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Close all asylum hotels in orderly way, says former Justice Secretary under Blair, Charlie Falconer Home Office minister Angela Eagle says: “We inherited a chaotic asylum accommodation system costing billions. This government will close all hotels by the end of this parliament and we appealed this judgment so hotels like the Bell can be exited in a controlled and orderly way that avoids the chaos of recent years that saw 400 hotels open at a cost of £9m a day.”

Labour has to act decisively to meet the shift in the views of people in the UK and because it is plain common sense- UK citizens have no place being in asylum hotels in China or India paid for by the government, it is not even thought of as an idea that makes any sense, and the reverse is also true. Asia has pulled itself up by its bootstraps, Japan Korea, China and India after centuries of colonialism for billions of people only by building up at home.

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The approval of 254 investment projects in China, accelerating investments in infrastructure and construction as part of a second stimulus plan in 2012, folllowing the first stimulus in 2009. The risks are higher this time because of the inflated housing prices in China, the increasing lack of affordability of housing for average families, and the continuation of policies that emphasize infrastructure spending at the expense of consumption and earnings on savings for ordinary families. With that kind of spending has come increased levels of corruption. The glut in the steel industry will grow worse with more spending on steel plants.

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India has one of the largest refineries in the world at Jamnagar run by Reliance Ltd. It buys 2 million barrels a day of oil from Russia, making up a third of Russian oil exports and second only to China which takes in half of Russian oil exports. India buys this at about $60 a barrel and it generates about $45 billion dollars of revenue for Russia. Indian refineries have the technology to process Russia's heavier crude oil. Some of it is processed in India and exported to Europe.

US and DJT statements about India and a tariff rate of 25% are based on India moving from exporting less than 2% from Russia in 2021 to 45% of its imports in 2024.

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Lenovo had 11% of the smartphone market in China in the second quarter of 2012, trailing Samsung at 19%, according to IDC. Lenovo plans to compete with Samsung in smartphones for emerging markets. Lenovo plans to sell smartphones in India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

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Shortages of natural gas lead to a 40% rise in prices. China is bidding high for gas supplies as it faces shortages of natural gas for heating during the coming winter. The UK and Europe also face shortages. Russia has the largest reserves of natural gas and is by far the largest producer. The start of the undersea Nordstream 2 pipeline avoids use of existing Russian pipeline through Ukraine. It is seen as a way to bring in more supplies to Europe.

Australia is another large producer of natural gas. China is now changing its import ban of Australian coal and natural gas as it faces a cold winter.

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An effort to deepen India China cultural ties and tourism visits, people to people contact, with president Xi Jinping's visit to Mamallapuram in southern India near Chennai. It is from this region that under the Pallava dynasty Bodhidharma went to China bringing Buddhism in 527 AD, and Xuanzang came here in 627-643 AD from Fujian province to collect precious Buddhist manuscripts for translation. The deep historical connections between the two countries have withered under British imperialism in the modern period. There is also a sense that the best way to deepen the relationship is for people to come and have face to face contact with the culture, history and development.

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China's population is aging quickly as a result of the one child policy and better medical care. The population of people 15-59 years will decline by 65 million or 5.5% by 2030, according to UN projections. China's retirement age is surprisingly low 60 for men and 55 for women for civil servants and white collar workers. The population will age faster and at lower income levels than in South Korea or Taiwan.

