Donald Trump signaled he’ll likely push ahead with increased tariffs.

Taoyuan doesn’t offer much in the way of glitz. But it does boast an hour’s drive to Taipei, hosts the island’s primary international airport, and overseers who’re aggressive supporters. That’s why it’s a hot destination as the manufacturing powerhouses behind the world’s electronics scour the globe for alternatives. The moves threaten to splinter a decades-old supply chain, in which Taiwanese giants assemble devices out of sprawling Chinese bases that the likes of HP and Dell then slap their labels on.

From iPhone assembler Pegatron Corp. to laptop maker Compal Electronics Inc., they’re now preparing for an end to an arrangement that’s served them well since the 1980s. Along with fellow Apple Inc.-supplier Inventec Corp., the trio are among those adding capacity in Taoyuan, with announcements coming as Washington and Beijing ramp up the rhetoric over trade and tariffs. Others like Quanta Computer Inc. are snapping up or seeking factory land. The city’s population is now the fastest-growing in the country even as U.S.-Chinese tensions dampen the global economy.

“Our operation model will see a major change from the past two decades,” Pegatron Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin told analysts an earnings call on Nov. 8. “In the future, production will be spread out in different countries and we will not be able to build mega-plants in other places like those in China.”

Trump said Apple iPhones and laptops could be hit by new tariffs, according to an interview with the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. President said he’s prepared to impose tariffs on a final batch of $267 billion of shipments if he can’t strike a deal with China’s Xi Jinping when they meet at the Group of 20 meeting starting Nov. 30.

Thirty years ago, many companies based in Taoyuan and elsewhere on the island decamped for China’s lower costs, helping create the world’s factory floor. While Taiwanese government data shows investments in China peaked around 2010, they remain a formidable presence. Fifteen of the top 20 exporters from the mainland to the U.S. in 2016 originated in Taiwan, according to a Chinese state-run customs data website.

Now, increased tariffs threaten to compress already razor-thin margins. Higher wages will make it more expensive to produce in Taiwan, as will losing the efficiency gained by having the supply chain located close together in China.

“With tariffs expected to rise to 25 percent, it will push Taiwanese companies to expedite their plans to go home or build operations in a new location,” said Angela Hsieh, an economist at Barclays. “Yet there are still a lot of uncertainties surrounding a trade war, so companies tend to first add capacities in their existing facilities in Taiwan instead of spending a lot to build new plants.”

That’s where Taoyuan comes in. While some of Taiwan’s corporations are considering migrating as far afield as Southeast Asia, others prefer to move closer to home bases. The island’s administration -- sensing an opportunity -- is cobbling together incentives such as tax holidays to entice their corporate citizens back into the fold.

“The fastest way is to add capacity in existing facilities. Looking for new land and building new facilities elsewhere will be too slow,” Elton Yang, chief financial officer of Taoyuan-based Quanta, told reporters on Nov. 13.

To be sure, Taoyuan has always been pro-business. Steady lobbying and the proliferation of over 30 industrial parks helped produce spectacular results: its industrial output was estimated at close to $100 billion last year, outstripping even Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s base of Hsinchu to the south.

 

[BMD]

The U.S. has a secret weapon in the trade war

The U.S. has a secret weapon in the trade war


As trade tensions run hot between the U.S. and China, President Trump might have one key advantage in the trade war, according to Nomura.

Analyst Romit Shah explained that China’s dependence on U.S.-made advanced microchips could give Trump the upper hand.

“We believe that as China-U.S. tensions escalate, U.S. semiconductors give Washington a strong hand because the core components of Made in China 2025 (AI, smart factories, 5G, bigdata and full self-driving electric vehicles) can’t happen without advanced microchips from the U.S.,” Shah said in a note to clients.

