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China's negotiator He Lifeng and China's strategy in negotiations with the US on trade.

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DJT announces actions on Liberation Day, April 2, 2025 freeing America on attacks on its manufacturing base and its workers for 50 years since the 1970's. He announces reciprocal tariffs on all nations with large trading imbalances with the US, a 34% tariff on China and a 20% tariff on all imports from the European Union. These nations he says have taken advantage of the US and looted and pillaged the US workers and communities for decades mainly because of the presidents who sat in the White House executive room and allowed this to happen. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent advised all trading nations-  "My advice to every country right now is, do not retaliate." His advice- "sit back, take it in.... Because if you retaliate, there will be escalation". The US is in no mood to be lectured or retaliated when these countries including China, Japan, South Korea and the EU, Taiwan, India a list of about 20 nations have taken unfair advantage of the US in trade for 3 decades. ...

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The Big Beautiful Tax and Spending Bill in the US Congress faces close votes in the US Senate with Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both Republicans against it.  The Senate version has additional cuts to Medicaid funding. Tillis expressed concern about these cuts. Senator Rand Paul is opposed to increasing the deficit for enlarged spending and tax cuts. Republicans and DJT have close votes in the Senate and in the Congress. Republicans Murkowski of Alaska and Curtis of Utah want to change the early phaseouts of tax credits to the renewable energy industry in the Senate bill, and the excise tax after 2027 to avoid buying from China and develop American manufacturing in renewables. Senator Collins of Maine has an amendment to add $25 billion for rural healthcare and rural hospitals to offset the effects of large Medicaid cuts. Collins plan also lets taxes revert to 39.6% from 37% for married couples incomes over $50 million.  The bill then heads back to the House for changes by Wednesday, July 2, for a goal to have it on the president's desk by July 4th, Friday. ...

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Ford executes new strategy for reaching the younger first time buyers of small cars in India. The car is a hatchback called the Figo designed with the help of Indian engineers for the Indian and overseas markets. It has done a$500 million expansion of its plant in Chennai, India, doubling production to 200,000 vehicles ayear, and 250,000 diesel engines a year by 2010. Mullaly says: "literally India is designing the small car for the world." Separately Ford is building a new car plant in Chongquing, China, for 300,000 cars, midsize and suv's. The change is huge and dramatic for car production. CSM Worldwide predicts car sales in India 45% higher in 2011 compared to 2007, and 39% growth in China, 26% in Brazil. In contrast, car sales in North Americaand Europe will not have returned to 2007 levels by 2011. Considering declining levels in Japan and Germany sales may be on a slow downturn. See links to this. For instance Ford predits Ford's production in North America will decline to 35% of global production by 2015 from 54% in 1997. ...

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This editorial in the Economist says China faces risks of a steep fall in the currency in its management of the currency. It suggests temporarily using capital controls to stabilize the currency and later gradually lift the controls. In any case it says the exercize will not be painless because of high debt of companies and in the Chinese economy.

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Former World Bank chief Zoellick points to the need for investments in human capital and productivity improvements in emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil to overcome the problem of slow growth in 2013.

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China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, countries that are part of the G-20 are not part of the G-8. Without the developing countries no real progress can be made on climate change or on emissions control. Climate change was a key focus of this summit in Itlay for the G-8 but with India and China only on the sidelines and acting more as an opposition excluded from the main deliberations the whole climate change agenda had to be shelved. The European countries lose influence in an enlarged summit so the G-8 keeps going along. Sweden holds the rotating Presidency of the EU, so the Swedes are there also. And so is Portugal in away with Manuel Barroso representing the European Commisssion. Except Japan, Asia is not represented, and no country from Africa or Latin America is represented. The European club looks like an anachronism and it is. Merkel and Sarkozy say they know this, but there is too much resistance in Europe to giving up this privilege. When the Guardian reported that Italy may be left out in future meetings of an expanded summit. the Italian press and the Italian prime minister Berlusconi denounced the report. Other countries that lose influence in an expanded arrangement are Canada and Japan. ...

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How will deflation in the USA affect jobs in China? Not just Roubini talks about a deep recession. Kenneth Rogoff, an economist who has argued with Stiglitz's view of things during other banking and financial crises in Asia in the nineties and has been an optimist about things compared to Roubini's serious concerns, is now talking about a lost decade. Early on a lot was said of and made of the housing crisis in Sweden, where with strong government intervention and decisive action to capitalize and take stakes in banks, things were back to normal in a few years. One thing that Sweden did not face was a global slowdown and global systemic effects of credit crises worldwide so it now looks like a different situation. Here you have a series of things happening at the same time, housing price collapse, foreclosures, higher unemployment, no savings and high debt for consumers and banks foreshadowing possible collapse in consumer spending, and declines in capital spending, tight or no credit for small and larger business, global slowdown including China and India slowing exports significantly for the developed countries of USA, Europe and Japan. Interest rates near zero in the USA and Japan and trillion dollars already committed in the USA for bailouts and assistance, even before the ful force of the economic downturn has hit and this is the beginning of the downturn. ...

