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The White House confirmed that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping discussed Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou with President Joe Biden days before she was released on Friday.“It should not come at no surprise that President Xi raised the Huawei official,” Psaki said. “But again there was no negation on this call.”The call between Biden and Xi took place September 9 and lasted an hour and a half, according to Biden.The Biden Justice Department dropped charges against Wanzhou, setting her free from house arrest in Vancouver. Wanzhou was arrested in Canada in 2018 during the Trump administration on charges she violated...

The Chinese regime’s trade war on Australia appears to be backfiring after strong demand for Australian exports have resulted in the nation recording its fourth-highest trade surplus. Preliminary international trade figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Monday show Australia recorded a $9 billion goods trade surplus in December, up from $7.4 billion in November. While imports from China fell by $641 million or 7 percent, exports to China increased by $2.3 billion or 21 percent in December, driven primarily by iron ore and wheat. This comes amid China’s economic trade sanctions, which has seen trade disruptions...

Chinese authorities have been leveling threats against the United States in the past few days, in the face of possible U.S. sanctions against China after Beijing passed a national security law for Hong Kong. On May 28, ChinaÂ’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National PeopleÂ’s Congress (NPC), passed a draft resolution of the law, which will pave the way for Chinese security agencies to operate in the city. BeijingÂ’s endorsement of the resolution drew immediate criticism and outcry from many local pro-democracy lawmakers. Later on the same day, President Donald Trump announced he will hold a press conference on China on Friday....

Well, perhaps the better question is should he? The media rumor mill is buzzing after suggestions that the President Elect is considering cutting a deal with Vladimir Putin which could involve the easing or lifting of sanctions in exchange for a dramatic reduction in nuclear weapons stockpiles. We should include the usual caveat that even though he mentioned it to a reporter as a possibility, nothing is official until we see it on Trump’s Twitter feed, but it’s clearly worth an early look. (Reuters) President-elect Donald Trump will propose offering to end sanctions imposed on Russia for its annexation...

The European Commission has imposed tough new restrictions on the export of anaesthetics used to execute people in the US, in a move that will exacerbate the already extreme shortage of the drugs in many of the 34 states that still practice the death penalty. The EC has added eight barbiturates to its list of restricted products that are tightly controlled on the grounds that they may be used for "capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". The eight include pentobarbital and sodium thiopental – the two drugs on which almost all American executions currently...

BRUSSELS - European Union leaders threatened the United States and China with trade sanctions Friday if the world's two biggest polluters don't commit to ambitious cuts in greenhouse gases by next year. The warning came as the economic downturn focused European leaders on the impact on industry of their groundbreaking agreement last year to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. EU leaders want similar commitments from other major economies by next year, when a conference on global warning is to take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Otherwise they say European companies will need protection from unfair...

One non-U.S. Trader eyeing the Schumer/Graham trip to China and wondering why the two Senators would risk a trip to that country and taking a stance on currency and trade that likely will irritate if not offend their reluctant host. That trader and others remind of the protectionist message the trip sends around the world and they remind that with China the second largest holder of FX reserves in the world messrs Schumer and Graham need to tread lightly amid concern that a shift in China reserve management could upset a now fragile greenback and a U.S. deficit funding...

American consumers of everything from shrimp and pasta to candles, ball bearings and steel already bear the high price of anti-dumping tariffs slapped by Washington on hundreds of imports. Now Americans are about to pay again for an anti-dumping policy that is akin to letting the inmates run the asylum. The World Trade Organization ruled this week that the U.S. could be hit with retaliatory duties if it doesn't do away with the Byrd Amendment. This nasty little rule rewards domestic producers that support dumping petitions with the proceeds of anti-dumping duties. Talk about perverse incentives. The possible retaliators --...

Britain reveals France's £135m exports to IraqNicholas Watt, political correspondentFriday March 21, 2003The GuardianBritain intensified its propaganda campaign against France yesterday by releasing figures showing that Paris has exported goods worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Iraq. The government published a detailed breakdown of trade figures which allegedly show that France is "stretching" the rules of UN sanctions. Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, claimed that in the first six months of last year France exported goods worth $212.5m (£135m) to Iraq. Germany exported goods worth $203.8m. In the same period Britain exported goods worth $27.8m. The figures...