China

China has taken steps to restrict local companies from investing in the U.S. in a move that could give Beijing more leverage for potential trade negotiations with the Trump administration, Bloomberg News reported. Several branches of China’s top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, have been instructed in recent weeks to hold off on registration and approval for firms that are looking to invest in the US, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive issues.

China is willing to buy more Indian products to balance trade, Beijing’s Ambassador Xu Feihong said just ahead of a US tariff announcement expected to hit the south Asian neighbors, Bloomberg News reported. “We are willing to work with the Indian side to strengthen practical cooperation in trade and other areas, and to import more Indian products that are well-suited to the Chinese market,” the ambassador to India was quoted as saying by China’s state-run Global Times, in a story posted Monday.

Japan, South Korea and China agreed on Sunday to continue trilateral economic and trade cooperation to address “emerging challenges,” a partnership that has become more crucial than ever as the U.S. trade war shatters the global order. Trade minister Yoji Muto, his South Korean counterpart, Ahn Duk-geun, and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met in Seoul for the first trilateral meeting among the three countries’ trade ministers in over five years, the Japan Times reported.

Activity in China’s vast manufacturing sector expanded at the fastest pace in a year in March, sending another sign of green shoots in the world’s second-largest economy as policymakers brace for more U.S. tariffs this week, the Wall Street Journal reported. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index for March came in at 50.5, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday. That beat February’s mark of 50.2 as a reading above 50 suggests an expansion in activity while one below suggests contraction.

Bank of China Ltd. reported a 2.6% increase in full-year profit as a drop in impairments helped offset pressure from falling interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Net income rose to 237.8 billion yuan ($32.7 billion) for 2024, it said in a Wednesday filing. The net interest margin narrowed to 1.4% from 1.59% a year earlier, while the non-performing loan ratio slid to 1.25% from 1.27%. Chinese banks have been contending with lower loan yields as authorities since late last year cut mortgage interests and key policy rates to inject momentum to the world’s second largest economy.

After a long period of pessimism, a number of global financial institutions have turned more upbeat on China’s economic outlook this year even amid concerns around tariffs, citing a stronger-than-expected recovery fueled by Beijing’s stimulus push, the Wall Street Journal reported. Over the past month, economists at HSBC, ANZ and Citi raised projections for China’s gross domestic product growth to 4.8%, 4.8% and 4.7% from previous estimates of 4.5%, 4.3% and 4.2% respectively.

China’s central bank unveiled a new method for pricing its one-year loans to banks, the latest move in policymakers’ efforts to revamp their monetary toolkit, Bloomberg News reported. The People’s Bank of China announced in a statement that banks will be able to bid for different prices on its one-year loans, known as the medium-term lending facility. Qualified lenders will be able to pay different interest rates for the loan starting from Tuesday, and the loans will come in a fixed amount each month, according to the statement.

For a symbol of the chaos engulfing world trade since the Trump administration walked into the White House, look no further than a pile of 16,000 metric tons of steel pipes. Stevedores in Germany should be preparing to load the first batch on a ship bound for a massive energy project in Louisiana. Instead the cargo is sitting in a German warehouse after Washington proposed putting million-dollar levies on Chinese ships docking in the US, Bloomberg News reported.

During Donald Trump’s first presidency, China was determined not to yield to American pressure over trade like Japan did in the 1980s, the Wall Street Journal reported. Now, faced with an even greater economic assault from the second Trump presidency at a time of sluggish growth at home, Beijing may take a page from Tokyo’s playbook—on one specific issue it sees as in its own interest. Like Japan decades ago, China is considering trying to blunt greater U.S.

Buried in China’s latest government budget were some numbers that add up to an alarming trend. Tax revenue is dropping, the New York Times reported. The decline means that China’s national government has less money to address the country’s serious economic challenges, including a housing market crash and the near bankruptcy of hundreds of local governments. Weak tax revenue also puts China’s leaders in a box as they square off with President Trump, who has imposed 20 percent tariffs on goods from China and threatened more to come.