Deleveraging is Policy In China Now

The shadow banking system is simply the system of financial transactions that happen outside of the banking system’s oversight facilities. And whenever China makes a substantive change to its monetary policy to burst another part of the shadow banking bubble these bouts of deleveraging (see chart above) occur.

There is also always a wave of bankruptcies and corporate bond defaults as well.

As it should be.

In this case it is a coal miner, Wintime Energy, who defaulted on CNY11 billion of bonds this week. There have been 18 such corporate bond defaults this year. There will likely be dozens, if not hundreds, more.

Why? Because the Trump/China trade war will take its toll on global trade. It will disrupt supplies chains, it already has. And it will cause sharper upward demand for dollars as global trade slows and debt-servicing costs for dollar-denominated corporate debt rises.

Joint House committee hearings concerning Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and their possible political bias that may have influenced the harassment of Donald Trump and his campaign has revealed interesting information.

During closed-door sessions in front of the house, she revealed reams of interesting information, much of it outing top FBI officials or accusing them of misconduct. Indeed, some of the information she provided suggests that there is an ongoing bureau-wide ‘criminal intelligence’ cover-up of the 33,000 missing emails from the Hillary Clinton server. It almost seems like Page is afraid of being the scapegoat left holding the bag, so she’s come clean before that can happen.

During questioning in front of the House, Lisa Page, who was involved in an affair with Federal Bureau of Investigation Agent Peter Strzok, tossed former director James Comey and deputy director Andrew McCabe, her former lover, Bill Priestap, and more under the bus, according to federal sources.

Calls to break up Facebook in order to even out the playing field for competitors would result in a Chinese tech companies filling the void, said the social network’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
He pointed to the fact that the Chinese firms which will likely step in and dominate don’t have traditional American values.

“I think you have this question from a policy perspective, which is, ‘do we want American companies to be exporting across the world?’” Zuckerberg said in an interview with technology news website Recode. “I think that the alternative, frankly, is going to be the Chinese companies.”

The social media tycoon added: “I think you can bet that, if the government here is worried about — whether it’s election interference or terrorism — I don’t think Chinese companies are going to want to cooperate as much and aid the national interest there.”

Those who think "trade wars are good and easy to win" need to stop and reflect on currency wars.

Trump's "logic" rests on the notion that China has a huge trade surplus and the US can hurt China more than China can hurt the US.

Such logic is seriously misguided.

Trade is not a zero sum game. One does not gain by losing less. Losing is losing.
Yes, Trump is correct that the US can place more tariffs on Chinese goods than China can place on US goods. However, Trump cannot ignore US farmers, but the unelected leaders in China can suppress all dissent.
The US dollar floats, the Renmimbi (Yuan) doesn't. Thus, China can manipulate it currency, albeit with risks of capital flight, to mitigate some or all of US tariffs.
Currency charts can be confusing. Sometimes up is down and sometimes down is up, It depends on which currency is fist. The lead chart shows a 7.4% decline in the yuan vs the US dollar since April 16.

Meanwhile the dollar index itself has advanced.

The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAF) will send H-6K bombers, J-10A fighters, JH-7A fighter-bombers, IL-76 and Y-9 transport aircraft, and a team of airborne troops to Russia for the upcoming International Army Games (IAG) 2018.

The war games, first launched by Russia in 2014, will be co-organized this year by China, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Iran and Armenia from July 29 to August 11, said CGTN News. IAG 2018 will consist of 28 ‘real combat’ military competitions. China will oversee four of these war games:

The US and its allies continue to implement a dangerous strategy to counter China’s growing influence in the Pacific.

These days, it’s all but too easy to get distracted by the stories the mainstream media overhypes on a regular basis and overlook some of those more pressing stories which fall beneath the radar. When you aren’t being purposely distracted by Donald Trump’s Twitter account, how he mistreats the Queen of England or how he is supposedly too nice to Russian President Vladimir Putin – stories like those on the football World Cup and the heroic rescue story in Thailand tend to fill the gaps, and not much else.

While President Trump's latest round of tariffs has only just taken effect, and his earlier tariffs on steel and aluminum weren't widely imposed on American allies until May, American companies, or foreign firms' US-based subsidiaries, are already complaining about the negative impact that tariffs are expected to have. And as the White House mulls over whether to slap 10% tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese imports, the situation is finally "getting real." Companies have warned for months that the tariffs would hurt economic growth, but to try and get a handle on the "real-world impact"of these policies, Bloomberg is compiling a list of companies that have either mentioned the tariffs during their earnings calls, or have released some other tariff-based announcement.

