Several bizarre topics emerged at the TV duel between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Trump’s outbursts about pets at risk of being eaten and sex changes for migrants were extensively covered in the media follow-up. The topic of China fell by the wayside. Although both opponents quickly and urgently brought it up.
As expected, Trump celebrated his own successes. His tough tariff policy had brought the USA billions and billions of dollars from China. Harris countered that Trump was a pawn in the hands of dictators like Xi. She even uttered the word “treason.” Nevertheless, both agree that China represents the greatest challenge of the 21st century. Michael Radunski wrote down who had the better answers to this challenge in the duel.
Meanwhile, the mood of European companies in China has reached a new low – as the latest position paper from the EU Chamber of Commerce demonstrates. Companies are confronted with unfair subsidies, a difficult business environment and a stagnating economy. Jens Eskelund, President of the EU Chamber of Commerce, even speaks of a “tipping point.”
Eskelund accuses Beijing of getting bogged down in details and striving for the wrong solutions. Instead of offering companies concrete measures, the state is conjuring new high-tech industries – a ruinous game that European industries should definitely not get involved in. Jörn Petring has analyzed whether investments in China are still worthwhile for companies.
China is not one of the main issues in the current US election campaign. It is mainly about immigration, the country’s economic development and high inflation. But in the televised duel between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Wednesday night, the topic of China came up surprisingly quickly.
It is clear that both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will take a tough line on China if they win the election. Republicans and Democrats see the People’s Republic as the decisive challenge of the 21st century. And yet there are differences in the China policies of Trump and Harris: Trump relies on his own toughness, tariffs and sanctions. Harris, on the other hand, is seeking to close ranks with international partners, especially democratic states.
At the beginning of the debate, when it comes to Donald Trump’s economic policy, the Republican candidate praises his tough tariff policy towards the People’s Republic as a great success. He was the first US president to finally make countries like China pay. “As you know, I’ve taken hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs from China,” says Trump – and leaves no doubt as to what China policy would look like under a President Donald Trump:
As president, he would impose even more tariffs, Trump announced – including on Chinese electric vehicles from Mexico. If China then imposes tariffs on US imports, it will have to pay an “even higher price.” “Who’s going to have higher prices are China and all of the countries that have been ripping us off for years.”
Trump is convinced that such a policy would be perceived as strenght abroad. China, Russia and North Korea “feared” him during his time in office, Trump claims. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told him this in confidence.
Kamala is only too happy to pick up on this point and attacks Trump for basically admiring “dictators”: “You worship strong men instead of caring about democracy.” Trump even showed this during the coronavirus pandemic. “He actually thanked President Xi for what he did during Covid. Look at his tweet – ‘Thank you, President Xi, exclamation point’,” Harris quotes.
She then makes it clear what role the Chinese party and state leader has played in the pandemic. “We know that Xi was responsible for the lack of transparency about the origins of Covid and that he did not grant us transparency.”
Harris does not comment directly on possible tariffs against China. However, the Biden administration, with her as Vice President, has maintained Trump’s tariffs – and in some cases even increased. A rollback of tariffs should therefore not be expected under Harris, even though she criticized Trump’s tariff plans as being detrimental to American consumers. Harris describes Trump’s announcement of new tariffs as a “sales tax” that would ultimately be passed on to US consumers.
Harris criticizes that Trump has triggered international trade wars and “sold us out.” “Under his presidency, he ended up selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernize their military. In doing so, he basically sold us out when a policy about China should be making sure the United States wins the competition for the 21st century,” Harris said.
It is a clear indication of how Harris would align her policy towards China:
And so the televised duel between Trump and Harris clearly shows the candidates’ different approaches to China: The US will take a tough line on China – either on its own or with partners and allies.
The mood of European companies in China has reached a new low. This quickly became clear when listening to Jens Eskelund, President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, as he presented the Chamber’s new position paper on Wednesday. Once a year, the Chamber addresses the Chinese government with the document in order to give advice and make the position of European companies clear. But what Eskelund had to say sounded more like a reckoning than ever.
