HSBC’s profit before tax rose by$ 2 billion to$ 32.3 billion for the financial year ending December 31, 2024, according to a regulatory announcement, profit after tax increased by$ 400 million to$ 25 billion. Overall revenue across the group climves from$ 66 billion to$ 66.85 billion.  ,
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HSBC’s profit before tax rose by$ 2 billion to$ 32.3 billion for the financial year ending December 31, 2024, according to a regulatory announcement, profit after tax increased by$ 400 million to$ 25 billion.
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SINGAPORE: Singapore’s United Overseas Bank ( UOB ) maintained its guidance for 2025 after posting on Wednesday ( Feb 19 ) a 9 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net profit that beat expectations and announcing a S$ 3 billion ( US$ 2.24 billion ) package to return surplus capital. OurContinue Reading
Environment Correspondent, BBC World Service
Getty ImagesThe UN climate summit in the United Arab Emirates in 2023 called for” shift away from fossil fuels.” It received praise as a significant achievement in global climate change.
Barely a year later, however, there are fears that the global commitment may be losing momentum, as the growth of clean energy transition is slowing down while burning of fossil fuels continues to rise.
And now there is US President Donald Trump’s “national energy emergency”, embracing fossil fuels and ditching clean energy policies – that has also begun to influence some countries and energy companies already.
In response to Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” slogan aimed at ramping up fossil fuel extraction, and the US notifying the UN of its withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, Indonesia, for instance, has hinted that it may follow suit.
Getty Images“If the United States does not want to comply with the international agreement, why should a country like Indonesia comply with it?” asked Hashim Djojohadikusumo, special envoy for climate change and energy of Indonesia, as reported by the country’s government-run news agency Antara.
Indonesia has remained among the world’s top ten emitters for many years.
” Indonesia produces three lots of carbon]per people a year ] while the US produces 13 plenty”, he asked at the ESG Sustainable Forum 2025 in Jakarta on 31 January.
” Yes, we are the people being ordered to shut down our energy plants,” we are told. But, where is the sense of justice around”?
Nithi Nesadurai, chairman with Climate Action Network Southeast Asia, said the impulses from her place were concerning.
She claimed that increasing the “richest nation and the largest oil producer in the world” gives another states” an easy reason to increase their personal- which they are already doing” by increasing its production.
In South Africa, Africa’s biggest sector and a big carbon emitter, a$ 8.5bn foreign-aided change initiative from the coal industry was already moving at a snail’s pace, and now there are concerns that it may obtain derailed more.
Wikus Kruger, director of Power Futures Lab at the University of Cape Town, said there was a “possibility” that decommissioning of old coal-fired power stations would be “further delayed”.
However, he claimed that the clean energy sector was expected to grow even though there was some “walk back” from the transition to renewables.
Getty ImagesArgentina withdrew its negotiators from the COP29 climate meeting in Baku last November, days after Trump won the US presidency. Since Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the Paris Agreement of 2015, which supports global efforts to combat climate change, has since followed suit.
The Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers ‘ president, Enrique Viale, told the BBC,” We now anticipate that our oil and gas production will increase.”
” President Milei has indicated that he intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and that environmental protection is a part of the woke agenda,” Milei said.
Meanwhile, energy giant Equinor has just announced it is halving investment in renewable energy over the next two years while increasing oil and gas production, and another oil major, BP, is expected to make a similar announcement soon.
Getty ImagesTrump has not just said “drill, baby, drill” but also:” We will export American energy all over the world”.
Potential buyers from abroad are already lining up.
India and the US have agreed to significantly increase the supply of American oil and gas to the Indian market.
At the end of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s US visit on 14 February, the two countries issued a joint statement that “reaffirmed” the US would be “a leading supplier of crude oil and petroleum products and liquified natural gas to India”.
A few days after Trump’s inauguration, South Korea, the world’s third largest liquified natural gas importer, has hinted its intention to buy more American oil and gas aimed at reducing a trade surplus with the US and improving energy security, international media have reported from Seoul.
Officials with Japan’s largest power generator, JERA, have told Reuters they too want to increase purchases of liquified natural gas from the US to diversify supply, as it currently imports half of it from the Asia-Pacific region.
