Pompeo and 27 others sanctioned for lying, cheating, stealing....

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Sanction on Pompeo and 27 anti-China hawks is most gratifying to the people: State Council's HK & Macao Office

Mike Pompeo Photo: AFP

Ten sanctioned US politicians from the Trump eraInfographic: GT

The sanction of US former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the other 27 anti-China hawks is most gratifying to the people, the Hong Kong and Macao Office of the State Council said on Thursday, saying that the office firmly supports the move.

"It is known to all that Pompeo had wantonly interfered with Hong Kong affairs, maliciously slandered the 'one country, two systems' practice, crazily incited and made sanctions, and severely violated international laws and the norms of international relations. He had severely damaged the China-US ties, destroyed the prosperity and stability of the Hong Kong region and he deserves the sanction," read the release of the office.

Soon after Joe Biden took the oath and became the new US president on January 20, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced sanctions on 28 anti-China politicians in the US for "their selfish political interests, and prejudice and hatred against China, as well as showing no regard for the interests of the Chinese and American people."

The list includes Michael R. Pompeo, Peter K. Navarro, Robert C. O'Brien, David R. Stilwell, Matthew Pottinger, Alex M. Azar II, Keith J. Krach, and Kelly D. K. Craft of the Trump administration, as well as John R. Bolton and Stephen K. Bannon. These individuals and their immediate family members are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China. They, and any companies or institutions associated with them, are also restricted from doing business with China.

The Hong Kong and Macao office said in the Thursday release that during his years as the secretary of state, Pompeo "successfully" earned fame for his brazen cheating, lying and utter interference with other countries' affairs.

His lunatic political farces showed the international community just how the US hegemony oppresses and attacks China's development, exposing their hypocrisy, arrogance, selfishness and their maliciousness in boasting "democracy, freedom and human rights."

"Pompeo and others used their deeds to remind the international community to keep their eyes sharpened, and from this angle, he may have done one little good thing," read the release.

The Chinese people never believe evil can win. History has proven that any forces that want to interfere with China's internal affairs have failed and found themselves badly beaten. If someone still wants to take any chances in interfering with Hong Kong affairs or even inciting "color revolution" in the region, nothing but shameful failure will await them, according to the release.

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Working from home trend spurs demand for bigger houses

12 Essential Work from Home Trends & Predictions for 2021/2022

THE Malaysian property market, despite still navigating the shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic from last year, is expected to perform better in 2021.

PPC International managing director Datuk Siders Sittampalam says while the pandemic “isn’t going to go away” soon, he is optimistic that the property market will find a way to “work around it.”
PPC International managing director Datuk Siders Sittampalam.

“The fear of the pandemic will not end anytime soon. It will take a while for everyone to go back to their normal live. “With that said, people are going to have to work around it. You can’t expect to be placed under cold storage for too long. Life needs to go on and the real estate segment is the same,” he tells StarBizWeek.

While the vaccine will be available soon, he emphasises that things will not go back to pre-pandemic conditions overnight.

“A sustainable model will need to be put in place for the local property market to work through the pandemic. Eventually, everyone will need to find what works best for them to be able to cope in this challenging environment.”Siders says the concept of working from home (WFH), which has become the norm, could change the mindset of housebuyers going forward.

“The WFH concept has fuelled the demand for properties that don’t just serve as homes, but also working spaces. Gone may be the days where a single bedroom apartment was more than sufficient.

“Now, there will likely be demand for larger properties that can double-up as your office.”

TA Securities, in a recent report, shared a similar sentiment.

“Demand for landed property remains resilient as we saw recent launches at (S P Setia Bhd’s) Alam Impian and Setia Alam achieved commendable take-up rates of more than 90%. Meanwhile, S P Setia sees a pent-up demand for larger homes as remote working options gain traction after the movement control order (MCO).

