The government is seeking a free trade agreement with China by the end of the year, but concerns still remain about Chinese investment in Australia.
Daniel Munoz/AAP
As Prime Minister Tony Abbott shifts his Asian tour focus to China, it seems likely the threshold for formal approval on Chinese investment in Australia will be raised to A$1 billion. But any move to open…
Achieving a free trade agreement with China would be a major achievement for the Abbott government given the obstacles currently in the way.
AAP/Daniel Munoz
Despite the misgivings of the sceptics, prime minister Tony Abbott’s high-profile, potentially high-risk trade mission to northeast Asia could be a triumph. The free trade agreement (FTA) with Japan is…
Two dozen ships anchored outside Gladstone harbour in 2008, waiting to load coal.
milton.v1/Flickr
We are in the coal business. If you want decent hospitals, schools and police on the beat we all need to understand that. – Queensland Premier Campbell Newman, June 2012. It was a rare moment of unscripted…
The proposed railway hasn’t got everyone in Laos excited.
LUONG THAI LINH/EPA
Despite impressive economic growth rates over the last decade, a third of Laos’s population still lives below the extreme poverty line of US$1.25 per day. Most of the extreme poor Laos are ethnic minorities…
Tony Abbott has declared Japan, under prime minister Shinzo Abe, as Australia’s ‘best friend in Asia’. But this might come at a cost as Abbott seeks to close a FTA with China.
EPA/Mast Irham
Prime minister Tony Abbott will be hoping the Japanese leg of his ambitious trade trip to northeast Asia can replicate the success of securing a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea. The close relations…
Chinese anger at Malaysia’s handling of the search for flight MH370 has had a damaging impact on the bilateral relationship.
EPA/Kamal Sellehuddin
When Malaysian Airlines flight 370 failed to arrive, authorities at first concluded it had crashed in a relatively shallow part of the Gulf of Thailand. As the days passed more countries dispatched ships…
Bags of talent: Chinese migrants outside Beijing’s rail terminal.
EPA/How Hwee Young
Mass migration is a huge issue in China’s fast-growing cities, deepening existing anxieties about urban sprawl, the overheated real estate markets, overcrowding, land disputes, and social unrest. On a…
When the EU-US summit kicks off in Brussels this week, the prospects of a new trade deal will be jostling for attention with events in Ukraine. The long-term implications might even be more far reaching…
Chinese students begin learning their maths facts at a very early age: maths textbooks begin with multiplication in the first semester of second grade, when children are seven years old. In order to understand…
A growing share of Australian exports are heading to China, leading commentators to ask if we should be hedging our bets.
AAP/Will Russell
Australia exported A$94.4 billion in goods to China last year, making China by far the single most important destination for Australian merchandise. Similarly, China is also the most important destination…
China’s equivalent of the Nasdaq stock exchange is failing to attract some of the country’s most innovative companies. ChiNext was supposed to anchor local high-tech businesses on home soil with a secure…
Special delivery? New Chinese consumer law will place a greater onus on retailers to rectify problems.
Kaptain Koboid/Flickr
When China kicks off “Consumer Protection Day” this weekend, it’s online shoppers that stand to gain the most. In fact, the growth in online shopping appears to be one of the main factors driving China’s…
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang took to the stage Wednesday to present a blue-print for further market reforms.
EPA/Wu Hong
China’s Premier, Li Keqiang, presented his annual Work Report to the National People’s Congress on Wednesday, and the media dutifully reported the big ticket items: a 7.5% GDP growth target for 2014 and…
A 12% increase in China’s military spending may sound muscular: but as a proportion to GDP it has remained constant since 2000.
AAP/EPA/ADRIAN BRADSHAW
As the world’s second largest military power, China’s announcement of a 12% increase in its military budget has elicited grumbles from Taipei, Tokyo and Washington. But what does this increase signal regarding…
Police investigate the scene of the massacre at Kunming railway station, which authorities blamed on separatist terrorists.
EPA/Sui Shui
Shortly after 9pm last Saturday night, a group of knife-wielding men stormed into Kunming railway station in the Yunnan Province in southwest China. They went on a killing rampage that brutally ended the…
Tourists wear protective masks in smoggy Tiananmen Square on February 26, 2014, when the air quality was officially ‘hazardous’.
EPA/Rolex Dela Pena
Beijing has once again experienced extremely poor air quality, in what is becoming a regular event for the Chinese capital and other parts of the country. But has anything changed since the last “airpocalypse…
Carsten Holz, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The world’s second-largest economy has become the second-most watched and yet investors, politicians and economists are never quite clear what it is they’re looking at. China’s premier, Li Keqiang, is…
Fears over China’s ability to cope with its debt crisis and renewed doubts over recovery in the US have sent investors running back to old faithful: gold. But markets look as if they are favouring tradition…
Education minister Elizabeth Truss has travelled to Shanghai to find out the secrets behind Chinese pupils’ mathematics success. I suspect she will find that it’s a cultural phenomenon, impossible to import…