The global energy transition may be slowed, according to Lorne Stockman, research director with Oil Change International, a research and advocacy organization for transition to clean energy.” There is definitely a threat that if the US seeks to flood markets with cheap fossil fuels, or to bully countries into buying more of its fossil fuels, or both, the world energy transition may be slowed.
Getty ImagesAccording to scientists, there can’t be any new fossil fuel extraction and there needs to be a quick reduction of carbon emissions ( roughly 45 % by 2030 from the 2019 level ) if the world is to experience a 1.5 Celsius warming increase compared to the pre-industrial era.
” The economics of energy supply are a key driver of decarbonisation”, said David Brown, director of energy transition practice at Wood Mackenzie, a global energy think-tank.
Natural gas and liquids production are supported by the US energy sector’s abundance of resources. By contrast, import-dependent economies such as China, India, and those in Southeast Asia have a dramatic economic incentive to decarbonise sources of energy”.
Global energy transition investment surpassed $2tn for the first time last year but studies have also shown that the growth of clean energy transition has markedly slowed in recent years, while many major banks continue to finance fossil fuels.
This article is adapted from UNASSIMILABLE: An Asian Diasporic Manifesto for the 21st Century by Bianca Mabute-Louie ( HarperCollins, January 2025 ).
San Gabriel Valley, also known as SGV or the 626, is where I grew away. SGV is an ethnoburb — an ethnic area — that grew out of the 1970s, with its own business and ecosystem that includes businesses, grocery stores, locks shops and restaurants.
Working together to create and defend this tribal ecosystem was a matter of success and necessity because some early Asian immigrants to this country were prohibited from accessing bright institutions.
Wei Li, a Taiwanese American explorer, first proposed the name “ethnoburb” to identify the hybridity of racial enclaves and middle-class suburbs: residential cultural clusters of people and businesses.
The ethnoburb demonstrates that we can make our own energy and belonging — without learning English, without participating in white corporations, and Americanizing. It is a social enterprise, one that requires everybody’s mind and attention.
The ethnoburb immigrants redefined the whole suburbian environment and sparked an economic boom driven by foreign capital. Important factors contributed to the economic development of the Chinese in Monterey Park, a town in the San Gabriel Valley, along with the political and economic factors that led to the movement of powerful ethnic Chinese from Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Chinese immigrants used their resources to buy homes and launch businesses in the Chinese and Asian languages to welcome newcomers from Asia. Valley Boulevard, which runs through 10 locations in San Gabriel Valley, became household to Asian-owned malls, business plazas, business complexes, shops, hotels and commercial plants, generally with spanish banners in Chinese, Vietnamese and English.
Asian immigrants created rich Asian markets and neglected strip malls, forming a sense of permanence and community. Monterey Park, and eventually the rest of San Gabriel valley, began to be referred to as” Little Taipei” or the” Chinese Beverly Hills” by journalists and Chinese diasporic media.
By the 1980s, Monterey Park was known as” the first suburban Chinatown”, converting San Gabriel Valley from predominantly white suburbs into an Asian-majority ecosystem with a conspicuous and diverse first-generation, unassimilated immigrant presence.
The ethnoburb is contrary to the notion that the suburbs are dynamic locations of social mobility and whiteness in America.
The majority of new refugees, particularly those with resources, chose to live in suburbs instead of urban racial enclaves like Chinatown, which were once used as immigration gateway cities.
According to Min Zhou, a professor of sociology and Asian British research at UCLA, the deliberate protection of cultural values, relationships, and institutions is what makes non-white immigrants to the US acclimate.
Zhou also contends that the traditional knowledge of immigration and assimilation is offended by the strong influx of new Asian immigrants into traditionally white suburbs. Ethnoburb newcomers were non-white, didn’t often talk English, made substantially less effort to acculturate into white, and many of them were previously educated and educated. They went beyond the scope of an immigrant’s mind in America.
Some ethnoburb immigrants even had broad and transnational social networks, which helped shape their resistance to acculturate, in addition to higher education and income levels. To realize the middle-class dream of financial stability, they didn’t want to study English or travel through the cultural enclave.
