China

Authored by Paul Craig Roberts,

The English language Russian news agency, Sputnik, reports that former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is advising US president-elect Donald Trump how to “bring the United States and Russia closer together to offset China’s military buildup.” 

If we take this report at face value, it tells us that Kissinger, an old cold warrior, is working to use Trump’s commitment to better relations with Russia in order to separate Russia from its strategic alliance with China.

Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,

The shills over at the Minnesota based hedge fund, Pine River, are making the media rounds these evening, after issuing a letter featuring a Hong Kong Professor named James Wang who said China would defeat the United States in a trade war. The entire article is suspect and wreaks of enemy propaganda.

Have a look, penned by <<<Bei Hu>>> (hmm).

This is what Wang had to say about a prospective trade war with the US,  which includes Trump slapping the shit out of China with 45% tariffs.

With the PBOC fighting tooth and nail to slow outbound capital flight, which according to Goldman has reached $1.1 trillion since August 2015, and which these days mostly means keeping the Yuan from depreciating to new all time lows below 7 Yuan to the Dollar, the Chinese central bank may have its work cut out for it in the immediate future. The reason is that, as Bloomberg reminds us, the first day of 2017 is when an annual $50,000 quota to convert the yuan into foreign exchange resets, stoking concern there will be a rush to sell the local currency.

A giant rooster statue resembling U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has been erected in China’s Shanxi Province. The sculpture was inspired by Trump’s iconic hairstyle and gestures. Described as the perfect blend of Chinese and Western cultures, it heralds the upcoming Year of the Rooster in China and the start of a new Trump presidency in US. The giant rooster figure appears outside a shopping mall in downtown Taiyuan, in north China’s Shanxi Province.