Source:
https://scmp.com/podcasts/article/3026033/us-china-trade-war-update-analysing-xis-struggle-speech-chinas-trade Podcasts
US-China trade war update: Analysing Xi’s ‘struggle’ speech, China’s trade negotiation team and a growing crisis of pork supply
- Analysing Xi Jinping’s recent ‘struggle’ speech and the announcement of trade negotiations between the US and China to commence two days later
- The growing sense of crisis as pork prices soar upon a combination of tariffs on US imports and the damage wrought by African swine fever on China’s pig supply
A butcher cuts a piece of porc meat at his stall at a market in Beijing. China's pork industry has been left reeling from African swine fever, which has devastated its pig herd, sent pork prices soaring and forced the country to increase imports to satisfy demand. Photo: AFP
In this week’s podcast, SCMP political economy editor Zhou Xin focuses on two major announcements. First, an analysis of this week’s speech by President Xi Jinping, in which he mentioned the Chinese word for “struggle” more than 40 times but failed to mention the United States or President Donald Trump.
Two days after that speech, China announced that a team of negotiators would travel to Washington to restart trade talks that have stalled since a high-level phone call in August. Zhou Xin looks at who is leading China’s team and how that might affect the deal-making process in October.
Meanwhile, China is facing an escalating crisis that has hit dinner tables and threatens impending festival banquets across the nation. John Carter, co-editor for political economy unpacks the double trouble of African swine fever, which has led to unprecedented pig culls across China, but which American farmers are left watching from afar, with the huge tariffs on US pork freezing them out of what could be an almighty payday.
And it is not just the pork farmers being hit: for the producers of soybeans, which China imports to feed its pigs, swine fever may complicate any trade deal reached by negotiators, since it has reduced China’s demand for the products. Tension is rising on China’s social media platforms, as the spike in the most popular meat prices hits families in the pocket, at a time when the economy is already slowing.
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Presented by: Finbarr Bermingham
Produced by: Jarrod Watt