Japan breaks with Trump in a South African embrace – Asia Times

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Last year, South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile met with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, and various government and private sector officials in Tokyo.

Their discussions were intended to promote bilateral trade, expense, and cooperation, strengthening a relationship that does help Japan offset some of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and give South Africa some breathing room following Trump’s most recent decision to halt financial aid to the nation.

Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition Parks Tau, Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Thandi Moraka, Deputy Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation Nomalungelo Gina, Minister of Higher Education Nobuhle Nkabane, and Minister of Game, Arts, and Culture Gayton McKenzie were all present in Mashatile’s group.

Members of the South African delegation met with representatives from the Association of the African Economy and Development in Japan Committee ( AFRECO ), the Japan Business Federation ( Keidanren ), the Japan External Trade Organization ( JETRO ), the Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA ), and the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security ( JOGMEC ).

Japan is one of South Africa’s larger trading and investment colleagues, and it ranks sixth on the list of countries where West African products can trade. Additionally, Tokyo provides the African nation with significant amounts of overseas development assistance ( ODA ) and foreign direct investment ( FDI).

According to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, South Africa’s exports to Japan totaled 790.9 billion yen ($ 5.3 billion ), while its imports totaled 288.5 billion yen ($ 1.9 billion ). Japan accounted for 5.2 % of South Africa’s total exports, followed by China ( including Hong Kong ) for 13.8 % and the US for 8.3 %.

In 2024, 31 % of South Africa’s exports went to other African nations, 25 % to Europe, 9 % to North America, and 2 % to other regions, for reference.

Source: worldstopexports .com

South Africa imports technology, electric, visual, medical equipment, medicine, iron and steel, gold, silver, various metals, ores, and agricultural products from Japan, as well as other metals and ores.

With 273 businesses operating in the country, Japan is a major investment in the South African economy, according to Deputy President Mashatile in his presentation speech at United Nations University in Tokyo on March 18. This provides over 200, 000 local job opportunities for some South Africans.

Toyota, Toyota’s party trading partner Toyota Tsusho, Sumitomo Corporation, Fujitsu, NEC and Fujitsu, machine manufacturer Fanuc, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and Fujifilm, a company that specializes in digital cameras, visual artists, and medical imaging, are just a few examples.

In Durban, Toyota South Africa Motors builds rider and truck vehicles. From its bases in Durban and Pretoria, Toyota Tsusho Africa provides logistics, material processing, parts assembly, and materials and parts purchasing to the South American auto industry.

Mashatile remarked to the audience that” the two nations improved their relationships in 2010 to a strategic cooperation partnership,” with particular strong relationships “in the areas of trade and investment, science and technology, and support for education and skills creation.”

The total amount of Japan’s ODA loans, grants, and technical assistance to South Africa is estimated to be worth 47 billion yen ($ 350 million at the time ). This is according to data from the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s 2022 ( the most recent available ).

Global Trade Portal also has data for 2022, which places Japan 9th in total FDI to South Africa at$ 3 billion, far behind former colonial powers the Netherlands and the UK ($ 63.7 billion ), which account for about a quarter of the investments made by Belgium and the US ($ 11.8 billion ), and about half the amount for China ($ 5.9 billion ). However, Japanese investment in South Africa has increased significantly since then: according to Statista and JETRO data, it is currently worth about$ 5 billion.

The Trump government’s proposed steel and aluminum taxes would have an impact on both South Africa and Japan. According to Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO of the business organization Business Leadership SA ( BLSA ),” steel and aluminum account for about 8.5 % of what we export to the US, &nbsp, so the 25 % tariff will put pressure on those volumes.”

In response to what his administration says are human rights violations against the majority light Afrikaners and their allies in its foreign policy stance regarding Israel, the Palestinians, and Iran, Trump has also cancelled US financial support to South Africa. The US has even expressed its disapproval of South Africa’s close ties with Russia and China.

Four Republican lawmakers wrote to Trump in February pleading for more severe action, saying:” We urge you to withdraw South Africa’s taste benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act [AGOA]; we also advise that you think about suspending diplomatic relationships unless that state is willing to engage constructively with our own.”

In this context, Mavuso of BLSA points out that” The deal balance favors SA and supports many jobs, particularly through great value-added manufactured products.” Our respected private sectors have close ties to over 600 American businesses operating in this country. However, we must also maintain our wider global relations in perception, which include many of our rapidly expanding industry, which offer opportunities for our businesses.

Deputy President Mashatile stated at the Foreign Correspondents ‘ Club of Japan on March 19 that” we are focusing on stabilizing our relationship with the United States of America,” but that the state is even working to expand its imports, mentioning Japan, China, Russia, Europe, and the Africa Free Trade Area in this regard. Mashatile questioned how tiny nations could handle the US, citing self-reliance.

According to him, the removal of US economic assistance results in an 8 billion rand ($ 437 million ) shortfall in the budget for TB and HIV healthcare programs, which have a particularly severe impact on the rural poor. That is reasonable, yet. The expenditure is being revised, and other nations are also offering help. For more than 20 times, JICA has been making a difference in Africa through the identification, prevention, and treatment of HIV and TB.

Akihiko Tanaka and Mashatile discussed a range of topics at their two-day meeting, including participation in science and technology research, and solar power. Tanaka expressed his hope that South Africa would take its traditional leadership position during the upcoming August 9th Tokyo International Conference on African Development ( TICAD ).

Since 1993, the Asian government has been organizing the TICAD meeting that is hosted by the UN, the World Bank, and the African Union Commission.

Mashatile concluded by saying that” this trip for us was really successful” and that frank discussions of issues affecting West African buyers, such as the security and stability of the power source, were on hand. Given the criticisms made against South Africa in the US, he said it was good to be able to speak directly.

According to Mashatile,” South Africa and Africa have a trusted and reputable ally in Japan,” the company plans to have a “huge impact” in the coming years as more Chinese companies come to South Africa to produce goods, improve the energy grid, and employ and train native workers.

He added that “protectionism is not going to help anybody,” and that tariffs must be reasonable and not in the way of sustainable development.

Follow this writer on&nbsp, X: @ScottFo83517667

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DR Congo conflict tests China’s diplomatic balancing act

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Jack Lau

Global China Unit, BBC World Service

Getty Images Two men in fatigues one holding a weapon, on guard, in the city of Bukavu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo - February 2025.Getty Images

China’s efforts to build up huge business interests across Africa have been accompanied by a careful policy of maintaining neutrality – but the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo has caused a shift in its approach.