In the race for world dominance in advanced technology, Chinese artificial intelligence is also taking on its own doctors, with a new system claiming to diagnose brain tumors faster and more accurately than human physicians.

BioMind, developed by Beijing’s Tiantan Hospital and its AI research center for neurological disorders, has told Chinese media that the new system has correctly diagnosed 87 percent of 225 cases in only 15 minutes. That compares to only a 66-percent accuracy rate for the same by a team of 15 senior physicians.

China is investing nine times more into Europe than it is into North America as policies force divergence, a report released this week reveals.

Chinese outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) has dramatically swung toward Europe in the first half of 2018 and its FDI into North America has dropped by a whopping 92 percent in the last year, from $24 billion to $2 billion, according to multinational law firm Baker Mackenzie.

In the first six months of the year, newly-announced Chinese mergers and acquisitions (M&A) into Europe were $20 billion compared to $2.5 billion in North America, while completed Chinese investments in Europe exceeded those in North America six-fold, at $12 billion compared to $2 billion.

Washington's "comprehensive" package of sanctions against Tehran are expected to kick in this November, but officials say the main target, Iranian crude oil exports, will likely simply be diverted from one group of buyers to another.

A senior US energy official has told The Wall Street Journal that Washington expects China to buy up much of the oil others won't due to the threat of US sanctions. Beijing, according to the official, will likely make the purchases through the same bank it used during the previous rounds of sanctions to get around US penalties.

This includes the Bank of Kunlun Co, Ltd, a bank affiliated with the China National Petroleum Corp with limited exposure to the global financial system. The US has threatened to sanction "everybody, including China" if they purchase Iranian oil once sanctions step into effect.

Worker repairs a part of a unit of the Tehran oil refinery, in Tehran, Iran. (File)
© AP PHOTO / VAHID SALEMI

As discussed previously, the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, drafted a new strategy for how soldiers will operate, fight, and campaign successfully across multiple domains—space, cyberspace, air, land, maritime—against all enemies (Russia and China) in the 2025-2040 timeframe.

Warrior Maven has confirmed that the Army is literally "gearing up" for decades of hybrid conflict, and in doing so, testing and prototyping self-generating “Ironman-like” soldier exoskeletons. These “breakthrough” suits are designed to transform the combat mission by supporting soldier movements, generating electricity, powering weapons systems and substantially lowering the weight burden of what soldiers carry on the modern battlefield.

The technologies [exoskeleton suits] we are developing can produce electricity, which can be stored and used to power batteries. This increases the longevity of a mission, decreases the need for resupply and reduces the logistics trail,” Sharps explained.

Over the past two years there have been increasing reports of supposed “sonic injuries” among US diplomats. First in Cuba and more recently in China. Controversial implications are that the US officials may have been maliciously targeted by a “sonic weapon” in host countries. However, a more likely explanation is that the alleged victims are the result of US attempts to create “super spies”.

Some 250 US diplomats in China are reportedly undergoing neurological medical tests to ascertain if they have succumbed to the same kind of brain trauma diagnosed in other colleagues. A study of 21 diplomats evacuated from Cuba found last year that they had incurred brain injuries, but, it was diagnosed, not from physical impact to their heads.

Some factors so far missing from the subject need to be addressed.

First, it seems strange that the mysterious brain injuries are only reported by US diplomats. No other country has reported similar incidents among their diplomatic staff.

A Chinese spy ship is currently monitoring the US-led Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) war games off the waters of Hawaii after Beijing was disinvited from the event, according to USNI News. The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Dongdiao-class auxiliary general intelligence (AGI) spy vessel was first spotted near the event on July 11, though it has not entered the territorial waters of the United States.

The US president listed the EU, China and Russia as economic "foes" in an interview. He also said he has a "big problem" with Germany over its contributions to NATO as well as its pipeline deal with Russia.

The correlation between Gold and the USD/CNY exchange rate has become clear recently. I first cited the idea of Gold being pegged in yuan terms in February, based on the increasingly narrow range in the Gold/yuan (or “XAU/CNY”) exchange rate. I emphasized this, given what it means for Gold in that USD/CNY becomes a primary driver of the price of Gold in dollars. Now it’s mainstream, thanks to the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, and China’s response in devaluing the yuan by ~8% in 3 months.

In addition, Jim Rickards pointed out his belief last week that Gold is pegged against the IMF’s currency, the Special Drawing Rights (or “SDR”), and that China and the IMF are coordinating to keep the SDR within a range of 850-950 against Gold.

