China

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.

Iron ore miner Vale, a Chinese commercial partner since the 1970s, is welcome, along with other Brazilian firms, to further expand economic links with China, its commerce ministry said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The comments came as chief executives of foreign firms gathered in Beijing this week for a key annual corporate forum and China mounted a charm offensive to woo foreign investment.

The U.S. mission told China and Canada it was ready to confer with its officials in Geneva after those two countries filed trade disputes in response to new tariffs, World Trade Organization documents showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Canada requested consultations - the first step in a WTO trade dispute - earlier this month in response to "unjustified tariffs" imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month. China launched a dispute after Trump tariffs on Chinese goods in February.

Political pressure is mounting over a plan by a Hong Kong conglomerate to sell its Panama ports to BlackRock, the American investor, raising questions about the future of the $19 billion deal, the New York Times reported.

Property developer Sunac China said on Monday it expects to report a wider loss for the year ended December 2024, Reuters reported. Beijing-based Sunac, once among China's largest real estate developers, attributed the higher net loss forecast to the absence of gains that it had logged last year after the completion of its offshore debt restructuring. In late 2023, Sunac completed a comprehensive overhaul of its $9 billion offshore debt, exchanging its existing debt for a combination of notes, among others.

China's property slump persisted in February, with official figures on Monday showing declines in prices, investment and sales, as government measures and promises of more stimulus did little to boost demand in the crisis-stricken sector, Reuters reported. New home prices dipped 0.1% versus a month earlier after two months of relatively steady prices, showed Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data. On a year-on-year basis, new home prices fell 4.8% versus a 5.0% drop the previous month.

Country Garden Services, the property services arm of China's Country Garden, on Friday forecast a higher full-year profit on the back of lower impairment charges, Reuters reported. The property services arm expects a net profit attributable between 1.60 billion yuan ($221.03 million) and 2 billion yuan for fiscal 2024 ended December, compared with 292.3 million yuan a year earlier. Country Garden Services said it benefited from optimising some businesses it had acquired previously that led to lower impairment charges for the year ended 2024.

The Chinese government has strongly criticized a planned deal by a Hong Kong conglomerate to sell ports in Panama and elsewhere to an investment group led by an American asset manager, warning that the deal would deprive China of needed influence over key shipping routes, the New York Times reported. The criticism marks an abrupt shift in Chinese policy toward Panama and the control of seaports around the world. When President Donald Trump raised concerns soon after taking office that China had too much power in the Panama Canal, his comments were initially ridiculed by Beijing.

The China Shipowners' Association opposes a U.S. proposal to slap hefty port entry fees on ocean cargo carriers that own or have ordered vessels from China, saying it violates international rules and U.S. laws, according to a statement seen by Reuters on Thursday. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration aims to partially pay for an American shipbuilding comeback with those fees, according to a draft executive order seen by Reuters. The CSA's members include China's COSCO Shipping, which is expected to be among the hardest hit by the fees proposed by the U.S.

Zhengzhou Exchange on Tuesday raised the trading margin requirements for some rapeseed meal futures contracts to 9% from 7% after Beijing's 100% tariff on Canadian imports triggered a two-day rally that pushed prices to a five-month high, Reuters reported. The most active rapeseed meal futures contract surged 7.23% to close at 2,684 yuan per metric ton, building on a 6% gain in the previous session, to its highest since September 2024. The new trading margin requirements will be effective from settlement on March 12.