'Tiananmen Square' crackdown in Hong Kong would harm trade deal — Trump

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Sunday warned China that carrying out a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters would harm trade talks between the two countries.

"I think it'd be very hard to deal if they do violence, I mean, if it's another Tiananmen Square," Trump told reporters in New Jersey. "I think it's a very hard thing to do if there's violence."

The months-long trade dispute between the US and China has been blamed for setting world financial markets on edge amid signs of a possible global economic slowdown.

Trump's comments came as Washington and Beijing look to revive pivotal talks aimed at ending their trade war.

Phone calls between both countries' deputies are planned for the next 10 days, and if those are successful, negotiations could resume, Trump's chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow said on Sunday.

Hong Kong has meanwhile been dealing with more than two months of protests and on Sunday saw a crowd that organizers said numbered some 1.7 million people march peacefully in the city despite rising unrest and stark warnings from Beijing.

Chinese state media has run images of military personnel and armored personnel carriers in Shenzhen, across the border from the semi-autonomous city.

In the bloody 1989 crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, China deployed tanks to end student-led protests, resulting in an estimated death toll of hundreds if not thousands.


If such a situation was repeated in Hong Kong, "I think there'd be... tremendous political sentiment not to do something," Trump said, referring to the trade negotiations with China.

Creeping authoritarianism

Under a deal signed with Britain, China agreed to allow Hong Kong to keep its unique freedoms when the former crown colony was handed back in 1997.

But many Hong Kongers feel those freedoms are being chipped away, especially since China's hardline president Xi Jinping came to power.

Trump stopped short of endorsing the protesters, saying, "I'd love to see it worked out in a humane fashion," and calling on Xi to negotiate with the dissidents.

Last week, China's state-run daily The Global Times said there "won't be a repeat" of Tiananmen Square in a rare reference to the crackdown.

Analysts say any intervention in Hong Kong by Chinese security forces would be a disaster for China's reputation and economy.

The weeks of demonstrations have plunged the financial hub into crisis, with images of masked, black-clad protesters engulfed by tear gas during street battles against riot police stunning a city once renowned for its stability.

The unrest was sparked by widespread opposition to a plan for allowing extraditions to the Chinese mainland, but has since morphed into a broader call for democratic rights in the semi-autonomous city.

Sunday's march, billed as a return to the peaceful origins of the leaderless protest movement, was one of the largest rallies since the protests began about three months ago, according to organizers the Civil Human Rights Front.

source: philstar.com

G20 frets over global economy amid US-China trade war

FUKOUKA, Japan —The world's top finance policymakers Sunday weighed the impact of ballooning trade tensions on the global economy amid differences over the extent to which they are dragging on growth.

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the G20 group of the world's top economies are expected to note the "downside risks" to the global economy from trade battles, notably between the top economic superpowers China and the US.

Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso, who is hosting the talks, told reporters as the first day of talks wrapped up on Saturday that the world economy should "firm" in the second half of the year but "downside risks still remain."

Aso said "market confidence could be eroded" if there were no rapid resolution to the ongoing trade war between Beijing and Washington, which has seen the world's top two economies impose billions of dollars of tit-fir-tat tariffs and threaten even tougher action.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde singled out trade tensions as the "major" headwind facing the global economy, adding that it was a "significant risk on the horizon," in an interview with Japan's Nikkei daily on Sunday.

Lagarde has previously described the trade wars as a "self-inflicted wound" and warned that US-China tariffs so far imposed and threatened could trim 0.5 percentage points off global GDP growth next year -- an amount $455 billion larger than the entire South African economy.

Meanwhile, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said there was a "real risk" that "this global economic slowdown could turn into a global economic crisis due to trade tensions."

"A worsening of the international climate and a real trade war would lead to an even more marked slowdown in global growth, with a direct impact on our jobs, companies, factories and sectors," Le Maire told AFP in an interview on the sidelines of the meeting.

A Japanese official who declined to be named briefed reporters that "very many countries voiced concerns that escalation of the trade friction is a very significant downside risk to the world economy. That is a fact."

'Big economic opportunity' 

However, the treasury secretary from the US, which continues to threaten more tariffs on China if there is no trade deal, played down the risk of a global economic conflagration.

"Clearly there is a slowdown in Europe, there's a slowdown in China, there's a slowdown in other parts. I don't believe that's as a result of trade tensions. That slowdown has gone on for the last year," Steven Mnuchin told reporters on Saturday.

He acknowledged that other policymakers had voiced concerns over the economic impact of a prolonged trade war but pointed to a potential boon for other countries.

As companies move out of China in order to avoid US tariffs, "there's going to be a big economic opportunity for a lot of other countries," he said.

"There will be winners and losers," he predicted.

Nevertheless, Mnuchin also pointed to the positive boost to the world economy that could result from a breakthrough in trade talks, likely to be the main focus of a meeting between the US and Chinese leaders at a G20 summit later this month.

"I think if we get a deal, it's a very positive thing for economic growth, for us, for China, for Europe, for the rest of the world. The opening of these economies tends to lead, in my mind, to more growth on both sides," said Mnuchin.

source: philstar.com

Asian markets surge as Trump fuels China trade deal hopes

HONG KONG — Asian markets enjoyed another rally on Friday after Donald Trump hailed positive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and a report said he had asked officials to draw up a draft bill as he eyes a potential trade deal between the two.

