Will China end up owning the World?

Amended your post, hope you don't mind.

"Australia has sold "the farm" for a Banquet.

The Banquet is nearly finished, and we have little left."

WEll @SirRumpole , it hasn't taken long to get back to business as usual, tariffs are nasty build it in China and let the people enjoy their decline. ?
This last year the trade deficit has worsened, not because everything is made in China, but because of nasty tariffs, making imports more expensive. What a hoot.?
Anyway it will be interesting to watch how the new U.S Government stops the slide, it looks as though one of the first cabs off the rank, will be Tesla IMO.

From the article:

Last Friday was the first anniversary of the signing of the "phase one" trade deal with Beijing that paused the Trump administration’s trade war with China. Twelve months on, it is obvious that, contrary to Donald Trump’s conviction, trade wars are neither good nor easy to win.

Trump will end his presidency having presided over the three largest US trade deficits in history even as China recorded a record monthly trade surplus in December and, amid a global pandemic, its second-highest annual surplus.


Trade data released late last week showed China’s overall surplus rose 27 per cent to $US535 billion ($696 billion) in 2020, the highest since 2015. The December surplus, powered by an 18 per cent increase in exports, was a record $US78 billion. The $US317 billion full-year surplus with the US was 7 per cent higher than in 2019.

Earlier this month US trade data showed its overall trade deficit for the first 11 months of the year had grown 13.9 per cent over the same period of 2019, to $US605 billion, with analysts forecasting a deficit of close to $US900 billion for the full year when those numbers are released next month. The US trade deficit in November was the highest in 14 years.
While the deficit with China did shrink in 2019 and through much of last year – perhaps attributable more to the impact of the pandemic on economic activity than Trump’s tariffs – imports from China have been rising sharply recently as the US economy has bounced off its lows.

China may well have wedged itself regarding coal, now it has refused to take Australian coal on the basis of quality, they obviously wont be in the running to pick up BHP's coal assets in Australia.
Could well be a pull the trigger, before the gun clears the holster moment for China, in my opinion.
If an Indian company buys the assets, it won't bode well for China.

Sounds like all is well in China and it can get back to business as usual.

From the article:
Key points:

• Beijing accused the outgoing and former officials of undermining China's interests and offending the Chinese people
• They will be banned from entering mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao
• Companies and institutions associated with them will be restricted from doing business with China

Two Arrests, Two Outcomes Tell a Tale of Xi Jinping’s China​

February 2020 the Philippines tells the U.S to sod off out of the Philippines.

A year is a long time in politics.
From the article:
Philippines Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana voiced “grave concern” about the appearance of 220 ships at Whitsun reef, part of the Spratly Islands about 300km west of the Philippine province of Palawan.
On Tuesday, the United States weighed into the fresh standoff, with its embassy in Manila saying: “We stand with the Philippines, our oldest treaty ally in Asia.”

“Chinese boats have been mooring in this area for many months in ever increasing numbers, regardless of the weather,” the US embassy said in a statement.
China, which has built airstrips and military bases on artificial islands in the Spratlys, insists they were just fishing boats taking shelter due to poor weather.
However, Filipino political analyst and author Richard Heydarian said the assembly of boats was further evidence of China accelerating its aggressive ambitions, following its announcement last month of a new law allowing its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels.

“We’re moving towards a very dangerous phase in China’s domination strategy in the South China Sea,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Heydarian said it also demonstrated that Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte’s appeasement strategy towards Xi Jinping’s China had been “a total strategic disaster” for the country.

The Philippines won a landmark case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in 2016 in a judgment that effectively cast aside China’s sweeping historic claims to 90 per cent of the resource-rich zone.

But after taking office that year, Duterte set aside the ruling at the urging of China.
Duterte’s spokesman took a far more cordial line than the nation’s defence secretary and foreign minister, saying: “We have a close friendship. Everything can be discussed between friends and neighbours.”

On Tuesday, he said Duterte would speak with the Chinese ambassador about the boats amassed in waters claimed by the Philippines.