US household budgets are so stretched that relatively small price increases cause a reduction in spending. That already is clear from consumer response to rising oil prices.

If the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese and other imports turn into noticeable price increases, consumer spending could crumple in a matter of months, and US economic growth could fall to close to zero from an estimated 2.8% to 4% for the second quarter.

President Trump rattled stocks on Wednesday after the Commerce Department rolled out its list of Chinese products, representing $200 billion in imports, that could soon face 10% tariffs Tuesday night - the latest sign that the escalating trade war between the US and its largest economic rival is still heating up. And, echoing recent comments from Morgan Stanley, on Wednesday morning, Bloomberg pointed out that China could soon opt to "trip up" US tech firms operating in the region, something that MS analysts say could have serious repercussions for US equities which have yet to be adequately priced in by the market, and which earned the tech sector a downgrade to underweight.

While a closer read of the 200+ page schedule released last night by the Trump administration that listed all the exports captured by the $200BN in new proposed Chinese tariffs revealed some oddities such as badger hair, bovine semen, frog legs, flamethrowers, fetal bovine serum and blood, one product group stood out: rare-earths, an esoteric collection of minerals with strange names (Dysporsium, Europium, Neodymium, Lanthanum and Yttrium), which all have niche, high-tech applications and a history of scarcity. They’re used in everything from cell phones to hybrid vehicles to wind turbines and military hardware, which as Bloomberg writes suggests that the trade war is starting to hit its stride as a tech war.

But more importantly to the trade - or now tech war - is that China is effectively the only producer in size of these critical components that keep America's high tech industry running.

While the Trump administration unveiling another round of tariffs on Chinese goods worth $200 billion - for which China's Commerce Ministry is planning "countermeasures," Beijing quietly began conducting military drills at five bases for electronic warfare, cybersecurity, reconnaissance and tactical strikes at five training bases, reports the South China Morning Post.

President Xi Jinping has promised more than $23 billion in loans and aid to Arab states, as Beijing ramps up ties with the Middle East; this includes aid for Palestine; Beijing foresees importing a whopping $8 trillion from Arab states up to 2025

An independent Chinese refiner has suspended crude oil purchases from the United States and has now turned to Iran as one of its sources of crude, media reports, citing an official from the refiner, Dongming Petrochemical Group.

What’s more, the source said that Beijing is planning to slap tariffs on U.S. crude oil imports and replace them with West African and Middle Eastern crude, including crude from Iran. China has already said that it will not comply with U.S. sanctions against Iran and it seems to be the only country for now in a position to do this.

U.S. crude oil exports to China reached 400,000 bpd at the beginning of this month, but now Beijing is planning to impose a 25-percent tariff on these as part of its retaliation for Trump’s latest round of tariffs on US$34 billion worth of Chinese goods. The retaliation began with tariffs on 545 U.S. goods worth another US$34 billion, but, Reuters reports, the oil tariffs will be announced at a later date.

Modern humans' distant relatives left Africa earlier than previously thought—rewriting a key chapter in humankind's epic prequel, according to a discovery unveiled on Wednesday in Nature.

Nearly a hundred stone tools found at the Shangchen site in central China may push back the spread of our ancient cousins—hominins—out of Africa by more than a quarter million years.

The toolmakers lived at Shangchen on and off for 800,000 years between 2.1 and 1.3 million years ago, leaving behind tools that are unprecedented outside of Africa. The site's oldest tools are roughly 300,000 years older than Dmanisi, a 1.8-million-year-old site in the Republic of Georgia with the oldest known fossils of our extinct cousin Homo erectus.

Confused by North Korea’s sudden hard line? Look to China for answers.

Last week Pyongyang reverted to taunts, calling Mike Pompeo’s trip there “regrettable,” saying America has a “gangster-like mindset” and denying the secretary of state a meeting with Dear Leader, who apparently was obliged to inspect a potato farm instead.

Why? As Sen. Lindsey Graham told “Fox News Sunday,” “I see China’s hands all over this,” adding, “There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s the Chinese pulling the North Koreans back.”

President Trump tweeted Monday his “confidence” that “Kim Jong-un will honor the contract we signed, even more importantly, our handshake.” (No contract, of course, was signed at the end of last month’s Singapore handshaking session.)

Just when you thought it was safe to BTFTrade War Dip, a headline hits to remind you that President Trump is anything but done with China.