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China's State Internet Information Office chief Lu Wei, 54, is a Communist Party official who assumed office in 2013. He attends many of the internet conferences and gatherings in China and overseas, loudly explaining China's Communist Party line that "respect for national sovereignty" on the Internet should be adhered to. Mozur and Perlez reveal the vigorous personality of Lu Wei as he argues for this view of the Web at gatherings, in sharp contrast to the way younger generation social media users and business users see the internet. Lu Wei spent his early years as bureau chief of the state owned Xinhua News Agency in southern Guangxi Province. He was promoted to positions as secretary general and vice bureau chief at agency headquarters, and to vice mayor of Beijing in 2011, chief of the city's propaganda department. He came into prominence following an article in the Communist Party journal "Seeking Truth," after pointing out that China needed to manage the way information about the country and the Party is presented using the new information technologies. He also perceived the risks posed by distorted or incorrect information to financial markets, and economic security. This was confirmed the following year with the rapid spread of reports about a high-speed rail crash in Wenzhou, China, and in numerous other incidents following this, as social media reports that could not be confirmed spread quickly in out of control fashion. He now is the director of a new Central Internet Security and Informatization Leading Group, headed by president Xi Jinping, with the task of coming up with a policy for balancing views of openness needed for the economy with government views on internet oversight. This is not only a political matter, as Chinese officials face the challenge of how to get the public to vent views on critical matters such as public anger about pollution, food contamination, contractors and badly constructed housing in a recent earthquake, mismanagement in the railways ministry, and a whole range of issues related to economic development, health and public safety. ...

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The issues China faces as it plans the next phase of massive urbanization. Urbanization is a major priority of prime minister Li Keqiang, which was also the focus of his postgraduate work in his student days. In the early 1980's about 20% of China was urbanized, this has changed over three decades to where the figure is 47%, plus 17% for workers working in the cities but classified as rural, a total of 64%. China's plan is to fully integrate 70% of the population or 900 millon into cities by 2025. In 2013 only 35% of the population has a urban residency permit, or hukou. The permit is needed for residents to register their children in local schools or qualify for medical programs in urban locations. One of the problems is the huge cost of doing this which it is feared could lead to inflation and higher debt levels. Currently local governments bear these costs using land sales, and central government transfer payments, but without added financing and unable to issue their own bonds, the local governments strictly limit the use of local school and health services to their own residents keeping out rural newcomers. Local government taking over farmer plots, often without enough compensation is highly unpopular in China. Other problems are- providing a steady stream of earnings for new urban residents from farms, if no employment can be found. So they can sustain themselves- especially as they get past 40 years of age when factory employment is harder to find. The government planners see the larger urban population as a way to shift from a largely export based economy and slowing growth, to a consumption based economy. But critics say the risk is that for this to happen new residents from the farming villages have to find jobs, something the government will have difficulty accomplishing. A permanent underclass of unemployed and other financially strapped citydwellers living around major cities, as has happened with the progress of urbanization in Brazil and Mexico, is something the government would want to avoid. ...

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Ford has lagged behind other car manufacturers in entering markets in India and China. Ford now plans to increase investments in India. Ford gets 3% of its total sales from India, compared to 10% for Brazil. The goal is to generate one third of its sales from Asia and Africa. As part of this effort Ford plans to build 2 new plants in India. The two plants will be built in Sanand, Gujarat, by 2014, employing 5,000 and with a capacity of 240,000 cars and 270,000 engines. Ford's existing plant is in the south, in Tamil Nadu, with 5000 workers in manufacturing, and 5000 other office employees. Ford cited advantages of Gujarat being the port facilities for exporting cars and the pro-business climate in Gujarat. Toyota which was also slow to enter the Indian market, plans to invest $220 million to double production capacity to 310,000 by 2013.

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US president DJT State of the Union Address to Congress Feb 24, 2026. BBC Analysis shows the president going on the offense to take up the issue of illegal migrants, cost of living, and business investment to get the economy to grow. DJT compared the $1 trillion in business investment under Biden over 4 years with the $18 trillion that he had secured in his first year. He said the tariffs were here to stay whatever the Supreme Court decision stated because all the agreements with EU, UK, China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, other countries will remain in place as all countries want it that way. The president stated that through tariffs he had secured benefits for getting manufacturing back to the US to create jobs and raise incomes. The Big Beautiful Bill also added to business investment through its writeoff in one time for equipment and plant. The oil price per gallon had gone down to $1.85 a gallon at the pump lowering the cost of living and inflation. He pointed out that the economy was strong with low inflation lower than 3%, unemployment at 4% and ecponomic growth in 2025 close to 3% with some quarters exceeding 4-5%. The US ice hockey team attended the event and the Congressional medal of honor was given to soldiers in the Venezuelan helicopter dangerous mission, and to a World War II pilot who was 100 years old. Transgender was shown as an issue with parents shown with their daughter who had suffered from transgender laws that he asked Congress to change. Calling some of this crazy as parents and families were suffering as a result. ...

