Asian markets once again fell into the red on Thursday as investors anxiously await the start of high-stakes trade talks between China and the United States. After several rounds of negotiations, the two-day meeting in Washington, which kicks off later in the day, has taken on huge significance after Donald Trump threatened to ramp up tariffs on Chinese goods from Friday blaming backsliding by Beijing.
JPMorgan could become the first foreign company to own a majority stake in its Chinese mutual fund business, after its joint venture partner put a crucial 2% of the business up for sale that analysts expect the Wall Street bank to lap up.
The world consumed 10% more alcohol per adult in 2017 than in 1990, due in large part to heavier and more widespread drinking in China and India, researchers said on Wednesday. On current trends, global consumption per capita will rise another 17% over the next decade, they reported in The Lancet.
Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer is set to return to a Vancouver courtroom this Wednesday ahead of planned extradition hearings as deteriorating relations with China over her arrest exact a growing toll on Canada.
Top US trade officials said on Monday that China had backtracked on previous commitments made in talks, and that this reversal was what prompted President Donald Trump’s earlier announcement that the United States would raise tariffs on billions of Chinese goods next Friday.
Donald Trump has said he will raise tariffs on US$ 200bn of Chinese goods because talks on a US-China trade deal are moving “too slowly”. The US president tweeted that tariffs of 10% on certain goods would rise to 25% on Friday, and US$ 325bn of untaxed goods could face 25% duties “shortly”.
China is considering cancelling a planned Washington trip this week by the country's top trade negotiator, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Beijing was surprised by US President Donald Trump's threat to levy new tariffs on trade with the country, the Journal reported, citing a person it didn't identify. The country doesn't want to negotiate under threat, the newspaper said.
Top diplomats from the United States, Russia and other nations which border the Arctic meet in Finland on Monday to discuss policies governing the polar region, as tensions grow over how to deal with global warming and access to mineral wealth.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared on Thursday flanked by soldiers at an army base in Caracas, in a show of defiance towards his opponents. Maduro called on the armed forces to defeat “any coup plotter”, following two days of clashes between opposition and pro-government forces.
The US Defense Department expects China to add military bases around the world to protect its investments in its ambitious One Belt One Road global infrastructure program, according to an official report released on Thursday.