Free Republic

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks advanced on Friday as a report of progress in U.S.-China trade talks stirred hopes of a deal in their tariff dispute and supported risk sentiment. {snip} “China seems to be running low on options, while the United States would also want to avoid a prolonged conflict given the negative consequences on its markets and the economy,” Monji said. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the United States on Jan. 30 and 31 for the latest round of trade talks aimed at resolving the dispute between the world’s two largest economies. In December, Washington and...

BEIJING, Feb 5 (Reuters) - China will levy heavy anti-dumping duties on U.S. chicken products, its Commerce Ministry said on Friday, a move likely to aggravate trade relations and antagonise one of the few U.S. industries that profitably exports to China. The ministry's initial investigation showed that U.S. companies had dumped chicken products into the Chinese market, according to the ministry's website (www.mofcom.gov.cn). The tariffs were announced a day after China requested a World Trade Organisation ruling on European Union duties on shoes made in China. That was the most recent of many cases demonstrating China's embrace of the WTO...

"Symptoms of mental instability suspicious of his 're-education'" "Ho Chi Minh City (AsiaNews) - Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, sentenced to 15 years for speaking out about the persecution of Christians, received a reduction of the term for “good attitude and conduct”. AsiaNews sources in Hué confirm that Fr. Van Ly wrote and signed letters in prison praising Vietnamese socialism and the politics of the Communist Party. According to individuals who were allowed to visit him, the priest showed symptoms of mental imbalance and that he seemed to have been drugged as part of the effort “to re-educate him”. The...