Neither Beijing nor Washington will budge on tariffs

Significance Over the past few month the world’s two largest economies have exchanged threats to impose tariffs on each other. The first set on both sides took effect on July 6. The bilateral trade disputes create uncertainty in global financial markets. Current and future tariffs will hurt both economies and others around the world too. Impacts China will try to compensate by seeking cooperation with other regions and promoting initiatives such as the Belt and Road. China is likely to continue acting toughly on other issues, such as the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. Tariffs and weaker domestic demand will put downward pressure on China’s manufacturing sector in particular. Volatility in China's stock markets will have spill-over effects on other Asian markets and test the resilience of these economies.

Subject China's cyber diplomacy efforts. Significance China has made considerable effort over the past five years to convince the rest of the world of the superiority of its vision for cyber governance. The centrepiece of this is the World Internet Conference, held in the town of Wuzhen since 2014. Impacts China may now focus on bilateral and regional coalitions in cyber affairs, primarily centred around the Belt and Road. Technology businesses will increasingly be caught up in international political tensions. Most countries and governments, given a viable choice, will prefer US suppliers of technology.


Significance China's ambitious space programme suffered a setback last month when the newest and most powerful addition to the Long March rocket family, the Long March-5, was destroyed by a malfunction shortly after a launch. This was the third and most serious Long March failure over the past year. Impacts The consistency of political commitment to China's space programme will not waver. China's space industry will integrate itself into the Belt and Road Initiative. China is unlikely to allow its space industry the autonomy and freewheeling entrepreneurialism that characterises 'New Space' in the West.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Cristina Di Stefano ◽  
P. Lelio Iapadre ◽  
Ilaria Salvati

This paper aims at investigating whether and how the intensity of trade between a pair of countries changes when they experience improvements in their infrastructural systems. We carry out our analysis considering countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a project specifically designed to promote infrastructural connectivity and therefore boost trade among the countries involved. Our empirical strategy relies on a particular specification of the gravity model, in which the dependent variable consists in an index of revealed trade preferences, calculated by comparing the actual value of trade flows between two countries with their expected value, proportional to the two countries’ total trade. Such methodology allows us to estimate bilateral trade intensity without resorting to the traditional “size” variables of the gravity model, taking the entire network of multilateral trade into account. We then study the possible impact of an improvement in infrastructure on a ‘gravity-adjusted’ measure of trade preferences, given by the residuals of our first estimations. Our results indicate that bilateral preferences among BRI countries will intensify inasmuch as they succeed in coordinating their infrastructural projects.


2021 ◽  
pp. 205789112110192
Author(s):  
Peng Lin

Engaging in disaster relief and, more recently, post-disaster reconstruction in developing countries with critical geoeconomic and geopolitical interests has become an increasingly regular and institutionalized component of China’s evolving humanitarian diplomacy over the past decade. Drawn upon novel evidence from China’s growing disaster-related humanitarian assistance to Nepal and unprecedented engagement in Nepal’s long-term post-earthquake rebuild since 2015, this article explores the dynamics behind China’s transforming humanitarian diplomacy. The findings of this article suggest that: 1) geopolitical and geoeconomic interests, represented by the Belt-and-Road Initiative, serve as a critical driver for the development of China’s bilateral partnership with other countries in the disaster sector; 2) long-term cooperation with underdeveloped countries like Nepal provides China, both government and non-state actors (NSAs), with an effective channel to engage with the international humanitarian community and to internalize humanitarian norms; 3) although humanitarian missions remain contingent and instrumental in China’s international relations, they are laying the foundations for a specialized humanitarian policy area with more relevant normative assets, more professional actors, and more sophisticated institutions; 4) NSAs, represented by private foundations and civil NGOs, have played active roles in the state-dominant cooperation in disaster management. This article also suggests that intensified geopolitical confrontations, such as military clashes between India and China along their disputed borders over the past year, would lead to a high degree of politicization of humanitarian missions and partnerships counter-conducive to humanitarian goals.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Enderwick

Purpose The continuation of China’s belt and road initiative (BRI) is assumed in most analyses. Yet, recent events have created significant reputational damage for China and Chinese businesses. With a trade war evolving into a hegemonic struggle, there are a number of potential developments that could derail the BRI. This paper aims to provide a contemporary review of the factors that could negatively impact its continuation, and what China has done to mitigate the risks. Design/methodology/approach A descriptive paper that groups possible disruptive factors into three groups: internal weaknesses of the BRI and its design; those related to China’s implementation of the BRI and external concerns and pressures. Findings China has actively reviewed and refined the BRI to reduce its perceived weaknesses and increase its attractiveness to potential participants, focussing on debt dependency, transparency and governance. However, this has occurred at the same time as growing concerns regarding China’s international assertiveness, the hegemonic challenge and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Research limitations/implications These changes are occurring within an extremely dynamic environment and any analysis at one point in time is subject to considerable limitations. However, the paper brings together a range of disparate perspectives in a structured manner. Originality/value The classification of possible threats to the BRI is original and provides insights into the relative significance of the diverse challenges that China faces. The paper concludes that while China’s operational focus on the mechanics of the BRI process is necessary, it may not be sufficient to ensure its continuing development. The paper identifies the next step which is conceptualisation of these ideas and of the BRI. Some guidance as to how this might be done is provided.