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Oil prices at the pump for automobiles are declining for the seventh straight week. Prices declined to about $4. In Texas the average is about $3.67 a gallon. California has the highest gas prices at an average of $5.46 a gallon. The price decline is a result of rapidly slowing growth in China. China and India are still getting oil supplies from Russia which frees up oil supplies for the US to import. 

Public in the US is also cutting back on driving and the miles driven is likely to see a drop of 5-10% this summer. There is better planning of trips to combine errands. This helps combating climate change through conservation efforts that were neglected during the last decade.

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The Nixon Mao meeting of 1972 now seems a very long time ago. Little is mentioned here in this WSJ report on what was happening inside China in 1972. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution had severely divided the Communist Party. This was followed by the Lin Piao episode in which the defense minister clashed with Mao leading to a complete loss of confidence in the stability of the leadership. China sought the meeting and Chou-en-lai, premier and Mao's minister for foreign relations, was eager to seek a new relationship with the US. The period 1960-1970 had pushed China back 10-20 years in its effort to develop an industrial economy.  The event is presented as one in which the two countries were meeting at the same level after the Korean War, which was not the case. This report says it was the $3 trillion in US and foreign investment that helped an economy the size of India in 1972 to emerge into what it is today, much larger than India. This report goes on to cite Foreign Affairs and other authors who write that Mr. Kissinger and Mr Nixon saw this as a self-promotional event in contrast to the situation Chou-en-lai, the Chinese premier faced during that difficult time in China's history. ...

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China is moving closer to the day when its population shrinks. This would be a sign of a seriously aging population with fewer young people as workers to support the older people and retired workers. The number of births fell for a fifth year in a row. In 2021 births were at 10.6 million dropping from 12 million in 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.  The year 1961 the last year of the Great Leap Forward under Mao was the first time in its recent history that China actually had population decline with famine and other problems. This situation of population decline is fast approaching or already happened. In 2021 there were 10.1 million deaths. Women in China are not interested in having children. Typical is this woman in Beijing quoted in this WSJ report- she is 28 and teaches Korean language. She says she doesn't want to spend her savings on kids.  In China education is the pathway to a better life and income. And it is not cheap. Most of the savings of mothers will go into educating their children. Tutoring costs had become so high and the competition so intense that the government to tackle this problem announced that this will from now on be a non profit industry. ...

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This analysis concludes that it will be harder for developing countries to tackle job losses from robots. One problem is that taxing robot use would lead to investments in production in countries that allow robots. Opportunities exist for technology and robots in agriculture in India, by offsetting this with retraining agricultural workers for other work. China has managed the transition to robots by finding alternative opportunities for workers. Companies have shifted to robots with the higher wages in China and shortage of workers.

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BP's global oil outlook 2013-2030 shows demand from China is still a big part of the story two decades from now. Factor in demand from Russia, the Middle East and India, yet China still dominates the picture for growth in demand. For 2000-2011 China's share of global demand growth for energy was 55%, under BP's outlook China's share for 2011-2030 drops to 43%. Fossil fuels still dominate. The continuing dependence on fossil fuels is also the perspective of Shell CEO Voser in an interview with the WSJ in Jan 2013, who also sees strong growth in shale gas supplies from China. Coal will account for 61% of global demand growth to 2030, oil 43%, gas 25%, in BP's outlook. If Voser is right and with the need for cleaner burning natural gas gas considering high air pollution in Chinese cities, gas may take a bigger share than 25%. Shell CEO Voser looks out 4 decades from now and sees one third of global demand coming from renewable energy, 10% from nuclear, and the rest from fossil fuels.

