Bi-lateral and multi-lateral Free Trade Agreements are becoming increasingly important in maximizing regional and international trade. Due to the immense size of China, South Korea and Japan’s economies, it is important that all three negotiate and develop a China-South Korea-Japan Free Trade Area. Increased trade between the three will lead to increases in the size of all of their economies.

China’s central bank will not change its monetary policy in the near future, but will rather keep a steady but tight policy to get both credit and monetary growth back on track. This could be the keynote of China central bank monetary policy for 2014, writes Yi XIanrong.

Many Latin American countries have experienced record levels of growth in the last decade due to high prices of commodities, however, few planned for the future. As China slows and US desire for petroleum lessens, the economies of many Latin American countries that have failed to diversify their economies away from a single commodity are slowing drastically.

The crisis in Ukraine is geopolitically important for the US; however, it will not derail the US “pivot” to Asia-Pacific. The US will continue to “pivot” towards Asia-Pacific through increased troop deployments, an increased role in conflict mediation, as well as through the promotion of stronger regional alliances in an attempt to contain a growing China.

In late February, the gradual appreciation of the renminbi was interrupted by a 1% depreciation. The resulting international outcry obscured a troubling feature of China’s exchange-rate policy: the tendency for sporadic renminbi appreciation (even small movements) to trigger speculative inflows of “hot” money.

Analysts expecting a large crash of the Chinese economy will be disappointed, writes Yu Yongding, as China has, in fact, faced far worse financial difficulties. While the country’s current problems aren’t as severe as those it faced in the late 1990’s or early 2000’s, problems do persist and the margin for error is rapidly reaching its economic limits.

Yu Sui hopes that Chuck Hagel’s current trip in China can provide positive momentum for the formulation of the new-type major-country relationship between China and the United States.

Government has an essential role to play in curbing pollution in China, however ordinary citizens can also play a role in reducing energy consumption, writes Xiong Lei.

Could China’s slowing growth rattle African economies and, in turn, impact American and European markets? As Robert Rotberg explains, African nations depend upon Chinese investment for continued growth and stability. However, with the United States and European Union still suffering from an economic downturn, China’s slowdown could have a domino effect that exerts further pressure on Africa.

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) infiltrated Chinese telecom giant Huawei years ago. The disclosures highlight the global risks associated with unilateral government surveillance.