DragonI

Italy’s Deal With China Signals a Shift as U.S. Influence Recedes

Far from being isolated in Europe, the Italians say they are leading the expansion of new relations with China, and fully expect others to follow.

www.nytimes.com

But this month, as the United States continued to engage in a trade standoff with China, and leaders of the European Union banded together to demand an end to unfair Chinese business practices, Italy took another route — China’s new Silk Road.

In a move that signaled geopolitical shifts from West to East, Italy broke with its European and American allies during last week’s visit by President Xi Jinping of China, and became the first member of the Group of 7 major economies to officially sign up to  China’s vast new One Belt One Road global infrastructure project.

“This is not being isolated from Europe, this is Italy leading,” Michele Geraci, Italy’s under secretary for economic development.

This week, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy said that as China exerts a stronger influence on the world’s economy, it is going to exert “an increasing influence also at the political level.”

A senior government official, speaking on background to discuss internal deliberations, said Washington would have engaged sooner if it had understood that Italy planned to officially join the new Silk Road, which it sees as a strategic threat.

Mr. Geraci noted that next year would mark the moment when Asia overtook the rest of the globe as the world’s biggest economy.

Treasury Department lifts sanctions on three Russian firms with ties to Oleg Deripaska

The Trump administration on Sunday formally lifted sanctions on three Russian firms with links to oligarch Oleg Deripaska, including Rusal, the world's second-largest aluminum producer.

www.cnn.com|Kevin Bohn

The Trump administration on Sunday formally lifted sanctions on three Russian firms with links to oligarch Oleg Deripaska, including Rusal, the world's second-largest aluminum producer.

On Dec. 19, the Treasury Department notified Congress of its intent to lift the sanctions saying the companies were sanctioned because of their ownership and control by Deripaska, not for the conduct of the companies themselves.

The Treasury Department said that Rusal and EN+ Group, the holding company of the Russian aluminum giant, as well as energy firm JSC EuroSibEnergo had made significant restructuring and corporate governance changes to diminish Deripaska's ownership and sever his control to allow them to meet the criteria to be delisted within the 30 days.

Under the arrangement, Deripaska's ownership in EN+ drops from roughly 70% to roughly 45%, and he can vote only 35% of his shares, according to documents explaining the terms of the deal. But his shares are spread out to various entities, including to a foundation he started two decades ago, his ex-wife and father-in-law as well as the sanctioned Russian bank, VTB. The terms of the agreement say voting rights of these shares will be given to third parties with no ties to Deripaska.

1. B-Finance Ltd.
2. Basic Element Limited
3. Russian Machines
4. GAZ Group

Amid Trade Tensions, China Issues Travel Alert to Citizens About Dangers of US

In a move considered to be politically motivated, the Chinese Embassy in Washington issued a travel advisory warning its citizens about the dangers of visiting the United States. The Chinese embassy website posted the advisory on June 28, telling Chinese tourists that expensive medical bills, the threats of public shootings and robberies, searches and seizures …

www.theepochtimes.com

• 2.97 million Chinese tourists traveled to the US in 2016, spending a total of $33 billion,  US Commerce Department 
• “Chinese tourism is a big deal for Los Angeles. China is driving more than one billion dollars into the city’s economy ANNUALLY.”, Kathy Smits, Vice President International Tourism
• “Chinese visitors already spend more in the U.S. than other international visitors, at roughly $7,200 per person, according to the U.S. Travel Association”, AP News
• “Chinese tourist arrivals are forecast to reach 4.5 million by 2022 by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office. Were they to spend just 10 percent per person more than they did in 2016, that would amount to almost $56 billion”, Reuters -  Chinese visitors can hit nerve tariffs don’t reach 

• “Despite the growth in the global tourism, the U.S. share of the market has declined roughly 13% over the past few years. International visitors have declined 7.4 million over that time period.”,  NASDAQ.com - June 13, 2018
• 15 U.S. Cities Losing Millions in Tourism Business Under Donald Trump, The Cheat Sheet -  June 8, 2018
• “Economic data proved the new president’s first year in office was dreadful for the industry, with $32 billion in revenue and 40,000 jobs lost.”, The Cheat Sheet -  March 10, 2018
• Foreign tourism is America’s $236 billion export, supporting 2.5 million U.S. jobs. 
• “Foreigners spend $100 billion more each year visiting the U.S. than they spend importing our crops, meats, and dairy.”
• “They spend nearly five times more visiting the U.S. than they spend buying our movies, software, video games, music, and other IP.”, Business Forward -  June 4, 2018 