The ethnoburb was not a” conducting surface” for there better or white. The ethnoburb was the last desired target.
In reality, contrary to popular notions, the ethnoburb was no nonpartisan or isolated at all. It was and remains a page of resistance against the permitting, bright thoughts of sprawl. With the introduction of Monterey Park as an Eastern ethnoburb, concerns over group identity, geographic restrictions, and the figure of Monterey Park became politicized.
First-generation immigrants were at the forefront of erecting boundaries of belonging, which were a priority for nativist white residents. Asian immigrants reshaped Monterey Park’s aesthetic and cultural identity in addition to changing the political landscape there. Traditional American perceptions of who immigrants are, the rules they must follow, and how they should act were hampered by this direct insertion of unassimilated Asian immigrants into traditionally white suburbs and its institutions.
On Nov. 8, 1983, Lily Lee Chen, a first-generation immigrant from Taiwan, was inaugurated in Monterey Park as the first Chinese American mayor in the nation. Chen was relatable, charismatic, and not assimilated. Chen’s speech was “accented with pauses and grammatical errors, characteristic of someone speaking in their second language,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
In a different 1985 Times article, Chen claimed to enjoy dressing in bright reds and jade greens despite being told by her consultant that her attractiveness would make her appear “aggressive.” During her campaign, she was met with fierce resistance from white residents, who commonly took down her neighbourhood campaign signs.
In response, Chen worked tirelessly to increase voter engagement among Latinos and Asian Americans, including working with Cesar Chavez to support the Latinos in Southern California. He also published multilingual voter handbooks, registered voters, and developed relationships with ethnic groups.
The same year as Chen’s election, Monterey Park’s five-member city council became multiethnic, with two Mexican Americans, one Filipino American, one Chinese American, and one white council member.
White flight accelerated and resentment grew among the minority of white residents as Monterey Park gained media attention as it was called a” successful suburban melting pot” and even won an” All-American City” award in 1985 for its civic engagement and racial diversity.
Racial tension increased as a result of the large influx and growing influence of Chinese immigrants over a short period of time, as well as growing disputes over cultural differences, language barriers, and explicit mistrust of immigrants. Chinese businesses, political candidates, religious institutions, and entrepreneurs became racialized targets of nativist animus.
The proliferation of business signs in languages other than English sparked a particularly contentious conflict. The remaining white residents ‘ white council members of color were replaced by three well-established white residents in 1986 when white hostility among them led to the launch of an anti-immigrant” English-only” campaign against the proliferation of Chinese business signage.
The” English-only” movement in Monterey Park reflects the struggle to control the identity and narrative of a built environment. It demonstrates the conflict between ethnoburb immigrants ‘ ideas of assimilation and those who have instead built their own unassimilable institutions and communities.
Frank Arcuri, one of the Monterey Park residents and community activists who started the” English-only” petition campaign, insisted,” Immigrants are welcome here, but they must realize that English is the language we use in America…. They must be aware that they are having a negative effect on our city. They must change their behavior. They must respect our culture and speak our language.
The nativist, incendiary language Arcuri employs is as American as apple pie, making it comparable to the replacement theory being promoted by white nationalist conspiracists today.
The English-only conflict illustrates the deeper, ideological tensions behind an increasingly diverse and polyglot constituency, composed of politically active immigrants, and nostalgic white residents desperately ( and at times violently ) clinging on to institutional power and a homogeneous past.
Traditionally, sociologists of immigration and assimilation theorists believed that all immigrant groups would eventually assimilate and integrate into white Protestant American institutions, culture, and society. They argued that doing so would serve the best interests of immigrants. They were also all white scholars. For the most part, what they theorized was true for European immigrants.
However, Asian immigrants in the ethnoburb remained proudly unassimilable and trans-national. While the ethnoburb was their final destination, they maintained diasporic ties. Many of the people who enjoyed socioeconomic status traveled to their home countries.
Not necessarily our assimilation into whiteness, but rather our diasporic connections to our motherlands and our ethnic communities are what contribute to our success in the United States.