The incident shapes as a litmus test in south-east Asia for US President Joe Biden’s new administration swiftly following its frosty diplomatic summit with China in Alaska last week.

“Back in 2012 [China] took the Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines and [Barack] Obama didn’t see it as a red line and shortly thereafter we saw a spike in artificial island construction across the South China Sea,” said John Blaxland, professor of international security at the Australian National University.

“They tested the waters and they knew the Americans weren’t going to bite. What we’re seeing now is a fresh one for the Biden administration and it comes after Alaska.”

A well written history of Xi Jinping's life and rise to power, you have to take your hat off to him, he has achieved amazing things, from a very tough childhood in 'struggle street'.

Good to see the USA acting practically and acting in concert with the EU and many other nations. Smart.

Knobby22 said:

Good to see the USA acting practically and acting in concert with the EU and many other nations. Smart.

Biden unleashes $US250 billion plan to frustrate China

China poked the bear with its ambition to topple the US’s global technological and economic leadership and by detailing the central role the state would play in achieving it.

www.theage.com.au

Click to expand...

Yes good on Biden, for continuing the trajectory that was started earlier, not only continuing it but adding to it.

From the article:
A Senate vote on the bill was postponed last Friday as mainly Republicans continued to advocate for more amendments but is likely to occur once Congress resumes after its Memorial Day break in a week or so.

At the core of the legislation is spending designed to provide incentives for domestic semi-conductor manufacturing and research and development in strategic sectors like artificial intelligence, 5G wireless, quantum computing, biotechnology and robotics – industries that China has identified as central to its plans for global technology leadership and into which it is pouring state funds.
The original ambition has, however, grown into a far broader response to China’s challenge to US hegemony.
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It includes a reorientation of foreign affairs-related spending and diplomacy to the Indo-Pacific and funds to counter China’s influence globally.
It calls for Taiwan’s inclusion in international bodies; requires an unclassified report on the origins of the coronavirus; opposes international development banks’ assistance to China; provides funding to counter “predatory bilateral lending” (read China’s “Belt and Road” program) and would impose more sanctions on China for its treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang.

There’s also proposed sanctions against those engaged in cyber attacks against the US, with particular reference to China, and “transparency requirements ” and the threat of withdrawal of funding from colleges that have Confucius Institute partnerships with Chinese colleges and universities.

Along with the $US360 billion of the continuing Trump administration’s tariffs on China’s exports to the US, which the Biden administration appears in no hurry to revisit, the bill would represent a quite dramatic escalation of US efforts to improve its competitiveness against China.
The bill, if enacted, would overlay the pre-existing trade war between the US and China.

While the new US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and China’s vice premier Liu He have had an initial conversation in which the Trump tariffs and the current “truce” were discussed, there is no suggestion the Biden administration will lift the tariffs or the requirement under the truce agreement that China increase its purchases of US products by $US200 billion in 2020 and 2021.

Even though its imports from the US have been growing, China’s has met only about 60 per cent of its commitments under the truce and its trade surplus with the US has been blowing out as the US economy bounces back from last year’s pandemic-induced depths.

I see the Belt and Road initiative, is hitting a few speed humps.

China will hate the national broadcaster publishing this:

No power, no lobster and no Grange. Whose idea was this, anyway?

Knobby22 said:

China will hate the national broadcaster publishing this:

No power, no lobster and no Grange. Whose idea was this, anyway?

Never start a war unless you know you can win: How China's trade war on Australia is backfiring

Much to the chagrin of the Beijing bureaucracy, Australian trade is booming, driving a rapid turnaround from the COVID-inspired crunch that crippled the global economy last year, writes Ian Verrender.

www.abc.net.au

Click to expand...

Yes this could all turn pear shaped for China, the more aggressive and more assertive they get, the more Western countries will be reluctant to invest. Which will mean China has to rely more and more on domestic consumption, while Western countries probably develop green manufacturing methods, so a trade war in earnest is likely to develop IMO.