BEIJING, CHINA – NOVEMBER 9, 2017: US President Donald Trump (L) and China’s President Xi Jinping shake hands at a press conference following their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Artyom Ivanov/TASS (Photo by Artyom Ivanov\TASS via Getty Images)

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Made in China 2025 is the Chinese government’s 10-year plan to update the country’s 10 high-tech manufacturing industries, which include information technology, robotics, aerospace, rail transport, and new-energy vehicles, among others.

One of Made in China 2025’s main goals is to become semiconductor self sufficient. China hopes that at least 40% of the semiconductors used in China will be made locally by 2020, and at least 70% by 2025. “Made in China 2025 made abundantly clear China’s commitment to semiconductor self-sufficiency. Made in China 2025 will upgrade multiple facets of the Chinese economy,” Shah said.

According to Nomura’s estimates, China is currently about 3 to 5 years behind the U.S. in dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chip production. However, Shah explained that if the trade war persists, the consequences could set Chinese chip production behind by 5 to 15 years.

Without U.S. semis, China will not be able to process the technology necessary to push forward the Made in China 2025 program. “American chips in many ways form the backbone of China’s tech economy,” Shah said.

Consequences for U.S.
The Trump Administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods were intended to severely disrupt the Chinese tech-advancement initiative. But Shah says that making U.S. chips more expensive for China could have consequences for the U.S. as well.

One concern centers around intellectual property theft. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has been working hard to punish China for allegedly attempting to commit espionage. For example, the DOJ believes China was attempting to spy on the U.S. through Huawei and asked U.S. allies to drop the Chinese tech equipment maker.

However, while many U.S. chipmakers, such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Micron (MU), expressed gratitude that the DOJ was intervening to prevent intellectual property theft, the companies are also concerned that it could spark retaliation from their Chinese business partners and result in loss of access to the Chinese market. “Joint ventures, IP sharing agreements and manufacturing partnerships are the price of admission into China, and thus far, companies are playing ball,” Shah explained.

Shah essentially calls the Chinese tariffs a double-edged sword. While tariffs will hurt the Chinese if they can’t have access to freely source U.S. chips, it could also hurt U.S. chipmakers if they lose their business in China. According to Shah’s research, “Over 50% of Chinese semiconductor consumption is supplied by U.S. firms … In 2017, China consumed $138bn in integrated circuits (ICs), of which it only produced $18.5bn domestically, implying China imported $120bn of semis in 2017, up from $98bn in 2016 and $73bn in 2012.”

Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Thursday for a two-day meeting. If the two leaders are unable to come to some sort of trade resolution at the meeting, U.S. tariffs on over $200 billion worth of Chinese goods will increase from 10% to 25% on January 1, 2019.

“China could source equipment from Europe and Japan; however, we believe there are certain mission-critical tools that can only be purchased from the U.S. … We believe that U.S.-China trade is the biggest theme for U.S. semis and equipment stocks in 2019. Made in China 2025 can’t happen without U.S. semis, and U.S. semis can’t grow without China. We hope this backdrop drives resolution,” Shah said.

 

[BMD]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rested-in-canada-as-u-s-seeks-her-extradition

Huawei’s CFO Arrested at U.S. Request, Sparking Outrage in China

Perhaps they'll send a copy of her back to China.

 

[BMD]

If forced to take sides, most countries would pick the US over China, says author

If forced to take sides, most countries would pick the US over China, says author
PUBLISHED WED, DEC 26 2018 • 12:34 AM EST

Huileng Tan@HUILENG_TAN


KEY POINTS

• Many countries will choose to align themselves with the U.S. if they are forced to take sides, said Fraser Howie, an independent analyst who has written books about China and its financial system.
• China has made countries in Asia rich, but many nations remain wary of Beijing, said Howie.

WATCH NOW

VIDEO02:44

Countries would side with US over China in trade war: Analyst

As the changing nature of the U.S.-China relationship reshapes global political and economic landscapes, many countries are wondering if they’ll eventually be forced to take sides.