Rwanda has been widely accused of stoking the fighting in the mineral-rich region and Beijing, which has close relations with both DR Congo and Rwanda, has in recent weeks joined the criticism.

But it is trying to walk a diplomatic tightrope to maintain good relations with both countries, while also continuing to operate its businesses – and buy crucial minerals.

How is China’s response to this conflict different?

For decades, China has been careful not to take sides in conflicts in Africa, to avoid causing problems that might interfere with its extensive commercial interests.

Up to now it has shied away from criticising African governments for supporting participants in a conflict.

For example, China has said little about the series of coups since 2020 in West Africa’s Sahel region, except to urge leaders to consider the interests of the people.

Beijing has long pursued a policy of non-interference in another state’s internal affairs, says Prof Zhou Yuyuan, who specialises in African development and security at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS).

It therefore avoids proposing solutions to conflicts, apart from calling for diplomatic or political efforts by international organisations such as the UN or the African Union.

The unrest involving Rwandan-back M23 rebels in eastern DR Congo reared its head again in 2021. The fighters are led by ethnic Tutsis who say they took up arms to protect the rights of the minority group – and because the Congolese authorities reneged on an earlier peace deal.

In its early comments on these developments, China restricted itself to criticising unnamed “foreign forces” for providing support to the M23 fighters.

But in the last few weeks it has broken from its usual practice and referred to Rwanda by name.

This follows major gains by the M23, which since January has captured the key cities of Goma and Bukavu.

“China reiterates its hope that Rwanda will… stop its military support for M23 and immediately withdraw all its military forces from the DRC territory,” China’s UN ambassador said in February.

Prof Zhou notes that though significant, the “wording in general is still relatively mild”.

“China ‘hoped’ that Rwanda would stop its support but did not condemn it,” he says.

However, soon afterwards China backed a UN Security Council resolution which bluntly calls on the Rwanda Defence Forces to “cease support to the M23 and immediately withdraw from DRC territory without preconditions”.

Why has China made this shift?

According to Prof Zhou, China’s statements are likely to have been prompted by UN expert reports, which have provided strong evidence of Rwanda’s support for the M23.

“This is a basic consensus in the UN Security Council,” he added.

“The problem has been going on long enough, and everyone knows in their hearts the basic situation. There’s no need to be hush-hush any more.”

Neither China’s mission to the UN nor its embassy in London responded when asked why China had criticised Rwanda.

But the critical importance to China of DR Congo’s renowned mineral wealth may have been a factor.

Fighting in eastern DR Congo has been concentrated in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, home to many Chinese-run gold mines.

How these mines have been affected by the fighting is so far unclear.

The M23 has also seized territory containing mines for coltan ore, which China imports in large volumes.

The metal tantalum, used in cars and everyday electronics from TV sets to mobile phones, is extracted from this ore, and DR Congo is the source of 40% of the world’s supply.

A UN expert group said in December 2024 that the M23 had smuggled coltan to Rwanda from DR Congo. It also noted that Rwanda’s coltan exports rose by 50% between 2022 and 2023.

Although Rwanda has its own coltan mines, analysts say they could account for such a large increase in production.

It is not yet clear whether the volume or the price of coltan imported by China has been affected.

Another mineral that China imports from DR Congo is cobalt, which is crucial for the lithium battery industry.

However, China’s cobalt mining operations are primarily based in southern DR Congo, away from the conflict zones in the east.

Dozens of Chinese companies, many of which are state-owned, are also building roads, telecommunications and hydropower facilities in DR Congo. But it seems that the impact on these activities has so far been minimal.

Does China provide military support to Rwanda or DR Congo?

China’s supplies weapons to both Rwanda and DR Congo.

In the past two decades, the Rwandan military has bought Chinese armoured vehicles, artillery and anti-tank missiles, according to the think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

China posted a military attaché to the country for the first time in 2024.

While UN experts say the Rwandan military has armed the M23, it is unclear whether the rebel group is using any Chinese weapons.

The Congolese armed forces have bought Chinese armoured personnel carriers and drones.

They also own Chinese tanks, which were bought in 1976 but were still in use as recently as 2022.

It is reported that the drones, at least, have been used in the fight against the M23.

Have China’s relations with either country been affected?

The Rwandan embassy in Beijing said ties with China remained “excellent and productive”, and it was not for Rwanda to comment on China’s statement about the fighting in eastern DR Congo.

The Chinese ambassador to DR Congo, Zhao Bin, held discussions with Congolese Senate President Sama Lukonde in early February but no details of the meeting were made public.

China’s economic activities in the two countries go very deep. They are both part of China’s Belt and Road initiative, designed to stitch China closer to the world through investments and infrastructure projects.

In Rwanda, China has funded stadiums, schools and highways. Chinese loans are also funding infrastructure projects – a loan to fund a dam and irrigation system, worth an estimated $40m (£31m), was confirmed in January.

For years most goods imported into Rwanda have come from China.

When it comes to China’s economic ties with DR Congo, the UN Comtrade Database shows that for years China has been DR Congo’s top trading partner.

China has gone to great lengths to secure access to DR Congo’s mineral wealth.

It extended $3.2bn (£2.5bn) of loans to the country between 2005 and 2022, according to the Chinese Loans to Africa Database run by Boston University, mostly to fund road and bridge construction, and the country’s electricity grid.

China has financed and built other large-scale infrastructure projects in DR Congo, including hydropower plants and a dry port.

These investments may suggest it is in China’s long-term interests to find a resolution to the conflict quickly.

Map showing M23's area of operations in eastern DR Congo
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‘Numb’ and ‘humiliated’: Why China’s football dream lies in tatters

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Nick Marsh

BBC News

Getty Images A Chinese supporter wipes her eye while watching her team lose to Syria in 2023.Getty Images

China’s national football team hit its lowest ebb on a warm, humid Thursday evening in Saitama.

With a min left on the time and trailing Japan 6-0, Foreign defenders were good asking for the sweet pleasure of the final whistling.

Takefusa Kubo, a Japanese politician, was however unkind. After watching his teammates toys with their opponents for a while, he received a slip on the top of the Chinese field and rammed house Japan’s sixth goal.

The man known as” Japanese Messi” led China to their worst-ever defeat in a World Cup qualifier when the ball soared into the roof of the net.

