China

Authored by Federico Pieraccini via The Stratgic Culture Foundation,

China's $1.7 trillion government-bond market is turning curiouser and curiouser...

In a fresh sign of the nerves among investors caused by Beijing's campaign this spring to make Chinese markets less risky, the yield on seven-year government bonds rose to 3.79% on Monday, above the yield on both five-year and 10-year bonds.

While tense trade negotiations between the US and Mexico over the price and quota for U.S. imports of Mexican sugar continue (a happy ending appears unlikely, especially after a Mexican sugar company on Friday called on the government to take action against American fructose producers and protect the local industry from US deals), a new protectionist measure involving sugar half way around the globe was unveiled on Monday when China - the world's biggest importer of the sweet substance - said it will impose significant penalties on sugar imports following lobbying by domestic mills.

Authored by Wayne Madsen via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The Philippines' outspoken president Rodrigo Duterte got a glimpse of the true snarling, belligerent Chinese dragon hiding behind the cheerful, globalist Panda facade earlier this week, when in response to a claim that his country was prepared to drill for oil in a disputed part of the South China Sea, China's president Xi told him matter-of-factly that in that case he should prepare for war.