Bloomberg reports that President Donald Trump is preparing to release a list of an additional $200 billion in Chinese products to be hit with tariffs, according to two people familiar with the matter.

"The list could be released as soon as Tuesday, and likely this week", according to Bloomberg sources. The publication of the list starts a weeks-long process that includes a public-comment period and hearings.

The potential unveiling comes as Trump is stil considering imposing duties on another $16 billion in Chinese goods, following a public hearing later this month. China, of course, as vowed to retaliate tit-for-tat and dollar-for-dollar to all future US tariffs.

The immediate result: Dow futures plunge 200 points in the blink of an eye.

President Donald Trump said Monday that he was confident North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would “honor the contract” the two leaders signed last month in Singapore, while suggesting that China was “exerting negative pressure” on the agreement amid its trade fight with the U.S.

Nothing is going to be the same after this. On Friday, the United States hit China with 34 billion dollars in tariffs, and China immediately responded with similar tariffs. If it stopped there, this trade war between the United States and China would not be catastrophic for the global economy. But it isn’t going to stop there. Donald Trump is already talking about hitting China with an additional 500 billion dollars in tariffs, which would essentially cover pretty much everything that China exports to the U.S. in a typical year. The Chinese have accused Trump of starting “the biggest trade war in economic history”, and they are pledging to fight for as long as it takes.

Two weeks ago, when commenting on the PBOC's latest required reserve ratio cut, we pointed out that one of the more prominent risks facing the Chinese stock market, and potentially explaining why the Shanghai Composite simply can't catch a bid during the recent rout, is the risk of a wave of margin calls resulting in forced selling of stocks pledged as collateral for loans.

The pledging of shares as loan collateral - a practice that has gotten increasingly more popular over the years - has been especially prevalent among smaller companies as we observed in February and initially, last June. Unlike in the U.S., where institutional shareholders are a big market presence, private Chinese firms are often controlled by a major shareholders, who often own more than half of company. These big stakes are the most convenient tool for such big shareholders to raise their own funds.

To convince skeptics and naysayers the Chinese company that was the focus of international headlines after unveiling its “laser AK-47” that it claimed can set fire to a target from nearly a kilometer away has released a video of the weapon being tested as proof of its capability.

As we highlighted, among the first to call bullshit on the claims published in a South China Morning Post report detailing the ZKZM-500 produced by the Xian Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences was a US military and veteran website.

After all, the original report touted the weapon could "burn through clothes in a split second… If the fabric is flammable, the whole person will be set on fire. The pain will be beyond endurance," according to a Chinese weapons expert cited.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) has accused Beijing of being behind Pyongyang’s condemnation of recent talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while making bizarre threats to North Korea’s leadership.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Graham said: "I see China's hands all over this," adding that there is "no doubt" in his mind that China is "pulling the North Koreans back."

Graham cited the ongoing trade war between Washington and Beijing as the possible motivation. "We're in a fight with China."

With the US and China contemplating their next moves in what is now officially a trade war, a parallel narrative is developing in the world of energy where Asian oil refiners are racing to secure crude supplies in anticipation of an escalating trade war between the US and China, even as Trump demands all US allies cut Iran oil exports to zero by November 4 following sanctions aimed at shutting the country out of oil markets.

Concerned that the situation will deteriorate before it gets better, Asian refiners are moving swiftly to secure supplies with South Korea leading the way. Under pressure from Washington, Seoul has already halted all orders of Iranian oil, according to sources, even as it braces from spillover effects from the U.S.-China tit-for-tat on trade.

Illegal Chinese production of a banned crude oil-derived chemical used for cheap home insulation is thought to be the main source of rising emissions of gas that is damaging the ozone layer, according to environmental group Environmental Investigation Agency.

Two months ago, scientists published a study in the scientific journal Nature, according to which there has been an unexpected and persistent increase in global emissions of the ozone-depleting trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) substance that has been banned since 2010.

The thing that baffled scientists was that after a constant drop in the atmospheric CFC-11 concentrations between 2002 and 2012, the rate of decline has slowed down by around 50 percent since 2012, suggesting unreported new production.

A series of leaked internal documents reveal that China's military reforms are aimed at allowing Beijing to "manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war" and overtake the United States in military strength, according to the Express.

The leaked documents were published by the Central Military Commission in February for the purpose of spreading President Xi Jinping’s “thought on strengthening the armed forces”.