If it comes to that, many will choose to align themselves with America, according to Fraser Howie, an independent analyst who has written books about China and its financial system.

“They’re going to go with the States,” he told CNBC on Wednesday.

Although much of Asia has become wealthier on the back of China’s economic rise since the start of the communist country’s reforms 40 years ago, the East Asian giant has not managed to grow its soft power much, Howie told CNBC’s “Street Signs.”

“In 30 years of growth, much of Asia (has become) rich on the back of China, (but) they’ve failed to make friends. I think this is a weakness of Chinese soft power — they’ve failed to make friends and people are more nervous of China rather than friendly towards it,” he said.

China’s rise from an impoverished country to the world’s second-largest economy in the span of 40 years has emboldened the Asian country to expand its footprint economically, politically and technologically. Many see that development as a threat to the U.S. that could bring about a seismic change in the world order Washington helped shape.

“China’s goal, simply put, is to replace the U.S. as the world’s largest global superpower,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a press conference in December where the U.S. Justice Department announced hacking charges against two Chinese nationals.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is currently locked in a bitter dispute with Beijing that has the two sides arguing over not just the tariffs and non-tariff barriers affecting the balance of trade, but also how they fundamentally treat each other’s companies.

Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

Getty Images

That means businesses, as well, may have to decide on which side they choose to align themselves, the co-founder of billion-dollar tech company Tradeshift told CNBC last month.

Countries neighboring China — many of which are small — may not want to antagonized Beijing, Howie said, but many people feel they have been “hard done” by China.

“They don’t feel that China has played fair in many areas. They feel China is a bully — and certainly it is — and they are using it as an opportunity to try and push back, ” Howie said.

Even so, many nations around the world that find themselves in a delicate balancing act between U.S. and Chinese interests may be forced to pick a side.

Meanwhile, many allies and partners of the U.S. — and even departing Secretary of Defense James Mattis — have expressed frustration that the Trump administration has not treated international commitments as well as they’d have liked.

“It makes it very difficult for many of the countries, especially in (Southeast Asia), because so many countries in Asia have largely dismissed politics as it was; there’s been an economic direction of travel that everyone has been comfortable with for 20, 30 years — and that’s now fundamentally changing,” said Howie.

One country that has openly expressed concern is Singapore.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told CNBC in October last year that his country’s relationship with the world’s top two economies also “depends on how the U.S. relationship with China develops.”

“If there are tensions between America and China, we will be asked to pick a side. It may not be directly, but you will get the message that: ‘We would like you to be with us, and are you with us? If not, does that mean you’re against us?’ And that’s to put it gently,” Lee said.

Countries would ideally not have to take sides, but that may not pan out, said Howie: “There should be room for cooperation and there certainly needs to be a change of practices, but the world is going to look very different in a decade.”

 

[BMD]

UK defence minister says he has grave concerns about Huawei: Times

UK defence minister says he has grave concerns about Huawei: Times


Reuters•December 27, 2018

FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a sign board of Huawei at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) Asia 2018 in Shanghai, China June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

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LONDON (Reuters) - British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said he had "grave concerns" about Chinese company Huawei providing technology for Britain's planned 5G telecoms networks, the Times newspaper reported on Thursday.

Huawei, the world's biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is facing intense scrutiny in the West over its ties to the Chinese government and concerns its equipment could be used by Beijing for spying. The company has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Williamson said a closer examination of security threats was needed before Huawei could be allowed to participate in the upgrade of Britain's mobile network, becoming the first senior British minister to have aired such concerns, the Times said.

"I have grave, very deep concerns about Huawei providing the 5G network in Britain. It's something we'd have to look at very closely," Williamson was quoted by the paper as saying.

"We've got to look at what partners such as Australia and the U.S. are doing in order to ensure that they have the maximum security of that 5G network and we've got to recognise the fact, as has been recently exposed, that the Chinese state does sometimes act in a malign way."

