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Excerpt:China is the original riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. A country striving for modernity but feudal in its treatment of its citizens, Beijing’s economic identity is a combination of Communist orthodoxy and crony capitalism. As you might expect, the two don’t work well together.
On the outside of the riddle, China is booming, the people are subservient and happy, and the government is looking to the future with confidence. This is the picture the Chinese Communists paint for the world to see. The reality is much different.
China is being crushed by debt, has become dependent on high levels of debt, and has created a bubble in several sectors, like housing and household goods.
One noted Chinese economist said in 2019, “Basically, China’s economy is all built on speculation and everything is over-leveraged.” He was proved right when the massive overbuilding of housing caused the market to collapse in 2021.
03a China
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn’t just show up to Tuesday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing; he came loaded for bear. Ostensibly there to discuss the FY26 State Department budget, Rubio instead delivered a scathing indictment of China’s global con game and exposed shocking failures in America’s foreign aid system. What unfolded wasn’t routine testimony; it was a political thunderclap and a long-overdue reckoning.
As I’m sure you recall, Democrats have been having hissy fits over USAID cuts. They claim that the Trump administration was axing vital humanitarian aid when in reality, it was targeting waste, fraud, and abuse.
Just how bad is the waste, fraud, and abuse? Rubio revealed that under the old USAID model, only 12 cents of every dollar made it to the intended recipients. “That means that in order for us to get, you know, aid to somebody, we had to spend all this other money supporting this foreign aid industrial complex,” he said. In other words, U.S. taxpayers were funding bloated overhead while struggling nations got table scraps.
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India’s Operation Sindoor is haunting both Pakistan and China, the former due to the non-explanation for sponsoring cross-border terrorism and the massive physical loss of military assets and face, and the latter due to the utter failure of its military equipment sold to Pakistan and the diplomatic fallout of supporting an “ironclad” friend.Diplomatically, after the Pahalgam terror attacks, China expressed its concern and called for restraint on India’s part, while reiterating support for Pakistan both regionally and in the United Nations’ #1267 al-Qaeda sanctions committee. China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, discussed issues with his Pakistan counterpart, Ishaq Dar, and India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, without any concrete proposals in hand.
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US President Donald Trump has unveiled a scheme to build a $175 billion (€154bn) missile defence system called the “Golden Dome”, claiming it could be “fully operational” by the end of his presidential term.The announcement on Tuesday came roughly four months after Trump signed an executive order, instructing the Pentagon to draw up plans to defend the US against “catastrophic” aerial attacks.
Although the exact scope of the Golden Dome project remains unclear, Trump said the system would involve “next-generation” technologies, including space-based sensors and interceptors.
“Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they are launched from space,” Trump claimed.
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Nvidia and Foxconn Hon Hai Technology Group today announced they are deepening their longstanding partnership and are working with the Taiwan government to build an AI factory supercomputer that will deliver state-of-the-art Nvidia Blackwell infrastructure to researchers, startups and industries.
Foxconn will provide the AI infrastructure through its subsidiary Big Innovation Company as an Nvidia Cloud Partner. Featuring 10,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, the AI factory will significantly expand AI computing availability and fuel innovation for Taiwan researchers and enterprises.
The Taiwan National Science and Technology Council will use the Big Innovation Company supercomputer to provide AI cloud computing resources to the Taiwan technology ecosystem, accelerating AI development and adoption across sectors.
TSMC researchers plan to leverage the system to advance its research and development with orders-of-magnitude faster performance, compared with previous-generation systems.
“AI has ignited a new industrial revolution — science and industry will be transformed,” said Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia in a keynote talk at Computex 2025 in Taiwan. “We are delighted to partner with Foxconn and Taiwan to help build Taiwan’s AI infrastructure, and to support TSMC and other leading companies to advance innovation in the age of AI and robotics.”
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The growing impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs is creating “tensions” among members of the G7 heading into a critical summit in Canada next month, the federal finance minister says.
Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem are chairing three days of meetings with top finance officials from the world’s largest economies in Banff, Alta., this week. The talks are expected to focus on the war in Ukraine and artificial intelligence, and how the G7 members can work together to grow the global economy.
However, Trump’s aggressive trade policies are likely to dominate the proceedings, and could even impact what members can feasibly agree to.
“There’s no doubt that around the table, you need to find unity, but at the same time, it’s true that the tariffs are creating tensions amongst the different partners,” Champagne told Global News in an interview from Calgary on Tuesday.
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China’s economy showed signs of slowing in April as President Donald Trump’s trade war took a toll, with retail sales, property and investment coming in weaker than economists had forecast. Industrial production slowed as Trump’s painfully high tariffs of up to 145 per cent, and 125 per cent retaliatory duties imposed by Beijing, took effect and shipments were curtailed. National Statistics Bureau spokesperson Fu Linghui said the general trend was positive though he pointed to “external shocks” that had gained intensity.