“Similarly, the trend of opting for bigger space is also observed in Singapore, as we saw a surge in buying interest at Daintree Residence, Singapore. This project was only 30% sold after two years of launch. However, the take-up rate shot up to 90% when the sales gallery reopened after circuit breaker was lifted.”

Despite the implementation of a second MCO, Siders is optimistic that any repercussions on the property sector will not be as bad as the first one that was implemented in March last year.

“I think the market will be better than last year. Activity has not come to a full standstill like the first MCO.

“The sudden shock during the first MCO is not reflected in the current one. Generally, the market will be better than last year,” he says.

Meanwhile, Knight Frank Malaysia managing director Sarkunan Subramaniam says the performance of the residential market is very much dependent on how the economy moves forward.

“The anticipated commercial rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine by the first half of this year will certainly boost the hopes for the country’s economic recovery and lift overall consumer sentiment.

“However, the current ongoing political uncertainties amid the worsening Covid-19 have led property buyers as well as developers to rethink their future plans and strategies. The residential market is expected to remain challenging in the first half of 2021,” he says in a recent statement.

Slight recovery

Sarkunan says the residential market showed a slight recovery post the first MCO last year with selected developers reporting improved bookings, supported by the low interest rate environment and pent-up demand.

“The reintroduction of the Home Ownership Campaign (HOC), coupled with several stimulus packages as well as the initiatives tabled under Budget 2021, offered a ray of hope for the sluggish residential market.

“However, the recent spike of Covid-19 cases, which led to the implementation of the second MCO, will likely derail market recovery in the short term.”

The government reintroduced the HOC in June last year under the Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana). Under the campaign, stamp duty exemption will be provided on the transfer of property and loan agreement for the purchase of homes priced between RM300,000 and RM2.5mil.

Meanwhile, the exemption on the instrument of transfer is limited to the first RM1mil of the home price, while full stamp duty exemption is given on loan agreement effective for sales and purchase agreements signed between June 1 to May 31, 2021.

In addition, the government has announced real property gains tax exemption for Malaysians for the disposal of up to three properties between June 1, 2020 and Dec 31, 2021.

The HOC was kicked off in January 2019 to address the overhang problem in the country.

The campaign, which was initially intended for six months, was extended for a full-year.

Better outlook

The HOC proved successful, having generated total sales of RM23.2bil in 2019, surpassing the government’s initial target of RM17bil.

Maybank Investment Bank Research (Maybank IB) in a recent report says the local property sector is poised for recovery in 2021, driven by a better economic outlook and historically low interest rate environment, as well as pent-up demand.

“In our view, first half 2021 sales should perform better than the second half,as we expect a spike in sales before the end of the HOC and better political stability during the State of Emergency until Aug 1.”

Maybank IB adds that the imposition of the MCO this year should have a lower damage impact on sales as compared with the first MCO last year.

This is because most developers have acclimated to the “new norm” and accelerated their efforts to market their products via the digital platforms.

“A few developers told us that 50% to 70% of their 2020 sales were derived from the online platforms. Construction works are allowed during the MCO as long as approvals are obtained after registering with the Covid-19 Intelligent Management System and adhering to the standard operating procedure, hence, limiting the impact on first quarter 2021 earnings.”

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A look back at Trump's four years, US trumped out in trade war

A look back at Trump’s four years 

https://youtu.be/2BdEO3hKt60 

 

With the new President in the White House, the time to embrace the global community is now and not delay any longer. Washington will then be looked upon with great respect after four years of rule by one man, which was nothing but traumatic, chaotic and deceitful.( Pic shows Biden signing executive orders on first day of Presidency.)

AS we now welcome the era of Bidenomics over the next four years, one cannot help but to review the impact of the previous US president’s tenure which ended just three days ago.

One of Trump’s rallying cry was his call of making America great again. With that, the US embarked on a trade war with the rest of the world, in particular with China, to reduce the massive trade deficits that the US has been experiencing for umpteen years.

