[AgentR11]

Belt & Road Initiative, not fanciful, future-wishcasting, but real material, moving real distances, completely outside the ability of the West to interdict physically or financially.

http://rt.com/business/266521-china-rus ... o-service/

That's not next year or next decade. That is bulk cargo, via rail, moving... *TODAY*.

[Tanada]

From the link above,

The train will be able to transport $8.1 billion (50 billion yuan) of cargo a year, Vice Governor of Xinjiang Liu Jianxin said at the launch ceremony.

More than three freight trains will run between Xinjiang and the destinations in Russia and also central and western Asia per week by the second half of this year, the agency said.

Since last year Xinjiang has opened freight train services to Kazakhstan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey and the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.

The new route is among a number of ambitious Russia-China projects. The two countries are currently developing the Moscow-Kazan railway which could further connect Moscow and Beijing. They also plan to start a 2-day high-speed train linking the capitals.

The projects will contribute to the revival of the Silk Road. In April, Beijing proposed building an economic corridor linking China, Mongolia and Russia as one of the key points in the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative.

China has now proven they can reliably use freight rail from the Pacific coast all the way to Madrid, Spain and begin regular cargo service to Moscow, Russia.

They are also working diligently in Africa through Kenya up the interior of Africa. Ultimately they will be able to tie these new railroads, that are being built at Standard Gauge like those in China and most of Europe, through to join the European/Asia rail network.

Why would they go to this trouble? Two reasons I can see, first they have proven that transport via rail can be faster than transport via ship. Second if you are shipping via rail it doesn't matter if someone else tries to dominate the sea lines of communication, you are not using them as your mainstay.

Shipping via rail for containerized cargo can also be more time efficient than via huge ship for another reason. Ships carry many more containers at one time and generally deliver them from one port end point to a different port end point. Containers are then handled in the port being placed on rail or semi truck for delivery to an unpacking destination. By putting the containers on rail at the beginning the Chinese shipping company can send out units to be exchanged at the final destination city anywhere along the rail route. So 100 cars of containers leave China and drop 5-10 cars in each major city they pass through on the trip to Madrid. On the way back the locomotives retrieve the now empty containers from each city along their route back to China. This is greatly more efficient than putting the 100 cars worth of containers on a freighter that docks in Lisbon, Portugal or Rotterdam, Netherlands where they are split up at the port and shipped out to the 10-20 different destination cities which takes even more time than the ship journey.

[vox_mundi]

Probably nothing, but ...

Investors flee China funds in historic rush

Chinese funds just experienced the biggest exodus of money ever.

Investors abruptly pulled out nearly $7 billion from Chinese funds and ETFs over the past week, according to financial data firm EPFR.

The withdrawal comes after index provider MSCI surprised investors by announcing that it wouldn't include shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen in its widely-tracked global benchmarks due to concerns over China's market restrictions.

MSCI benchmarks help investors access a wide variety of global markets and direct billions of dollars into stock exchanges when they get the official nod of approval.

When MSCI didn't grant its coveted approval on Wednesday, investors fled, causing the largest pull out ever in a one-week period.

In total, EPFR data shows investors withdrew nearly $9.3 billion from emerging market funds in the past week, which ran from June 4 to June 10. That's the most money to flow out of emerging markets since January 2008.

The vast majority of the money was withdrawn from Chinese ETFs.

"I wouldn't say investors are turning cold on emerging markets. This is a one-off China event," explained Ian Wilson, managing director of fund data at EPFR.

Chinese billionaire cracked joke as his stock crashed

The founder of Hanergy (HNGSF) appeared relaxed in a video interview published by Chinese state media Xinhua, just hours before Hong Kong regulators said they were investigating the firm.

Hanergy Thin Film shares plunged 47% in just over an hour on May 20 before trading was halted, by which time the company had lost $19 billion in value.

Li, who held over 80% of the company, appeared to lose as much as $15 billion, but it has since been revealed that he was betting the stock would fall.

Days before the crash, Li upped his bet that the shares would take a dive. He increased his short position in Hanergy by 796 million shares, according to a stock exchange filing. He also purchased an additional 26.4 million shares.

[dolanbaker]

Probably nothing, but ...

Just playing poker at the top table, means little to them but more than likely wiping out a few minnows and making some others very rich.

