G20 Group commits to make progress on global tax burden after the proposal of minimum U S tax rate archyde.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archyde.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
China ‘needs’ trade pact like CPTPP to force it into domestic reform, says former commerce minister Cissy Zhoucissy.zhou@scmp.com President Xi Jinping said in November last year that China was ‘actively considering’ joining the CPTPP. Photo: AFP
Conditions are right for China to start negotiating entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), but it will be a jump for the country to meet the deal s more stringent requirements, a former high-ranking minister says.
President Xi Jinping said in November last year that China was actively considering joining the trade pact, something that was reiterated by Premier Li Keqiang when he delivered the government s annual work report last week. But there has been debate as to whether China would meet its terms of entry, including on state-owned enterprises, labour rights and e-commerce.
China Increases Defense Budget, Premier Orders Military to Prepare for War
China will increase its military budget to 1.35 trillion yuan (about $207.8 billion) in 2021, which is 6.8 percent higher than 2020, Chinese state-run media reported on March 6. One expert told The Epoch Times that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s top priority is to strengthen its military.
During the ruling party’s most important annual meeting, known as the “two sessions,” on March 5, Premier Li Keqiang said, “[We should] comprehensively strengthen the military exercises and fully prepare for war.”
“Building a strong military is one of [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping’s top tasks. His slogan is building a ‘strong China,’” U.S.-based China affairs commentator Tang Jingyuan told The Epoch Times on March 7. “I think Xi will take aggressive actions after he can take another tenure [in 2022].”
Opening-up good for resource distribution chinadaily.com.cn - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chinadaily.com.cn Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
China Got Its Economy Growing Again, but a Shortfall in Babies Will Be Harder to Fix
China may have blunted the pandemic’s impact on its economy, but a shortfall in babies is clouding its growth horizon.
In the short term, the Chinese economy looks comparatively strong –helped by its quick stamping out of the virus’s spread and heavy state investment–and some economists earlier this year predicted that China could overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy by 2028, years earlier than expected.
But the world’s most populous country is losing when it comes to demographics. Ahead of the results of China’s once-a-decade census, there have been several indications that fewer babies were born in the country in 2020 than in any year since 1961, when China suffered mass starvation.