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“There seems a calculus measuring the attractiveness of making money in China against the deteriorating living environment in terms of environmental health or personal security. Each year more businessmen decide that it no longer makes sense for them to stay. As Hamlet might have said, ‘To leave or not to leave. That is the question”.”

“China’s zeal for nurturing state-owned industrial champions is irksome for the global and domestic private sector in limiting the free market and creating barriers to entry. Coupled with the major drive now being made to implant party committees in private and foreign companies, the Party’s plans worry businessmen.”

“It is not just a battle to charge the right postal rates; Washington is also driving the initiative to get other countries to provide advance electronic customs data that will facilitate the detection of opioid shipments and other illicit materials.”

“The two sides seem currently very entrenched and digging in further. It is possible that Bloomberg has been hoodwinked by parties in Washington keen to encourage a sharp reorientation of the tech industry’s supply chain away from China on national security grounds even if the particular incidents cited are overblown.”

“The Trump administration may have decided that enough is enough. We are no longer arguing about cents on the dollar but about national security. Therefore, it is worth acting to change the supply chain. On this surmise, what has not happened yet is the open official verdict on the matter.”

“Fentanyl-related overdoses – at over 30,000 – are becoming a very serious cause of death in the United States. Despite China’s protests, the country seems to be the primary source of the illegal drugs, both directly and via Mexico. Absurdly low international postal rates are abetting this fatal trend. The US administration seems willing to force change.”

“Most of the problems the railway faces seem to have arisen from cost-cutting: the original choice not to have an elevated railway; the initial decision not to complete the associated spur lines and infrastructure to offer a seamless service; and having out-of-town stations.”

“To recapitulate, this is the world’s largest P2P lending market, recently worth $200 billion. By end July, failed platforms owed well over $13 billion to more than 1.1 million investors. On 6th August, Beijing’s financial district had to be “locked down” to prevent public demonstrations by aggrieved investors demanding compensation.”

“The threats of Washington imposing sanctions on Indian purchases of Russian arms and Iranian oil may also set back the US relationship with India for a while. There is a risk of the whole of Southern Asia from Myanmar to Turkey – where an increasing number of countries are out of favor with Washington – becoming sullenly hostile towards the US.”

“China has had the habit of not always looking closely at the viability of projects. Sierra Leone asked for a second soccer stadium. Even the Chinese ambassador was cited as saying that “from our point of view, it is not necessary to build another stadium…No African country has two [Chinese-built] stadiums.” Nonetheless it was allowed to proceed.”