China

Panama announced it would break ties with Taiwan and enter into a diplomatic relationship with China Tuesday. The move is a huge coup for China, and signals increasing pressure on the Taiwanese authorities to bend to Beijing’s “one China” policy. Taiwan has strongly condemned the Panamanian decision as “oppressive,” and fueled by “money diplomacy.”

The move was announced by Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela. After decades of siding with Taiwan in the disagreement, a joint statement said: “The Government of the Republic of Panama recognizes that there is but one China in the world, that the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China, and that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory.”

Long-term planning is typically Chinese, and the great increase in indebtedness in China is not an accident. Western commentators are quite right to note that debt has recently increased tremendously in the land under Beijing`s control, but they seem to be missing the point. The PBoC wants the renminbi to become the leading global currency, and this plan must obviously have been approved by the all-mighty Party.

Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday downgraded China’s credit rating to A1 from Aa3, changing its outlook to stable from negative, citing expectations that China’s financial strength will erode somewhat over the coming years. It was Moody’s first downgrade for the country since 1989, according to Reuters.

With the development of China-Swiss relations, the winter sport industry has become one of the focuses of the two countries. World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo 2017 ("WWSE," will be held September 7-10 in Beijing) will keep up with the development trend, inviting Switzerland as the Major Honored Guest Country to start relevant cooperation and promote the development of winter sport industry, enhancing WWSE to a new stage. WWSE is co-organized by Beijing Olympic City Development Association (BODA) and International Data Group (IDG).

The US and China have reached a 10-point trade deal that opens the Chinese market to US credit rating agencies and credit card companies. Under the deal, China will also lift its ban on US beef imports; in return, Chinese cooked chicken will be allowed into the US market and Chinese banks can enter the US market. And there were numerous other parts of the preliminary agreement. This included language that appears to pave the way for U.S. firms to export liquid natural gas to China, the expediting of Chinese safety reviews for U.S. biotechnology applications, and cooperation between Chinese and U.S. regulators over financial transactions.The deals are the first tangible results of trade talks that began in April after US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Florida.

Shareholders in Swiss pesticide and seed giant Syngenta have accepted the company’s takeover by state-owned ChemChina, the companies said Friday, which would be the biggest overseas acquisition by a Chinese firm.
The proposed merger is part of a broader wave of consolidation in the agro-chemicals sector that has worried environmental activists and farmers.
At the closing date for the offer on May 4, shareholders holding around 80.7 percent of the company’s stock had accepted the US$43-billion takeover, according to a preliminary count. Subject to confirmation of the results, “the Minimum Acceptance Rate condition of 67 percent of issued Syngenta shares has been met”, they said in a statement.

Chinese conglomerate HNA Group has become Deutsche Bank AG’s largest shareholder after increasing its stake in the German lender to almost 10%, according to a filing made by asset manager C-Quadrat and other entities. It took HNA’s stake to 9.92%, following an initial stake of 4.76%, which it had earlier secured through C-Quadrat.
The acquisition of a significant stake in a pillar of European finance is another example of China’s growing global influence. Last year, Chinese firms announced around $220 billion worth of deals for foreign companies, far more than any previous year. HNA’s increased stake in Deutsche Bank makes it the lender’s largest shareholder, ahead of members of Qatar’s royal family and U.S. money manager BlackRock, according to public filings.

The United States remains the country with the highest annual military expenditure in the world, according to new figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). US military spending grew by 1.7 per cent between 2015 and 2016 to $611 billion, for the first time in six years. Military expenditure by China, which was the second largest spender in 2016, increased by 5.4 per cent to $215 billion, a much lower rate of growth than in previous years.