In addition, Trump also wanted to bring foreign manufacturers to the US on the assumption that this would reduce their import bill, attracting foreign direct investments as well as creating jobs for Americans.

The trade war saw US imposing tariffs on Chinese goods, and in retaliation, China too started to impose tariffs on US goods – effectively a tit-for-tat move by the two superpowers where effectively nobody wins.

The US-China trade war led to nervousness in markets, in particular during the 2018-2019 period, but the impact of the stand-off tapered off sometime about a year ago when both agreed to enter into the Phase 1 trade deal.

To recap, that trade truce entailed China agreeing to increase the import of American goods and services by at least US$200bil over the next two years. China, which purchased some US$130bil in total goods and US$56bil in services in 2017, was supposed to increase total imports by about US$162bil in total goods purchased and US$38bil in services over the two-year period.

In terms of breakdown for the year 2020 and 2021, China was to increase its imported goods by US$64bil in 2020 and US$98bil this year from the base line figure of 2017. In terms of services, the level of imports by China was expected to increase by about US$13bil last year and US$25bil this year.

Since the Phase 1 trade deal was inked about a year ago, how has the Chinese trade with the rest of the world and in particular the US performed in 2020? Overall, with the December 2020 trade data just released last week, China saw its total exports for the year rising by 3.6% while imports fell by 1.1% year-on-year (y-o-y).

This, of course, would lead to one thing – a widening trade surplus. In fact, China’s 2020 total trade surplus jumped by 27% to US$535bil – the highest in five years.

How about China’s trade with the US? Based on the data released, China’s trade surplus with the US rose by 7.1% to US$316.9bil and contrary to what president Trump intended to achieve with his tariff measures. Chinese exports to the US in 2020 increased by 7.9% to US$451.8bil while imports surged 9.8% y-o-y to US$134.9bil.

This definitely fell short of the targeted US$194bil total goods that was supposed to be imported by China in 2020 (US$130bil base line + US$64bil target). In terms of percentage, the shortfall was as much as 30%.

Based on the data from the US, trade with China up to November 2020 showed that US exports to China totalled some US$110bil while imports stood at US$393.6bil, giving rise to a trade deficit of US$283.6bil.

It is likely that for the month of December 2020, the US will add another US$30bil in deficit and thus bringing the 2020 total trade deficit with China to around US$314bil. Total exports for the year will likely come in at about US$125bil, up 15.8% y-o-y; while imports are expected to come in 3% lower at US$439bil.

Compared with the 2018 import value, US imports from China effectively would have dropped by about US$102bil but exports to China have increased by just 2.5% from the 2018 level of US$122bil.

In essence, while the US bought 19% less goods from China, what it sold to Beijing was barely any higher. In addition, while the US trade deficit with China may have improved by about US$30bil y-o-y in 2020, the Chinese trade surplus with the rest of the world is significantly higher.

What does this mean for Phase 1 Trade Deal?

With a shortfall of some US$70bil (based on US data) in 2020 and on the assumption that China is to import an additional amount of US$98bil this year to meet the target of Phase 1 trade deal, China would need to import as much as US$298bil worth of goods from the US this year!

This is derived after taking into consideration the base line of US$130bil in 2017, adding the US$70bil shortfall in 2020 and topping it up with the pledged US$98bil increase. Indeed, it is highly unlikely that China would be able to meet this target, which is more than doubled what it imported from the US last year.

Effectively, Phase 1 trade deal is dead in the water. Trump’s strategy can be said to have failed and China in effect has emerged as a clear winner in the trade war. What is now left to be seen is what will Bidenomics bring to the table as far as the trade war is concerned.

Will the new President soften his approach towards China? Will it be status quo or will Biden continue with Trump’s hard approach in dealing with China? After all, Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary nominee was quoted as saying that the US is prepared to take on China’s “abusive” trade and economic practices.

