Latest news with #ChinaRelations
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
What to Make of Elon Musk's Last Day in Washington?
Bloomberg's Wendy Benjaminson discusses Elon Musk departing from his role today in the Trump Administration and weighs in on the impact Musk may still have on the President. She also talks about the latest on President Trump's relationship with China. Wendy speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)
Japan Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
With Port of Darwin, Australia hopes to avoid a repeat of Panama Canal
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is confronting a fresh diplomatic dilemma with China: How to fulfill a pledge to regain control of a strategic port without jeopardizing improved relations with his country's largest trading partner. Ahead of an election earlier this month, Albanese promised to return to Australian control the Port of Darwin from Chinese company Landbridge Group. It was awarded a 99-year lease in 2015 by the Northern Territory government in a move that sparked criticism from an array of politicians in Australia and in the U.S., which uses a nearby military training facility. China is Australia's biggest trading partner by far and previously expressed anger over pressure from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump concerning the Panama Canal, which resulted in a potential sale by a Hong Kong-based conglomerate of its two Panama port operations — a deal Beijing has said it will review.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Australia Looks to Avoid a Panama Repeat in China Port Showdown
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is confronting a fresh diplomatic dilemma with China: How to fulfill a pledge to regain control of a strategic port without jeopardizing improved relations with his country's largest trading partner. Ahead of an election earlier this month, Albanese promised to return to Australian control the Port of Darwin from Chinese company Landbridge Group. It was awarded a 99-year lease in 2015 by the Northern Territory government in a move that sparked criticism from an array of politicians in Australia and in the US, which uses a nearby military training facility.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Brazil's president seeks ‘indestructible' links with China amid Trump trade war
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has heralded his desire to build 'indestructible' relations with China, as the leaders of three of Latin America's biggest economies flew to Beijing against the backdrop of Donald Trump's trade war and the profound international uncertainty his presidency has generated. Lula touched down in China's capital on Sunday for a four-day state visit, accompanied by 11 ministers, top politicians and a delegation of more than 150 business leaders. Hours later Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, arrived, making a beeline for the Great Wall of China and declaring his desire for the South American country to not 'only look one way' towards the US. 'We have decided to take a profound step forward between China and Latin America,' Petro said. Chile's Gabriel Boric has also travelled to Beijing to attend Tuesday's meeting between members of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and Chinese representatives. Addressing hundreds of Chinese and Brazilian business chiefs in the Chinese capital on Monday, Lula hit out at Trump's tariffs, saying he could not accept the measures 'that the president of the US tried to impose on planet Earth, from one day to the next'. The Brazilian leftist said he hoped to build an 'indispensable' relationship with China – already Brazil's top trading partner – and heaped praise on his Communist party hosts as his officials announced $4.6bn (£3.5bn) of Chinese investment in their country. On Tuesday, Lula is scheduled to meet China's leader, Xi Jinping, who is expected to return the visit in July, when Xi travels to the Brics summit in Rio. 'China has often been treated as though it were an enemy of global trade when actually China is behaving like an example of a country that is trying to do business with countries which, over the past 30 years, were forgotten by many other countries,' said Lula, who is expected to seek major Chinese investments in Brazilian infrastructure projects. The visit of the three South American leaders to China underlines the east Asian country's rapidly growing footprint in a region where, over the past 25 years, it has become a voracious consumer of commodities such as soybeans, iron ore and copper. Chinese companies have also poured into the region. Electric cars made by the Chinese manufacturer BYD can be seen cruising the streets of Brazilian cities, from Brasília to Boa Vista, deep in the Amazon. The visits also come amid global jitters over Trump's volatile presidency and Latin American anxiety and suspicion over the US president's plans for a region where he has threatened to 'take back' the Panama canal – by force if necessary. Matias Spektor, an international relations professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian thinktank and university, said the presence of the three South American presidents in Beijing underscored how, in the Trump era, with the US in retreat, such leaders were increasingly reaching out to other parts of the world. Related: US-Panama relationship was 'very strong'. Then Trump upended the diplomatic playing board 'It tells us that countries around the world are willing to go out … to exploit all the opportunities that are there in the international system – and there are many. Because, as America turns away from free trade and as America adopts a policy that is … instead of transactional, predatory – countries have an incentive to engage with those who are transactional,' Spektor said, pointing to recent trips Lula made to Japan and Vietnam. '[Lula] is very proactively trying to open trade for Brazil at a time when America is undoing the previous rules of the game, and the new rules of the game are not yet born … These [Latin American] countries want to shape the norms that are likely to emerge now. And those rules are not going to emerge in Washington DC. They are going to be made globally,' Spektor added. Spektor said Latin American leaders such as Lula had long considered the world a multipolar place. 'What happened on 20 January [with Trump's return to power] is that the barrage of policy change coming from Washington DC has accelerated the belief that was already in place that the axis of global power has for a while been moving towards the east, and somewhat towards the south.'
The Independent
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
China attacks UK trade deal with US
China has criticised the UK-US trade deal in a potential blow to the Government's bid to revive relations with the country. Beijing said it was a 'basic principle' that such agreements should not target other nations. Britain's deal with America, which was the Trump administration's first since it unveiled sweeping global tariffs last month, includes an agreement to co-ordinate to 'address non-market policies of third countries.' It is understood that this clause is intended to prevent the UK becoming a 'backdoor' for circumvention of American measures on trade and security in relation to nations such as China through its exports to the country. 'Co-operation between states should not be conducted against or to the detriment of the interests of third parties,' Beijing's foreign ministry told the Financial Times. The statement poses difficulties for Sir Keir Starmer's Government as it seeks to navigate its trading position between two economic superpowers. Relations between London and Beijing have thawed under Labour, with a resumption of high-level engagement following years of little contact under the previous Tory administration. Chancellor Rachel Reeves visited the country in January, saying agreements worth £600 million to the UK over the next five years had been reached on the trip. Meanwhile, the deal agreed between Britain and the US removes the 25% tariff rate on UK steel and aluminium exports in exchange for giving America's agricultural industry greater access to British markets. American levies on British cars fall to 10% for the first 100,000 vehicles exported to the US, but a 10% baseline tariff on most goods remains in place. A Government source said it was 'for other countries to determine what is in their national interest' and that the UK 'continues to be open to investment from a wide range of countries including China.' A Government spokesperson said: 'This Government signed a deal with the US in the national interest to secure thousands of jobs across key sectors, protect British businesses and lay the groundwork for greater trade in the future. 'In line with our long-term, consistent approach, trade and investment with China remain important to the UK. We are continuing to engage pragmatically in areas that are rooted in UK and global interests and co-operate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must.'
