What does China want from Canada? And should Canadians, contrary to their welcoming prime minister, be worried about China’s interest in this land, particularly its urban real estate? No Canadian region is more impacted by Mainland Chinese capital than Metro Vancouver, a relatively small city of 2.5 million.
China’s finance ministry was technically correct when it reacted to a sovereign debt rating downgrade in May by saying the debts of local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) and state-owned enterprises would not swell the government’s contingent liabilities.
Modi’s White House trip takes place under very different circumstances from his first visit as prime minister in 2014 after a contentious 10-year visa ban. Then, in the presence of many elected American officials, Modi put on a grand show of strength at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The pageantry of his official introduction to the world stage was likened to a rock concert. But this time, with the negative sentiment in the Trump regime around immigrants, visas and jobs, there is no context for showmanship.
What did not exist in 2007? Instagram, Uber and 30 of the top 100 digital multinationals. According to the World Investment Report 2017: Investment and the Digital Economy, digital is growing and it is growing fast.
Just a few years back, the business relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia was pretty simple: the Americans bought oil, and the Saudis spent much of what they earned on equipment to keep the crude flowing and on planes, tanks and missiles to protect their borders.
For the Chinese, these are uncharted waters. They will have to balance gains to the ruling elites in Islamabad and Lahore with those to the locals in Balochistan, who are more than capable of violently disrupting work on the corridor. If China fails to do so, Pakistan will end up more unstable, not less.
Chinese enterprises are going global, venturing overseas to acquire foreign companies, know-how, and technologies. While most of these activities reflect simple business decisions, others carefully and deliberately advance China’s strategic interests, perhaps against the interests of its trading partners.
Betting its fate on Pakistan with a $51-billion investment in infrastructure, China remains wary of its neighbour’s squint-eyed politicians who have proven their lack of vision over the years. Many of these politicians can’t see beyond the impending election woes.
The economy of the United States is the largest in the world. At $18 trillion, it represents a quarter share of the global economy (24.3%), according to the latest World Bank figures.
Read Here – World Economic Forum
Latin Americans can’t afford to wait four years to see when the United States will be willing to have an honest and reciprocal conversation about economic prosperity in the Western Hemisphere. Luckily for the United States’s southern neighbours, over the past decade Latin America has found a new major trading partner: China.