Bianca Mabute-Louie is a sociology PhD candidate at Rice University.
This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Minister discusses many programs used to debunk misinformation, particularly about economic frauds
PUBLISHED: 13 Feb 2025 at 17: 43
The Ministry of Digital Economy and Society claims to be working with over 300 organizations to combat fake news while using artificial intelligence ( AI ) to verify news reports.
At the Centara Life Government Complex Hotel &, Convention Center in Bangkok on Thursday, Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong presided over a factory on coordinating the identification of false information and building sites.
He said his ministry established the Anti-Fake News Center ( AFNC ) in November 2019, with the primary goal of addressing and preventing the widespread problem, especially online crime-related misinformation.
The goal of the center is to immediately give the public correct information so they don’t fall for scams.
Mr Prasert said the government is working in partnership with more than 300 firms, including public and private organizations, civil society organisations and media outlets, to create a system for media identification.
The AFNC categorises false information into five main groupings that affect the public: state plans and countrywide protection, illegal goods or services, the economy, natural disasters, and online crime.
The public already accesses information on fraudulent information from the AFNC through diverse channels, including its site, which has had virtually 28 million views, and its Line established account, which is followed by near 2.8 million users. Its Facebook page has 120, 000 followers, and it is also active on X, TikTok and Instagram.
Since December 2022, the ministry has also partnered with the government’s Pao Tang app to alert users about fake news and online scams. The average number of monthly alerts last year was 23.5 million.
Additionally, partnerships have been established with 16 Thai banks and media outlets to raise awareness of fake news. Additionally, a memorandum of understanding with the Thai Media Fund, a public organization dedicated to promoting media literacy, has been signed in order to provide factual information to the general public.
The AFNC emphasizes developing understanding and working with its partners to provide accurate information to the public, according to Mr. Prasert.
” In the future, we will use AI to enhance the verification of news to identify whether it’s fake, distorted, or accurate. This effort will help to lessen the losses that people suffer from falling for scams that use social media as a means of deception.
Following a fire on an Air Busan plane last month, the South Korean government’s transportation ministry on Thursday ( Feb 13 ) announced measures to strengthen aviation safety rules. These include limiting the number and type of portable batteries allowed on flights. The methods take effect on March 1 afterContinue Reading
The Trump administration will likely have to come up with an original plan to put an end to the battle, and it is unlikely to be able to reach a complete agreement with Ukraine right away. There are some challenges to overcome, in part because the Russians have zero faith in anything coming from the West, in part because the Ukrainians are unreliable partners, and in part because Europe wants to keep the combat going.
In an interview with the New York Post, President Trump acknowledges having at least one phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and doesn’t act out having more. The Kremlin has not independently confirmed or refuted reports that names have occurred, but Russia officially claims that it has not received any ideas from the US area.
However, the US is sending Vice President J. D. Vance and retired Public Keith Kellogg to the Munich Security Conference. Zelensky will even attend the meeting, Kellogg says that he is preparing “options” for President Trump but didn’t disclose them at the Munich event.
What can be accomplished in Munich is unclear. In reality, US high level participation at the Munich event was really stifle any agreement with Russia because America’s Western colleagues are urging more war, no less. ( Of course, the Europeans expect America to keep footing the bill for the conflict. )
Russia sees Zelensky and the Europeans as having little or no reason to deal. Putin, however, plainly favors negotiating with the United States. Obviously, if a deal can be found, Putin believes that the only feasible agreement will be between Russia and the US.
The Russians have thrown in more resources to fight in Kursk, but as it appears right now, after some initial increases, the Russian insulting is being rolled up. In other areas, Ukraine is attempting to use more troops to occupy positions in Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk, two important cities. It is too soon to know if the Russian progress, slower and plodding as it is, may be halted. However, Ukraine is working hard to recover from its numerous field loses and is now using its F-16s for the first time to help front-line activities.
All in all, Ukraine is trying to buy time and stop a significant Russian advance that may cause a complete collapse in Ukraine’s threats. Zelensky’s issue is threefold:
I don’t believe the Trump presidency will deliver any great things to Zelensky. In fact, there are more than stories that the management wants to replace Zelensky with a more flexible management, possibly by the fall. Obviously, Zelensky does not consent and says that elections , would wreck the military.
