City Beijing Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. China’s air force showcased a suite of new armaments this week, including a new stealth fighter and an attack drone, demonstrating its advancing ability to challenge the U.S. military presence in the Asia Pacific.

BEIJING — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Tuesday unveiled an artificial intelligence-powered search engine for small businesses in Europe and the Americas to source supplies.

China is planning to cut taxes for home purchases as the government dials up fiscal support to revive a moribund housing market, according to people familiar with the matter. Regulators are working on a proposal that would allow mega cities including Shanghai and Beijing to cut the deed tax for buyers to as low as 1% from a current level of as much as 3%, the people said, requesting not to be identified because the matter is private. City governments have leeway to tweak the rules, the people added. The plan, hinted at on Friday by Finance Minister Lan Fo’an, underscores Beijing’s increased willingness to use fiscal tools to shore up the sluggish economy along with monetary easing. Lan pledged to carry out “more forceful” fiscal policies next year after unveiling a 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) debt swap for local governments, signaling bolder steps could come after US President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

BEIJING — China's Singles' Day shopping festival saw consumers spend more than expected in what has otherwise been a tepid retail environment, consulting executives told CNBC.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Walk into the All Sages Bookstore in north-western Beijing, and you enter a different world. Not here the collections of speeches by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, that greet visitors to state-owned bookshops—rows of covers with the same face, the same beneficent smile.

Donald Trump has chosen Florida Representative Mike Waltz as his national security advisor. Waltz, a retired Army Green Beret known for his extensive knowledge in military operations and policy, is a vocal critic of China and a staunch advocate for bolstering US strategic readiness in the Indo-Pacific.

European Union sees very limited progress in negotiations with China aimed at finding an alternative to tariffs on electric vehicles and the bloc currently sees little prospect of a quick deal, according to people familiar with the matter. China and the EU will continue technical talks this week after discussions in Beijing where both sides touted some progress. However, the chances of a deal remain slim for now, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. China hasn't yet moved toward the EU's strict requirements on ensuring that any arrangement is enforceable and matches the effect of the anti-subsidy tariffs the bloc adopted last month, they said.

anti-dumping measures" on brandy imported from the European Union, deepening a trade standoff between Beijing and Brussels after similar measures last month. China announced provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports last month, saying the alleged «dumping» threatened «substantial damage» to the domestic industry. And Beijing's commerce ministry said in a statement Monday that authorities have «decided to implement temporary anti-dumping measures in the form of a cash deposit or letter of guarantee» against European brandy products.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. With Donald Trump’s election victory, the U.S. is headed again for the exits of the Paris accord, the international climate agreement signed nearly a decade ago, and toward an energy policy inspired by Trump’s campaign mantra “drill, baby, drill." China, on the other hand, appears more committed to the agreement than ever.

White House will find itself already on the losing side in a trade battle with China, part of a bigger power realignment around the resource-rich region in Washington's backyard. Peru, the world's no. 2 copper exporter, is set to host Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders this week, with China's President Xi Jinping expected to attend and inaugurate a major new Chinese-built port in the country. Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden is also on the guest list. Peru reflects a wider challenge for the White House around South America, where China's presence has grown rapidly given its huge appetite for the region's main exports: corn, copper, soy, beef and battery-metal lithium.

The Singles’ Day shopping festival is looking less shiny this year as e-commerce firms look abroad for growth

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Amid much anticipation, China on Friday unveiled a $1.4 trillion economic support package, but left many disappointed, given the absence of any direct measures to address overall demand.

Federal Reserve speakers this week, while the yuan nursed a hangover from Beijing's latest underwhelming stimulus package. Highlighting the weak background in China, data out over the weekend showed consumer prices rose at the slowest pace in four months in October while producer price deflation deepened.

China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China's direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped $8.1 billion in the third quarter, according to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange released late Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment in China, was down almost $13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions, pessimism about the world's second-largest economy and stronger competition from Chinese domestic firms in industries such as cars. Should the decline continue for the rest of the year, it would be the first annual net outflow in FDI since at least 1990, when comparable data begins.

Donald Trump's former Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said he will not seek to join the president-elect's new administration but is ready to offer advice to his successor, including on how to strengthen sanctions on Iran and Russia and contain the growth of U.S. debt. In an interview, Mnuchin told Reuters it was important for the Treasury to work towards strengthening U.S. trade policy. This includes holding Beijing to its U.S. goods purchase commitments in Trump's January 2020 Phase One deal to rebalance U.S.-China trade, which he said «they're not living up to.» Serving as Treasury chief during Trump's first term «was the experience of a lifetime, and I'm happy to advise on the outside,» Mnuchin said on Friday. «I'm sure they'll have a lot of great choices.»

China has published baselines for a contested shoal in the South China Sea it had seized from the Philippines, a move that's likely to increase tensions over overlapping territorial claims. The Foreign Ministry on Sunday posted online geographic coordinates for the baselines around Scarborough Shoal. A nation's territorial waters and exclusive economic zone are typically defined as the distance from the baselines. Both China and the Philippines claim Scarborough Shoal and other outcroppings in the South China Sea. China seized the shoal, which lies west of the main Philippine island of Luzon, in 2012 and has since restricted access to Filipino fishermen there. A 2016 ruling by an international arbitration court found that most Chinese claims in the South China Sea were invalid but Beijing refuses to abide by it. Ships from China and the Philippines have collided several times as part of increased confrontations, and the Chinese coast guard has blasted Philippine vessels with water cannons.

Traders were also awaiting the end of a week-long meeting of key Chinese officials who have been hammering out a major stimulus package for the world's number two economy with an eye on the US election result.

China has announced a 6 trillion yuan ($839 billion) plan to help local governments refinance their mountains of debt in the latest push to rev up growth in the world's second largest economy

Donald Trump.

Asian shares have advanced after most U.S. stocks rose as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates again to ease pressure on the economy