However, in the interest of globalisation and ease of movement of goods and services, tariffs effectively serve no purpose, especially to consumers as it actually only adds to the cost of goods purchased as the cost of tariff is passed on to the end buyers. Tariff is not a tool to restrict movement of goods or services. Instead, nations should strive to make themselves more competitive.

With the new President in the White House, the time to embrace the global community is now and not delay any longer. Washington will then be looked upon with great respect after four years of rule by one man, which was nothing but traumatic, chaotic and deceitful.

By Pankaj C. Kumar who is a long-time investment analyst. Views expressed here are the writer’s own.

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Vaccine distribution shouldn’t lead to catastrophic moral failure

 

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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday lashed out at inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. He said most of the vaccines "have now been administered" in rich countries. "The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure - and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world's poorest countries," he warned.

For now, seven COVID-19 vaccine candidates have been administered worldwide, the key of which are the US-developed and China-developed ones. The US-made vaccines have basically flowed to developed countries, while the China ones have mainly gone to developing countries.

Among rich countries that use US vaccines, the US has vaccinated 12 million people, ranking the first. 4.31 million doses (including the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine) have been administered in the UK, topping European countries. Canada reportedly has ordered enough vaccine doses to protect each Canadian five times. Three members of the Five Eyes alliance have left others way behind them in vaccine distribution. They have prioritized their own demands amid short vaccine supply, though Britain claimed it raised donations to help vulnerable countries access COVID-19 vaccines.

The US, the UK and Canada all shout loudly for developing countries' human rights. But they are the ones contributing to "a catastrophic moral failure" that Ghebreyesus said. When the interests of their own countries are not involved, they express concerns about human rights of other countries. But when they need to take real actions to help other countries realize human rights, they retract their heads as turtles.

Vaccines developed by Chinese companies have become a key resource to break rich countries' privilege and safeguard developing countries' rights. Chinese vaccines are cheap, easy to be transported and used all over the world. Besides, China has an explosive vaccine production capability and it has a greater surplus to provide the outside world, since the domestic epidemic in China has been relatively alleviated.

At the initial stage of distribution when supply is short, US vaccines will inevitably go to developed countries. The Five Eyes countries know this well. According to the WHO, it took over 10 years for life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs to reach poor countries after its invention. When the poor countries could put the HINI vaccines into use, the epidemic had already been over. Based on the vaccine distribution order in the past, developing countries will undergo many delays and setbacks to get US COVID-19 vaccines.

The Chinese vaccines are an important humanitarian supplement, but the US and its major allies have taken a cold attitude and even disparaged Chinese vaccines. They didn't offer much help in Chinese vaccines' Phase III trials. Particularly, Western public opinion in general is not friendly. It is keen on hyping and exaggerating any information unfavorable to Chinese vaccines and accuses China of engaging in "vaccine diplomacy."

This has formed a sharp contrast with the fact that Western public opinion influencers are flattering Pfizer vaccines and downplaying news the vaccines caused deaths.

This represents vaccine nationalism and egoism that disregards the urgent humanitarian demands, giving rise to an atmosphere in which political prejudice dominates the pandemic fight. Unity is lacking in the fight against the virus, mainly because of the negative attitudes of the US and its major allies.

On the other hand, the top leaders in several countries such as Indonesia, Turkey, Seychelles, Serbia and the Philippines have strongly backed Chinese vaccines. Some even publicly got vaccinated with Chinese vaccines. This has had a positive impact on the confidence of developing countries with Chinese vaccines. They are safeguarding the rights of developing countries to get vaccinated simultaneously with developed countries and they are bravely pursuing fairness.

US and Chinese vaccines have their own advantages. They are supposed to cooperate with each other closely to fight the novel coronavirus. Besides prices and logistical factors, their usage in developed and developing countries should not be affected by politics. Don't let the "catastrophic moral failure" become reality and consolidated. It must be stressed that the coronavirus is the common foe of humanity, and the battlefield and tools that fight against it cannot be separated.

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