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China's GDP growth of 8.7% for 2009 is based on private sector investment in housing and infrastructure spending through the stimulus funds. Now with a asset price bubble developing from excesssive lending in 2009 the government is trying to slow bank lending. Experts see a situation similiar to Japan, as an asset price developed there in the 1980's after rapid industrialization. Even though China will still be a developing country after this phase of growth. Property prices are going up by 20% a year in the major cities. And with it making housing unaffordable for most people except the top 20% of the people who comprise about 120 million. This raises issues of equitable growth for Beijing. Much of the rest of the country is being left behind when it comes to housing and in other areas like health care.

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DJT and Treasury's Scott Bessent taking a "call" not a "put" on the economy March 2025. Tariffs as short term bargaining chip, primarily domestic policy on CMC (Canada, Mexico and China) tolerance for fentanyl flows into the US. Taking fentanyl, drug trafficking, and migrant trafficking out of the Nation, will revive the spirit of America's neighborhoods across America's vast landscape. It is incumbent on CMC countries, Canada, Mexico and China, to stop fentanyl flows into the US across their borders that have caused hundreds of thousands of American deaths. Tariffs are a last resort for America to get action and save America's neighborhoods from this scourge. Investment in the US manufacturing in the private sector as the long term policies shape the economy, the cutting of waste in spending, have the potential of reviving the economy and leading a second stage of growth led now by the private sector investment after the government led spending under the Biden administration on restoring American infrastructure. ...

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The severe flooding in Henan, China's largest province, are shown in pictures and videos in this Guardian report. This report shows residents were not alerted by local authorities and were caught by surprise in the flooding. A similar situation happened in western Germany.

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Artificial intelligence in schools in China keeps track of how much attention students are paying to class teaching. AI lets students and teachers know when students are not paying attention at short intervals. This is useful say teachers but also worrisome for parents, says this video report in the WSJ.

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Mexico is close to becoming the U.S.'s largest trading partner. Trade increased by 17% between Mexico and the U.S. to $461 billion in 2011, compared to $502 billion in trade between the U.S. and China.

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GST is to India what land sales were for China in its phase of rapid development and accelerated growth. It consolidated capital that could be then invested at the national and state levels on infrastructure, logistics for exports growth, creating a virtuous cycle of capital growth that could finance ever widening scale of development projects from metros, subways, rail, roads, bridges, airports, ports, logistics, tech related improvements. This was done in 2017 through a midnight session of parliament that passed the legislation needed. Years of endless discussion were turned into one session of implementing a single major tax system for India, transparent, digitized with new IT  Infosys playing a key role, and providing the pool of capital that has financed 5 years of development to take India past Britain as the fifth largest economy. Its pace of growth over 11% and accelerating with Maharashtra's GST growing at 24% in 2022-2023 over the prior year suggest that this will play a critical role in giving India a large pool of capital for growth. To be supplemented with foreign investment to make New India as a modernized nation. With an economy that will be exceeded only by the US and should catch up to China over the next 10 years. ...

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The 30 by 30 target agreed to by countries at COP15 in Montreal, the Montreal Kunming conference, commits to protecting and restoring 30% of the Earth's surface by 2030. China was an active participant and made the decision to put this target into the final document. Biodiversity is an essential and important part of the plan for climate change action. COP15 Montreal complements the work done at COP26 in Egypt. Countries will report on their progress to 30 by 30 targets every year. Also part of biodiversity targets is the reform of $500 billion in environmentally damaging subsidies.

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The supply chain chaos that is not good for American or European companies is shown here and how it is good only for warehouses that store these products for long periods. In March just 7% of the sea shipments from Asia to North America arrived on time, for Europe this was just 6%. This WSJ report says even big companies can expect to pay 5 times the freight rate than in 2019. New trouble looms in the form of more lockdowns in China with its zero covid policy and wage negotiations with dockworkers in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Stockpiling is one way to ensure availability which means additional costs. Vacancy rates for logistics property are at 4% in the US and 3.5% in Europe. All this points to the need for reshoring and bringing manufacturing back home. Companies need to invest $1 trillion over 5 years to relocate all foreign manufacturing based in China that is for markets in US, Europe and other parts of the world. As companies make plans for the shift to bring manufacturing back home, half the money going into real estate is still going to logistics properties and industrial logistics in the meantime, says this WSJ report ...

