Beijing's 'One Belt One Road' initiative viewed as escape
route from commodities meltdown

BEIJING's 'One Belt, One Road' initiative announced by China's President Xi Jinping more than two years ago is finally gathering steam just as the prices of oil, steel, concrete and other building materials sink, says Bloomberg.
The very volatility of commodity markets is making it easier for China to sell its ambitious vision to build roads, railways, pipelines and ports from China to Europe, diversifying the country's trade options and exporting the excess industrial capacity that's dragging down its own economy.
The so-called Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road - or "One Belt, One Road" - sits at the centre of President Xi's effort to bolster geo-economic clout across more than 70 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.  >More
 

China rapidly gobbles up infrastructure projects between
Asia, Europe and Africa

THINK of a small European country where China currently manages a US$3.5 billion portfolio of direct investment projects, suggests Michael Ivanovitch, an independent analyst in a recent CNBC Commentary.
And while the hapless Europeans were stirring up more trouble for Greece, he says, China completes a US$368.5 million deal for a 67 per cent stake in the Piraeus Port Authority, with another $350 million slated for investments to create China's largest maritime hub in the Mediterranean.
Piraeus will be the seafaring endpoint of China's 21st Century Maritime Silk Road from East Asia to Africa, Middle East and Europe, said Dr Ivanovitch, a former economist at the OECD and at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as well as teaching economics at Columbia Business School.  >More
 

China-Hong Kong trade statistics reveal new illicit way of
cross-border funds transfer

IN last year's trade figures, China reported that imports from Hong Kong increased 64.5 per cent year on year, write Mark Magnier and Chester Yung in a Wall Street Journal Real Times report. At the same time, Hong Kong reported that exports to China increased 0.9 per cent.
Why such a big gap in figures that should match? Many suspected capital outflows across the restricted border, a vast boondoggle to evade currency controls.
Here how it works: A mainland company might import 100,000 widgets at US$5 apiece from a Hong Kong partner or subsidiary company, paying them $500,000.  >More
 

Why free trade with China wasn't such a good idea for
the US

IN his recent book "Economics Rules," Harvard economist Dani Rodrik laments how economists often portray a public consensus while disagreeing strongly in private. In effect, economists behave like scientists behind closed doors, but as preachers when dealing with the public, says Noah Smith, a Bloomberg analyst, whose views were not necessarily espoused by the company.
Nowhere is this evangelism clearer than on the issue of trade, he says. Ask any economist what issue they agree on, and the first answer you're likely to hear is "free trade is good". The general public disagrees vehemently, but economists are almost unanimous on this point. >More