While General Kellogg will consider options for President Trump’s consideration, many of the potential elements of a deal with Russia are already known ( and numerous press leaks tend to confirm what the administration is thinking ).
One option may be taken off the table immediately, unless it is apparently modified. That is the concept behind a ceasefire to end the battle. A peace would allow Ukraine to resurrect its defense and build up a new, bigger arsenal of weapons, according to the Russians. A ceasefire in area is similar in concept to what was agreed double ( 2014 and 2015 ) in the Minsk partnerships.
The level of confidence is so low now that it’s difficult to believe that the Russians will back any claims, such as stopping any additional arms sales to Ukraine.
Although it’s unclear whether acknowledging Russia’s wars in Ukraine means de facto understanding of the status quo or, rather, de law popularity that the captured lands are a legal part of Russia, the alleged US plan also includes a acknowledgement of the conquests by Russia in Ukraine.
Under the now defunct Minsk agreements, Donetsk and Luhansk would have remained part of Ukraine and subject to ( some ) Ukrainian laws and administration, but would in some unspecified manner be autonomous with protections for the Russian-speaking population of these territories. It is obvious that concept has been superseded by Russia’s settlements of these lands, which also include Zaphorize, Kherson and Crimea.
Without a long-term agreement between the external and internal events, the Ukraine war never come to an end.
It appears that the Trump administration is not opposed to reversing any upcoming Ukrainian participation in NATO.  , Keeping NATO out of Ukraine is a vital requirement made by the Russians. There is a concern, yet.
If Ukraine is to join NATO, Zelensky has argued that he will need protection offers from the US and NATO troops to protect Ukraine. One can ask, what is the difference in practice if there are NATO troops in Ukraine ( perhaps officially as peacekeepers ) and security guarantees?
In fact, this is exchanging one difficulty, NATO membership, for another, NATO military and security offers.
A cushion zone, which is still undefined, is one way out of this conundrum. The alleged peacekeeping force may either work in the buffer area or remain outside of it. Who would be in charge of creating a cushion area, and how could it be managed?
In the Minsk agreements, the , Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe , ( OSCE ) was supposed to help keep the peace and prevent violations of the deal. It was a loss, and the OSCE is unlikely to do so once more. Today there are not many other applicants. The UN had serve some sort of monitoring function, similar to the OSCE, but the UN’s performance abroad has been far from stellar.
The Ukraine kerfuffle has many other problems, too. Russia does want its cash reserves in European and American businesses  , returned, apparently with interest. Whatever it may be fair, the arrest of Russian funds is likely to violate international law. Those assets are  , valued at around$ 300 billion, perhaps more. Ukraine has received the information gained from the seized Russian resources.
Another problem of some result is the gas and oil pipelines. Nordstream, for instance, was largely destroyed by “unknown” events. You Russia, one of the owners in Nordstream,  , require compensation?
In addition, there is the broader spectrum of sanctions, including the bank and SWIFT system, blocking transport and sales of products and other limitations that affect Russia. You Trump offer the Russians restrictions comfort, and can he get Europe to collaborate? Get note that General Kellogg is suggesting , greatly increasing the sanctions , then as a way to force Russia into a package.
Internally, there is a problem with Russian speakers being protected in Ukrainian cities and towns that are under Ukraine’s command. Infringes on Western political and human rights standards by enacting cultural and religious laws in Ukraine. Did a resolution to peace require that Ukraine reform them?
Given the breadth of the issues and Trump’s unwillingness to support any agreement that rewards the Russians, the EU and its main supporters ( Germany and France ), are, it is unlikely that Trump will be able to secure a comprehensive agreement.
This suggests that the Trump administration may possibly attempt to “move the knife” on a package by creating potential future alternative mechanisms in trade for ending the fighting, with the remaining issues left for future discussions.
Even though doing this requires a difficult path, the Russians will want very strong and binding assurances regarding Ukrainian weapons, particularly long-range weapons like the USHIMARS and ATACMS and the British-French Stormshadow/SCALP EG.
