City Beijing Financial News

BEIJING — Henry Kissinger, a former U.S. secretary of State, met with China's defense minister, Li Shangfu, in Beijing on Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement.

China's economy was on track to recover relatively quickly after being closed off to the world during the pandemic. Consumers were spending again. Exports picked up.

Taiwan is looking to buy National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, or NASAMS, from the United States to upgrade its air defence capabilities having seen how well they work in Ukraine, the island's defence minister said on Tuesday. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up military and political pressure over the past three years to try to force the democratically governed island to accept Beijing's rule. NASAMS have been provided by the United States for use in Ukraine, with USA officials saying they have had a 100% success rate in intercepting Russian missiles. The system, developed and built by Raytheon Technologies and Norway's Kongsberg Gruppen is a short- to medium-range ground-based air defence system that protects against drone, missile, and aircraft attack, which both Canada and Lithuania have also bought, or are buying for Ukraine. Asked on the sidelines of parliament about Taiwan buying NASAMS, Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said «certainly» there was a proposal to get them.

Also read: Global weather alert: Heatwave engulfs US, Europe, Japan while floods wreak havoc in India and South Korea The prolonged extreme heat poses challenges to communities, with the international charitable organisation Salvation Army has been providing relief to individuals through cooling centres and mobile outreach for homeless. Scientists warn that climate change, caused by CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels, intensifies heatwaves and urges governments to take drastic actions to prevent a climate catastrophe. Also read: US heatwave: Record high temperature in California, Florida, Las Vegas.

Sri Lanka's president arrives in India on Thursday for his first visit to the regional powerhouse, with concerns mounting in New Delhi over China's increasing influence in the strategically placed but financially bankrupt island. New Sri Lankan leaders usually travel to India within a few weeks of taking office, but Ranil Wickremesinghe's trip comes exactly a year after he became president following the toppling of his predecessor at the height of an unprecedented economic crisis.

The Biden administration’s potential curbs on sales of advanced semiconductors to China could undermine huge new government investments in domestic chip-making, the U.S. chip-industry trade group said Monday. The Biden administration is considering a raft of new curbs on the sale of chips to China, aiming to disrupt Beijing’s use of artificial intelligence for hacking and weapons development.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has remained wholly out of the public eye for the past month, sparking intense debate about his whereabouts. His last public appearance was on June 25 for a meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry in Beijing. While officials indicate that he missed the recent ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting due to health reasons people have remained skeptical.

BBC reported. The report said that the mysterious object can be part of the recently launched Chandrayaan-3. "We want to reassure the community that we are actively engaged in a collaborative effort with various State and Federal agencies to determine the object's origin and nature," police said in a statement.

After a bi-lateral meeting with India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the sidelines of a G20 meeting, Yellen said the two nations have been collaborating across a range of economic issues, including commercial and technological collaboration and strengthening supply chains. «In particular, we look forward to working with India on an investment platform to deliver a lower cost of capital and increased private investment to speed India's energy transition,» she said in a statement while attending the G20 in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat, one of India's most industrialised states.

One year ago, when the run-up in oil prices came to a sudden halt, China and its overbearing controls on COVID were blamed. This week, Beijing is again the fall guy as crude loses momentum on its three-week-old rally. This time, it’s not the pandemic but China’s great economic hope itself that’s at fault.

Fox News contributor Kiron Skinner discusses the U.S. 'lecturing' China, Biden officials taking trips to Beijing and NATO memberships amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Wayne Cole

Investing.com-- Most Asian currencies fell on Monday tracking weak economic signals from China, while the dollar steadied as markets continued to speculate over the path of U.S. interest rates. 

Investing.com-- China's economy grew slightly more than expected in the second quarter of 2023, but growth still slowed substantially from the prior quarter as a post-COVID economic recovery ran out of steam. 

By Wayne Cole

BEIJING (Reuters) — China's industrial output grew 4.4% in June from a year earlier, unexpectedly accelerating from 3.5% seen in May, but demand remains lukewarm amid a bumpy post-COVID economic recovery.

By Valerie Volcovici and David Stanway

By Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo

India will attempt to push for substantive outcomes at the G20 on a global framework for crypto assets, multilateral development bank reforms, debt resolution, and digital public infrastructure. A synthesis paper with a summary of the International Monetary Fund report on macro-economic stability and the Financial Stability Board's report on regulation for crypto assets along with New Delhi's input note would be presented to the leaders for deliberation at their summit in September, people privy to the matter said.

Nirmala Sitharaman and the Indian delegation for hosting the G20 ministerial. “I would like to thank Finance Minister Sitharaman and the Indian delegation for hosting the G20 ministerial," she said.

Bloomberg, the G-7 nations are convening before the Group of 20 meetings in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, with a focus on providing assistance to Ukraine, reforming multilateral development banks, and reevaluating global supply chains. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressed her commitment to collaborating with China on shared areas of interest.