Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Rome at the start of a whistle stop European tour amid growing Western unease over the economic giant's new Silk Road project. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is to sign a memorandum of understanding with Mr. Xi on Saturday for Italy to join the US$1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative, the first G7 member to do so.
US stocks have fallen after President Donald Trump said his administration was considering leaving tariffs on China for a substantial period. Mr. Trump said that a trade deal with Beijing was coming along nicely, but his comments dampened hopes a deal would be reached soon. US negotiators are due to visit China next week to resume talks.
President Donald Trump is escalating his pressure on General Motors, as he calls for the company to reopen an Ohio manufacturing plant.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Italy, Monaco and France this week, the foreign ministry said on Monday, with Rome expected to join his global trade infrastructure program despite reservations in other European countries.
U.S. border agents have seized around 1 million pounds of pork from China, a spokesman for the agency said on Friday, over suspicions that it might contain African swine flu disease which has hit Chinese pork output. Federal agents have seized the supplies over the past week in New York.
A delegation from China will visit Argentina this month to discuss the construction of a nuclear power plant, signaling possible progress in a deal that could increase Beijing’s deepening influence in Argentina. Accordingly, the “technical team” from China would meet local suppliers about the long-stalled nuclear power plant project, reportedly worth up to US$8 billion.
China's rubber-stamp parliament approved a foreign investment law on Friday that was fast-tracked and may serve as an olive branch in trade talks with the United States. The legislation aims to address long-running grievances from foreign businesses, but the US and European chambers of commerce have voiced concerns that they were not given enough time to give their input.
Growth in China’s industrial output fell to a 17-year low in the first two months of the year, pointing to further weakness in the world’s second-biggest economy that is likely to trigger more support measures from Beijing.
China offered on Wednesday to help Venezuela restore its power grid after President Nicolas Maduro accused U.S. counterpart Donald Trump of cyber “sabotage” that plunged the South American country into its worst blackout on record.
The US Federal Aviation Administration has told airlines it believes Boeing's 737 Max 8 model to be airworthy, after two fatal crashes inside six months. An Ethiopian Airlines plane en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi crashed six minutes after take-off on Sunday, killing all 157 people on board. The incident followed Lion Air 737 Max 8 crash in October that killed 189.