Other than being subjected to pressure to keep the war in Ukraine going, it is unclear what Vance and Kellogg will bring home from Munich. Trump will have to work with the Russians to see if there is a way forward while Trump will have to rely on his NATO partners to watch him closely.
Stephen Bryen is a former US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy and a special correspondent for Asia Times. This article, which originally appeared on his Substack newsletter Weapons and Strategy, is republished with permission.
Interest rates have been cut by India’s northern banks for the first time in nearly five years to stop Asia’s third-largest business from growing faster.
The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI ) reduced its repo rate from 6.5 % to 6.25 %, in line with the expectations of many economists.
The mortgage rate is the price at which business banks are lent by the central bank.
The most recent reduction occurs when India’s GDP growth is reported to have slowed to a four-year low of 6.7 %.
Sanjay Malhotra, the governor of the RBI, stated that the banks was continuing to hold its policy position as “neutral,” which would open up more space for growth and signaled more rate cuts.
In the fastest-growing big economy, the world’s investment growth and urban consumption have been declining. In addition, business gains decreased during the first quarter of this fiscal year.
But moderating prices, an increase in rural need and great agricultural output did help development, said Mr Malhotra.
The rate cut could lead to marginally lower mortgage and credit card interest rates as well as cheaper borrowing costs for companies.
The central bank’s rate reduction follows a range of measures previously announced, including an injection of$ 18bn ( £14.48bn ) into the domestic banking system, to ease a cash shortage in the economy.
Additionally, it had reduced the cash reserve ratio, or the resources that commercial businesses must keep with the RBI, by half a cent in December.
The RBI’s price walk follows the Union Budget’s$ 12bn tax cut for the struggling middle class.
Despite this, Mr Modi’s government aims to curb saving to decrease the budget deficit. With limited space for fiscal stimulus, economists expect the central bank to cut rates further by 0.5 % –1 % to support growth, according to various estimates.
The RBI’s work has been hampered by world uncertainties caused by US President Donald Trump’s tax war, an outflow of foreign investor money, and a degrading currency, which may further diminish if rates come down.
Due to heavy foreign buyer flows from stock markets in recent months, the Indian rupees is trading near record highs.
Japan – So far, China has had a little better-than-feared encounter with the Donald Trump 2.0 president.
In reality, Xi Jinping’s Communist Party is probably relieved to discover Trump stifling world markets, torn political relationships, and destroying the soft power that America has come to rely on so much for decades to accumulate in just 18 days.
Elon Musk, a Trump benefactor, is filmed slinging dust into US institutions and using it to espionage sensitive data, affecting trust both domestically and abroad.
Increase in Trump’s concern over his disastrous trade war. Though Trump went away with 10 % levies on Xi’s business, that was just one-sixth of the 60 % he had threatened. At the same time, the Price Man-in-chief backed away from 25 % levies on Canada and Mexico. For today, at least.
But Wall Street now senses Trump’s retreat. The biggest player in the cutting of US companies a few days ago. Today, many investors are concluding Trump’s taxes leg competition is far more wood than bit.
The principles that surround Trump 2.0 and the fear of a stock market collapse and the backlash from the oligarchs who are trying to control the country are varied. Trump’s businessman entourage is evidently worried about their earnings.
It’s possible, too, that Trump’s advisers are warning him that threatening a massive trade war are one point, devastating the world market, and Wall Street with it, is quite another.
Since Trump’s surprise victory in November, Xi has been promoting China as a more robust power than the US as the protector of free business and international economic institutions. Beijing says it stands ready to protect modernization from” serious problems” amid a “new period of volatility and shift” and disruption.
CEOs gathered in Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC ) summit in November told Xi,” Dividing an interdependent world is going back in history.”
Xi was harkening again to 2017, when a turbulent Trump 1.0 White House was likewise spooking global markets. Xi in Davos stated to CEOs that trade wars and protectionism may result in “injury and damage to both sides” at the time.
However, according to Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,” there is now Washington is located in the scheme equivalent of Tornado Alley, battered by a storm of confusing and norm-shattering professional commands that promise to upend eight years of US internationalism.”