[AgentR11]

And zee corollary.. which I was talking about at near the beginning of this sanction stupidity:

Chinese Media Hails Russia-China Deal on Far East Land's Lease for 50 Years
http://sputniknews.com/business/2015061 ... 27740.html

Anyone that's spent any time looking at the maps understands that the amount of undeveloped and underdeveloped agricultural land in Russia is staggering. Up till now, we've been able to scare them with the idea that China wants to acquire administrative control and responsibility for big chunks of Russia. The Chinese, of course, understood that while they had no interest in any such thing, they also had no way to prove it to born-paranoid Ruskies. Poof, along comes sanctions, just at the time there is interest in wrapping up the negotiations for selling Russian gas, etc to China; all China had to do was stick to win-win in the face of a one off opportunity to press an advantage; and they could undo decades, and I mean DECADES of US propaganda work. And they did. And its done. The two trading partners we should have done everything to keep apart, are now glued together, probably for the remainder of the life of industrial civilization. They have everything the other needs; they just needed a little trust opportunity, some rail, and some banking, to all come together at once.

And we gave it to them on a silver friggin platter.

To those that don't get it. China's basic problem is quite simple. How to occupy the time of a billion+ people in such a way that the result of what they do, turns into bread and rice on their dinner tables, and a window unit AC with power to cool the air at night. And where on Earth are there both a bunch of people that want more electronic and plastic toys in cardboard boxes; who also have more agriculturally suitable land than they can even figure out how to plow, and more energy than they can burn? Russia.

%*(&^((%%*)&()&_()%&*%$&^^^)(&**+^*%&*($*$$(&*()*&

Obama better get the blame for creating the only strategic competitor who could ever hope to surpass us.

[AgentR11]

Double, but unrelated.. on the stock thing, its not really big enough to be worth extensive research just for forum talking purposes, but there are some pretty strict volume limits between outside and inside Shanghai; a crash like that simply could be a result of too many shares being sold while folks who might be potential buyers at a good price were unable to execute a buy because of those limits.

Just a symptom of China being very cautious and conservative about fully opening its financial markets to the outside. Renminbi is close to value-parity now; I'm starting to suspect they intend to reach market value gently and gradually over the course of some years to achieve a float that is both the birth of a new world order, and simultaneously barely noticeable. If I had to guess... 2025.

[AgentR11]

Another bit of incredible news...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015- ... 324969.htm
Mainland to lift entry-permit requirement for Taiwan residents

So, lets see, China still considers Taiwan part of China; electorate in Taiwan is still *slightly* in favor of remaining separate; but solid amounts of investment occur cross straits, and now, a Taiwanese person can end up with an ID card that works more or less like that of a mainlander; no applying for visa-like permits, just cross... back.. and forth... easier than I might cross from Texas to Mexico and back. More ties back to the mainland, more folks in Taiwan with property and assets on the mainland; more noticing of being NOT represented in Beijing, more noticing Hong Kong's easy financial interaction with Shanghai... Yeah; Taiwan will rejoin China, and it'll be by ballot box. No stopping that train now.

Win-Win.. when you have a couple trillion USD in the bank, its amazing how easy it is to NOT have to blow people up to get them to want to do what you want them to do.

[Sixstrings]

Yeah; Taiwan will rejoin China, and it'll be by ballot box. No stopping that train now.

Informative comment. China played the Taiwan situation smart, soft power, yep looks like they'll get it.

Which is actually okay -- it's one thing if Taiwanese are begging for democracy and to be defended from the mainland but if they want to go to China, then okay.

Agent -- what should the US be doing in the pacific?

What the heck are our interests, anymore, just competing for influence? Do you think we need to do that, is that important, or should we pull back a lot? And start ignoring things like the south china sea?

[AgentR11]

T-Bills mostly...

It really depends on what we do though; if we stick to ranting loudly and driving obnoxiously in the Pacific; nothing interesting will happen. From a Chinese PoV; we're nothing but loud, ill-mannered barbarians; they expect us to act like loud, ill-mannered barbarians; and won't risk destroying value in responding to loud, ill-mannered barbarians; unless the barbarians start to break things that are valuable. So.. for instance, we could send the whole Pacific fleet out to those islands, and drive around like lunatics in international waters, and China would lodge protests, but otherwise would not respond, and keep right on building.

Game changes if we sink a dredger.

Which I don't think we're of a mind to do.
But then again, we might actually prove to be lunatic, loud, ill-mannered barbarians; in which case, after firing first and sinking a dredger, we're going to find out what happens when you use an aircraft carrier against a non 3rd world country. The fish will enjoy the reef it makes.. though quite pricey as reef building goes.

[ROCKMAN]

Apparently there are more than a few out there who aren't very worried about China's growth potential:

Guotai Junan Securities, China's third-largest brokerage by profit, locked up $378.6 billion of funds in its initial public offering earlier this week, according to a Reuters calculation based on the company's statement released late on Friday...China's IPOs are perceived as almost risk-free investments because they typically double or triple on their trading debut, resulting in huge investor interest in new shares.