The United States has been taking action to cut Huawei out of the U.S. market while in August Australia banned it from supplying equipment for its 5G network.

The chief of Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service Alex Younger said earlier this month that 5G reliance on Chinese technology was something Britain needed to discuss, though a bigger issue was the likely Chinese future dominance of emerging technologies.

 

[BMD]

U.S.-China trade talks conclude as hopes of a deal build

U.S.-China trade talks conclude as hopes of a deal build


By Cate Cadell and Michael Martina

ReutersJanuary 9, 2019

A woman walks past a bench painted in the colours of the U.S. flag outside a clothing store in Beijing, China January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

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By Cate Cadell and Michael Martina

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese and U.S. teams ended trade talks in Beijing on Wednesday that lasted longer than expected and officials said details will be released soon, raising hopes an all-out trade war that could badly disrupt the global economy can be avoided.

The talks were extended into an unscheduled third day, showing both sides were "serious", China's Foreign Ministry said.

Share prices jumped in Asia and markets in Europe and the United States were expected to follow suit as the lengthened talks fueled optimism that the world's largest economies were inching toward an agreement.

Ted McKinney, U.S. Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, said the U.S. trade delegation would return to the United States later on Wednesday after a "good few days".

"I think they went just fine," McKinney said of the talks. "It's been a good one for us," he told reporters at the delegation's hotel, without elaborating.

Speaking at a daily news briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang confirmed both sides had agreed to extend the talks beyond Monday and Tuesday as originally scheduled.

Asked if that meant they were difficult talks, Lu said: "I can only say that extending the consultations shows that the two sides were indeed very serious in conducting the consultations."

This week's meetings are the first face-to-face talks since U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in December to a 90-day truce in a trade war that has roiled global financial markets.

The extra day of talks came amid signs of progress on issues including purchases of U.S. farm and energy commodities and increased access to China's markets.

However, people familiar with the negotiations told Reuters on Tuesday that the two sides were further apart on Chinese structural reforms that the Trump administration is demanding in order to stop alleged theft and forced transfer of U.S. technology, and on how Beijing will be held to its promises.

If no deal is reached by March 2, Trump has said he will proceed with raising tariffs to 25 percent from 10 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, at a time when China's economy is slowing significantly. Beijing has retaliated in turn to U.S. tariffs.

But as meetings wound down in Beijing on Tuesday evening, Trump tweeted: "Talks with China are going very well!"

The U.S. team is led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish, and includes under secretaries from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Treasury, as well as senior officials from the White House.

Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen heads the vice ministerial level talks for China, though Vice Premier Liu He, a top economic adviser to Xi, made an appearance at a meeting on Monday.

China is keen to put an end to its trade dispute with the United States but will not make any "unreasonable concessions" and any agreement must involve compromise on both sides, state newspaper the China Daily said on Wednesday.

The paper said in an editorial that Beijing's stance remains firm that the dispute harms both countries and disrupts the international trade order and supply chains.

In what is widely seen as a goodwill gesture, China on Tuesday issued long-awaited approvals for the import of five genetically modified crops, which could boost its purchases of U.S. grains as farmers decide which crops to plant in the spring.

On Monday, Chinese importers made another large purchase of U.S. soybeans, their third in the past month.

 

[BMD]

Bye Bye Trade War? China Plans $1 Trillion Buying Spree to Reduce US Trade Deficit

Bye Bye Trade War? China Plans $1 Trillion Buying Spree to Reduce US Trade Deficit

China has extended the olive branch back to the United States by offering a path to eliminate Washington’s burgeoning trade deficit with the country, Bloomberg reported Friday. The news comes less than a day after The Wall Street Journalreported that the Trump administration was considering lifting tariffs amid the ongoing trade war.

China Proposes Six-Year Buying Spree
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported Friday that China has offered to significantly boost its purchase of U.S. goods over a six-year period in an effort to re-balance trade between the two superpowers. By increasing its annual imports from the United States, Beijing would reduce its trade surplus to zero by 2024. That would require a spending boost of more than $1 trillion.