2018 ◽  
Vol 04 (03) ◽  
pp. 401-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Sabil Farooq ◽  
Tongkai Yuan ◽  
Jiangang Zhu ◽  
Nazia Feroze

China remains Africa’s largest financier of infrastructure, and the Belt and Road Forum held in May 2017 estimated pledge of funds of about US$40 billion. Reportedly, projects worth much more than the pledged funds are in the planning or have been underway, making the “Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)” the biggest development initiative in history. China and Africa need each other in development, and the Asian giant continues to make inroads into Africa, home to minerals, oil, and other resources that help feed China’s phenomenal economic growth. This article intends to discuss the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR)” under the BRI and its socioeconomic and cultural impact on China-Africa relations, with an emphasis on China’s relationship with Kenya, a founding member of the East Africa community (EAC) that has enjoyed lasting friendship with China. It is concluded that despite the generally positive impact of Chinese economic presence in Africa over the past decades, both China and African countries have much to do to consolidate their mutually beneficial relationship and to achieve the MSR’s target of common prosperity in the long run.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yilin Zhang ◽  
Zhenyu Cheng ◽  
Qingsong He

Purpose For the developing countries involving in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with China as the main source of foreign development investment (FDI) and development as the top priority, it appears to attract more and more attention on how to make the best use of China’s outward foreign development investment. However, the contradictory evidence in the previous studies of FDI spillover effect and the remarkable time-lag feature of spillovers motivate us to analyze the mechanism of FDI spillover effect. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach The mechanism of FDI spillovers and the unavoidable lag effect in this process are empirically analyzed. Based on the panel data from the Belt and Road developing countries (BRDCs) and China’s direct investments (CDIs) from 2003 to 2017, the authors establish a panel vector autoregressive model, employing impulse response function and variance decomposition analysis, together with Granger causality test. Findings Results suggest a dynamic interactive causality mechanism. First, CDI promotes the economic growth of BRDCs through technical efficiency, human capital and institutional transition with combined lags of five, nine and eight years. Second, improvements in the technical efficiency and institutional quality promote economic growth by facilitating the human capital with integrated delays of six and eight years. Third, China’s investment directly affects the economic growth of BRDCs, with a time lag of six years. The average time lag is about eight years. Originality/value Based on the analysis on the mechanism and time lag of FDI spillovers, the authors have shown that many previous articles using one-year lagged FDI to examine the spillover effect have systematic biases, which contributes to the research on the FDI spillover mechanism. It provides new views for host countries on how to make more effective use of FDI, especially for BRDCs using CDIs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Huang ◽  
Wenfeng Wu ◽  
Tong Yu

Purpose This is a literature survey paper. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the latest developments in textual analysis on China’s financial markets, highlighting its differences from existing works in the US markets. Design/methodology/approach The authors review the literature and carry out an experiment of sentiment analysis based on a small sample of Chinese news articles. Findings Based on the experiment of sentiment analysis, there is limited evidence on the association between sentiment and other contemporaneous or future returns. Originality/value The supply of financial textual information has grown exponentially in the past decades. Technological advancements in recent years make the programming-based analysis an effective tool to digest such information. The authors highlight the use of credible textual information and discuss directions of research in this important field.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Yuh Huang ◽  
Joseph C.P. Shieh ◽  
Yu-Cheng Kao

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to systematically consolidate and analyze papers in behavioral finance in the past 20 years, and to provide an overall introduction to scholars and professionals in the industry who may be interested in behavioral finance in the future. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on searching keywords in databases of ISI Web of Science (WOS). Survey data covers the period from 1995 to 2013, with 124 journals and 347 articles. The authors are committed to finding the number of publications and times cited in the field of behavioral finance to measure the contribution of active researchers. Findings – More research papers in behavioral finance are emerging, making it a significant area of study. Most of the papers can be classified as empirical or theory. The number of papers in the review class should be increased to assist scholars and professionals in understanding behavioral finance and its application. A number of personal and institutional main contributors have been making a considerable impact on the field of behavioral finance. With the vigorous development of financial markets all around the world, more and more scholars are becoming involved in behavioral finance research. Research limitations/implications – Articles published earlier than 1995 or not included in the WOS database cannot be included in the research; however, this does not diminish the contribution of older scholars in any way. Moreover, the research does not include non-SCI/SSCI articles. Originality/value – Unlike a traditional literature review, which classifies and elaborates different research paths (Subrahmanyam, 2007), the research adopts the ISI WOS database as a tool for analysis. This new literature review methodology enables us to systematically consolidate and analyze papers in behavioral finance.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document