On May 12, the first Silk Road train with exclusive destination Antwerp has arrived. The freight train, which had left the Chinese port city of Tangshan on April 26, was welcomed at the Port of Antwerp on May 12. This direct train route between China and Antwerp is part of China’s transnational “Belt and Road Initiative” to revive the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.

Belt and Road Initiative
The train is part of the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), the ambitious development program of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It targets increased Euro-Asian connectivity through large infrastructure investments and restoration of the Silk Road, the historic trade route between Europe and the Far East, including the traditional maritime link and an efficient land bridge.

First direct train link between China and Antwerp
The train left the Chinese port city of Tangshan on April 26 and traveled through the border crossing of Alashankou, Kazakstan, Belarus, Poland and Germany, arriving after 16 days and 11,000 km at its final destination, the Port of Antwerp. It is the first train traveling directly from China to Antwerp.

The service is an initiative of Tangshan City and Tangshan Port, in cooperation with the China state shipping company Cosco Shipping Lines and China Railways (CRCT).

The recipient of the cargo is Cosco Shipping Belgium, which is responsible for transfer of the cargo to the end customer. The train transported a total cargo of 34 containers of industrial minerals which are used in different industries, such as paper and ceramics production, toothpaste and cosmetics. They are unloaded at Euroports, which will transfer them to its bulk terminal and distribute them further in Europe.

Luc Arnouts, Director International Networks, Port of Antwerp: “This direct train link puts our port on the BRI-map and will further strengthen our existing relationship with China. We have been working a long time on this and it is therefore an important milestone in our trade relations with China.”

Marc Van Peel, Vice Mayor for Port Affairs adds: “China occupies the fourth spot as Antwerp’s most important partner country with a yearly traffic of almost 14 million tons of cargo. Antwerp’s location is perfect on the maritime as well as rail link between Europe and China and our port can perfectly act as a transfer port for trade between China and Africa by rail.”

Geert Gekiere, Managing Director Euroports Belgium: “We are proud and honored to unload and handle the biggest cargo on the direct train between China and Antwerp. We encourage our customers to optimize their supply chain. Therefore almost all our terminals support road, rail and water links. Transport from the Tangshan area on traditional container ships takes on average more than 35 days, while on this train it only takes a record time of 16 to 20 days at relatively low cost.

Future cooperation
The local Chinese administration aims to have a direct train to Antwerp once or twice a month. Therefore Tangshan City hopes to have closer cooperation with the Port of Antwerp and wants to sign an MOU/sister relationship agreement with Antwerp. CRCT (China Railways) is examining the feasibility of opening a commercial office in Europe.

Vice Premier Liu He

Trade talks aimed at averting a U.S.-China trade war will resume in Washington on May 15. China’s Vice Premier Liu He will visit the U.S. capital “to continue the discussions with the President’s economic team”, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. The announcement came only three days after a U.S. delegation led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin left Beijing after two days of talks that produced no apparent consensus, leaving open the possibility that punitive tariffs on USD50 billion worth of imports from China would take effect in the coming weeks. Vice Premier Liu He is prepared to discuss concrete steps to cut the trade deficit between the two countries, but would make no concessions on industrial policy – especially the Made in China 2025 development plan. It will be his second visit to the U.S. in three months’ time. Wu Xinbo, Director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, said Liu’s visit was likely to bring the first breakthrough in what was likely to be a long negotiating process.

During the talks in Beijing, the United States demanded that China cut the trade deficit the U.S. faced by at least USD200 billion by the end of 2020. Additionally, the U.S. called on China to halt state subsidies for industries under its “Made in China 2025” plan. In the meantime, China’s trade surplus with the U.S. continues to expand, growing by USD6.76 billion – or nearly 44% month-on-month – to USD28.78 billion in April. The surplus with the U.S. was USD22.19 billion in April, up from USD15.43 billion in March. In the first four months of this year, the surplus with the U.S. amounted to USD80.4 billion. The figure for the same period last year was USD70.9 billion. In U.S. dollar terms, China’s exports grew 12.9% last month, compared with the same period last year, while imports rose 21.5% year-on-year, faster than the 14.4% increase in March.