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China's plan to lift all birth restrictions by 2025. The one child policy was replaced with a two child policy, and now with a three child policy in 2021, as China's birth rate declined below the level needed for a stable population. The plan now is to lift all restrictions as the decline in population is expected to be very steep. Not enough young people to support a growing elderly population is a major problem for the economy. A mindset has developed over 70 years for one or two children that is seen as hard to change. Women now work and pursue careers, their expectations in life have changed. Couples are also finding it hard to get access to schools and afford the costs of education and home space needed for larger families. Housing in most cities is costly, making it harder to raise families. Attitudes are hard to change. Experts see little impact of the new policies. The three northeastern provinces suffered most in the shift to a market economy. This is where the drop in birthrates is very steep. The government will remove all birth restrictions in the northeast before applying it to the whole of China. ...

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US and China agree on the first step to a broader trade deal. US offers to take in Chinese students at American Universities, something DJT says he was good with.  “Chinese students using our college and universities,” adding that such attendance has “always been good with me.”  China for its part will not slow move export of magnets and rare earth minerals on which it has established a near monopoly of the supplies. These rare earth minerals are needed for technology products made in the US. US tariffs of 55% will still say in place as "deterrance" that the other side keeps its promises and to cut the trade deficit with China not simply talk about it has has happened for a decade of Bush, Obama, Biden. Treasury Secretary Bessent and Jamieson Greer US Trade Representative were at London talks with Commerce Secretary Howard Luttnick to find ways to get an impasse resolved. Both sides lack confidence in what the other is doing so that theis the first step to clarify the direction of talks for achieving a broader deal.  ...

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Us continues to take strong action against drug trafficking. US Foreign Minister Rubio says this will continue as the US reasserts the Monroe Doctrine in this hemisphere after suffering staggering losses in the fentanyl trafficking to its territory of three times the 100,000 lives lost in the Korean and Vietnam Wars, more than World War I and 75% of the deaths in World War II on the front against the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese Army that invaded China. Today that fentanyl trafficking involves China and Mexico, two trade partners that depend on US trade for job and the economy. Yet politicians have failed the American people by not taking the action on the Monroe doctrine of no colonial powers in this hemisphere, and US ensuring good government in this hemisphere based on it's centuries traditions of the rule of law dating back to 1600 with the founding of these colonies under the British laws and institutions.

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The U.S. orders the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas. The State Department in a statement said China was conducting "massive illegal spying and influence operations throughout the U.S. against U.S. government officials and American citizens," saying such activities have increased. Footage on local television stations purportedly showed people burning documents on consulate premises, and firefighters were called, says this report in the WSJ. In Copenhagen, Secretary of State Pompeo citing two hacking indictments and U.S. jobs stolen by China's policies, said  "President Trump has said, 'Enough, we're not going to allow this to continue to happen." The two hacking indictments relate to two hackers in China working for China's civilian intelligence agency, targeting American firms involved in coronavirus research and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars of sensitive information from companies around the world, says this report in the WSJ. ...

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China has used the quarantine and strict measures to contain the coronavirus. After being taken by surprise in the way the coronavirus developed in Wuhan region China shifted to large scale containment and quarantine. To do this China used technology, mobile carrier information, volunteers going from door to door and enforced quarantine action. Other countries in Europe, including Italy, are adopting measures such as quarantine and appeals to the public for cooperative behaviours.

The entire approach is new yet shows how government and citizens can work together to contain epidemics of this kind in the modern world of urbanized areas and close contact in subways, streets, and stadiums. The approach in democratic countries may vary from China yet essentially strong bold action has proved to be the way to go, not vacillating and acting one step at a time till things are out of control. 

