China outgrowing 'Factory of the World' tag as reliance on imports dips

President Donald Trump talked tough against Mexico, and then essentially agreed to renew the existing trade deal and called that a victory. If only the China spat could end the same way. It won’t. That’s because the gulf between Beijing and Washington is not just caused by recent rhetoric and tariffs. It also goes beyond national security concerns. The inevitable clash stems from how the American and Chinese economies have evolved over decades. Relative to China, Mexico hasn’t shifted much. It has been and remains mortgaged commercially, diplomatically and culturally to its northern neighbour. The White House is fond of citing the merchandise trade deficit with China that America racks up each year. In 2017, it amounted to $375 billion. Sure, it’s big. But the fixation with that number misses the broader point.

China allows foreigners to enter $27 trn payments market

China will permit foreign companies to access its $27 trillion payments market, further opening up the world’s second-largest economy.
Foreign players can start applying for payment licenses and will be treated the same as local firms, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on Wednesday. Applicants must set up local units, establish payment infrastructure -- including disaster recovery systems — and store client information domestically, the central bank said.
Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday promised to protect the intellectual property of foreigners investing in its economy, as China seeks to avoid a trade war with the U.

S. Any entrants to the Chinese market -- apart from meeting stiff local regulations -- will also have to compete with the more than 260 firms that have received payment licenses including Ant Financial Services Group’s Alipay and Tencent Holdings’s WeChat Pay.
“The domestic market is quite saturated with very strong domestic players, and it is relatively hard for foreign companies to get a piece of the pie,” said Iris Pang, a Hong Kong-based economist at ING Groep NV. “But there is a chance for them to compete in the cross-border payment market.”