Hong Kong jumped almost four percent in the afternoon, while Shanghai and the yuan soared as dealers seized on the news, hoping for a breakthrough in a standoff that has rocked global equities and fuelled warnings about global growth.

The gains follow a third straight advance on Wall Street as a sense of optimism returns after a diabolical October, with riskier, higher-yielding currencies enjoying a bounce against the dollar, and the pound holding on to most gains.


The day had already started with a bang after Trump tweeted that he had held positive talks with Xi, which was a rare sign of hope in the months-long stand-off between the world's top two economies.

"Just had a long and very good conversation with President Xi Jinping of China. We talked about many subjects, with a heavy emphasis on Trade," he wrote.


He added that trade talks were "moving along nicely" and meetings were "being scheduled" at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of the month.

The comment comes days after Trump warned he would impose tariffs on all China's shipments to the US before saying he thought he could "make a great deal with China" but it was not yet ready.

Later, Bloomberg News, citing unnamed sources, reported that the president has requested key cabinet secretaries put together an outline deal to call a ceasefire in the painful row. It said several agencies had been called in to help with putting the plan together.

Hong Kong and Shanghai were already buoyant after Beijing said it would introduce measures to kickstart the stuttering economy following a string of weak data, including growth at its slowest pace in nine years during the third quarter.

The yuan also rallied to 6.9080 to the dollar, having hit 6.9302 earlier in the morning and is well off the 10-year lows around 6.97 on Thursday.

'Still cautious'

The optimism spread across the region. Tokyo was up 2.7 percent in the afternoon, Singapore 1.3 percent and Seoul piled on three percent, while Sydney reversed early losses to sit 0.1 percent higher.

Taipei, Bangkok, Mumbai and Jakarta also posted healthy gains.

"Positive comments from President Trump over US-China trade tension are cheering the market in the short term," said Tai Hui, chief market strategist for Asia Pacific at JP Morgan Asset Management.

"Dollar moderation, the stabilising trade relationship between US and China and more stimulus from Beijing will be the key ingredients to revive market confidence in Asia.

"While we are still cautious over a full resolution of recent tensions in the medium term, resumption of dialogue between Washington and Beijing would be good enough to investors for now."

Oil prices recovered after Thursday's plunge of more than two percent on oversupply worries, with US sanctions on Iran due within days but other major producers ready to pick up the slack.

The commodity has lost around 15 percent from four-year highs at the start of last month as Russia and OPEC said they would bolster output and dealers grew concerned about the impact on demand from a trade war between China and the US.

On currency markets high-yielding units were well bought. The Australian dollar climbed 1.1 percent, South Korea's won strengthened 1.5 percent and the South African rand was 1.6 percent higher.

India's rupee, which has been hammered this week by a standoff between the government and central bank, climbed almost one percent.

The pound dipped but held most of its gains after a report that British Prime Minister Theresa May had reached a post-Brexit deal with Brussels securing access to the EU for Britain's key finance sector.

Sterling jumped almost two percent on the report despite London and Brussels officials' reservations.

source: philstar.com

Asian stocks mixed as investors await US tariff hike

BEIJING — Asian stocks were mixed Tuesday after Wall Street's gains as investors waited for a new U.S. tariff hike in a trade battle with China.

KEEPING SCORE: The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.3 percent to 2,661.33, while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 added 1 percent to 22,595.52. Hong Kong's Hang Seng retreated 0.3 percent to 26,538.58 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 advanced 0.5 percent to 6,171.00. Seoul's Kospi shed 0.3 percent to 2,281.90, while New Zealand. Benchmarks in Taiwan and Southeast Asia declined.

WALL STREET: U.S. stocks broke a four-day losing streak as industrial companies and retailers rose. Technology companies recovered some of last week's losses. Nike, Home Depot and Walmart all climbed. Microsoft and other technology companies rose, but Apple fell after saying more U.S. tariff hikes could push it to raise prices. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 0.2 percent to 2,877.13. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2 percent to 25,857.07. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3 percent to 7,924.16.



TRADE TENSIONS: The Trump administration is due to announce a decision shortly on whether to go ahead with 25 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports in a dispute over Beijing's technology policy. The two sides already have raised duties on $50 billion of each other's goods. Trump said Friday that he was considering extending penalties to extending penalties to nearly all Chinese imports to the United States by raising duties on an additional $267 billion of goods.

ANALYST'S TAKE: "Wall Street balanced the tech gloom against the fresh focus on tax cuts on Monday yielding mixed returns," Jinyi Pan of IG said in a report. "The protracted expectation for more bad news to set in with the looming tariffs remains the most important factor weighing on markets currently."

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude gained 4 cents to $67.58 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 21 cents on Monday to close at $67.54. Brent crude, used to price international oils, advanced 11 cents to $77.48 in London. It rose 54 cents the previous session to $77.37.

CURRENCY: The dollar gained to 111.36 yen from Monday's 111.12 yen. The euro edged down to $1.1590 from $1.1595.

source: philstar.com