As reported yesterday, tensions between China and Taiwan rose again when Beijing sailed its only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, which over the weekend was "shown off" conducting dramatic military drills, around the southern tip of Taiwan passing southeast of the Pratas Islands, which are controlled by Taiwan, heading southwest.
Two days after China demonstratively showed off a live-fire exercise involving its one and only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, in the Yellow Sea, with the Defense Ministry hinting that the carrier would next sail to the South China Sea after announcing that "as a next step it will conduct scheduled cross-sea training and tests," Beijing did just that and as Reuters reports, a group of Chinese warships led by the country's sole aircraft carrier passed south of Taiwan on Monday, and entered the top half of the South China Sea, in what China has termed a routine exercise.
Data released by China's NBS early last week confirmed that the latest Chinese housing bubble continued to deflate with 70-city housing price data confirming that home price inflation slowed in most cities in November, except in a few lower tier cities where home price inflation re-accelerated. The average, seasonally adjusted property price change was in November +0.7% from October, and up +12.9% yoy. This compares to October's +1.2% mom increase and +12.7% yoy.
Average housing price growth continued to moderate in tier-1/2/3 cities.
As the FT first reported yesetrday, in a dramatic development for Sino-US relations, Trump picked Peter Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist and one-time daytrader, to head the National Trade Council, an organization within the White House to oversee industrial policy and promote manufacturing.
The danger signs are building up for the Chinese bond market.
First, last Thursday, Chinese bond futures crashed by the most on record forcing China's regulator to briefly halt trading in the security until the panic fades.
Then, on Friday, a Chinese bill auction technically "failed" when it was unable to find enough buyers for the total amount offered for sale.