• How China Is Challenging American Dominance in Asia, NYTimes
• image source: Reddit

How Canada became an education superpower

Canada has joined the top ranks of the world's best education system - and its secret weapon has been fairness.

www.bbc.co.uk

In the most recent round of international Pisa tests, Canada was one of a handful of countries to appear in the top 10 for maths, science and reading. 

The tests, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), are a major study of educational performance and show Canada's teenagers as among the best educated in the world.

They are far ahead of geographical neighbours such as the US and European countries with strong cultural ties like the UK and France.

At university level, Canada has the world's highest proportion of working-age adults who have been through higher education - 55% compared with an average in OECD countries of 35%.

The OECD, trying to understand Canada's success in education, described the role of the federal government as "limited and sometimes non-existent".

Also not widely recognised is that Canada has a high level of migrants in its school population.

More than a third of young adults in Canada are from families where both parents are from another country.

But the children of newly-arrived, migrant families seem to integrate rapidly enough to perform at the same high level as their classmates.

If Canadian provinces entered Pisa tests as separate countries, three of them, Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec, would be in the top five places for science in the world, alongside Singapore and Japan and above the likes of Finland and Hong Kong.

In 2016, German universities enjoyed another big rise in the international student population, according to the latest data. Germany recorded close to a 7 percent increase in international students coming to the country. This follows a jump of nearly 8 percent the previous year. Numbers have risen about 30 percent since 2012.

But in Germany, students -- on the whole -- famously pay no tuition fees, regardless of where they come from. Seen from the U.S. or Britain, this policy may appear either supremely principled or incredibly naïve. With international students making up nearly one in 10 students (and even more if you count noncitizens who attended German schools), why does the country choose to pass up tuition-fee income and educate other countries’ young people for free?

International students certainly seem to want to stick around: about half plan to remain in Germany after graduation, according to a survey conducted by the German Academic Exchange Service, with three in 10 planning to stay permanently.

The soft-power argument plays a role, too: overseas graduates are seen as generating goodwill for Germany globally. “The idea of Germany being part of an international community is valued very highly,” said Wahlers. “Of course, we invest a certain amount of money [in their education], but what we get back is worth so much more. The international students, when they graduate, will be partners for Germany in the world; this kind of international network building is of immense importance to us.”

Joyous Africans Take to the Rails, With China’s Help

A new railway line from Djibouti to Ethiopia has showcased China’s effort to extend its influence, with aid and expertise, throughout Africa.

www.nytimes.com|Andrew Jacobs

“It is indeed a historic moment, a pride for our nations and peoples,” said Hailemariam Desalegn, the prime minister of Ethiopia, shortly before the train — the first electric transnational railway in Africa — headed toward Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. “This line will change the social and economic landscape of our two countries.”

But perhaps the biggest star of the day was China, which designed the system, supplied the trains and imported hundreds of engineers for the six years it took to plan and build the 466-mile line. And the $4 billion cost? Chinese banks provided nearly all the financing.

1. Chinese-built subway cars will soon appear in Chicago and Boston, 
2. Beijing is building a $5 billion high-speed rail line in Indonesia,
3. Chinese government recently christened new rail freight service between London and Beijing. 
4. Another ambitious system in the works, the 2,400-mile Pan-Asia Railway Network, would link China to Laos, Thailand and Singapore.
5. Chinese-built and -financed projects include a two-year-old light-rail system in the Ethiopian capital; a $13 billion rail link between the Kenyan capital, Nairobi

Many of the projects are part of Beijing’s new Silk Road initiative, a $1 trillion effort intended to deepen ties between China and its trading partners in the developing world.

“We approached the U.S., and they didn’t have the vision. They are not thinking ahead 30 years. They only have a vision of Africa from the past, as a continent of war and famine. The Chinese have vision.”