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A Hyundai shipyard can build a military ship for $600 million that would cost the US about three times that number -$1.6 billion. South Korea can control costs with its marine shipyard capacity to build 40 ships a year in shorter time frame by 20 months. Note that the US had 17 shipyards in 1970, by 2020 it had dropped to 5 ships. Why is this a problem? China has this type of advantage in cost and expertise so that it would be even with the US current capacity by 2030.  Naval power made it possible for first Britain and then the US to provide the structure for the Modern World based on science and technology to grow and improve living standards. Unlike in the colonial era the US has helped raise living standards in China, India, South Korea, Indonesia, all parts of the world.  An administration that has focus and concentration in its leadership and is based on a concept of the Modern World based on science and technology is best suited for the task of renewing America for its role for the next generation of Americans. ...

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This report in The Times take a look at the work Liz Truss has done as International Trade Secretary and now Foreign Secretary. Truss does not want Britain to become economically dependent on China. More than Johnson Truss is a UK Atlanticist who wants the UK to work with the US and the EU to build a western world that is entirely independent of China. Looking at her work and experience it would appear that Truss is the most underestimated of the candidates for prime minister, much more so than Sunak. She can be strident and aggressive but she has gone through a process of thinking and studying before that with a willingness to try new ideas. She come from an intellectual  family and one that was active in left wing activism. She studied at a comprehensive school in Leeds before going to Merton College Oxford  to study philosophy, economics and politics, and was willing to change her thinking when persuaded about a different course of action to get better results. She also gained the knowledge she needs to do her own thinking with experience first hand as Chief Secretary at Treasury, Secretary of International Trade, and as Foreign Secretary, getting trade deals with Australia and negotiating with other countries. Cameron, May, Johnson lacked this kind of knowledge and experience. And Sunak also falls way short of this kind of knowledge acquired and experience handling international assignments key to Britain's advancement after Brexit. ...

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CLT Classical Learning Test has a bright future. Its message is summed up in CLT Test 8 on the website- where Gustav Mahler is cited with the text- "Tradition is not about the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." 183,000 high school seniors have taken the CLT Classic Learning Test in the US in 2025 compared to 2 million for SAT and 1.4 million for ACT, yet the new test is considered to be more rigorous and includes the western intellectual tradition in ways that the ACT and SAT do not. A CLT Test 3 we looked at on the CLT site included for reading a poem by Amy Lovell 1916, Mark Twain writings, passages on Greek Zeno and Renaissance painter Raphael, EB White and others. CLT Test 4 has poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson 1885, and remarkably it has a passage on the Pack Horse Book Project of FDR's New Deal Initiative in 1935 on women librarians on horseback or with mules going into remote mountainous areas of the US including Kentucky, to teach rural people to read and write. This alone suggests it should appeal to Republican and Democratic states alike. It could include Charles Dickens and Shakespeare or Robert Frost's poetry. In that sense it is far more rigorous than short bland passages in SAT or ACT of little significance or educational value. It is designed to give students an exposure in classrooms to the western intellectual tradition that the elites in America have themselves grown up learning but who now have a haughty attitude to their own intellectual traditions. In CLT Test 6 we found a poem on Nature by Gerard Manley Hopkins 1877 and Dickens famous iconic passage that begins the Tale of Two Cities written about the French Revolutionary period which is clearly not what we find in SAT or ACT, and far better in conveying a feel of what America is about and where it came from. The founder of CLT Mr. Tate believes it will be the test most taken by high school seniors by 2040. Classic Learning Test now competes with SAT and ACT in North Carolina, Indiana and other American states. Arkansas passed legislation favoring CLT, and Ohio is doing it this year. Louisiana, Oklahoma and Wyoming are accepting CLT. This Test is gaining popularity among conservatives in red and purple states  and is getting the support of the US government in 2026. The Maryland Company behind this test is Maryland Learning Initiatives. Indiana passed legislation in March requiring its state universities to accept CLT scores. And North Carolina university system now accepts the CLT. Both CLT and SAT, ACT have Math and Reading Verbal tests, the CLT adds foundational texts from Western science, government, history and literature in ways not found in SAT, ACT. Students can take the CLT at home or at a testing site. More than 350 universities and colleges accept CLT says this report in Washington Post. The SAT and ACT use shorter passages and the reading material is bland and does not have the value that it could have from the western intellectual tradition. The passages in the CLT are more rigorous and include western religious tradition and thinkers but also poets, writers, scientists from the whole gamut of the experience of Europe and the United States of America. And also explore other countries and continents including China and India, from Aristotle to Gandhiji. ...