The 7-0 beating in September- described as “rock-bottom” by a Shanghai-based paper – followed a year-long series of degrading loses which included costs to Oman, Uzbekistan and Hong Kong.

But things were going to get worse.

A week later dozens of players, educators and administrators were arrested for gaming, match-fixing and corruption as part of a two-year spacecraft into corruption in the private activity.

And they continue to fall. On Tuesday, Australia beat China 2-0 in Hangzhou- filling them at the bottom of their World Cup qualifying party.

China had long since had the idea of becoming a sports power.

The nation’s largest population, a growing market and a determined Communist Party led by an avid sports fan, President Xi Jinping. What might be bad?

Evidently, quite a lot.

Three wants made by Xi Jinping

When Xi came to power in 2012, his passion for the game spurred a push to reform and boost Chinese sports. He once said that his goal was for China to host the World Cup and finally get it. These were his” three wants”.

However, perhaps Xi appeared to have lost the trust ten years later. While making small talk with Thailand’s premier minister on the outside of an international conference in 2023, the Chinese leader was heard saying that China had “got happy” in a new success against Thailand.

Getty Images Xi Jinping shakes hands with young footballers. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is next to him.Getty Images

According to Mark Dreyer, a Beijing-based sports writer,” When China’s federal puts its head to anything, it really often fails.” ” Look at electric vehicles, look at the Olympics. China is essentially tops in every industry you can think of.

But soccer, it seems, was not live in the hold of the Communist Party.

The Chinese Football Association ( CFA ) must have “legal autonomy,” according to a significant government report from 2015 that said it should be “independent” of the General Administration of Sport ( GAS ).

Yet Xi admitted that if China wanted to succeed, therefore the Party would have to do what it sometimes does: let go.

Beijing, however, refused to let go.

” China’s disappointment in sports has become a national embarrassment and figuring out the grounds has become a regional obsession”, Rowan Simons, writer of Bamboo Goalposts: One Man’s Quest to Teach the People’s Republic of China to Like Football, told the BBC.

” But to me, the factors are very clear, and they reveal a lot about how the nation is run,” he said.

The difficulty, he and another argue, is that China’s one-party position imposes selections from the bottom. This promotes economic development, but it fails to produce good results in team sports competitions.

Although Fifa prohibits state intervention, Chinese football is riddled with political meetings. This is prevalent in China, where the Party controls the majority of people affairs.

The current chairman of the CFA, Song Cai, is also a Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party. A senior government official at the GAS oversees his job.

” Everything has to record upwards to Communist Party leaders. In essence, non-football players are making sport selections, according to Mr. Dreyer. ” Football has to be grassroots-led. The skill starts to flow to the top at the bottom of the tower.

All major sports governments have a “pyramid” of teams. The wealthy professional clubs are at the bottom, supported by a sizable number of aspiring and semi-professional groups, all of whom are battling to advance.

For a tower flourishes on a tradition of playing sports, en masse, for fun. The better the best players may be, the larger the share to pick from.

Getty Images A child in an orange beanie and orange sneakers playing football on a playground in Beijing, China. Getty Images

” If you look at every land where sport is truly successful, the activity has grown naturally as a local activity over the past 100 years”, Mr Simons says. The Chinese professional football team has consistently failed because its tower is turned upside down, according to the report.

The data bear this out: England’s 1.3 million registered participants dwarf China’s fewer-than-100, 000 players. Despite having a community that is 20 periods larger than England’s, this is.

” Children here don’t grow up with a game at their feet. Without that, “you won’t develop wealthy talent,” says Mr. Dreyer.

Top-level sports in Europe and South America traces its roots to streets and parks in every town and village. However, the press started in China in Beijing.

It wasn’t until the 1990s that the government set up the country’s earliest skilled group. It led to a few prestigious leagues in big cities, but it also neglected the community.

Keen to please their leaders, representatives in this top-down program certainly opt for a” short-termist” approach that sacrifices real progress over time for rapid changes, Mr Dreyer explains.

Some immigrants who have played in China claim that young players lack a healthy understanding of the game because of the tightly managed program.

A German now playing in China, who did not wish to reveal his name, told the BBC that while many Taiwanese people are “technically good”, they lack “football IQ” at critical moments on the ball.

You don’t see so much creativity and fundamental decision-making in this, the player says. These are things we instinctively learn as children.

‘ I’m very sorry’: A dream shattered

This does not imply that China has a deep love for football.

While the men’s team, currently ranked 90th in the world, is seen as a constant disappointment, the women’s team, ranked 17th, has been a source of pride for years.

In 2023, a record 53 million people tuned in to watch them play and lose 6-1 to England at the World Cup, and many people in China have referred to them as the “real” guozu or national team.

The men’s Super League boasts the highest average attendance of any league in Asia. Its heyday was fueled by a booming economy and a wave of investment from state-owned enterprises, which was at its height in the 2010s.

But it was short-lived.

Getty Images An aerial view shows an empty training centre of Jiangsu FC, including the main building flanked by football pitchesGetty Images

More than 40 professional clubs have closed as a result of the pandemic and the country’s economic slump as a result of the state-backed companies ‘ withdrawals. Private companies, too, have proved fickle in their commitment.

Jiangsu FC was purchased by Suning Appliance Group in 2015, which also previously owned the top Italian club Inter Milan. The club went on to win the Super League in 2020. However, Suning announced months later that they would be closing the club so that they could concentrate on their retail operation.

The demise of Guangzhou Evergrande, China’s most successful team ever, is yet another example.

Under the direction of Italian legends like Marcello Lippi and Fabio Cannavaro, they won trophy after trophy under the supervision of property giant Evergrande Group. But as they found glory at home and in Asia, their parent company was overstretching itself in an inflated property market.

With arrears of more than$ 300 billion ( £225 billion ), Evergrande is now the world’s most indebted real estate company and the poster-child of China’s housing crisis.

Its former club – now in the hands of new owners – was expelled from the league in January. After years of splurging, the eight-time champions are still struggling to pay off their debt.

Getty Images Players of Guangzhou Evergrande in their yellow kit pose for photo ahead of a match in Mayalsia.Getty Images

But that is not the only crisis engulfing Chinese football. Another issue was brought on by its rapid growth: corruption.

” I should have followed the right path. In a documentary about 2024, Li Tie, the former head of China’s national men’s team, claims that” I was just doing what was customary at the time.”

