it seems that the tough approach on the South China Sea was more a campaign strategy than a policy plan. Like previous administrations, the Trump team sees armed conflict between China and the US as a losing proposition for all sides, and issues of economy, trade and the South China Sea better managed by cooperation than confrontation.

The bubbles in both finance and property are growing too big. The ordinary real economy is increasingly unable to bear the over-expansion of finance and property of the past 10 years. And NASDAQ is the most precarious bubble of all.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization achieved a major boost in momentum at last month’s Astana summit, but realizing its potential will require consistent leadership and resources over the coming year from the Chinese presidency.

In an ideal world, China’s government could respond by stimulating household consumption. But, in the absence of further reforms in areas like social security, growth in consumer spending is bound to be slow.

Despite all the predictions of doom by Western pundits in 1997, Hong Kong has done well since its reversion of sovereignty to China twenty years ago. 

As long as China continues to carry out its export-driven economic growth model through its strong state capitalism, then the U.S. business community will still have to face trade protectionism through non-tariff barriers, industrial policy, subsidies, and currency manipulation.

Despite years of protectionist polices put into action by its government, the American steel industry continues to flounder. As President Trumps launches a new protectionist agenda under the guise of national security imperatives, he continues to ignore the problems that truly plague U.S. steel.

Currently, the world economy is at a critical juncture as new drivers of growth take the place of old ones. Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the challenges of downward economic cycle lies in supply-side structural reforms. Obviously, the new growth cycle must be built upon a new structure - one that features the extensive application of S&T innovation results.

The RMB’s fall against the dollar reflects the slowing of China’s debt-fueled economic growth and the accumulation of default risks. Chinese residents and companies are, not surprisingly, seeking new ways (legal and otherwise) to move money out of the country.

The new rapprochement between Brussels and Beijing involves converging economic interests between Europe and China – and diverging strategic interests between Europe and America. While the shift was conceptualized as a reaction to a policy vacuum created by Trump, in reality, the ties between Brussels and Beijing have grown steadily since the 1990s, even when U.S.-Chinese ties have fallen under pressure.