Day: May 12, 2023

Honduras Will ‘Soon’ Launch Trade Talks with China as Ties Deepen

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TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS —  Honduras will soon begin talks toward a trade deal with China, the Central American country’s top diplomat said Friday, marking the latest step toward stronger bilateral ties between the two nations after Honduras broke off relations with Taiwan. Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina told reporters at a press conference that the goal is to launch talks “soon” and eventually ink a “free trade” agreement with the Asian giant, the world’s second-largest economy. “It will be good news and [offer] opportunities for access to our products to…

Amid China’s looming population crisis, is Western ‘de-family’ culture creating more single, childless Chinese?

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Professor Zeng Yi, a population expert at Peking University’s National School of Development, said the rising number of adults living alone was “very worrying”. He urged people to stop promoting such lifestyles in the media because it would lead to “a large group of empty-nest elderly people” and an “accelerating decline in the working-age population”. Advertisement “Traditional values about family have encountered tremendous challenges, but the thousand-year-deep roots of respecting the elderly and caring for the young are still there,” he said, adding that “correct guidance” from the government could…

Microscopic swimming robots that deliver drugs around body could revolutionise cancer treatment, say Chinese developers

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“Our project is a blend of medical technology from biology and mechanical engineering from robotics,” said Professor Li Tianlong, of HIT and one of the first authors of the paper. Robot expert Professor Zhao Jie. Photo: Weibo The robot resembles a tiny submarine with claws. Its shell comprises three layers: an inner magnetic layer which generates power, a middle gel layer that provides connectivity, and an outer camouflage membrane that resembles a human cell, offering biocompatibility and reducing friction. Advertisement The clawed structure was inspired by the microscopic tardigrades, also…

US Debt Ceiling Looms Over Biden’s Foreign Trips

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WHITE HOUSE —  The monthslong impasse between the White House and congressional Republicans over raising the debt ceiling to keep the U.S. from defaulting on its obligations could derail Joe Biden’s upcoming meeting with allies in Japan and Australia. The U.S. president is scheduled to depart Washington for Hiroshima on May 17 to attend a meeting of the Group of Seven leaders. On May 22 he is to continue to Sydney for the Quad Summit with a brief stop in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, to meet with Pacific Island…

Don Farrell invites Chinese commerce minister to visit SA family vineyard after Beijing meeting

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The Australian trade minister, Don Farrell, has invited the Chinese commerce minister to visit his family’s vineyard in South Australia after the pair met in Beijing on Friday night. Speaking after the talks with Wang Wentao in Beijing, Farrell said he was “very pleased to confirm that we agreed to step up dialogue under our free trade agreement and other platforms to resolve our outstanding issues”. Farrell said he had also received assurances from Wang that the recent deal to review China’s tariffs on Australian barley remained “on track”. Earlier,…

Alibaba Cloud founder Wang Jian returns to company amid sweeping business restructure, sources say

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Wang is widely seen as the man who laid the technological foundations to facilitate Alibaba’s emergence as an e-commerce giant. In his book Being Online, published in 2016, Wang detailed his experiences building up Alibaba’s cloud business from scratch with the trust of founder Jack Ma. Li Qiang, then governor of Zhejiang province and China’s premier, wrote in a forward for the book that he enjoyed talking with both Wang and Ma. Advertisement “In talking to Jack Ma, I get ‘There’s actually a new perspective to see the issue,’” he…

EU Ministers Back Plan to Reduce Economic Reliance on China

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stockholm —  European Union ministers on Friday backed reducing the bloc’s economic dependence on China but will now have to figure out how to make that a reality, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. Borrell said foreign ministers gave broad backing to a plan to adjust policy on China to place greater emphasis on its role as a political rival, while continuing also to see Beijing both as a partner on global issues and an economic competitor. “Colleagues welcomed the paper that we presented. They agree on the basic lines…

U.S. Solar Makers Criticize Biden’s Tax Credits as Too Lax on China

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Biden administration rules released on Friday that will determine which companies and manufacturers can benefit from new solar industry tax credits are being criticized by U.S.-based makers of solar products, who say the guidelines do not go far enough to try to lure manufacturing back from China. The rules stem from President Biden’s sweeping clean energy bill, which offers a mix of tax credits and other incentives to try and spur the construction of more solar factories in the United States and reduce the country’s reliance on China for clean…

New US solar rules will do little to break China dependence, experts say

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Clean energy analysts have warned new US rules designed to speed up a reshoring of clean energy supply chains will do little in the short term to break their dependence on imports from China. The Treasury department on Friday issued new guidance that would only allow US-based solar developers to secure tax credits offered in the Inflation Reduction Act if they made their cells domestically. However, because the US has very little production capacity for solar cells, the requirement would mean virtually none of the existing developers would be able…

New US solar rules will do little to break China dependence, experts warn

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Clean energy analysts have warned new US rules designed to speed up a reshoring of clean energy supply chains will do little in the short term to break their dependence on imports from China. The Treasury department on Friday issued new guidance that would only allow US-based solar developers to secure tax credits offered in the Inflation Reduction Act if they made their cells domestically. However, because the US has very little production capacity for solar cells, the requirement would mean virtually none of the existing developers would be able…