In that documentary, Li makes a shocking admission: for years he fixed matches and paid bribes to get certain jobs, including 3m yuan ( £331, 000,$ 418, 500 ) to become the national team coach in 2019.

He wears an all-black outfit and writes,” I’m very sorry,” on a written confession.

China’s national team was made to watch the documentary by state broadcaster CCTV while preparing for last year’s Asian Cup in Qatar.

The first episode of a four-part series on corruption in China,” Continued Efforts, Deepening Progress,” was co-produced by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

In it, dozens of Chinese officials confess- always to camera- to staggering levels of corruption across a variety of industries.

The authorities showed their serious concern about graft in the sport by airing the football episode first.

Li, who appeared in a World Cup and once played for Premier League side Everton, is the most high-profile figure to have been apprehended last year in an unprecedented slew of anti-corruption arrests in Chinese football.

In December, he was sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Getty Images Li Tie, dressed in a black training top, throws up a football.Getty Images

Also publicly shamed in the documentary are former CFA chairman Chen Xuyuan and ex-deputy director of the GAS, Du Zhaocai.

One fan told CCTV,” The corruption of these officials has broken our hearts. ” I’m not surprised”, said another.

There was a system of “open bidding” among players for their spot in the squad, according to one former national team player who spoke to a BBC radio documentary about it in 2015 in an anonymous interview.

” I could have won many more caps, but I didn’t have the cash”, he said.

It would take another ten years before corruption in football came into focus. Some suggest this was prompted by China’s intolerably bad performances on the pitch.

Given how other sports are flourishing in the nation, the struggles of China’s men’s football team are all the more concerning.

Decades of investment in infrastructure and training have taken China from a sporting backwater to a medal-winning machine that recently equalled the United States with 40 golds at the Paris Olympics.

However, many of these are individual sports, like weightlifting, swimming, and diving, which require fewer resources and, crucially, less emphasis on community-led grassroots initiatives than a game like football.

They are also less lucrative and, therefore, less vulnerable to corruption and mismanagement.

Getty Images Japanese players celebrate in front a dejected Chinese player.Getty Images

Officials in China face greater challenges than football problems as the country’s economy recovers from a sustained downturn.

But that is little consolation to fans.

Particularly stung by the loss to Japan. While Japan have gone from strength to strength over the past two decades, China have failed to qualify for a single World Cup.

The Oriental Sports Daily continued to say that when the bitterness hits its peak, all that is left is numbness the day after the loss.

According to Mr Dreyer, Japan’s approach is antithetical to China’s: a long-term vision, a lack of political interference and a commercially savvy club structure.

Even so, he adds,” The fan culture here in China is still remarkably good.” ” They deserve so much more”.

Following Tuesday’s defeat against Australia, both their disappointment and their humor showed.

” It seems like the national team’s performance is as consistent as ever”, wrote one fan on social media. Another joke claimed that if China wants to continue growing economically, its football team must suffer to maintain a balance between “national fortune” and national prosperity.

Perhaps they had resigned themselves to what a popular Chinese journalist had written in his blog after Japan beat China.

He noted that singing odes or telling stories cannot boost football. ” It needs skill, and physical and tactical training. It cannot be accomplished through politics.

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‘Question of life and death’: NGOs in Southeast Asia fear the worst for vulnerable groups amid sharp USAID cuts

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Arlina and Pereira both acknowledged that some factors are more difficult to fund than others when it comes to obtaining money from politicians, brands, or businesses.

In contrast to, say, ecology, Pereira said, human smuggling is typically” not so beautiful, or doesn’t provide the PR image that a lot of contributors are looking for.”

Pereira fears that if there aren’t enough labor rights organizations working to protect migratory staff ‘ happiness, the US may reverse its decision to suspend foreign aid.

He said,” We are not overdependent on US aid; it’s just the nature of the development world,” calling on the governments of Asia and Africa to help bridge the funding gap by funding their own civil societies.

HOW CHANGES WORLD AID

According to Pereira and other experts, the global humanitarian aid system needs to change in order for it to continue operating responsibly.

Most foreign help is currently” sucked up” by local NGOs and UN organizations, Pereira noted, with little passing down to smaller rivals on the ground.

Rosalia Sciortino, the founder and director of SEA Junction, added that the current system has far too much waste and much money going to tiny civil society organizations.

She stated at the panel discussion in Bangkok that” we need to acknowledge that there was a need to offer more to nearby societies and organizations.”

” We as civil society must all learn about saving and reducing waste in our wasting,” he continues. Therefore, it’s not just the cash we receive; it’s also how we use it, making sure our organization’s conservation is attained.

Reformation may be challenging in an environment of blanket breaks, according to John Luke Chua, a member of the USAID-funded Asia Counter Smuggling in Persons job.

” I’ve heard requests for localization, more flexible financing, and stronger help for the community. Otherwise, he told the board, “what we have best nowadays is a strong centrist change that prioritizes political expediency over evidence-based impact.”

” Funding choices are no longer influenced by whether programs actually accomplish what they set out to do, but rather by whether or not they coincide with short-term social calculus.”

Sara Piazzano, a freelancer and project manager, observed greater changes occurring as governments around the world are more willing to offer concessional mortgages in place of their own.

These types of loans are typically low- or zero-interested, and can be obtained from institutions through specialized programs and partnerships with international organizations, including multilateral institutions. They reached record highs in value worldwide in 2023.

Japan is carrying that out. Nearly all of the development aid was relocated there. China, of course, has always followed this strategy. According to Piazzano, “perhaps this is the future that we are going to see,” noting that Indonesia, Vietnam, and India are the main recipients in Asia.

” I was anticipating that Bangladesh would have a significant impact without USAID.” However, she said,” USAID is nothing if you compare what they are getting from the World Bank.” &nbsp,

According to data, Bangladesh’s World Bank funding was five times higher than USAID’s in 2023.

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How Elon Musk’s SpaceX Secretly Allows Investment From China – Asia Times

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This article was first published by ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning analytical news website.

Elon Musk’s aircraft large SpaceX allows owners from China to acquire stakes in the business as long as the money are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore privacy centers, according to previously unidentified court records.

Recently, a unique instance of SpaceX’s strategy was revealed in a hidden-in-the-radar business debate in Delaware. Both SpaceX’s chief financial officer and Iqbaljit Kahlon, a big investor, were forced to testify in the case.