[kanon]

Despite the many impressive statistics and sublime geopolitical arrangements from China, I do not think China will ever be a great world power. I consider it today to be partly a colony of Wall Street and partly an economic meth addict. I think any country getting deeply involved with China is asking for major trouble and I place China further along towards environmental failure than Brazil. If there is any truth to this article China's Communist-Capitalist Ecological Apocalypse, the main Chinese export may become desperate boat people. But I don't think we actually have any precedents for a country that commits suicide while suffering from grandiose delusions.

[onlooker]

True Kanon, not much to envy about China. The leadership really has done a deal with the Devil. Poison their own country and people for the sake of economic growth and riches which stream mostly to the small elite. Problem though is they have hastened the downfall of the planet and it's inhabitants.

[dissident]

While China may not rise too far, America will go down the toilet.

The best thing about today is that 50% of the world GDP (according to western statistics) belongs to the non-west. The self-anointed masters of the universe are declining and fast. A good thing.

[americandream]

Despite the many impressive statistics and sublime geopolitical arrangements from China, I do not think China will ever be a great world power. I consider it today to be partly a colony of Wall Street and partly an economic meth addict. I think any country getting deeply involved with China is asking for major trouble and I place China further along towards environmental failure than Brazil. If there is any truth to this article China's Communist-Capitalist Ecological Apocalypse, the main Chinese export may become desperate boat people. But I don't think we actually have any precedents for a country that commits suicide while suffering from grandiose delusions.

Grandiose delusions sums it up. The nincompoops in the Maoist mutation of Marxist thought were too busy dreaming up glorious variants of Western capitalism to really contemplate the mess that they were taking the rest of us in the direction of.

[kanon]

The nincompoops in the Maoist mutation of Marxist thought were too busy dreaming up glorious variants of Western capitalism to really contemplate the mess that they were taking the rest of us in the direction of.

It is very unfortunate. But I would not place all the blame on the communist apparatchiks because it seems they act in cooperation with the western corporate interests. I wonder if the Chinese would seriously reduce their pollution if somehow the corporate oligarchs were to insist on environmental responsibility. Wishful thinking.

[onlooker]

Yep wishful thinking. Corporation see environmental concerns as externalities. They basically interfere with the bottom line = profit. So profit above all else including the Earth and all life on it. Go figure.

[GoghGoner]

Chocolate, pork, coal, etc... China's consumption of stuff is still nose-diving.

China's May coking coal imports fall 68% on year to 1.88 mil mt, 6-year low

China's appetite for higher-quality met coal imports to feed its massive coastal steel mills from 2007-2013 drove prices to record highs.

But its appetite for imports has ebbed due to a feeble steel sector and government mandates to protect its domestic coal industry.

Over the first five months of this year, China's coking coal imports fell 35% year on year to 16.56 million mt.

The sharp decline in May import was unexpected as there had been reasonable spot trading liquidity for mid-to-end-April cargoes, according to market participants.

Refined copper imports from China fell close to 275,000 tonnes in May, down 12.4 per cent this year, the latest data showed.

Analysts were also focused on Chinese customs data showing a decline in crude imports in May; China has been a key source of support for the market, buying oil while it is cheap to stockpile for strategic and commercial reserves, and any evidence of weakening demand there would take away a rare source of market strength. Research consultancy JBC Energy said in a note that storage space in China may be growing limited.

Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/oil-exten ... z3e58VmYkf

[americandream]

The nincompoops in the Maoist mutation of Marxist thought were too busy dreaming up glorious variants of Western capitalism to really contemplate the mess that they were taking the rest of us in the direction of.

It is very unfortunate. But I would not place all the blame on the communist apparatchiks because it seems they act in cooperation with the western corporate interests. I wonder if the Chinese would seriously reduce their pollution if somehow the corporate oligarchs were to insist on environmental responsibility. Wishful thinking.

Yes.

The Chinese Politburo is stuffed with revisionists who have revised or stood communism on its head for personal gain. Capitalists function for personal gain as well.

Both are short term thinkers who live from dividend cheque to dividend cheque. That sort of mind is incapable of long term strategic thinking especially the Maoists who had access to circular economics and yet made a mockery of it. Capitalists have an excuse; Maoists have none.

[GoghGoner]

China seems awfully panicked by the fall in the market. Now investors can buy on margin and hold the stock indefinitely. How can I get into this game?

But China’s stock investors are extremely active and on average hold their trading positions for only 18 days. In less than three weeks, the Shanghai market already fell by 24%. According to the existing rules, Chinese investors need to put up collateral worth at least 150% of their loans on margin, and if the value of the collateral falls below 130%, they are asked to replenish their collateral or sell their investment made on borrowed money.

This is why Beijing said before the market open today that brokers would no longer be required to force the sale of stocks held by clients that face margin calls.