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A new security law for Hong Kong is passed at the end of a weeklong session of the National People's Congress. This gives China's agencies powers to police activities in Hong Kong and removes Hong Kong's autonomous status established by a treaty with Britain that arranged the handover in 1997. 2878 lawmakers voted with one dissent. China says it is intended to control separatism, terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong. It bypasses Hong Kong governing authorites and the effect is that it removes the "one country, two systems" basis of the handover by the British.  This sets the stage for the U.S. to remove Hong Kong special status in trading relations. The U.S. is joined by Canada, Australia and Britain in expression of "deep concern," and Japan has also said it is "seriously concerned" and "will address the situation in an appropriate manner." Under the U.S. Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 the U.S. treated Hong Kong as autonomous for trade and economic matters. Mr. Pompeo, the Secretary of State for U.S. says this status will no longer continue. As supply chains are being reassessed during the coronavirus, the end of autonomous status for Hong Kong would mean the beginning of a new period in changing economic relations across Asia and the Pacific. ...

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Indonesia continues to experience surging growth in consumer spending as more people enter the middle class and buy everything from motorbikes, consumer appliances, mobile phones and other products. It is similiar to the growth in China and India. GDP increased by 6.5%in 2011, and most of the growth comes from consumer spending. Mr. Riady of the Lippo Group says spending is growing to unprecedented levels. About 50 million people in Indonesia are in the middle class out of a population of 250 million- when measured at the level of $3000 per year incomes- and this will grow to 150 million by 2014, according to PT Nomura Indonesia. Another important demographic fact is that the average age of the population is 28.2. Motorcycle sales doubled to 8 million in 2011, twice that of 2006. Mr. Riady of the Lippos Group says its home sales are expected increase to $450 million in 2012, up from $100 million in 2010. Sales at Lippo Groups hypermarkets are expected to go up by 40% in 2012 and sales at its department stores increase by 25%. Lippo Group plans to add 10 new hospitals each year, to the 14 it plans for yearend 2012. Philips Electronics NV says healthcare equipment sales in Indonesia will quadruple in by 2015. This pace exceeds that in India and China for Phillips Healtcare....

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VW is rolling back decades of globalization, with shorter supply chains, less focus on China, more investment in the US. The war in Ukraine has further disrupted already strained supply chains and VW is rethinking its entire manufacturing system in a new way.

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The bottom line is that China is so advanced in the deindustrialization of the US with US companies cooperating that the only way to get American companies to change course is by creating precisely this kind of situation where China responds with its about 100% tariff to the US 100% tariff. That sends a clear message to American companies and changes the culture of America's deindustrialization American companies are wedded to. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said DJT raising the tariffs from 34% on April 2 , 2025, Liberation Day by 50% to reach 104%  as a well thought out US tariffs policy was Trump’s “strategy all along.”  Bessent  said: “This was his strategy all along, and that you might even say that he goaded China into a bad position, they responded.” China responded to the 34% DJT tariff by going with it's own 34%. When this retaliatory move suggested China was not willing to consider US arguments that it only wanted a level playing field from China with it's complex system of non-tariff barriers against US imports, DJT added another 50% tariff saying that if China did not withdraw its retaliatory tariff on April 8, US would go with another 50% tariff on April 9. This is what Scott Bessent means by US having put China in a position where it would have to put its own 50% tariff on US products to get to US tariffs at 104% vs. China's at 84%.  The bottom line is that China is so advanced in the deindustrialization of the US with US companies cooperating that the only way to get American companies to change course is by creating precisely this kind of situation where China responds with its about 100% tariff to the US 100% tariff. That sends a clear message to American companies and changes the culture of Aamerica's deindustrialization American companies are wedded to. ...

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How the surveillance state tries to solve the problems of modern living, keeping cities clean and livable, is shown here for the city of Hangzhou in China. With growth slowing Chinese society is evolving in a different direction with the government trying to solve the problems of modern living such as traffic congestion, food safety, missing children, and sanitation, using AI and sensor technology, and not promising a ever growing economy.

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Christie's London based head of wine, David Elswood, says what he has seen in the last year from Chinese buyers is people paying virtually any price for wine. He calls this uncontrolled spending. Value of wine auctions reached $120 million in 2010, double the $64 million in 2009. Auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's say their auctions of wine in Hong Kong will raise more than sales in London and New York combined. Sales broke auction records at an Oct 29 auction, when three bottles of Chateau Lafite's 1869 vintage each sold for a record $230,000. The number of billionaires in China jumped by 60% in 2010 and this is inflating the bubble in wine. Chinese collectors now hold one in 4 bottles of vintage wine globally, according to Crown Wine Cellars. This company stores HK$1 billion of wine in a network of converted ammunition bunkers in Hong Kong.