Ford announced that it’ll build a transmission factory in China. It will build six speed automatic transmissions. The plant will cost $350 million.
Also, they’re building an engine plant in China, at a cost of $500 million. Ford hopes to have the factories operating in 2013. China is now the world’s largest car market.
China reporting that U.S. investments in China has dropped 28%. Some analysts blame rising labor costs. However, other foreign investments into China have actually increased.
Most economists think the decrease in U.S. investment is only short term, but admit it is connected to the bad economy in the United States.
May 17, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that China has sold off another $9.2 billion in U.S. sovereign debt (bonds). This makes the 5th month in a row that China has offloaded U.S. bonds.
At the same time China turned around and bought $2.9 billion in Japanese bonds.
“It is inappropriate for anyone to relate or compare China to some west Asian and north African nations facing turmoil, and any attempt to direct the Middle East turmoil to China and change the development path chosen by the Chinese people will be futile.”-Jiang Yu, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman
This comment was in response to an interview of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. An online poll in China showed that 86% of Chinese respondents felt Clinton had insulted China.
In an exclusive interview with The Atlantic, Hillary Clinton said China’s policies are doomed to fail, she also said: “They’re worried, and they are trying to stop history, which is a fool’s errand. They cannot do it. But they’re going to hold it off as long as possible.” The “history” Clinton says China is trying to stop is the U.S. foreign policy of expansionism. She may not know it, but her statement gives away the true attitude of U.S. leaders towards China.
What this is, is an escalation in the war of words between China and the U.S. It’s also interesting that these statements were made before (by Clinton) and right after (by the Chinese) the U.S. and China signed an agreement to work together.
The Chinese are probably regretting signing the agreement, now that they know the true attitude of U.S. officials.
In a suppossedly “leaked” United Nations report, Iran is accused of dealing with North Korea, for nuclear missile technology. That violates UN sanctions against North Korea.
The report also suggests the deals were made through a third party, possibly China.
The report infers that Iran is trying to get nuclear weapons technology as well. It points out that North Korea’s nuclear program is mainly for weapons. The report is to be submitted to the UN Security Council.
This is obviously going to be used by the U.S. as the “smoking gun” reason for taking military action against Iran.
The problem with the accusations is that North Korea has a lousy record of ballistic missile tests, while Iran has enjoyed success with its own missile program. So it’s probably not a case of Iran trying to get missile technology, but North Korea.
The other problem is that it doesn’t make sense that Iran and North Korea were going through China to do the deals. China has much better missile technology, so why not deal directly with China? It’s possible that China did not want to share its missile technology.
Also, if Iran was trying to get nuclear weapons technology, again, why not deal with the more reliable Chinese?
The panel of “experts” who put together the UN report included a representative from China, who reportedly refused to sign the report.
“I feel a very important wave coming…actually no, I fell we are on the wave right now.”-Rodrigo Contreras, Mexico’s Trade Commissioner in Shanghai
Trade between China and Latin America shot up in 2010, by 51%. China’s trade with Latin America is growing twice as fast as U.S. trade.
Not only has trade grown, but China has reduced its trade deficit with Latin America as well. Most of the trade has been in raw materials/natural resources. Officials want to move towards trading other products in the future.
Days after the U.S. and China signed an agreement to promise to work together, a Chinese company announces they will spend $161 million building an aluminum plant in the U.S.
Shandong Nanshan Aluminum company will open an extrusion plant in Lafayette, Indiana. If there are no complications with the deal, they hope to start building the plant next year. It could employ 150 people, and produce 40,000 tons of aluminum per year.
China is the number one exporter, which country is number two? Germany.
Germany continues to do well when it comes to exporting its products to other countries. So well, that it’s hit a record of 98.3 billion Euros (U.S. $140.9 billion) in exports for the month of March: “That was the highest monthly figure recorded for both exports and imports since the collection of foreign trade statistics had started in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1950.”-Destatis, German National Statistics Office
In another sign of who’s got the money, for the second year Chinese tourists have topped the list of biggest spenders in France.
The study was done by the UN World Tourism Organization. Recently the Japanese, in their own study, found that Chinese tourist were the biggest spenders there.
The study showed a 60% increase in Chinese visiting France, from 2009 to 2010. Spending also went up by 35%.
Russian tourists are the second biggest with number of visitors, and spending, in France.
Iran is joining China in blaming the U.S. bank, Federal Reserve, for destroying the world economy.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says the “paper money” policy of the Federal Reserve is playing a part in the increase of poverty around the world, by forcing most international trades to use U.S. dollars. He says the Federal Reserve injected into the world economies $32 trillion in “worthless” paper money.
President Ahmadinejad believes the Federal Reserve policy is part of a plan that forces poorer countries to pay the debts of the West.