To understand China's 'One Belt One Road policy', look
at what it has done in Africa

To understand China's 'One Belt One Road policy', look at what it has done in Africa
THE "One Belt One Road" sloganeering out of Beijing, relates to building road and rail infrastructure along the Old Silk Road of Marco Polo's day. What is envisaged is making the route a massive super-highway for all transport modes.
But that's just a first step, to focus the mind on the glories of the 14th century Venetian merchant adventurer, to use a route from China across Black Sea to his homeport on the Aegean in northern Italy.  >More
 

Many differ on why China trade's peak season tanked,
but are they right thinking so?

LIKE the chicken and the egg story, one is left wondering how the Shanghai rate plunge all began: Was it the lack of European demand or the flood of mega-ships careening down the slipways of the Far East.
While causes are open to debate there is wide agreement on the result - the shipping sector has suffered another tepid "high season" of slow or no growth.
But doctors differ. China's trade figures are not all doom and gloom, says economist Julian Evans-Pritchard at London's Capital Economics Ltd. He says the mainland's trade is healthier than headlines suggest, and even called it "quite healthy" in volume terms.  >More
 

China wants to retain its third world exemptions
while gaining first world status

BRITISH industrialists advised Britain's first official embassy to China, led George Macartney in 1793, to take a "very extensive selection of specimens of all the articles both for ornament and use". By displaying such a selection to the emperor, court and people, Lord Macartney's embassy would learn what the Chinese wanted make more.
But that is not how things turned out, says an essay in London's Economist. The emperor accepted Macartney's gifts, and quite liked some of them - a model of the Royal Sovereign, a first-rate man o' war, seemed to catch his fancy - but understood the whole transaction as one of tribute, not trade.
"We have never valued ingenious articles, nor do we have the slightest need of your country's manufactures," said the emperor.  >More
 

ChAFTA: Oz live export China trade unjustly maligned -
it's great for drovers

A SERIES of new television advertisements are scaring the pants off working class Aussies, says Rowan Smith, writing in News Corporation media. They paint a picture of an invading force of Chinese workers ready to steal our jobs and overrun our workforce, he says.
It's fear mongering about the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) courtesy of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. And it's working. In one ad, a young family sits around a breakfast table. Dad reads the newspaper and, to his shock, discovers that Canberra and Beijing have agreed to terms on open borders and lucrative trade.
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