China's leaders have named Li Keqiang as premier, placing him at the helm of the world's second-largest economy. Mr Li, who already holds the number two spot in the Communist Party, takes over from Wen Jiabao.
China's inflation rate hit a 10-month high in February, as Lunar New Year festivities drove up food prices. Consumer prices rose 3.2% from a year earlier, with food prices up by 6%. Likewise exports rose more than expected in February, probably indicating that the Chinese economy could be in an upturn.
By Gwynne Dyer - Chinese survey vessels go into the waters around the disputed islands and Japanese patrol ships tail them much too closely. Twice last month Chinese maritime surveillance aircraft flew into the airspace around the Japanese-controlled islands and Tokyo scrambled F-15 fighters to meet them. On the second occasion, China then sent fighters too. Can these people be serious?
Interest in the Falkland Islands’ dispute with Argentina, assimilated to the current Senkakus/Diayous islands situation in Asia apparently has not been limited to the quotes made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe before the Japanese Parliament but also in another minor experience precisely in the Falklands and involving the Editor of the Penguin News, the local weekly newspaper of the Islands.
Japan's prime minister on Thursday quoted comments by former British premier Margaret Thatcher about the Falklands War with Argentina as he spoke about Tokyo's acrimonious islands’ dispute with China.
China surpassed the US to become the world's biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, a milestone in the Asian nation's challenge to the US dominance in global commerce.
The good news for the Chinese leadership is that their fiscal policies have paid off, producing both the world's second largest economy and the globe's leading creditor nation in less than a generation.
Chinese authorities quarantined two containers holding corn from Argentina, after detecting genetically modified strains that had not been approved beforehand, alleged the Chinese buyer.
Government owned and the largest in the country in assets, Banco do Brasil received this week approval from China’s regulator to open a commercial branch in the country which is Brazil’s main trading partner.
The presence this week of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff next to Cristina Fernandez at Argentina’s Industrial Union, UIA annual conference was considered a major integration success and highlights the growing interaction of the two leading Mercosur partners.