Companies in China are at a “tipping point,” said Eskelund almost desperately. More companies are coming to the conclusion that the risks are now greater than the opportunities.
European companies are struggling with unfair subsidies for Chinese competitors, a highly politicized business environment and regulatory hurdles. These are all issues that companies have been dealing with for years, but the biggest and “central concern” is the economic slowdown in China, according to the chamber.
“It feels a bit like the Chinese economy has long Covid,” said Eskelund, summarizing the situation. After the Covid pandemic, it has not yet managed to fully get back on its feet. According to the chamber, the more than 1,700 member companies have now come to terms with the fact that the problems they are facing are no longer temporary “growing pains” of an emerging market, but permanent obstacles.
Although the Chinese leadership has recently signaled several times that consumption will finally be promoted more after persistently weak economic figures, according to the Chamber, the new program will have hardly any impact on domestic demand. It would only amount to around ¥210 (around €30) per capita.
A certain amount of promise fatigue is spreading among companies. “At the beginning of the new millennium, the Chinese government’s reform plans were considered credible,” the report states. “After more than a decade of largely unfulfilled promises, doubts about China’s willingness to reform are growing.”
And now, after another year of “mixed signals from the Chinese government,” companies are no closer to an answer to what China expects from foreign companies, Eskelund underlined the pessimistic mood: “It has become so much more difficult to make money in the Chinese market.”
The fact that consumption in China is stagnating is largely due to the crisis on the real estate market. Millions of unsold apartments stand empty, and many people have to watch as the values of their houses and apartments continue to decline. The situation on the labor market is also tense. Young people in particular are finding it difficult to find employment that matches their qualifications. Larger purchases in particular are therefore being postponed.
However, according to the head of the chamber, the economy is also failing to take off because Beijing is offering the wrong solutions. In order to create new growth drivers, the government is conjuring new high-tech industries. However, according to the chamber, this is a “huge waste.”
What is going wrong is not only visible in the market for EVs. Beijing’s targeted promotion of various key industries is leading to a massive concentration of capital and new companies that are plunging into ruinous competition. Hardly anyone can earn money this way. “Investments in production are growing faster than demand, which leads to overcapacity,” says Eskelund. It makes no sense for EU companies to take part in this ruinous game.
Despite the difficulties, the chamber emphasizes that its members do not want to retreat. However, companies have become very cautious, especially when it comes to further investments.
Nevertheless, although there are tensions between Beijing and Brussels, the Chamber believes that the risk of a full-blown trade conflict is low. The extent of the trade conflict, which mainly revolves around the export of subsidized EVs to Europe, has so far been limited and there is still room for negotiations.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for the EU to reconsider its planned import tariffs on EVs manufactured in China. He called on Brussels and Beijing to find a compromise that avoids a trade war.
“We don’t need another war, in this case a trade war. I think we need to build bridges between the European Union and China, and from Spain we will be constructive and try to find a compromise between China and the European Commission”, said Sánchez on Wednesday in the Chinese city of Kunshan.
Sánchez’s comments during a visit to China indicate a change of course by Spain, which has supported the tariffs to date. At the same time, it expressed concern about the impact that the trade dispute between the EU and China could have on the Spanish industry. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The EU member states are to vote in October on whether they want to impose additional tariffs of up to 35.3 percent on Chinese EVs. Any retaliatory measures by China due to the tariffs could hit Spain particularly hard. Spanish pig farmers are the EU’s largest exporters and will sell products worth €1.5 billion to China in 2023.
Chinese carmakers are also urging Beijing to raise tariffs on imported European gasoline-powered cars in retaliation for Brussels’ proposed restrictions on Chinese exports of EVs, Chinese state media reported. rtr
This year marks the end of an era for Helmut Scholz: on 9 June, his name was no longer on the ballot paper for the 2024 European elections for the first time. With 2.7 percent, the German Left achieved its worst result ever in the European elections. Scholz calls the result “very disappointing and bitter.” However, the fact that the European left has made gains overall thanks to successes in other countries gives him hope. Also for his own party.