Last year, Beijing’s surplus with the U.S. stood at $323 billion.

Trade War Truce?
Trade talks between the U.S. and China are progressing at breakneck speed, a strong sign that both sides are looking to end the tariff dispute before March. That’s when the 90-day truce agreed to by President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping is set to expire.

U.S. officials are reportedly considering lifting tariffs on Chinese imports to give Beijing a bigger incentive to negotiate a fairer trade deal. Last year, the Trump administration announced duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and threatened additional tariffs if Beijing responded. Tensions have simmered down since December when the leaders of both countries met face-to-face on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Last week marked the first face-to-face meetings between Chinese and American trade delegates since the G20 summit. The meetings, which went a day longer than planned, resulted in China agreeing to purchase more U.S. farm and agricultural commodities. Chinese officials have also agreed to grant wider access to mainland markets to U.S. firms.

Several risks stand in the way of a comprehensive end to the trade war. Chief among them is the ongoing drama involving Huawei Technologies Corp. U.S. federal prosecutors are following up on civil lawsuits against the tech giant by launching a wider investigation into the company. According to The Wall Street Journal, the investigation has reached an advanced stage and could lead to an indictment shortly.

 

[BMD]

Trump says deal 'could very well happen' with China

Trump says deal 'could very well happen' with China


ReutersJanuary 19, 2019

FILE PHOTO: Shipping containers sit at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California in this aerial photo taken February 6, 2015. REUTERS/Bob Riha, Jr.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday there has been progress toward a trade deal with China, but denied that he was considering lifting tariffs on Chinese imports.

"Things are going very well with China and with trade," he told reporters at the White House, adding that he had seen some "false reports" indicating that U.S. tariffs on Chinese products would be lifted.

"If we make a deal certainly we would not have sanctions and if we don't make a deal we will," Trump said. "We’ve really had a very extraordinary number of meetings and a deal could very well happen with China. It’s going well. I would say about as well as it could possibly go."

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the United States on Jan. 30 and 31 for the next round of trade negotiations with Washington.

That follows lower-level negotiations held in Beijing last week to resolve the bitter dispute between the world's two largest economies by March 2, when the Trump administration is scheduled to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods.

According to sources briefed on the ongoing negotiations, cited exclusively by Reuters on Friday, the United States is pushing for regular reviews of China's progress on pledged trade reforms as a condition for a trade deal - and could again resort to tariffs if it deems Beijing has violated the agreement.

"The threat of tariffs is not going away, even if there is a deal," said one of three sources briefed on the talks who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Chinese negotiators were not keen on the idea of regular compliance checks, the source said, but the U.S. proposal "didn't derail negotiations."

A Chinese source said the United States wants “periodic assessments” but it was not yet clear how often.

“It looks like humiliation," the source said. "But perhaps the two sides could find a way to save face for the Chinese government."

The Trump administration has imposed import tariffs on Chinese goods to put pressure on Beijing to meet a long list of demands that would rewrite the terms of trade between the two countries.

The demands include changes to China's policies on intellectual property protection, technology transfers, industrial subsidies and other trade barriers.

 

[BMD]

China's Xi Warns Party of `Serious Dangers' as Risks Mount

China's Xi Warns Party of `Serious Dangers' as Risks Mount


Bloomberg News

,
Bloomberg•January 21, 2019

China’s Xi Warns Party of ‘Serious Dangers’ as Risks Mount

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(Bloomberg) -- President Xi Jinping stressed the need to maintain political stability in an unusual meeting of China’s top leaders -- a fresh sign the ruling party is growing concerned about the social implications of the slowing economy.

Xi told a “seminar” of top provincial leaders and ministers in Beijing on Monday that the Communist Party needed greater efforts “to prevent and resolve major risks,” the official Xinhua News Agency said. He said areas of concern facing the leadership ranged from politics and ideology to the economy, environment and external situation.

