Andrew Coflan researches the Chinese economy and financial markets. He spent two years in Yunnan with Teach for China, and received his Master’s in China Studies from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Last week, United States President Donald Trump suggested that he is considering leveraging tariffs on Chinese steel imports.
India said Thursday it is ready to hold talks with China if both sides pull back their forces to end a standoff along a disputed territory high in the Himalayan mountains. Tensions flared last month in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan, after Chinese teams began building a road onto the Doklam Plateau.
China is tightening control over foreign companies’ internet use in a move some worry might disrupt their operations or jeopardize trade secrets as part of a crackdown on technology that allows web surfers to evade Beijing’s online censorship.
Negotiators involved in the first U.S.-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue here on Wednesday failed to produce concrete results. The U.S. later issued a statement saying China acknowledged a shared objective to reduce the U.S.’s bilateral trade deficit. But the statement made no mention of specific reduction targets in steel and other sectors, indicating that the two sides could not iron out key differences.
Now, the ruling Communist Party’s feverish attempts to erase Mr. Liu Xiaobo’s legacy have raised fears that Mr. Xi will intensify his campaign against activists pushing for ideas like freedom of speech and religion.
Last week Dalian Wanda sold several theme parks and dozens of hotels for $9.3 billion, marking the end of Wang Jianlin’s dream to defeat Disney (DIS) in China. The billionaire said the deal would reduce his company’s debt burden. It followed several reports that Beijing regulators were investigating some of Wanda’s overseas deals for breaching investment rules, and that they had warned state banks not to lend to the company.
In Pakistan, there’s no topic hotter than the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion dollar bilateral development project that will officials promised in 2015, “usher in an era of unprecedented progress and prosperity.”
As Regional Director for Asia at The Economist Intelligence Unit, Duncan Innes-Ker heads up a team of analysts covering the region, including The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Access China service, forecasting regional developments in China. He is personally responsible for compiling economic and political forecasts for a number of countries, including China. He has helped to produce customized research and analysis on many topics, ranging from a long-term forecast of the outlook for Asia in 2050, through to the impact of China’s leadership changes in 2012-13.
Innes-Ker is a frequent commentator for news services such as the BBC and CNN. He often presents at conferences and has been invited to share his perspectives on Asia with a number of senior corporate executives, academics, and diplomatic officials.
Innes-Ker joined The Economist Intelligence Unit in 2005. He speaks Chinese, and has a Master’s degree in Pacific Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and a B.A. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University. He was born in Hong Kong and raised in Asia. He first lived in mainland China in 1995, and was most recently based in Beijing from 2008 to 2011. He currently lives in Hong Kong.
Tom Hoffecker is a graduate student in the Master of Science in the Foreign Service program at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Chinese and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia, he worked in rural Yunnan for two years with Teach For China. Hoffecker is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs and the Deputy Editor of Young China Watchers.