Scholz has been involved in many issues in the European Parliament and has sat on numerous committees there. One of his “hobbyhorses” will remain the topic of China even after his time as a parliamentarian, he says. The relationship between China and Europe has been on his mind even before his time in the EU Parliament: After studying international relations in Moscow, he worked at the GDR embassy in China from 1983 to 1986. In the EU Parliament, as a member of the Committee on International Trade, he was often the point of contact for questions relating to Sino-European relations.
For Helmut Scholz, one thing is certain: “China and the geo-economic upheaval processes are and will remain the biggest challenges for the EU in the coming years.” He believes it is crucial for the EU to build a “cooperative relationship with China.” The decisive question is: “Can the competitive rivalry between China and the EU become a productive, cooperative relationship in which both sides find joint solutions?”
In addition to Sino-European relations, the topics of climate policy, supply chain law and EU enlargement will remain on his agenda after his active time in Parliament: “I would like to continue to advise the European left on a voluntary basis and contribute my expertise,” he says. He already has a position lined up as a senior fellow at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which is close to the Left. As far as relations between the EU and Asia are concerned, Scholz reveals: “I would like to continue spinning the threads of conversation I have started, perhaps in a think tank.”
With the prospect of a slower pace than in the past 15 years, the thoroughbred politician leaves the EU Parliament – far from tired of politics. Karolin Arnold
US rapper Kanye West plans to hold a listening session for his new album in Haikou on the Chinese island of Hainan on September 15. What many fans in the West don’t know is that “Ye” lived in Nanjing as a child, where his mother worked as an exchange teacher. The controversies surrounding Kanye West’s anti-Semitic remarks and his overall erratic behavior do not seem to deter his followers in China. The 30,000 tickets for the event sold out within three minutes, despite prices of up to 2000 RMB. Some joked online: Only those like him who have lived in China know that the coastal city of Haikou even exists.
Several bizarre topics emerged at the TV duel between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Trump’s outbursts about pets at risk of being eaten and sex changes for migrants were extensively covered in the media follow-up. The topic of China fell by the wayside. Although both opponents quickly and urgently brought it up.
As expected, Trump celebrated his own successes. His tough tariff policy had brought the USA billions and billions of dollars from China. Harris countered that Trump was a pawn in the hands of dictators like Xi. She even uttered the word “treason.” Nevertheless, both agree that China represents the greatest challenge of the 21st century. Michael Radunski wrote down who had the better answers to this challenge in the duel.
Meanwhile, the mood of European companies in China has reached a new low – as the latest position paper from the EU Chamber of Commerce demonstrates. Companies are confronted with unfair subsidies, a difficult business environment and a stagnating economy. Jens Eskelund, President of the EU Chamber of Commerce, even speaks of a “tipping point.”
Eskelund accuses Beijing of getting bogged down in details and striving for the wrong solutions. Instead of offering companies concrete measures, the state is conjuring new high-tech industries – a ruinous game that European industries should definitely not get involved in. Jörn Petring has analyzed whether investments in China are still worthwhile for companies.
China is not one of the main issues in the current US election campaign. It is mainly about immigration, the country’s economic development and high inflation. But in the televised duel between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Wednesday night, the topic of China came up surprisingly quickly.
It is clear that both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will take a tough line on China if they win the election. Republicans and Democrats see the People’s Republic as the decisive challenge of the 21st century. And yet there are differences in the China policies of Trump and Harris: Trump relies on his own toughness, tariffs and sanctions. Harris, on the other hand, is seeking to close ranks with international partners, especially democratic states.
At the beginning of the debate, when it comes to Donald Trump’s economic policy, the Republican candidate praises his tough tariff policy towards the People’s Republic as a great success. He was the first US president to finally make countries like China pay. “As you know, I’ve taken hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs from China,” says Trump – and leaves no doubt as to what China policy would look like under a President Donald Trump:
As president, he would impose even more tariffs, Trump announced – including on Chinese electric vehicles from Mexico. If China then imposes tariffs on US imports, it will have to pay an “even higher price.” “Who’s going to have higher prices are China and all of the countries that have been ripping us off for years.”