Plan experts, Patrick says, “have become storm-chasers, tracking down the latest offense in the hopes of answering a simple question: Just what is the White House hoping to accomplish with all this conflict”?
No recent step tells us more about Trump’s “disdain for America’s global reputation” than the “reckless and arguably illegal and unconstitutional effort to dismantle” the US Agency for International Development ( USAID ) without legislative approval,” Patrick says.
The episode exposes Trump’s contextual relativism, which recognizes that the US has no purpose in world affairs. These misplaced choices may harm Americans themselves.
Yet as Trump complains about China’s supremacy, he’s paving the way for Asia’s biggest economy to grow its effect at America’s price. Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative ( BRI ) expands its colossal infrastructure investment strategy around the world, especially in the Global South, by ending US development aid.
” None of these individuals has any thought of how the universe works,” says Stuart Stevens, a lifelong Republican strategist whose latest book is titled” The Conspiracy to Stop America.”” The country’s greatest authority wants to have as little impact as Liechtenstein. ” Either by design or unwittingly, Stevens says, the Trump-Musk label group is” going to give away National energy” to China and Russia.
Yun Sun, director of China programs at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based consider container, adds that any” decay of US management and credibility does gain China.”
That goes, also, for Chinese goods. There is confusion over why Trump’s Treasury Department gave Musk exposure to the US national payments system amid the legislation conflict in Washington.
Owners and Eastern central banks sat on hills of US Treasury securities are already sufficiently concerned about Washington’s persistently high inflation and US$ 36 trillion debt load. Then they may be concerned about a number of tech bros scurrying around Washington’s financial system for enigmatic reasons.
If Tokyo, which holds more than$ 1.1 trillion of US Treasuries, or Beijing, with$ 770 billion, doubt the sanctity of the reserve currency, it might result in titanically large debt sales and surging yields.
Though the economic fallout would rattle China’s 2025, the longer-term gains may be worth the short-term problems. It may, at a minimum, perform into Xi’s fingers as he works to export the yuan. The dollar’s influence on global commerce and finance increased over the past ten years ‘ Xi’s party.
On top of Trump’s extreme strength grabs, he’s pushing to implement another multi-trillion-dollar duty cut, wrestle decision-making power away from the Federal Reserve and apparently degrade the dollar. The odds of credit rating organizations allowing US debt to remain unchanged are decreasing.
Trump’s MAGA plan to end America’s low-cost, high-impact foreign aid programs to help fund tax cuts for the ultrawealthy is a blow to US influence abroad, according to Alan Yu, senior vice president at the Center for American Progress think tank.
Trump, Musk, and their allies are satisfied, but the aid attacks have also stifled trust and uncertainty among American allies and partners, which the United States relies on to maintain world security, Yusays.
The programs Trump is pausing, Yu explains”, strengthen the capabilities of partner nations, deter adversaries, and reduce the need for direct military intervention.”
In particular, he adds, the status of assistance to Ukraine, critical to sustaining Kyiv’s war effort against Russia, remains ambiguous. Military assistance to Taiwan, which relies on US training and equipment to deter Chinese aggression, has also been thrown into uncertainty.
To be sure, many observers think the tariffs will eventually be imposed. The justification is that you don’t talk about the power of trade restrictions and how crucial they are to rebuilding America. Also, the ways in which Xi is pushing back may have Trump’s gang of anti-China advisors, including Peter Navarro, apoplectic.
As such, says Dominique Dwor-Frecaut, chief US economist at advisory Macro Hive”, tariff increases are likely to proceed on two tracks. The long-term track is broad-based, gradual and meant to generate revenues and support reshoring. Meanwhile, the’ opportunistic’ track is country-specific, aggressive and meant to exert leverage on trade partners.”
Dwor-Frecaut notes that during his confirmation hearing, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained that tariff policy had three objectives: revenue generation, reshoring and leverage in trade negotiations”. Because the goals for generating revenue and reshoring are long-term, permanent tariff increases are required. Also, this is likely to lift prices, possibly inflation, and lower growth.”