Because it is a defence contractor, SpaceX prefers to avoid Chinese investors, according to Kahlon in December. There is a big exception, though, he said: SpaceX finds it “acceptable” for Foreign investors to buy into the business through offshore cars.

According to Kahlon,” the main mechanism is that those investors may come through intermediaries that they would create or that others would create.” ” Usually they do set up BVI buildings or Cayman buildings or Hong Kong institutions and various other people”, he added, using the letters of the British Virgin Islands.

Buyers are frequently kept anonymous by offshore cars. Researchers called SpaceX’s view strange, saying they were troubled by the possibility that a defense contractor may take active measures to mask foreign ownership passions.

Kahlon, who has long been close to the company’s authority, claims to be a billion-dollar stockholder. His investment company also acts as a mediator, raising money from investors to buy very sought SpaceX stocks. According to the court files, he has used funds from China to acquire stakes in SpaceX several times through the Caribbean.

The legal dispute centers on an aborted 2021 deal, when SpaceX executives grew angry after news broke that a Chinese firm was going to buy$ 50 million of the company’s stock. The order was finally cancelled by SpaceX.

In separate evidence, the jet company’s CFO explained that the media policy was” not good for our business as a government contractor”. The US government pays the company billions to handle sensitive work, such as creating a classified spy satellite network, and SpaceX’s business is built on those contracts.

Company executives were concerned that coverage of the deal could lead to problems with national security regulators in the US, according to Kahlon’s testimony and a filing from his attorneys.

Perhaps the most significant pillar of Musk’s fortune is SpaceX, which also launches rockets for NASA and sells satellite internet service. His estimated 42 % stake in the company is valued at around$ 150 billion. He would still be wealthier than Bill Gates if he had nothing else to own.

Federal law gives regulators broad power to oversee foreign investments in tech companies and defense contractors. There aren’t hard and fast rules for how much is too much, and companies only have to proactively report Chinese investments in limited circumstances.

However, the government can initiate investigations and then block or reverse transactions deemed national security threats. A foreign investor who only purchases a small percentage of a company typically does not have that authority. But experts said that federal officials regularly ask companies to add up Chinese investments into an aggregate total.

The US government claims that China consistently seeks to gain exclusive access to information about cutting-edge technology by using even minority investments to gain control over businesses in sensitive industries. US regulators view even private investors in China as potential agents of the country’s government, experts said.

The new materials do not contain any claims that China’s investments in SpaceX would be in contravention of the law or were directed by the Chinese government. The company did not respond to detailed questions from ProPublica. The reasons behind SpaceX’s strategy were left open, according to Kahlon.

It’s not uncommon for foreigners to buy US stock through a vehicle in the Cayman Islands, often to save money on taxes. However, experts said it was odd for the US company, the party on the other side of the deal, to favor such a compromise.

ProPublica spoke to 13 national security lawyers, corporate attorneys and experts in Chinese finance about the SpaceX testimony. Twelve people claimed they had never heard of a US company with this requirement and that there was no other reason to do it besides concealing Chinese ownership of SpaceX. The 13th said they had heard of companies adopting the practice as a way to hide foreign investment.

According to Andrew Verstein, a UCLA law professor who has studied defense contractors, “it is undoubtedly a policy of obfuscation.” ” It hints at potentially serious problems. We rely on businesses to be honest with the government about whether they have benefited from America’s rivals.

Elon Musk. Photo: X

The new material adds to the questions surrounding Musk’s extensive ties with China, which have taken a new urgency since the world’s richest man joined the Trump White House. Musk has regularly met with Chinese Communist Party officials to talk about his business interests, which are the basis of the majority of Tesla cars.

Last week, The New York Times reported that Musk was scheduled to get a briefing on secret plans for potential war between China and the US. Trump later claimed that the briefing had been postponed, and that the Times later reported that.

The president told reporters it would be wrong to show the war plans to the businessman:” Elon has businesses in China, and he would be susceptible perhaps to that”, Trump said.

The Delaware court records detail a network of independent middlemen selling SpaceX shares to eager Chinese investors and reveal SpaceX insiders ‘ intense obsession with secrecy in China. ( Unlike a public company, SpaceX exercises significant control over who can buy into the company, with the ability to block sales even between outside parties. )

However, the inquiry into exactly what proportion of SpaceX is owned by Chinese investors remains unanswered.

The Financial Times recently reported that Chinese investors had managed to acquire small amounts of SpaceX stock and that they were turning to offshore vehicles to do so. According to the outlet, the deals were designed to restrict the information investors could access.

The Delaware records reveal additional, previously unreported Chinese investments in SpaceX but do not say how much they were worth. Under$ 100 million was invested in SpaceX by China, making only a small portion of the total.

The experts said the court testimony is puzzling enough that it raises the possibility that SpaceX has more substantial ties to China than are publicly known and is working to mask them from US regulators. They claimed that SpaceX is trying to avoid being scrutinized for perfectly legal investments by the media or Congress. This is a more innocent explanation.

Once a welcome source of cash, Chinese investment in Silicon Valley has become the subject of intense debate in Washington as hostility between the two countries deepened in recent years.

Corporate attorneys told ProPublica they would advise their clients against requiring the use of offshore vehicles because it might give the impression that they are trying to conceal something from the government.

Bret Johnsen, the SpaceX CFO, testified in the Delaware dispute that the company does not have a formal policy about accepting investments from countries deemed adversaries by the US government. Instead, he claimed, SpaceX has “preferences that kind of feel like a policy.”

Sensitive to how such financial ties could make it “more challenging to win government contracts”, Johnsen said that he asks fund managers to” stay away from Russian, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean ownership interest”.

Johnsen wasn’t asked in the public portion of his deposition whether SpaceX was tolerant of routing Chinese money offshore. But he lent credibility to Kahlon, the investor who said that was enough to get the green light.

Johnsen stated that he has a long-standing personal connection with Kahlon and that he has spoken with him about how the business views Chinese ownership. The CFO added that he trusts Kahlon to bring in only investors that the company approves of.

According to a filing from his attorneys, Kahlon has personally assisted Chinese investors in purchasing stakes in SpaceX on” a number of occasions” through “proxies such as British Virgin Islands- or Cayman Islands-based entities. He also knows of “many” other Chinese investors who own SpaceX shares, the filing said. He learned about them from conversations with investors and brokers, as well as “from having viewed investor lists.”

