The Hong Kong stock market has rarely charmed investors so much in the last couple of years. The Hang Seng index rose 9.8 percent from the beginning of the year to the end of last week, outperforming almost all the other markets in the world.
The recent proposal of US House Republicans to impose a controversial border tax on imports will not only deal a blow to global trade rules and hurt the interests of the United States' trading partners, but also cost American consumers dearly and diminish Washington's global influence.
I remember seeing a very impressive public service advertisement promoting filial piety. It asked people to draw a 30 by 30 grid on a sheet of paper, with each square representing one month of a person's life (considering the average life span is 75 years), to calculate how many more months or years they are likely to live. Those who work in cities far away from their hometowns can also calculate how much time of their adult life they have spent (or will spend) with their parents.
With still more than two months to go until the first round of France's presidential election, the contest is already looking messy. A financial scandal, online gossip about one candidate's sexual orientation and accusations of interference in the electoral process by a foreign power have enlivened the race to replace outgoing socialist President Francois Hollande.
Earlier this year, the former chief economist of Bank of China, Cao Yuanzheng, warned the Chinese business community that a change in their global operating environment was possibly on the way - a change from peaceful development of all businesses to ferocious competition.
Addressing the opening session of a recent workshop on the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee attended by officials at the provincial and ministerial levels, President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, called on them to carry forward the Party's revolutionary spirit, not to be lax even for a moment in solving existing problems, and constantly meet the requirements of the times and the people.
THE STATE TOBACCO MONOPOLY ADMINISTRATION issued a ban on high-price tobacco products in March 2012, forbidding sales of cigarettes labeled or actually sold for more than 1,000 yuan ($146) per 200. However, there are now shops selling cigarettes at three times that price. China Youth Daily comments:
MORE THAN 20 DEPARTMENTS of the State Council, China's cabinet, are pressing ahead with the government's "1+X" initiative. The "1" stands for "Made in China 2025", a road map to enhance the country's manufacturing power, and "X" means guidelines for sectors including smart manufacturing and innovation of high-end equipment. But for the initiative to work extra efforts have to be made to lower tax burden on enterprises, Beijing Youth Daily commented on Thursday:
WECHAT, Tencent's popular instant messaging app, made public accounts pay-to-view on Feb 14. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Thursday:
The resignation of retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as US national security adviser after only two weeks in office is a significant blow to President Donald Trump's stated aim of greatly improving relations between the United States and Russia.
Thanks to consumers' high hopes that Apple will launch yet another revolutionary product on the 10th anniversary of iPhone, the company's market value has again shot up, to about $700 billion this week, underlining the optimism in the stock market of the United States and the widespread appreciation of the game-changing gadgets created by the world's most valuable company.
The simmering groundswell of voices urges emerging economies such as China and India to take the lead in addressing global issues. But there are deeper imperceptible challenges at home that demand immediate and greater attention from China and India. Air pollution is one such challenge as it has dangerous implications for public health, especially in metropolises such as New Delhi and Beijing.