Thread: The View, from China

"Video unavailable".

Was it something to do with the chinkies sucking up to the Taliban terrorists?

Moscow has dismissed concerns surrounding a Chinese bank's decision to pause all dealings with its exporters, a move that put at risk Russia's primary economic outlet at a time of increased isolation by the West.Andrey Rudenko, Russia's deputy foreign minister, denied that his country's businesses were experiencing any problems settling payments with neighboring China, including through the Financial Messaging System, the Russian equivalent to the SWIFT financial transactions service.

"No, we don't have such an issue. A couple of Chinese banks refrain so far as [a] precaution, over fears to be sanctioned. But we are confident that this problem will be solved," Russia's state news agency Tass quoted Rudenko as saying on Friday.

China has not openly criticized President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine two years ago this month. The Beijing leadership has offered the Kremlin meaningful political support, even as many Chinese companies and financial institutions try to avoid running afoul of Western sanctions.

Several major Chinese banks—wary of dealings with Moscow's defense industry—restricted Russian partner access to their services or cut ties altogether. The Chinese payment system UnionPay, which was once touted as a suitable replacement for MasterCard and Visa, also pulled out to limit its exposure.

But that did not stop China's two-way trade with Russia from booming last year. Increased energy and agriculture purchases helped push their annual turnover to $240.1 billion in 2023, up 26.3 percent from a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data.

Last week, the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti said Zhejiang Chouzhou Commercial Bank had suspended all transactions for clients from Russia as well as Belarus. The bank in eastern China, whose exposure to Western sanctions was thought to be limited, was a main institution used by Russian exporters, the paper said.

The bank's decision to pause settlements with Russian and Belarusian businesses, in any currency, may have been linked to an expansion of U.S. financial controls announced in recent weeks, new restrictions that could put it at risk of secondary sanctions.

Experts who spoke to Newsweek said the effects likely would be felt later, after the current Lunar New Year period typically associated with lower levels of economic activity in China.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Newsweek's request for comment.

Rudenko, whose remarks suggested the bank may have been overcautious in its actions, remained confident that Moscow and Beijing would resolve the matter, Tass reported.

He pointed to Russia's expanding trade with China, which the Kremlin said was settled almost exclusively in the Russian ruble or Chinese yuan last year. "And this is the first demonstration of the fact that we solve such problems," Rudenko said.

The diplomat's comments closely mirrored that of Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who told reporters last week that Moscow had "a close dialogue with our Chinese friends and, of course, we will solve all the problems that arise."

Russia has been eager to play up the successful "de-dollarization" of its wartime economy. Elvira Nabiullina, who heads Russia's Central Bank, told the RIA Novosti news agency in late January that over a third of all Russian imports and exports with China were now being settled in the yuan.

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-andr...conomy-1868954

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Pushing the prices of local goods up of course

The local farmers are happy with higher product sales, ability yo forge long term supply, .....

Originally Posted by OhOh

The local farmers are happy with higher product sales, ability yo forge long term supply, .....

The local farmers do what they're told.

The consumers are the ones suffering at the hands of the parasitic chinky bastards.

Chinky driving at its best.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1760922021171482804

Sputnik.com

Whenever I hear hoohoo crowing about how much tat the chinkies make, I think of those Foxconn suicide nets.

^ How I thought it would look.



How it really looks.

China Just Built Something That Will Change the World!

h

Impressive

(Harry won't like it )

Good one, Ohoh

Japan must not get involved in the Taiwan question created by US to contain China - ex-PM Hatoyama

Harry has no comments these days.

Qui tacet consentire videtur

China props up state-owned developer Vanke as property crisis deepens

China has asked 12 banks to provide financing to the beleaguered state-owned real estate firm, Vanke Group, just days after the housing and urban-rural development ministry vowed to let insolvent property developers go bankrupt.


The Chinese government’s support bucks its recent trend of letting indebted developers take their own downward course, which has compounded a spiraling crisis in the sector, once a major economic growth driver.


Privately-held Evergrande Group and Country Garden Holdings were left to their own devices as their debts soared, leaving their creditors and homebuyers high and dry in trying to recover investments. The Hong Kong High Court issued a liquidation order for Evergrande in January. A similar fate looms for Country Garden which received a liquidation petition from one of its creditors in Hong Kong. Both companies are listed in Hong Kong.


In contrast, rescue efforts for Vanke, part-owned by the Shenzhen government, are being coordinated by the State Council, China’s cabinet amid Chinese President Xi Jinping’s policy of advancing state enterprises and a retreat of the private sector.


The State Council has requested financial institutions to make swift progress and called on creditors to consider private debt maturity extension, according to a Reuters report on Monday, citing unnamed sources.


Separately, the state-owned Cailian Press reported that the 12 institutions are expected to raise as much as 80 billion yuan (US$11.1 billion) for Vanke. But the report cited sources saying that the attitude maintained by each bank was conservative.


Shaky ground


Nonetheless, Vanke is likely to stay on shaky ground among investors after rating agency Moody’s lowered its credit rating to “junk.”