Kahlon is a consummate SpaceX insider. He “has been with the company in one form or fashion longer than I have,” according to Johnsen, who has been with SpaceX for 14 years. Early in his career, Kahlon worked for Peter Thiel at the same venture capital firm that once employed JD Vance, and he first met with SpaceX around 2007 a few years after it was founded.

Kahlon eventually founded his own business, Tomales Bay Capital, and rose to prominence among the middlemen who serve would-be SpaceX investors. He’s helped people like former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos buy pieces of the rocket company. He added that as a result of the company’s efforts to export its satellite internet products to nations like India, he has also served as a “back channel” between SpaceX and international regulators.

Kahlon and Johnsen were forced to testify after the deal with a Chinese firm fell apart in late 2021, sparking years of litigation. In the same year, Kahlon had the option to purchase more than half a billion shares of SpaceX from a private equity firm in West Palm Beach. Kahlon had already brought Chinese money into SpaceX before, he testified, and he again turned to China as he gathered funds to purchase the stake.

Soon after, Kahlon made contact with Leo Group, a Chinese company that stands for” Love Each Other.” As Kahlon made his pitch during their first call, Leo was told that “it would be best not to disclose the name of SpaceX”, an executive at the Chinese company later testified. They thought that the information was extremely sensitive.

Leo quickly sent Kahlon$ 50 million. Then he sent a message to a different business associate in China saying,” Have any folks interested in spcex still?”

Kahlon claimed that he had in mind to inform Johnsen about the Leo investment and that he anticipated the CFO to approve of it. But the deal blew up after Leo mentioned SpaceX in a regulatory filing that generated widespread coverage in the Chinese business press. ( It is disputed whether Leo made the disclosure with Kahlon’s consent. )

In a panic, Kahlon enlisted a Leo vice president to try to get the articles taken down. However, when Johnsen and Tim Hughes, SpaceX’s top in-house lobbyist, saw the stories, they became alarmists.

” This is not helpful for our company as a government contractor”, the SpaceX CFO later testified regarding the press attention. It basically provides our competitors with something to use as a narrative against us.

” In my entire professional career, this was literally the worst situation that I’ve been in”, Kahlon said. ” I failed at what I believed was a fundamental responsibility in the relationship we had.”

SpaceX ultimately decided to let Kahlon buy only a smaller portion of the stake, purchasing much of the half-billion dollar investment itself. He was informed that Musk made the decision, according to contemporaneous messages and Kahlon’s testimony. However, Kahlon continued to have a strong relationship with SpaceX after the mishap, court records say, with the company allowing his firm to keep buying a large quantity of shares.

Republican lawmakers have criticized Musk’s business interests in China, which go beyond SpaceX’s ownership structure. In 2022, after Tesla opened a showroom in the Chinese region where the government runs Uyghur internment camps, then-Senator Marco Rubio tweeted,” Nationless corporations are helping the Chinese Communist Party cover up genocide”.

Nearly 40 % of Tesla’s sales were made in China last year, in addition to its expansive factory in Shanghai. The company has also secured major tax breaks and regulatory victories in the country. The Chinese premier gave Musk the country’s green card in the spring of 2019.

In recent years, the billionaire has offered sympathetic remarks about China’s desire to reclaim Taiwan and lavished praise on the government. At the conclusion of Trump’s first term, Musk said,” My experience with the government of China is that they actually are very responsive to the people.” ” In fact, possibly more responsive to the happiness of people than in the US”.

Josh Kaplan can be reached via email at joshua. kaplan@propublica .org and by Signal or WhatsApp at 734-834-9383. Justin Elliott can be reached via WhatsApp, WhatsApp, or email at justin@propublica .org. Alex Mierjeski contributed research. To receive stories like this one in your inbox, sign up for The Big Story newsletter.

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Gobi Partners invests undisclosed amount in SkyeChip in boost to Malaysia’s IC chip design ambitions

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  • Cash will help increase the number of skilled workers, expand, and maintain working capital.
  • Gobi’s purchase highlights SkyeChip’s explosive expansion in the device style industry.

Gobi Partners, an Asian Venture Capital firm with offices in Malaysia and Hong Kong, has made an undisclosed investment in SkyeChip, a rapidly expanding semiconductor integrated circuit ( IC ) design firm based in Penang, the heart of Malaysia’s semiconductor ecosystem, for an undisclosed sum. The Khazanah Nasional-backed Gobi Dana Impak Fund, as well as Gobi’s local resources, which are supported by renowned domestic and international organizations, served as the funding sources for the purchase. The US$ 1.6 billion ( RM$ 1.6 billion ) Dana Impak Fund, which Khazanah founded in 2022, is comprised of.

Fong Swee Kiang ( SK), who co-founded Skyechip ( TM) in 2019 along with and Teh Chee Hak and about 30 other experienced semiconductor engineers, was contacted for comment because of binding non-disclosure agreements. The members bring together more than 50 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, with 32 of those times spent at Intel and periods in the US and Malaysia. Skyechip has grown to over 330 professionals now, and it has granted over 102 US patents as a mixed patent payment. The majority of the inventions were created during their earlier periods with international semicon companies. &nbsp,

Gobi stated in a statement that the purchase will help meet SkyeChip’s skills acquisition, business expansion plans, and working capital requirements. The move, according to the statement, aligns with Khazanah’s Dana Impak authority to support Indonesian businesses that advance Malaysia’s semiconductor and advanced manufacturing ecosystems by promoting scientific innovation, social flexibility, and long-term financial resilience. The company’s proprietary intellectual property, commitment to research and development, and expansion into custom application-specific integrated circuit ( ASIC ) design will strengthen its position on the market and strengthen Malaysia’s position within the global chip ecosystem.

kyeChip is a company that creates custom ASICs and silicon intellectual property for high-end applications like high-performance computing ( HPC ) and artificial intelligence ( AI ) for advanced applications. Gobi’s funding is a reflection of the bank’s rapid expansion in the chip design industry, which had established a solid reputation just a few years after its founding.

Gobi believes that the Southeast Asian-based manufacturers ‘ growing international demand, in addition to the company’s significant progress in key end-markets like AI and HPC, makes it possible for the company to expand for the long term. Moreover, Malaysia’s proper location and changing ecosystem make it a top location for semiconductor innovation in the area.