“The party is facing long-term and complex tests in terms of maintaining long-term rule, reform and opening-up, a market-driven economy, and within the external environment,” Xi said, according to Xinhua. “The party is facing sharp and serious dangers of a slackness in spirit, lack of ability, distance from the people, and being passive and corrupt. This is an overall judgment based on the actual situation.”

Although Xi has issued similar warnings, including in February 2018, Monday’s statements contained signs of greater urgency. The mention of the “serious” threats to the party’s “long-standing rule” appeared new. A full transcript of his remarks to the closed-door gathering wasn’t immediately available.

Related Video: Kim Jong Un Visits Beijing Amid U.S.-China Trade Talks
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‘Red Flashes’

“Xi is seeing more and more red flashes on his monitor as things on many fronts go wrong,” said Ether Yin, partner at Beijing based consultancy Trivium China. “He wanted to draw the whole system’s attention to that.”

The meeting was held on the same day that China reported its slowest quarterly economic growth since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009. The data underscored concerns that the decades-long economic expansion that helped the ruling party outlast most other communist regimes may be running out of steam.

Chinese leaders are also coping with a more confrontational U.S. under President Donald Trump, who has slapped tariffs on hundreds of billions worth of dollars of Chinese goods, roiling financial markets around the world. Xi faces added pressure to personally resolve the issues after obtaining a constitutional change that allows him to rule indefinitely.

The meeting appears to have been scheduled recently, since several provincial legislatures rescheduled their annual meetings to accommodate the event. State media offered no advance notice of the gathering.

Unusual Timing

While Xi has occasionally assembled the party’s more than 200-member Central Committee to “study” pressing issues, this was the first such seminar held without convening a full meeting of the body. A Central Committee meeting known as a plenum was expected late last year -- a point in the political cycle when the party usually tackles economic policies -- but has yet to be announced.

Communist leaders are facing a year rich with sensitive dates, including the 70th anniversary of the country’s founding on Oct. 1 and the 30th anniversary of the party’s crackdown on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square on June 4. Such occasions have sometimes helped coalesce criticism of the regime, and China often rounds up dissidents in advance.

“That’s a cocktail that could be explosive as people realize the CCP is no longer delivering the goods on the social contract,” said Dennis Wilder, a professor at Georgetown University and former senior director for Asia on the National Security Council. “The slowdown of the economy to rates not experienced in the reform area is uncharted territory for this generation of leaders of the Communist Party.”

 

[BMD]

China Demands the U.S. Drop Extradition Efforts for Huawei Executive Meng Wanzhou

China Demands the U.S. Drop Extradition Efforts for Huawei Executive Meng Wanzhou

Meng Wanzhou: US to proceed with extradition of Huawei executive despite risk of angering China

Meng Wanzhou: US to proceed with extradition of Huawei executive despite risk of angering China

 

[_Anonymous_]

China Demands the U.S. Drop Extradition Efforts for Huawei Executive Meng Wanzhou

China Demands the U.S. Drop Extradition Efforts for Huawei Executive Meng Wanzhou

Meng Wanzhou: US to proceed with extradition of Huawei executive despite risk of angering China

Meng Wanzhou: US to proceed with extradition of Huawei executive despite risk of angering China

You ought to post this in the China & E Asia section & watch your old pal Chinese Dragon & the rest of his chums squeal. @Nilgiri

 

[BMD]

U.S. charges Chinese telecom giant Huawei with fraud, stealing trade secrets; violations go 'to the top'

U.S. charges Chinese telecom giant Huawei with fraud, stealing trade secrets; violations go 'to the top'