Trump is convinced that such a policy would be perceived as strenght abroad. China, Russia and North Korea “feared” him during his time in office, Trump claims. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told him this in confidence.
Kamala is only too happy to pick up on this point and attacks Trump for basically admiring “dictators”: “You worship strong men instead of caring about democracy.” Trump even showed this during the coronavirus pandemic. “He actually thanked President Xi for what he did during Covid. Look at his tweet – ‘Thank you, President Xi, exclamation point’,” Harris quotes.
She then makes it clear what role the Chinese party and state leader has played in the pandemic. “We know that Xi was responsible for the lack of transparency about the origins of Covid and that he did not grant us transparency.”
Harris does not comment directly on possible tariffs against China. However, the Biden administration, with her as Vice President, has maintained Trump’s tariffs – and in some cases even increased. A rollback of tariffs should therefore not be expected under Harris, even though she criticized Trump’s tariff plans as being detrimental to American consumers. Harris describes Trump’s announcement of new tariffs as a “sales tax” that would ultimately be passed on to US consumers.
Harris criticizes that Trump has triggered international trade wars and “sold us out.” “Under his presidency, he ended up selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernize their military. In doing so, he basically sold us out when a policy about China should be making sure the United States wins the competition for the 21st century,” Harris said.
It is a clear indication of how Harris would align her policy towards China:
And so the televised duel between Trump and Harris clearly shows the candidates’ different approaches to China: The US will take a tough line on China – either on its own or with partners and allies.
The mood of European companies in China has reached a new low. This quickly became clear when listening to Jens Eskelund, President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, as he presented the Chamber’s new position paper on Wednesday. Once a year, the Chamber addresses the Chinese government with the document in order to give advice and make the position of European companies clear. But what Eskelund had to say sounded more like a reckoning than ever.
Companies in China are at a “tipping point,” said Eskelund almost desperately. More companies are coming to the conclusion that the risks are now greater than the opportunities.
European companies are struggling with unfair subsidies for Chinese competitors, a highly politicized business environment and regulatory hurdles. These are all issues that companies have been dealing with for years, but the biggest and “central concern” is the economic slowdown in China, according to the chamber.
“It feels a bit like the Chinese economy has long Covid,” said Eskelund, summarizing the situation. After the Covid pandemic, it has not yet managed to fully get back on its feet. According to the chamber, the more than 1,700 member companies have now come to terms with the fact that the problems they are facing are no longer temporary “growing pains” of an emerging market, but permanent obstacles.
Although the Chinese leadership has recently signaled several times that consumption will finally be promoted more after persistently weak economic figures, according to the Chamber, the new program will have hardly any impact on domestic demand. It would only amount to around ¥210 (around €30) per capita.
A certain amount of promise fatigue is spreading among companies. “At the beginning of the new millennium, the Chinese government’s reform plans were considered credible,” the report states. “After more than a decade of largely unfulfilled promises, doubts about China’s willingness to reform are growing.”
And now, after another year of “mixed signals from the Chinese government,” companies are no closer to an answer to what China expects from foreign companies, Eskelund underlined the pessimistic mood: “It has become so much more difficult to make money in the Chinese market.”
The fact that consumption in China is stagnating is largely due to the crisis on the real estate market. Millions of unsold apartments stand empty, and many people have to watch as the values of their houses and apartments continue to decline. The situation on the labor market is also tense. Young people in particular are finding it difficult to find employment that matches their qualifications. Larger purchases in particular are therefore being postponed.
However, according to the head of the chamber, the economy is also failing to take off because Beijing is offering the wrong solutions. In order to create new growth drivers, the government is conjuring new high-tech industries. However, according to the chamber, this is a “huge waste.”