Co-founder and chairman of Gobi Partners, Thomas G. Tsao, stated that SkyeChip is well-positioned to capitalize on the growing need for advanced semiconductor options, especially in AI and HPC software. We look forward to working with Stat and Chee Hak through their upcoming rise as they have created a fierce company at the forefront of Internet and Circuit design.

Our company’s executive director, Gobi Partners, Hisham Ibrahim, stated,” We are glad that SkyeChip has chosen to mate with us, and we think our expenditure will help SkyeChip grow and help it grow.”

From left: Fong Swee Kiang (SK), CEO, SkyeChip; Teh Chee Hak, CTO, SkyeChip; Thomas G. Tsao, co-founder and chairperson, Gobi Partners; Hisham Ibrahim, executive director, Gobi Partners.

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Why the buzz around investing in China is only getting louder amid US-led trade spats

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Growth has recently been a hot topic in the minds of business executives, industry analysts, and investment advisors.

This is in reaction to the government’s decision to impose tariffs of 10 to 25 % on goods from China, Mexico, and Canada. Additionally, it has imposed tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum and pledged to establish mutual tariffs on all US trade partners starting on April 2.

According to Rishi Kapoor, vice president and general investment officer at Bahrain-based other investment company Investcorp, these changes in the US administration have highlighted the benefits of growth.

The value, the benefits of growth, he said to a section at the WEF forum,” This thing that had been shortchanged for a period of time… that’s then up to the fore.”

CHANCES IN CHINA

According to Ziad Chalhoub, chief financial officer of Dubai-based Majid Al Futtaim Holding, a company that owns and operates shopping malls, financial, and resort properties in the Middle East and North Africa, America’s policies are also affecting money flows.

” I believe that emerging markets are going to begin growing back up again, and I believe that will open up a lot of opportunities for businesses around the world, especially in Asia,” he said.

Many people, including James Soutar, a companion at Hong Kong-based Pacat Capital Management, today see potential in China.

Chinese stocks have shown themselves to have a much stronger underlying purchase case than their American counterparts, Soutar told CNA.

He noted that the company has found that Chinese firms outperform their international competitors in terms of percentage, returns on capital, and capital, as well as earnings per share growth, across different sectors.

” In addition, the stocks of those Chinese firms are trading at a considerable pricing discount to world peers,” Soutar noted.

In recent months, the industry has begun to recognize those qualities, but we still think there is still a long way to go.

Given the current political environment, economy players said they are on the lookout for road bumps.

Hu from Primavera Capital Group claimed that China is vulnerable because of its trading business and that tit-for-tat tariffs pose a real threat.

He noted that China also has a sizable local business and a sizable middle-class business.

Domestic demand rises, as evidenced by China’s ability to boost the confidence of the ordinary Chinese consumer and their willingness to invest. Whatever pull brought on by taxes, that will more than make up for it.

He did point out that taxes are terrible, especially if they persist for a long time.

” I hope the two governments ( US and China ) will continue to put the intense emotions aside, come to the table to negotiate, come to a deal, and make sure whatever the tariffs are are temporarily ( and be ) lifted in time for each other’s mutual interests ( and ) the world.”

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43 workplace deaths in Singapore in 2024, up from previous year

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WORKPLACE DEATHS IN&nbsp, Development Market

The construction industry was responsible for 20 fatalities next month, which is the most of any market, and those related to the workplace have increased steadily since 2020, when there were nine casualties. &nbsp,

The sea market, which had five mortality, followed by the transportation and storage business, which had the second-highest number of fatalities, with nine. &nbsp,

The sectors responsible for water supply, sewage, and spare management each had three fatalities, and the manufacturing industry had two. &nbsp, &nbsp,

According to MOM, automotive incidents, suffocating/drowning, and collapse/failure of structures and tools were the top three reasons of office fatalities in 2024. &nbsp,

These collectively accounted for 56 % ( 24 fatal injuries ) of the total number of workplace fatal injuries in 2024, it added.

The construction industry had a fatal rate of 3.7 % per 100, 000 workers last year, up from 3.4 % the previous year. &nbsp,

On December 13, 2024, MOM noted that the construction industry had experienced 15 work fatalities in the next half of the time, and that the sector’s” concerning” workplace safety and health achievement. &nbsp, &nbsp,

After the industry saw 10 fatalities between July and October, a deliberate safety timeout was introduced for construction companies in November of last year.

The sea market saw a rise in office mortality rate of 8.1 % for 100, 000 staff in 2024, up from zero in 2023. &nbsp,

In a media release released on Wednesday, MOM stated that” two of the five fatalities involved swimming operations where widespread security lapses were observed” and that “four of the five fatalities involved works on vessels at anchor. &nbsp,

” MOM and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore increased their enforcement efforts in the industry and will continue to take strict actions against businesses and individuals who break the rules.”

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Asian calm before Trump’s inflationary storm – Asia Times

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The US president may appear to Asia if Donald Trump were willing to pick up some fresh economic cliches.

In recent days, three economy posted weaker-than-expected prices. Consumer prices in Japan dropped from 4 % to 3.7 % year-on-year in February.

Prices in Hong Kong decreased from 2 % to 1.4 % in February. Singapore’s core inflation fell to 0.6 % in February, a near four-year low. Costs decreased to 1.5 % from 1.7 % in Malaysia. Negative pressures are also present in China, of training.

Asia’s experience contrasts significantly with America, where inflation is running hotter than feared at nearly 3 %. By failing to lower interest rates, the Federal Reserve is putting a risk on Trump’s anger.

All of this is about to change however as Trump’s numerous, intertwining trade wars increase costs outside, especially in the US, where consumer prices are expected to rise and fall. And, maybe, bond yields for trading countries big and small.

Consider this a period of quiet before the incoming Trumpian prices wind. A tariff-closed US is currently much more susceptible to inflation threats than trade-focused Asia. But that’s about to shift as Trump does his worst to the international financial and trade techniques.

According to Bradley Saunders, an economist at Capital Economics,” Tariffs are just inflationary, despite what Donald Trump may show people.”

According to University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Lydia Cox,” trying to protect selected industries can really make different industries more susceptible.”

Or, in Trump’s event, make that the whole US business, apparently. Yet optimistic economists worry that Trump’s taxes does bring about both growth and inflation.

