Liu He, the Chinese vice premier and chief economic advisor to president Xi Jinping, has formally accepted an invitation to visit the US for trade talks on January 30 and January 31, the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) confirmedon Thursday during a press conference.
The National People’s Standing Committee has scheduled an added two-day session for January 29-30, just ahead of Liu He’s visit to the US.
The purpose of the meeting is to review the draft of China's Foreign Investment Law, a set of rules that has been seeking public opinions since December last year.
“This is all about the trade war,” consulting firm Trivium suggested in a January 17 note. “The January session is scheduled to end just as the next round of trade negotiations get under way in [Washington] DC.”
The law explicitly forbids forced technology transfer by foreign firms, thereby addressing one of the biggest complaints of the US.
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Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), gave a speech during the China Bond Market International Forum on Thursday, highlighting three themes to foreign investors.
First, Pan talked about the repatriation of Panda bond proceeds.
“There is no restraint as to how issuers can use the proceeds,” he said. “They can use them onshore for their Chinese subsidiaries or repatriate them offshore. But there’s a preference. Some issuers immediately repatriate the proceeds and convert them back into dollars. I think there is not much meaning in doing so for the issuer, neither is there much meaning for us.”
Second, Pan addressed upcoming index inclusions. International index providers are ready to add Chinese A-shares and selected bonds into their global indices, Pan said. However, some foreign investors were hoping to delay the process because they do not have the appropriate infrastructure to handle the investment inflow.
Citing the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index as an example, Pan said PBoC would not interfere with the index inclusion process.
“Of course, the decision is up to Bloomberg and I have no right to interfere with it,” Pan said. “But if it is delayed just because a few investors are not well prepared, it’s unfair to other investors.”
Lastly, Pan vowed to continue promoting the two-way opening of the financial market and the country’s capital account.
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Barclays' new Asia Pacific banking head, Vanessa Koo, will take on that job in addition to her existing position as the head of banking for Greater China, according to a Tuesday press release.
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Canada updated its travel advisory on China on Monday, urging Canadians to “exercise a high degree of caution in China due to the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws.”
In response, the Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Canada issued a Canada travel alert on Tuesday, warning Chinese citizens to evaluate risks and use caution when travelling to the country, given Canada’s recent “arbitrary detention” of a Chinese national at the request of the United States. It did not name the US, however, referring only to "a third-party country".
The diplomatic tensions have followed Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Chinese multinational Huawei and daughter of the firm’s founder.
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Bank of China has provided a $300m three year loan, with the option of increasing the amount to $1bn, to Sri Lanka, according to Eran Wickramaratne, Sri Lanka's junior finance minister, told a foreign media on Tuesday.
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Germany and China signed agreements to improve market access and strengthen coordination in banking, finance, and capital markets, according to foreign media reports.
The agreements were signed on Friday at the close of German finance minister Olaf Scholz’s two-day visit to Beijing.
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China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) has approved Bank of China to issue no more than Rmb40bn of perpetual bonds, according to a filing on the CBIRC website on Friday. The issuance will be the first perpetual bond in the country.
According to the filing, issuing the bonds will help BOC further replenish its capital, improve its capital structure, encourage it to extend more credit, and prevent systematic risk.