“The rating actions reflect Moody’s expectation that China Vanke’s credit metrics, financial flexibility and liquidity buffer will weaken over the next 12-18 months because of its declining contracted sales and the rising uncertainties over its access to funding amid the prolonged property market downturn in China,” said Kaven Tsang, a Moody’s senior vice president in a statement this week.


The rating agency said it has placed all the ratings on review for downgrade, as it saw the company’s ability to recover sales, improve funding access, and maintain an adequate liquidity buffer to be worrying.


The government’s bid to save Vanke has aroused discussion online. Some netizens questioned the discrepancy between saving Vanke and abandoning Evergrande, while others worried that saving Vanke would reduce national resources at a time when the economy is growing at its slowest pace since 1990. There are also many posts rationalizing the government’s efforts to support Vanke.

The blogger “Wuxinxinshuofang” believes that propping up Vanke is to ensure that the “hunt” for foreign capital won’t be disrupted by a Vanke-triggered real estate crisis.


“The collapse of Vanke will bring about the debt crisis and liquidity crisis of all real estate companies. Efforts so far to prop up the market have only begun to show effects. Vanke can fail next year, but not this,” the blogger wrote.


Zombie developers to zombie banks?


Frank Xie, a professor at the University of South Carolina Aiken Business School, attributed Beijing’s support to Vanke’s state-owned background.


“The Chinese Communist Party cannot let Vanke fail, because the CCP [Communist Party of China] treats its own people and outsiders differently,” Xie pointed out.


The failure of any state-owned assets would be “tantamount to the bankruptcy of national capital, questioning the Communist Party’s ability to run enterprises.”


Besides, the Chinese property developer’s situation has raised questions about its operation in Kuala Lumpur under Vanke Holdings (Malaysia), comprising one project on a site it acquired in 2017.


Malaysian media had reported that the company had at first said it would develop a mixed-use project on the site, which is near the Kuala Lumpur Tower, in 2019. But nothing has been developed on the site yet.


Malaysia’s New Straits Times reported this week citing unnamed sources that Vanke (Malaysia) was now looking to sell its project.


Vanke’s is the second such Chinese project in Malaysia under a cloud and in similar circumstances. In August, Malaysian real estate analysts said they expected property values to drop at Chinese developer Country Garden’s housing project in Johor state.

Xie said that Chinese banks have accumulated a large backlog of mortgage loans involving real estate, and even assisting Vanke will only delay the explosion.


“As for other private companies facing the same problems as Evergrande, the CCP cannot save them, nor does it want to save them,” he added.


Beijing has also established a “white list” of approved property projects by distressed developers that banks and financial institutions should support in a stop-gap measure. Those deemed beyond rescue should go bankrupt.


Chen Songxing, director of the New Economic Policy Research Center at National Donghua University in Taiwan, said that the Chinese official statement of “bankruptcy should be bankrupt” is merely to show the outside world Beijing is unable to save real estate developers.


Chen said the amount of rescue for Vanke this time was insufficient to solve the problem, given how intertwined the real estate and banking industries are. He warned this was only a delay tactic which could lead to a bigger crisis.


“China’s current financial situation actually does not have the ability to save the real estate industry, as this is just transferring the debts of real estate developers and local governments to banks.


“If you continue to save these zombie real estate developers this year, it is very likely that banks will also become zombies in the future. It is very detrimental to China’s economic development,” Chen said.

China props up state-owned developer Vanke as property crisis deepens — BenarNews

US ambassador says Beijing stance on TikTok ban ‘supremely ironic’

Beijing, China – The US ambassador to China said Friday that Beijing’s position on a potential TikTok ban in the United States was “supremely ironic” given the ruling Communist Party’s censorship of online platforms within its borders.


The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill on Wednesday that would force the wildly popular short-video app to break with its Chinese parent company or face a nationwide ban.


China has sharply criticised the approval, slamming what it called Washington’s “bandit” mentality and accusing lawmakers of “unjustly suppressing foreign companies”.


US ambassador Nicholas Burns offered a rebuke on Friday, saying Beijing’s stance was unjustified given it blocks many Western web platforms from operating in the country.


“I find it supremely ironic that government officials here in China… have been criticising the United States for the debate we’re currently having on TikTok,” Burns said during an online seminar held by the East-West Center, a US-based research organisation.


“They won’t even let TikTok be available to 1.4 billion Chinese,” he said in response to a question about the avenues for American public diplomacy in China.


China’s government tightly controls the spread of information online and scrubs out social media content it deems politically sensitive.


Many Western platforms, including Google, Facebook and Instagram, are blocked from operating in the country.


TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance also runs a separate version of the app inside China called Douyin.


Some Western governments have voiced concern about TikTok’s soaring popularity, alleging that the app’s ownership makes it subservient to Beijing — a claim TikTok denies.


The bill, which has also been criticised by TikTok creators and users, is expected to face a tougher challenge in the US Senate.


The White House has indicated that President Joe Biden would sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk.