We continue to bet on the endurance of the customer, the economy, and corporate profits, but we anticipate that higher recession fears may affect valuation multiples, according to Yardeni Research president Ed Yardeni.

Yardeni adds that” we acknowledge that the challenges of a crisis and a bear market may continue to increase. It all depends on the often unpredictable chairman, who often and boldly refers to himself as” Tax Man,” showing his sturdy support for mercantilist trade policies.

Some people worry that the US is heading in the direction of an inflationary boom and development crater. Recently, Fed officials predicted US gross domestic product ( GDP ) will expand at an annual rate of just 1.7 % versus an earlier forecast of 2.1 %. The numbers “were revised in a stagflationary way,” as JPMorgan scholar Michael Feroli puts it.

For buyers looking to readjust their portfolio and guard against rising choices around recessions, Faris Mourad, an scientist at Goldman Sachs,” we like our recessions long/short set container.”

The brake in US development is quickly changing the calculus for major Asian markets, including China.

According to Shannon Nicoll, an analyst at Moody’s Analytics,” US trade policy under President Donald Trump will loosen international business confidence, which will be a pain for China.” ” Home passions are great,” China has set its progress goal at around 5 %, but it didn’t get there without breaks”.

According to Nicoll, latest statistics indicate that a “rate split in China is warranted.” ” Due to extraordinary deficit-funded spending, a flood of sovereign bonds may hit the system.” This supply of new ties will drive up bond yields and press down bond costs”.

According to Nicoll, the People’s Bank of China has been” signing the concern about a potential Silicon Valley Bank-style crisis, where local financial institutions are purchasing to many bonds at higher prices.” Capital appropriateness ratios would be threatened if these lost price too quickly. A price cut may help keep bond yields fair”.

There may always be an unexpected growth, or President Trump might notice something this week that suggests a tougher line, according to Khoon Goh, mind of Asia study at ANZ Group Holdings. So at this point, it’s challenging for markets to properly value in the danger.

Part of the problem is how badly the inflation-is-transitory deal worked out for buyers. Or for those citizens and global leaders who believed that the Trump 2.0 presidency would focus more on making deals than creating financial mischief.

For those who are unprepared for the enormous trade war that appears to be fueled more by vengeance than financial strategy, things didn’t turn out well.

Never least of which are the lights sure to come as Trump’s plan objectives meet with a China poised to drive up and Washington’s fiscal problems. Federal bond yields are rising as a result of these issues, with higher provides coming from Washington to Tokyo. &nbsp,

On January 20, Trump inherited a national debt exceeding$ 36 trillion. And based on the pundit you follow, Trump may be about to slash the debt in substantial tax cuts, whichever comes first. Or slice it violently with the huge chainsaw that Trump gave to Elon Musk.

Either outcome was present huge risks for worldwide markets. The first could see credit rating organizations snubing and the US loan rising to$ 40 trillion.

Washington was shed Moody’s Investors Service’s most recent AAA rating very quickly. Asia, of course, is instantly on the forefront of the panic that this horror would destroy in friendship, stock and money markets anywhere.

The second scenario could discover Trump’s billionaire donor continue to sabotage government structures that safeguard the value of the dollar and US Treasury securities.

Team Musk is aiming his sights on the Internal Revenue Service in addition to firing federal employees indiscriminately, including some of the people who maintain America’s atomic army. That could have credit score companies doubting Trump Nation’s ability to pull in enough tax receipts to keep pace with rising public debt release.

According to The Washington Post, the US government is anticipating a 10%-plus revenue decline by the April 15 tax registration date in comparison to the prior year. The deficit could reach$ 500 billion.

Adding to these challenges is Trump’s mistaken idea that taxes are revenue-raising equipment. Robert Fry, an independent analyst who is an analyst on US budget issues, says that the issue isn’t actually uncertainty about taxes.

” There is a growing likelihood that President Trump won’t use tariffs as leverage to force other nations to lower their business obstacles, but rather to keep them in effect long-term to increase profits and to bring manufacturing back to the United States.”

The Trump 1.0 levies from 2017-2021 didn’t lift a mathematically significant number of jobs up to the US. Otherwise, the majority of tasks that left China were relocated to Vietnam. According to academics, there is no reason to believe that Trump 2.0 does succeed in the same way that his first White House failed.

Asian central bankers, meanwhile, have reason to worry about what Trump’s haphazard economic vision means for roughly$ 3 trillion of regional savings invested in US Treasuries.

For instance, Musk and his partners were given access to extremely sensitive US Treasury Department data, including the national payment method.

Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew, and Janet Yellen warned in a recent New York Times op-ed that” no Treasury minister in his or her first weeks in office may be put in the position where it is necessary to convince the nation and the world of our bills system or our commitment to make good on our economic duty.”

Any hint of the selective suspension of congressionally authorized payments, according to them, will constitute a breach of trust and, in the end, will constitute a form of default. And once we lose our credibility, it will be challenging to recover.

Trump also has made no mystery of his dislike of Federal Reserve officials setting US rates independent from political input. Trump criticized the Fed’s failure to ease rates last week, pleading that Jerome Powell “do the right thing” and perform the White House’s wishes.

With US inflation currently well above the Fed’s preferred 2 %, looser monetary policy may lead to a decline in dollar assets. It also might fuel a bubble in stocks and other speculative assets — and real estate.

Given these dangers, the US might have much more success if it concentrated on deregulating and massive subsidies for industries like those that Musk’s private companies rely on.

The US is so susceptible to inflation because of the lack of investment in productivity-boosting industries and technologies.

In the meantime, Asia is doing its best to stay off Trump’s radar screen. There is a risk that burgeoning bilateral deficits could eventually lead to US tariffs on other Asian economies, according to Andrew Tilton, an economist at Goldman Sachs.

Tilton goes on to say that” Korea, Taiwan, and especially Vietnam have seen significant trade gains versus the US,” something Trump 2.0 isn’t likely to reverse. As such, Asia’s top trading nations may try to narrow surpluses to “deflect attention” from Team Trump.

According to Barclays Bank economist Brian Tan,” trade policy is where Trump is likely to be most consequential for emerging Asia in his second term as US president,” inflicting “greater pain” on more open economies.

Suffice it to say that the president doesn’t seem to realize that America’s debt excesses will also challenge the US government. So might the inflationary fallout from his beloved tariffs.

Follow William Pesek on X using the hashtag# WilliamPesek

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