It was interesting in the article, that the author said Trumps tariffs backfired, when it sounds as though Biden has kept them in place and in all likely hood going to increase them.
From post #410 above:
Along with the $US360 billion of the continuing Trump administration’s tariffs on China’s exports to the US, which the Biden administration appears in no hurry to revisit, the bill would represent a quite dramatic escalation of US efforts to improve its competitiveness against China.
The bill, if enacted, would overlay the pre-existing trade war between the US and China.


Certainly is an interesting period in our history.

The other thing that has to be taken from the current status is, China has achieved amazing development in the last 20 years, the Chinese population are expecting that standard of living trajectory to continue.

Most of that growth trajectory, has been on the back of Western countries outsourcing their manufacturing to China, as China has done by placing punitive measures on Australia, so can Western Countries do the same to China.

I just hope everyone takes a breath and comes up with a way to go forward.

sptrawler said:

The other thing that has to be taken from the current status is, China has achieved amazing development in the last 20 years, the Chinese population are expecting that standard of living trajectory to continue.

Most of that growth trajectory, has been on the back of Western countries outsourcing their manufacturing to China, as China has done by placing punitive measures on Australia, so can Western Countries do the same to China.

I just hope everyone takes a breath and comes up with a way to go forward.

Click to expand...

If the rest of the world were to stop selling them food, China might have a revolution on their hands as starving people demand the Govt soften their stance.

I hope that Nations can sit down and negotiate a way forward so that China is satisfied with their progress but also respects other Nations rights.

The clash of political systems just adds to the problem

macca said:

If the rest of the world were to stop selling them food, China might have a revolution on their hands as starving people demand the Govt soften their stance.

Click to expand...

China is responsible for over 4% of global agrifood exports so your point is baseless:

macca said:

I hope that Nations can sit down and negotiate a way forward so that China is satisfied with their progress but also respects other Nations rights.

Click to expand...

Do you know anything about China?

So, part of the Solomon Islands unrest is due to Chinese influence. They are on a roll. Their Belt and Road Debt Trap diplomacy is running rampant across the globe. I've seen it first hand in many countries all around the World, particularly to our near NE and in Africa and the ME. Weak and poor countries with questionable governance are being sucked in and will end up tributary states at best, vassal states worse, speaking Chinese possible.

China takes over Uganda's international airport.

This is going to get untidy.

Well @Sean K it isn't as though the outcome wasn't to be expected.

From the article:
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has left scores of lower- and middle-income countries saddled with “hidden debts” totalling $US385 billion ($531 billion).

New research suggests that many countries’ financial liabilities linked to President Xi Jinping’s hallmark foreign policy initiative have been systematically under-reported for years. This has resulted in mounting “hidden debts”, or undisclosed liabilities that governments might be obliged to pay.

The findings are part of a new report published by AidData, an international development research lab based at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, which has analysed more than 13,000 aid- and debt-financed projects worth more than $US843 billion across 165 countries, over 18 years to the end of 2017.

The AidData researchers estimated that existing debts stemming from Chinese lending are “substantially larger” than previously understood by credit rating agencies and other intergovernmental organisations with surveillance responsibilities.

The pace of lending on the Belt and Road has slowed over the past two years. And this year the US has led a G7 effort to counter Beijing’s dominance in international development finance.

But the report highlights the lasting effects of a sharp transition since Xi launched the Belt and Road plan in 2013.

Where Chinese lending was previously mostly directed to sovereign borrowers such as central banks, now close to 70 per cent of China’s foreign debt is issued across state-owned companies, state-owned banks, special purpose vehicles, joint ventures and private sector institutions.

More than 40 lower- and middle-income countries (LMIC) now have levels of debt exposure to China higher than 10 per cent of their national gross domestic product, AidData estimated.

And the average LMIC government is under-reporting repayment obligations to China by an equivalent of nearly 6 per cent of GDP.



Or this report:

Poor old Lithuania has done an Australia and upset China, apparently China has blocked all trade with Lithuania, unlike us obviously they don't have iron ore and gas. Lol

As if things aren't bad enough already, now China isn't sending us urea, so our trucking fleet will have to source their Adblue, from somewhere else.