US ambassador says Beijing stance on TikTok ban 'supremely ironic' | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

US bill targeting TikTok sparks mixed reactions in China

A U.S. bill that if approved would force the sale of the video sharing platform TikTok has sparked mixed reactions from Chinese commentators, with some drawing parallels with Chinese internet censorship and others marveling at the heated debate around the app.


TikTok, whose parent company is China’s ByteDance, has 170 million monthly American users. It has sparked security concerns in Washington that Beijing would use the app for propaganda or to sway American public opinion, particularly leading up to November’s presidential election.


The legislation passed Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives would ban the app in America if ByteDance doesn’t divest its controlling stake in the social media app. U.S. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill if it is approved by the upper house Senate.

Some Chinese social media users criticized the move, saying it was similar to censorship.


"It's the same over there [as in China], mutual bans on everything, just that the process is more cumbersome over there," commented @LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLsm from Guangdong, in a reference to the blocking of Twitter and Facebook for users inside the Great Firewall of internet censorship.


"There's going to be a rush of white people trying to get over the Great Firewall [into China] now," quipped Hantang_Lengyue_1130 from Beijing.


"From a Chinese perspective, I hope TikTok can continue to exist in the United States,” another user, 1_lowkey_1 from Gansu, commented. “From another perspective, this gives me a feeling of confusion. Can this thing really get Americans so addicted? That's powerful."


Forced to give Beijing user data?


Lawmakers supporting the bill say that TikTok is required under Chinese law to expose American user data to Beijing upon request, and say it could be forced to alter its algorithms to promote Chinese propaganda.

TikTok has denied any interference from Beijing, and China's foreign ministry has said there is "no evidence" of any threat to U.S. national security.


"I would prefer them to remove it than sell it -- that way the American people will take up arms and fight the U.S. government to the end," @Golden_Annunciation_Bird_999 wrote.


User @Xiao_Xianyu added from Beijing: "Rednecks are the angriest, because their main platform is about to be blocked."


Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Thursday accused the Washington of using "sheer robbers’ logic to try every means to snatch from others all the good things that they have."


The Ministry of Foreign Affairs further hit back on Friday with a commentary titled, "The Truth About the So-Called Freedom of Speech in the United States."


The TikTok bill "violates the rights granted to the American people by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, suppresses and damages the freedom of more than 150 million American TikTok users, and sets a worrying precedent," the op-ed piece said.


Protecting free speech


A U.S.-based Chinese student majoring in information technology who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals said he doesn't use the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin, citing privacy concerns.


But he said he supported others who wanted to use the app's equivalent in the United States, and appeared not to support a legal move against the TikTok: "The rights guaranteed by the First Amendment are very important," the student said.


"If there are individual cases of data disclosure, they can just fine them, like they do Facebook," he said.

In Zhejiang, @The_romantic_and_talented_Mi_Duoduo thought the potential forced sale wasn't a good idea, either.


"Prohibition will only make it impossible for the people at the bottom, and there will be more and more social unrest," they commented.


"[TikTok] has overturned American imperialism at its root, along with its hegemony over public opinion," commented @na_jia丶 from Guizhou,


Meanwhile, @not_a_thief added from Hubei: "The United States was founded on a platform of freedom of speech."


A Washington-based software engineer who hails from China, and who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told RFA Mandarin that the best approach was to build a U.S.-company that could compete adequately with TikTok.


‘That’s not going to happen here’


James A. Lewis, senior vice president and director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, recommended using a U.S. initial public offering, or IPO, to allow TikTok's current owners ByteDance to cash out of the company and make a profit in doing so.


"An IPO on Wall Street would provide a vehicle for the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) to intervene and impose conditions on the IPO to mitigate risk," Lewis wrote in a March 13 commentary on the Center's website.

But he warned that there is "a larger and more complicated problem of Chinese software use in U.S. apps and networks," calling on the Department of Commerce to investigate the scope of that problem.


"The United States should manage the risk created by deep technological connections to a hostile and untrustworthy nation that is undertaking the largest espionage campaign in history," Lewis said.


While not all Chinese technology creates risk, genuine risks can be mitigated, including those attributed to TikTok, he said.


Xia Ming, professor of political science at New York's City University noted that LinkedIn was forced to shut down in China last year, and that the TikTok bill could be seen as a retaliatory measure.


"If you kick me, I have to kick you back," Xia said. But he said freedom of speech is unlikely to be affected by the move.


"The fundamental difference is that, if you listen to the Voice of America or Radio Free Asia in China, the state security police will come for you," Xia said. "That's not going to happen in the United States."

US bill targeting TikTok sparks mixed reactions in China — Radio Free Asia

How China Won Mexico (and the Future of North America).

Cyrus Janssen

19/03/2024

^
Does it include all the fentanyl they sell to the cartels?

Originally Posted by pickel

Does it include all the fentanyl they sell to the cartels?

It's Free Enterprice, du Commie Schweinhund !

Originally Posted by helge

It's Free Enterprice, du Commie Schweinhund !

The families of the dead don't share your sense of humor Helga.

OK, Pickel

That time of the month again, eh ?

(and btw: It's a fact)