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Latest data from the U.S. Treasury shows it has collected $63 billion in tariffs over the preceding 12 months. Even though there is no agreement on trade with China, president Trump says the U.S. is benefitting from higher tariffs by tens of billions of dollars. In May he estimated tariff revenues could reach $100 billion.This report in the WSJ says this could happen if the the new tariffs of 10% on additional $300 Chinese goods imported to U.S. goes into effect on September 1. This is likely considering that China sees this in different terms than the U.S. such as its sovereignty, whereas the U.S. sees it simply in terms of fair trade. With new elections China may be simply putting things off till the election is decided as Mr. Trump has pointed out. The tally of what the U.S. Treasury gets annually if $100 billion is generated in tariffs goes something like this. Of this $30 billion was generated previously for the U.S. government, so the incremental amount is $70 billion. Of this about $16 billion goes to offset the effect of loss of farm exports to farmers, mainly soyabeans exports to China, through a rescue fund. This leaves additional $54 billion for the U.S. Treasury. Money that could conceivably be put back into infrastructure that the U.S. badly needs in mobile and fixed to improve internet speeds and move up from its low rankings compared to China and other countries. A WSJ report this week shows Germany in worse shape than the U.S., both countries having dismal status in mobile infrastructure- the U.S. at No. 37, and Australia No. 4, Canada No. 3, and even Croatia No. 9. This throws some light on why this trade dispute has become intractable, for China the right of a sovereign nation to move past middle income status even as its telecom technology with Huawei 5G is top class, and for the U.S. the right not to fall behind in advanced technologies such as Telecom. It is also why one hears so much about Huawei and why it has become a flashpoint of the conflict in trade and trade practices. It is thought Mr. Trump is conducting this trade dispute. Yet less known is the fact that prominent Republicans in Congress such as Senator Warner have stated on television talk shows that they are concerned Mr. Trump may give up too much in negotiations that lead to the U.S. not being able to compete in telecom advanced technologies that matter for competitiveness and for national security. What was treated by Bush and Obama administrations routinely without much attention to the consequences is now a top concern for Republicans and others in Congress and business. ...

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China's healthcare costs have increased in the last decade without effective cost control measures. With the decline in consumer spending in the last decade to where it is now only 35% of GDP, and ordinary Chinese setting aside a large portion of savings for costly drugs and healthcare, reducing healthcare costs is a high priority to rebalance the economy and increase consumer spending. By comparison in the U.S. it is 70%. Bussey points out the importance of this for the new leadership of Jinping-Keqiang in China. Xinhua, the Party offical news agency, expressed China's new policy, saying that "some believe China may see a nationwide price cut on medicines." Regulators have begun probes of Nestle and Danone for possible anticompetitive activity and the two companies dropped prices for baby formula.

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The prospect of improved ties between India and China as president Xi Jinping meets prime minister Modi in an informal summit meeting. China sees India as an important trading partner as its trade relations with the U.S. deteriorate in a trade conflict and higher tariffs on China's exports to the U.S. Mr. Modi of India sees the need to maintain steady economic growth ahead of general elections in 2018 where a good economic record and performance would boost his chances for another term. 

Both India and China see the potential for a larger global role as the U.S. under president Trump seeks a smaller role than in the past. On issues such as climate change China has taken the lead and India is also an active participant in limiting carbon emissions.

 

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The Biden administration sanctions 24 Chinese officials for their role in reducing the autonomous status of Hong Kong. Most of them are connected with Hong Kong, one of them is on the Politburo in the central government in Beijing. The action takes place ahead of a meeting between the US and Chinese representatives in Alaska. China's recent actions to ensure that only those deemed as "patriots" could govern in legislative assembly in Hong Kong have added to the already existing tensions between the UK, US, and China. Earlier the Trump administration had put sanctions on 10 government officials in Hong Kong for eroding Hong Kong' autonomy. This adds to the already existing trade tensions, and protecting US technology tensions with China.