What is going wrong is not only visible in the market for EVs. Beijing’s targeted promotion of various key industries is leading to a massive concentration of capital and new companies that are plunging into ruinous competition. Hardly anyone can earn money this way. “Investments in production are growing faster than demand, which leads to overcapacity,” says Eskelund. It makes no sense for EU companies to take part in this ruinous game.
Despite the difficulties, the chamber emphasizes that its members do not want to retreat. However, companies have become very cautious, especially when it comes to further investments.
Nevertheless, although there are tensions between Beijing and Brussels, the Chamber believes that the risk of a full-blown trade conflict is low. The extent of the trade conflict, which mainly revolves around the export of subsidized EVs to Europe, has so far been limited and there is still room for negotiations.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for the EU to reconsider its planned import tariffs on EVs manufactured in China. He called on Brussels and Beijing to find a compromise that avoids a trade war.
“We don’t need another war, in this case a trade war. I think we need to build bridges between the European Union and China, and from Spain we will be constructive and try to find a compromise between China and the European Commission”, said Sánchez on Wednesday in the Chinese city of Kunshan.
Sánchez’s comments during a visit to China indicate a change of course by Spain, which has supported the tariffs to date. At the same time, it expressed concern about the impact that the trade dispute between the EU and China could have on the Spanish industry. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The EU member states are to vote in October on whether they want to impose additional tariffs of up to 35.3 percent on Chinese EVs. Any retaliatory measures by China due to the tariffs could hit Spain particularly hard. Spanish pig farmers are the EU’s largest exporters and will sell products worth €1.5 billion to China in 2023.
Chinese carmakers are also urging Beijing to raise tariffs on imported European gasoline-powered cars in retaliation for Brussels’ proposed restrictions on Chinese exports of EVs, Chinese state media reported. rtr
This year marks the end of an era for Helmut Scholz: on 9 June, his name was no longer on the ballot paper for the 2024 European elections for the first time. With 2.7 percent, the German Left achieved its worst result ever in the European elections. Scholz calls the result “very disappointing and bitter.” However, the fact that the European left has made gains overall thanks to successes in other countries gives him hope. Also for his own party.
Scholz has been involved in many issues in the European Parliament and has sat on numerous committees there. One of his “hobbyhorses” will remain the topic of China even after his time as a parliamentarian, he says. The relationship between China and Europe has been on his mind even before his time in the EU Parliament: After studying international relations in Moscow, he worked at the GDR embassy in China from 1983 to 1986. In the EU Parliament, as a member of the Committee on International Trade, he was often the point of contact for questions relating to Sino-European relations.
For Helmut Scholz, one thing is certain: “China and the geo-economic upheaval processes are and will remain the biggest challenges for the EU in the coming years.” He believes it is crucial for the EU to build a “cooperative relationship with China.” The decisive question is: “Can the competitive rivalry between China and the EU become a productive, cooperative relationship in which both sides find joint solutions?”
In addition to Sino-European relations, the topics of climate policy, supply chain law and EU enlargement will remain on his agenda after his active time in Parliament: “I would like to continue to advise the European left on a voluntary basis and contribute my expertise,” he says. He already has a position lined up as a senior fellow at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which is close to the Left. As far as relations between the EU and Asia are concerned, Scholz reveals: “I would like to continue spinning the threads of conversation I have started, perhaps in a think tank.”
With the prospect of a slower pace than in the past 15 years, the thoroughbred politician leaves the EU Parliament – far from tired of politics. Karolin Arnold
US rapper Kanye West plans to hold a listening session for his new album in Haikou on the Chinese island of Hainan on September 15. What many fans in the West don’t know is that “Ye” lived in Nanjing as a child, where his mother worked as an exchange teacher. The controversies surrounding Kanye West’s anti-Semitic remarks and his overall erratic behavior do not seem to deter his followers in China. The 30,000 tickets for the event sold out within three minutes, despite prices of up to 2000 RMB. Some joked online: Only those like him who have lived in China know that the coastal city of Haikou even exists.