Thickening the plot, Xi’s party struck back with tit-for-tat tariffs on US energy, manufacturing and minerals while hitting Google with an antitrust investigation. Overall, economists and analysts say, it’s a reasonable and proportional response that leaves the door open to future negotiations.
According to Julian Evans-Pritchard, an analyst for Capital Economics China, “fairly modest” is how it sounds.
However, Ian Bremmer, CEO of Eurasia Group, believes that the prospect of a market-wrecking conflict between Washington and Beijing fundamentally misunderstands both the scope of Trump’s strategy and the nature of US-China relations during the Xi era.
According to Bremmer,” the most geopolitically significant relationship in the world is fundamentally adversarial and devoid of trust.” The Biden administration made a significant effort to create and maintain 25 high-level bilateral channels across the cabinet as the only reason it remained comparatively stable in 2024.
Team Trump, by contrast”, has no interest in putting in that kind of painstaking diplomatic work for a relationship they view as fundamentally adversarial,” Bremmer says”. Without those safeguards, there will be few management and communication strategies to stop even minor incidents from developing into major crises.
Can Trump get past this reality and coerce Beijing into signing a deal? Bremmer thinks not.
” The problem, “he says”, is that his strongman tactics only work against much weaker countries. When he threatens Colombia and Panama with tariffs, they have no choice but to capitulate because, in the event that their economies would collapse, they would have to. However, hitting down is simple. China is a completely different game. It has the power and leverage to retaliate against the US in ways that other nations cannot. And punch back it will.”
According to economist Alicia Garcia Herrero at Natixis, the question that no one can answer is whether Trump might respond to Beijing’s initial retaliation in broader ways. If]Trump ] doubles down, China will have a problem,” she notes.
Agatha Kratz, economist at the Rhodium Group, tells AFP that” given the current economic downturn, China cannot afford – and does not want – to impose excessive trade barriers. China’s economy is in a fragile state, and this limits its ability to act freely. Beijing cannot afford to take reckless actions, and I don’t think it wants to.”
The bottom line is that no one really knows, so perhaps it’s best to remain agile, says Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment officer at BMO Wealth Management”. Be patient and opportunistic – there may be a time to be aggressive, but it isn’t upon us yet,” Ma notes.
According to Ma,” President Donald Trump may be willing to let the US suffer a lot of economic pain in an effort to realize his stated goals of reducing trade deficits, bringing jobs to the US, and improving border security.”
We still anticipate that the US will impose more tariffs on China later this year as part of its larger trade goals, according to Morgan Stanley’s economists, which will only lead to further retaliatory actions from China.
Part of the issue is Trump’s frustration that efforts to date haven’t slowed China’s trajectory. That goes both for Trump 1.0 policies and those of Joe Biden’s White House”. From DeepSeek to Huawei, US tech restrictions on China are backfiring,” says Diana Choyleva at Enodo Economics.
In fact, Choyleva argues, US efforts to curb China’s technological advancements may be having the opposite effect: accelerating China’s move upmarket toward self-reliance and innovation.
Huawei, Huawei, and others are providing case studies on how China Inc. is developing workarounds for US chip and other tech export controls. Along with creating genuine obstacles, decoupling efforts are incentivizing domestic innovation.
China has other opportunities ripened by Trump’s tariffs. For one thing, they’ll cost America’s friends, particularly staunch US allies Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and certain governments in Southeast Asia.
Hard feelings between Washington and top Asian democracies could generate greater distrust, increasing China’s appeal as an alternative. It has given Xi the moral support she needs, and it has made her appear more committed to capitalist principles than tycoon Trump.
Xi’s party is still benefiting from Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which later became the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership ( CPTPP ) without the US.
Trump 2.0, in contrast, is clinging to misguided interests in bilateral trade agreements over wider efforts to establish a Chinese military fortress.
In particular, Carnegie’s Patrick notes, the demise of USAID is an early win for Beijing. Many innocent people around the world will pass away if the agency does. As for the United States ‘ continued reputation as a nation that values its own self-interest and values itself in international affairs, Patrick concludes,” so will it do so.”
Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek
