Tag: China

Europeans Have a Love-Hate Relationship With Chinese Cars

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BYD, China’s dominant maker of electric vehicles, aims to open so many outlets in Germany that no one has to travel more than 20 minutes to buy one of its cars. One of its Chinese rivals, Xiaomi, sees Germany as the foundation of its European expansion plans, after selling 700,000 cars back home. Germany is the birthplace of the automobile and the home of Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz. These days, it is also a top destination for Chinese companies selling cars at a considerable discount to European vehicles. “Customers don’t…

EU deal with China limits imports of hybrid electric vehicles

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The EU is to limit the number of hybrid electrical vehicles imported from China to 350,000 cars a year, the European Commission has confirmed. Imports have been soaring in the last two years with about 800,000 battery and plug-in hybrids likely to be sold this year. The EU expects that the quota, which will come into force in December, will halve China’s market share which now stands at 6% in a landmark four-year agreement made in Beijing last week. The annual limit on imports of hybrids will be taken under…

Lethality and Testosterone Will Get Us Only So Far

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Enemy drones over Romania. Wayward missiles in Poland. Sabotage in Germany. Every week brings some new Russian provocation as President Vladimir Putin steps up his efforts to divide Europe and undermine support for Ukraine. As Western militaries scramble to respond, the prospect of the war spilling over into NATO territory rises. The problem of escalating instability, unfortunately, is not confined to Europe’s eastern frontier. The danger of war between America’s autocratic adversaries and our democratic allies is rising around the world for one simple, troubling reason: The enemies of liberal…

Volkswagen boss backs EU plan to bolster domestic European industry

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The boss of Volkswagen has backed EU proposals to boost its domestic industry, arguing European carmakers need to be able to “compete under comparable conditions” with Chinese rivals. Oliver Blume said “Made in Europe” rules from the EU “must reward real value creation in Europe”, speaking in Paris before the motor show this week. The rules are aimed at countering the rapid rise of Chinese brands in Europe in the automotive sector and other important manufacturing industries. Lower-priced Chinese manufacturers have prompted a crisis in several industries. Volkswagen is among…

China Expands Its Military Reach by Building a Base in Laos

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China has begun operating a new air force base in Laos, marking another step in Beijing’s efforts to establish military footholds abroad and project power into Southeast Asia. Satellite images released this week revealed that eight small military aircraft had arrived at the China-Laos Joint Logistics and Training Center, which officially opened late last month at Ban Keun, about 30 miles north of the Laotian capital, Vientiane. The satellite images, first reported by Reuters, showed a 1.2-mile runway at Ban Keun that could be extended, opening the possibility that the…

China and Europe Step Back From Trade War With Limits on Chinese Car Exports

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High-level talks in Beijing between the European Union and China ended on Friday with an unexpected agreement that could pull the two sides back from an imminent trade war. The most notable feature of the agreement involved what both sides described as an understanding on China’s exports of hybrid electric-gasoline cars, which have been among the most contentious points of tension between the two sides. Maros Sefcovic, the trade commissioner of the 27-nation bloc, said that the understanding could lead to China’s halving the number of hybrid gasoline-electric cars that…

China agrees to ‘halve’ hybrid car exports to EU in landmark deal

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The EU said it has reached a landmark deal with China to “halve” its sales of hybrid cars in the bloc amid fears surging sales could kill off parts of the European car industry. Trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said the deal was the first of its kind and the result of “intense” negotiations with China since June to curb a trade deficit of €1.18bn (£1bn) a day, which has caused mounting tensions between the two economic powers. The deal “opens the prospect of cutting China’s export [of hybrids] by more…

Mao’s Last Dancer Li Cunxin on his long-awaited follow-up: ‘I don’t think my publisher expected it to take 14 years!’

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Some people live such extraordinary lives that a single autobiography simply won’t suffice. Li Cunxin has now written two. The renowned ballet dancer and former artistic director of Queensland Ballet had hoped he was finished writing his story after the phenomenal international success of his 2003 memoir, Mao’s Last Dancer. But life had other plans. “Actually, I had signed a contract with Penguin Random House for a follow-up,” Cunxin says, from his home in Brisbane. “It was going to be about the lives of my brothers and friends in China,…

EU ‘pulling out all stops’ with minerals projects as it tries to avert China trade war

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The EU is “pulling out all the stops” to fend off an imminent potential trade crisis with China, the industry commissioner, Stéphane Séjourné, has said, as the bloc announced its backing for a string of critical materials projects. Séjourné said on Friday that the EU would support 46 new strategic projects to accelerate supplies of critical raw materials by 2030 across the bloc. “We could face a crisis in the coming months,” he said. “We may face trade tensions that could also trigger a crisis in a number of sectors.…

‘It gave me a superpower – question everything’: ​as punk turns 50, bands from China to Greenland explain how it fires up their lives

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Ukraine: ‘I was lucky not to die. I had guitars with me on the frontline’ Andriy Zholob, vocalist/guitarist, Beton: When MTV arrived in Ukraine, I heard Nirvana, the Offspring, Bad Brains, Social Distortion and thrash metal, and realised that all this started from punk rock. Our drummer and I were in a ska-punk band first, but when our vocalist became pregnant we started Beton in 2017 and played lots of festivals. Everything changed with the invasion. In 2022, I started military service as a surgeon on the frontline. We were…