Kevin Johnson and Bart Jansen
USA TODAYJanuary 28, 2019

Pedestrians walk past a Huawei retail shop in Beijing on Dec. 6, 2018.
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Corrections and clarifications: A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled the name of Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
WASHINGTON – U.S. authorities unsealed a wave of criminal charges Monday against a Chinese telecom giant, its affiliates and one of its top executives who has been detained in Canada, alleging that the company defrauded banks, stole trade secretsand tried to obstruct justice. The move is almost certain to stoke tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, and Seattle brought the charges against Huawei and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who has been in Canadian custody since last month. Huawei’s affiliates Skycom and Huawei Device USA also were included in indictments unsealed Monday.
Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, flanked by two cabinet secretaries and FBI Director Christopher Wray, said the misconduct goes "to the top of the company."
“The behavior in both those cases alleged more than just rogue employees,” Whitaker said. “These are very serious actions by a company that appears to be using corporate espionage and sanctions violations to enhance potentially not only their bottom line but also to compete in the world economy. This is something the United States will not stand for."
Prosecutors revealed two criminal cases targeting the company on Monday.
A 10-count indictment unsealed Monday in Seattle charged Huawei Device Co. Ltd. and Huawei Device Co. USA with theft of trade secrets conspiracy, attempted theft of trade secrets, seven counts of wire fraud, and one count of obstruction of justice.
The indictment charged Huawei with obstruction involving the brazen theft of robotic technology from Bellevue, Washington, based T-Mobile USA.
Beginning in 2012, according to court documents, Huawei began to lift information from a T-Mobile phone-testing robot dubbed “Tappy.” In an effort to build their own robot, Huawei engineers secretly took photos of “Tappy,” took measurements of parts of the robot and even stole a piece of the robot so that the Huawei engineers in China could try to replicate it, prosecutors asserted.
A New York grand jury returned 13 other charges against the company and a subsidiary in Iran for crimes dating to at least 2007. The company is charged with having misrepresented its relationship to its Iranian subsidiary Skycom as a separate rather than a related company, which led U.S. banks to unknowingly violate laws governing sanctions against Iran, Whitaker said. One bank handled $100 million in fraudulent transactions over four years, Whitaker said.
“As I told Chinese officials in August, China must hold its citizens and Chinese companies accountable for complying with the law,” Whitaker said.
The acting attorney general asserted that the company spirited potential witnesses out of the country in an alleged attempt to thwart the government’s investigation.
“In pursuit of their commercial ambitions, Huawei relies on dishonest business practices that contradict the economic principles that have allowed American companies and the United States to thrive,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
“The prosperity that drives our economic security is inherently linked to our national security,” Wray said. “And the immense influence that the Chinese government holds over Chinese corporations like Huawei represents a threat to both.”
Huawei did not immediately respond to the charges on Monday.
The charges are punishable by a maximum fine of up to $5 million or three times the value of the stolen trade secret, whichever is greater. The charges for wire fraud and obstruction of justice are punishable by a fine of up to $500,000.
Meng, who is being detained by Canadian authorities in Vancouver, is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud and related conspiracy counts.
Whitaker said the U.S. is expected to file a formal extradition request with Canada Tuesday.
The U.S. investigation and the Canadian enforcement action have been at the center of increasing diplomatic tensions with China.
American officials and their Chinese counterparts were scheduled to meet this week in Washington where discussions about intellectual property protections were expected to highlight continuing trade discussions. But there have been other signs of increasing strain with China.
Last month, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor in an apparent attempt to pressure Canada to release Meng, who was arrested at the request of U.S. authorities.
Meng is the daughter of Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei.
Although the Chinese government was not directly implicated in Monday's action, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there is "ample evidence to suggest that no major Chinese company is independent of the Chinese government and Communist Party."
"Huawei, which China’s government and military tout as a ‘national champion,’ is no exception. It has been clear for some time that Huawei poses a threat to our national security, and I applaud the Trump Administration for taking steps to finally hold the company accountable."

 

[_Anonymous_]

US charges Chinese tech giant Huawei, top executive - Times of India ►