“It should also be noted that there are still many outside unstable and uncertain factors, and the foundation for the continued recovery and improvement of the national economy needs to be further consolidated,” Fu said. Here are a few key indicators reported Monday.
Retail sales Chinese consumers have been holding back after the shocks of a prolonged downturn in the housing market that is the source of much household wealth. Retail sales rose 5.1 per cent from a year earlier in April, below economists’ expectations for a 6 per cent increase. Fu said Beijing would continue to focus on supporting job creation and spurring more domestic demand.
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President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa about claims of a white genocide by showing video footage in the Oval Office of alleged burial sites of white farmers.
“Turn the lights down and just put this on,” Trump said as he directed Ramaphosa to watch a video montage of political rallies with widespread chants of “kill the farmer!” and images of grave sites.
“These are burial sites right here…. Over a thousand of white farmers,” Trump pointed out to the president, who had denied claims of genocide, saying murder and crime are not unique to white farmers.
Following the video’s conclusion, Trump showed printouts of news articles on persecution as Ramaphosa urged a calm dialogue on the subject.
“What you saw, the speeches that were being made, one that is not government policy,” Ramaphosa told Trump of those calling for killings. “We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies. And in many cases, or in some cases, those policies do not go along with government policy.
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Sharing the costs of hosting U.S. troops in allied countries has been a favorite topic of U.S. President Donald Trump since his first term in the White House.
But as more countries try to eke out a deal to escape the spectre of tariffs in his second term, Trump is making his own moves: bundling negotiations on trade, tariffs, and defense cost-sharing into a single comprehensive deal, which he called “one-stop shopping.”
One such country in his sights is South Korea, which is home to about 28,500 U.S. troops known as U.S. Forces Korea. On April 8, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had discussed “payment for the big time Military Protection we provide to South Korea,” among other issues, with then-acting president Han Duck-soo.
“We are bringing up other subjects that are not covered by Trade and Tariffs, and getting them negotiated also. “ONE STOP SHOPPING” is a beautiful and efficient process!!!” Trump wrote.
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China said Friday sales to the United States slumped last month while its total exports topped forecasts, as Beijing fought a gruelling trade war with its superpower rival.
Trade between the world’s two largest economies has nearly skidded to a halt since US President Donald Trump imposed various rounds of levies on China that began as retaliation for Beijing’s alleged role in a devastating fentanyl crisis.
Tariffs on many Chinese products now reach as high as 145 percent — with cumulative duties on some goods soaring to a staggering 245 percent.
Beijing has responded with 125 percent tariffs on imports of US goods, along with other measures targeting American firms.
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The New York Post
reported, citing sources close to the negotiations.US officials are reportedly weighing a reduction of the levy to somewhere between 50% and 54%, a move aimed at easing tensions as trade negotiations unfold.
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China’s central bank and financial regulators announced sweeping plans on Wednesday to cut key interest rates in an effort to shore up growth in the face of trade worries.
China will cut interest rates by 10 basis points and lower the reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points, the central bank governor Pan Gongsheng said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
Pan was speaking along with officials from the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
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Late next month, Huawei will be testing its new powerful AI processor, the Ascend 910 D, even as by early May the previous 910C will start to be mass-delivered to scores of Chinese tech companies.
These serious breakthroughs are the next chapter of Huawei’s drive to counter Nvidia’s global monopoly in GPUs. The Ascend 910D is supposed to be more powerful than Nvidia’s extremely popular H100.
Huawei is pulling no punches in its race to manufacture a new generation of processors. Huawei has collaborated with SMIC – China’s largest semiconductor foundry – to apply Deep Ultraviolet Lithography (DUV) on what was previously only possible on EUV (Extreme Ultra-Violet technology). Once again, Huawei and SMIC defied the proverbial American “experts” with creative engineering solutions.
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University has faced scrutiny for funding American colleges
A Chinese university which faced scrutiny for its ties to American colleges has hired a former Harvard University chemist convicted of hiding his connections to the country.
As reported by The Harvard Crimson, Charles Lieber “started his new role at Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, where he now holds the school’s highest faculty rank, in Shenzhen, China, on April 28.”
Lieber received two days in prison, six months house arrest, and a fine for hiding Chinese government affiliations and a $50,000 monthly salary and quietly retired from Harvard in 2023, as The College Fix previously reported.
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China on Monday issued a direct warning to countries considering trade deals with the US that could disadvantage Beijing.
The warning came in the aftermath of reports that the Trump administration in the US may offer tariff exemptions to other nations in return for limiting their trade with China.
President Trump this month paused major tariff increases on other countries for 90 days, while hiking duties further on goods from China to 145 percent.“China firmly opposes any party reaching a deal at the expense of China’s interests. If this happens, China will not accept it and will resolutely take reciprocal countermeasures,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said, CNBC reported.