If the reforms go ahead, they will lead to heightened tensions with China’s neighbouring countries, including Japan, in the East and South China Seas and the US. -Express

“As we open up and expand our national interests beyond borders, we desperately need a comprehensive protection of our own security around the globe,” read the leaked documents, which adds that a strong military is the best way to "escape the obsession that war is unavoidable between an emerging power and a ruling hegemony".

- U.S. China trade war escalates as Russia stockpiles gold on the Keiser Report
- Trump's erratic and risky trade policies pose a risk to dollar as reserve currency
- China, Russia "getting cosier" with Silk Road and increasing economic cooperation
- China and Russia "want to do business outside of the dollar" and "dollar will finally reach its comeuppance"
- "No gold ever leaves China ... they are hoarding it and Russia is buying it"
- Makes sense to be "accumulating lots of gold"

In this final episode of the Keiser Report from Paris, France, Max and Stacy discuss if a genuine trade war has erupted between China and the U.S. and look at nations, including Russia, stockpiling gold and also cover our recent market update (June 21): Russia Buys 600,000 oz Of Gold In May After Dumping Half Of US Treasuries In April.

A series of leaked internal documents reveal that China's military reforms are aimed at allowing Beijing to "manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war" and overtake the United States in military strength, according to the Express.

The leaked documents were published by the Central Military Commission in February for the purpose of spreading President Xi Jinping’s “thought on strengthening the armed forces”.

If the reforms go ahead, they will lead to heightened tensions with China’s neighbouring countries, including Japan, in the East and South China Seas and the US. -Express

“As we open up and expand our national interests beyond borders, we desperately need a comprehensive protection of our own security around the globe,” read the leaked documents, which adds that a strong military is the best way to "escape the obsession that war is unavoidable between an emerging power and a ruling hegemony".

The remaining parties to the P5+1 nuclear deal, China, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain are all trying to save the pact since the pullout of the US. Whether they’ll be able to do so remains to be seen, but the joint effort is bringing the nations all closer together.

A Friday meeting in Vienna centered on saving the deal, and also provided opportunities for top-ranking diplomats from the various nations to hold closed-door, sideline talks. With the US having withdrawn itself from the deal, discussions on the deal are effectively now bringing everyone else in line and facing the US opposition to the deal as a mutual problem.

The nations are not only in agreement about the need to save the deal but seem to be heading in a direction which Iranian FM Javad Zarif called “practical,” in their united opposition to the US pullout from the deal.

In a column published early this morning - shortly after the US's first round of tariffs on imported Chinese goods took effect - Reuters' Breakingviews columnist Christopher Beddor declared that the trade war between China and the US will be "fought in the trenches, and it's going to get ugly." And while exporters might be the first to feel the squeeze, the trade tensions will likely dampen investment and impede China's efforts to reform its economy. It also "marks a moment of mourning" for investors who had hoped that "the two largest economies could work things out."

The US threat to impose increased obligations on China and other trading partners is a "psychological terror", said the representative of the Ministry of Commerce of China, Hao Feng.

According to him, the introduction of increased tariffs by Washington will endanger global production chains.

"The United States opens fire all over the world, as well as itself," added Hao Fen.

He stressed that Beijing "will not drop its head against threats and blackmail, and will also be lazy in deciding to protect free trade and the international trade mechanism."

"China will work with the entire world community to resolutely resist unsuccessful protectionism and unilateral policy, and will make every effort to protect stability and the international trade environment," Feng stressed.
He also urged all countries to take decisive action on US trade policy.

When reports emerged that India and China are in talks about forming an oil buyers’ club, OPEC was probably too busy with its upcoming June 22 meeting to concern itself with that dangerous alliance. Now, it may be time for it to start worrying.

Chinese officials are getting nervous. Everyone knows that whenever your favorite sports team struggles and fans are calling for the head coach’s head, any owner or general manager who then issues the dreaded (from the coach’s perspective) vote of confidence is essentially sealing his fate. PBOC Governor Yi Gang issued a similar sort of statement today.

CNY is in freefall, which is dangerous in and of itself but more so given the (mistaken) political ramifications. Not only do the Chinese bear the brunt of “dollar” misfortune, they will also be blamed, just as they have been already, for engineering the stunt in the name of trade “stimulus.”

China is putting pressure on the European Union to issue a strong joint statement against President Donald Trump’s trade policies at a summit later this month but is facing resistance, European officials said.

