Chinese Sub Pops Up in Middle of U.S. Navy Exercise

When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed. At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world’s only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders. That is the theory. Or, [...]

Is China’s Renminbi Already the New Reserve Currency?

With the dollar tumbling overnight, many were scratching their heads as to what caused the move in the dollar. Citi’s Stephen Englander provides a useful explanation, which fits perfectly with the commentary from PBoC advisor Li’s earlier that the dollar’s position as a reserve currency is now “absurd”: namely that more and more in the [...]

China Says G20 Should Monitor US Fed

China’s state media has issued a new broadside at the US Federal Reserve’s move to prime the US economy, suggesting the Group of 20 should monitor policy shifts by the US central bank. The Xinhua news agency said in a commentary the Fed was “risking the global recovery by following its own track for economic [...]

China Reiterates Claim to Diaoyu Islands

China has rejected U.S. mediation between Tokyo and Beijing over the disputed Diaoyu Islands and reiterated that they are sovereign Chinese territory. China also brushed aside any suggestion by either Japan or the United States that the issue of sovereignty over the island falls within the scope of a Japanese-U.S. security treaty. “I’d like to [...]

China Accuses US of “Out Of Control” Dollar Printing

After taking heat from the White House for nearly a year for its currency peg, a fact that in itself will never get China to loosen its regime as it would be perceived as yielding to pressure from D.C., China has once again gone on the offensive, this time via its commerce minister who earlier [...]

China Raises Retail Fuel Prices 3%

China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, increased retail gasoline and diesel prices by 3 percent today as part of government measures to cool the economy and to meet energy-saving targets. The ceiling for gasoline prices will rise by 230 yuan ($34.50) a metric ton and diesel prices will gain 220 yuan a ton, the National [...]

Greek Dollar Swap Window

The Chinese are clever people. Their leaders play a good game of chess in the global scramble for commodity supply and financial dominance. Their patient strategy has tied the arms & legs of the USGovt, using their own debt securities as the binding rope. While much attention has come to saber rattling over currency manipulation [...]

Upcoming Wholesale Tariffs with China

Today’s very remarkable analysis from Albert Edwards presents a stunning spin on the China-US Nash Equilibrium, concluding that wholesale tariffs with China are now inevitable: “If another round of credit-fueled investment is about to be unleashed onto a global economy, already on the verge of deflation ” it will simply not be tolerated. Watch the [...]

The Chinese are Hoarding Silver

“Jesse” of Jesse’s Cafe Americain link brought the article below to my attention. Silver exported from China has declined 40% this year because of the strong internal demand: “The demand is coming from all areas, including jewelry, investment and fabrication and this has resulted in a physical market shortage in the Far East…” “There are [...]

China Halts Rare Mineral Exports to US and Europe

The latest escalation in the binary version of modern warfare (i.e., that fought with a Bloomberg instead a stealth fighter), comes from China, which the NYT reports has just halted shipment of rare minerals to the US: “China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly [...]

China Vice-President Xi Jinping Given Key Military Job

China’s Vice-President Xi Jinping has been named vice-chair of the powerful Central Military Commission, in a move widely seen as a boost to his likely succession of President Hu Jintao. It comes on the last day of the ruling Communist Party’s annual meeting. Hu Jintao must retire as head of the party in 2012 and [...]

U.S. Alarmed by Harsh Tone of China’s Military

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates  met his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie, in Vietnam on Monday for the first time since the two militaries suspended talks with each other last winter, calling for the two countries to prevent “mistrust, miscalculations and mistakes.” His message seemed directed mainly at officers like Lt. Cmdr. Tony Cao of the [...]

Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for championing reform and human rights in a move that is certain to anger Beijing. The writer and university professor was honoured “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China,” Norwegian Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said in [...]

China Denies Military Exercise Aimed at U.S.

China denied on Tuesday media reports that an artillery drill in the East China Sea was in response to a planned military exercise between South Korea and the United States. The 6-day, live ammunition exercise starting on Wednesday in the East China Sea off China’s coast was seen by some analysts as a “response to [...]

China Commodities Undercut US Dollar

By: Jim Willie CB, GoldenJackass.com China is directing their mountain of reserves away from acquired mining firms and toward managed hedge funds. This is a new direction for Beijing, clearly in response to the refusal by Rio Tinto to permit a $19 billion stake from the Chinese aluminum giant Chinalco. They were frustrated and angered [...]

Zoellick Says China May Diversify Currency Reserves

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said China may seek to diversify its foreign currency holdings over time, moving away from U.S. dollar reserves. “Over time I could see China moving to some further diversification of its reserves,” Zoellick said at a conference today in Montreal. Still, he said, “China has been very sensitive about maintaining [...]

Geithner & China: Who Are You Fooling?

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s trip to Asia has been heralded as a sales trip aimed at convincing the Chinese to keep buying U.S. Treasuries and thereby finance U.S. deficits. Such headlines are, in my humble opinion, an insult to the Chinese. Over and over again, we fall victim of the temptation to believe that Chinese [...]

Peter Navarro On The China Problem

In another surprisingly unmoderated interview on CNBC, UC Irvine professor Peter Navarro brings some relevant insight on why the Chinese problem is much more than the simplified question of whether or not they will keep buying Treasuries. Also, the commentary on Chinese students laughing in Geithner’s face is always refreshing, and shockingly uncensored for a [...]

Gold Spikes To $900/oz As US China Tension Rises

Gold spiked to within two dollars of $900/oz in holiday leaden Asian trading as saber rattling between US and Chinese officials regarding the manipulation of the yuan ratcheted the tension in global capital markets. Last week Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner stated that China was a currency manipulator sending shock waves through the financial markets as [...]

MAN to Sell Stake in Unprofitable China Bus Venture for 1 Euro (Bloomberg)

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — MAN AG , Europe’s third-largest truckmaker, plans to sell its 50 percent stake in an unprofitable China bus venture for 1 euro ($1.30), its Chinese partner said in a statement to Shanghai’s stock exchange today. Read more….

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