With just hours left until the US officially declares trade war on China at midnight on Friday, when the Trump admin enacts tariffs on $34bn in Chinese products and Beijing retaliates instantly, China on Thursday rejected "threats and blackmail" ahead of a threatened U.S. tariff hike, once again striking a defiant stance in the dispute which companies have warned could flare into a full-blown trade war and chill the global economy.

A government spokesman said Beijing will defend itself if U.S. President Donald Trump goes ahead Friday with plans to raise duties on Chinese goods in the escalating conflict over technology policy. The Chinese government has already issued a list of U.S. goods for retaliation, but the Commerce Ministry said it will wait to see what Washington does.

“China will not bow in the face of threats and blackmail, nor will it be shaken in its resolve to defend global free trade,” said ministry spokesman Gao Feng at a news conference.

With the US set to launch the first salvo in the trade war against China at 12:01am on Friday when Washington imposes 25% tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese products, and with Beijing set to immediately respond, a logistical issue emerged: who gets to strike first?

Due to Beijing being 12 time zones ahead of the US, and because China also planned to launch retaliatory tariffs against the US on Friday at midnight, it would mean Beijing would technically start the trade war, because 12:01 a.m. in Beijing on Friday would mean noon Thursday in Washington. So upon reflection, and realizing that the earth's curvature could make China appears as the aggressor, China said that it wouldn’t implement tariffs ahead of the U.S. on Friday, after previous arrangements put it on course to do so.

Publicizing its growing exasperation in dealing with president Donald Trump who refuses to halt the tit-for-tat retaliation in the growing trade war with China - which is set to officially begin on Friday when the US slaps $34 billion in Chinese exports with 25% tariffs - but has a habit of doubling down the threatened US reaction to every Chinese trade counteroffer (after all the US imports far more Chinese goods than vice versa)...

... China has proposed a novel idea: to form an alliance with the EU - the world's largest trading block - against the US, while promising to open up more of China's economy to European corporations.

Top diplomats from world powers will meet on Friday in a bid to defend their landmark nuclear deal with Iran from attack by President Donald Trump.

Foreign ministers from China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.K. will convene in Vienna for the first time without the U.S. in order “to ensure the continued implementation” of the accord, which granted Iran a reprieve from sanctions in exchange for limits to its nuclear program, according to a European Union statement on Wednesday. Trump abandoned the deal in May and reimposed sanctions against countries and companies doing business with Iran.

“Austria and the European Union are ready to maintain and deepen the framework for cooperation with Iran,” Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said following a meeting in the Austrian capital with his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani. U.S. threats to impose secondary sanctions violate the rights of European companies and individuals, Van der Bellen said.

There is a “considerable chance” the number of aircraft-carrying ships available in the Chinese navy will be seven instead of four by 2025 because of a “lower profile defense program” that has already taken shape, a new report indicates.

The People's Liberation Army-Navy has plans to build three large aircraft carriers in addition to the Liaoning, a carrier whose frame was built in the former Soviet Union before being purchased and retrofitted by the Chinese. Each follow-on carrier to join the Liaoning in the Chinese carrier fleet is at various stages of development and construction, with the Type 001A, the country's first domestically built carrier, already past its first sea trials.

In addition to the heavy duty carriers, though, the Chinese navy has several smaller aircraft carriers in development similar to the America-class and Wasp-class ships operated by US Marines and the US Navy, military analyst Abraham Ait wrote in a report published by the Diplomat June 30.

In a memo to tourists, China is warning citizens planning on traveling to the United States to keep watch over their surroundings at all times, avoid visiting U.S. hospitals without American health insurance, and to not venture out alone at night.

According to the South China Morning Post, the Chinese embassy in the United States is warning tourists planning trips to the U.S. to be wary of shootings and theft, and to not get sick or injured lest a foreign visitor be gouged by the United States’ absurdly expensive healthcare system.

“Social security in the States is not satisfactory. Shootings, robbery, theft happen frequently,” a memo from the Chinese embassy read. “Be aware of suspicious people around you and avoid going out alone at night.”

As Trump's trade war with China escalates, and is set to go live this Friday when $34 billion in Chinese exports are hit with a 25% tariff, exhausted traders and concerned investors are wondering where the next surprise from the Trump administration will come from: after all, after backing off on ZTE (to get China's blessing on the North Korea summit) Trump then promptly pivoted and nearly blocked all Chinese investments in the US, prompting a furious response from Beijing. Meanwhile, the White House somehow threatened to impose over $600 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports even.

Meanwhile, as part of the verbal escalations, the White House has proposed nearly $800 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports, which would cripple the global economy and unleash a global depression if fully implemented.