Analysts said the opening round of talks in Beijing last week served only to communicate each side’s position. According to the People’s Daily, the talks marked a change from the recent tit-for-tat exchanges between Beijing and Washington and sent a positive signal for the global economy, adding: “There is hope that the two nations will move away from confrontation and towards consultation.” China’s Commerce Ministry was studying measures to further lower import tariffs on some food, pharmaceuticals and medical instruments, which would at least partly address U.S. demands for easier access to China’s markets, the South China Morning Post reports.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Zhang Xiangchen and his U.S. counterpart Dennis Shea defended their countries trade measures at a meeting of the trade body last week.The intensifying conflict has sparked worries that worldwide growth could suffer. The ECB warned this week that a rise in protectionist policies may damage the global economy.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office will hold a public hearing on May 16 and 17 about the USD50 billion worth of Chinese products that are facing 25% import tariffs following a Section 301 investigation into alleged unfair trade practices. Meanwhile China has ramped up inspections of pork shipped from the United States in a warning that it could retaliate in the trade war. Other U.S. agricultural products, including fruit, also face closer inspections of every arriving shipment. U.S. pork is now sitting at Chinese ports for up to two weeks, instead of a few days, industry sources said.

Anbang’s Wu Xiaohui

Sun Zhengcai, former Chongqing Party Secretary

Wu Xiaohui, former Chairman of Anbang Insurance Group, was sentenced to 18 years in jail by a court in Shanghai for fundraising fraud and embezzling corporate funds. Wu was also deprived of his political rights for four years, and had CNY10.5 billion of his assets confiscated, according to the Shanghai Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court. The court said Wu embezzled CNY10 billion from Anbang’s insurance fund, and defrauded Anbang of CNY65.2 billion by illegally selling insurance products using fake documents. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) took over Anbang in February to maintain normal operations and to protect the interests of consumers. 


nder Wu, Anbang led high-profile mergers and acquisitions overseas, including the 2014 purchase of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York for USD1.95 billion and Strategic Hotels & Resorts for USD6.5 billion in 2016.

Wu’s trial, however, left many questions unanswered, such as how he could obtain difficult-to-get insurance licenses and who the source of his seed capital was. It also remained unclear why his crimes remained undiscovered or were condoned in the heavily regulated insurance industry. The fundraising fraud started in 2011 when Anbang raised capital through selling “wealth management” insurance policies, exceeding the regulators’ approved quota by CNY723.87 billion in the next six years, before the insurance regulator put a stop to it. The former Chairman of the CIRC Xiang Junbo is now awaiting trial on corruption charges.

Sino-Ocean Land, a company controlled by China Life Insurance, is buying Anbang Insurance’s equity stake in a real estate venture in Beijing, becoming the first firm to swoop on major assets owned by the insurer since the Chinese government took it over. Sino-Ocean will take over half of Anbang’s equity interest in Beijing Bangbang Commercial Property Company, a wholly-owned Anbang subsidiary with a registered capital of CNY200 million.

In a separate trial, Sun Zhengcai, former Party Secretary of Chongqing municipality and Member of the Communist Party’s Politburo, was sentenced to life in prison for taking bribes of over CNY170 million. He was also deprived of his political rights for life and all of his personal property was confiscated. A court in Tianjin found that between 2002 and 2017, Sun took advantage of various posts to provide help for certain entities and individuals in project bidding, project approvals, enterprise operations and personnel promotions. His posts during that period included Party Secretary of Shunyi district in Beijing, Secretary General of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Minister of Agriculture, and Party Secretary of Jilin province and of Chongqing municipality. During the court proceedings, Sun pleaded guilty and expressed “sincere repentance”. He said he accepted the sentence and would not appeal.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is considering to launch an initial public offering (IPO) for Volvo Cars, the carmaker it bought from Ford in 2010. “We are looking at the possibilities; we haven’t made a final decision on how to proceed yet,” a Geely Spokesperson said. Media reports said that Geely has selected investment banks including Citigroup to advise on an IPO this year. Bloomberg reported that Geely and Volvo have discussed valuing the Swedish automaker in a range of USD16 billion to USD30 billion. It also said the two are planning a dual listing in both Hong Kong and Sweden, and the shares could be sold as early as this fall. But Geely did not confirm the news.

Volvo sold 200,042 cars from January to April this year, up 13.6% year-on-year. In China, its largest market, it sold 39,210 cars, up 22.4%. Geely Automobile, which is also owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is listed in Hong Kong. Its shares doubled in value over the last 12 months. Geely has been one of the best-selling Chinese passenger carmakers in China. It sold 524,000 cars from January to April, ranking second only to state-owned SAIC Motor, soaring by some 40% year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

ZTE Corp, China’s biggest publicly traded telecommunications equipment provider, has halted sales of its consumer products and related services after the U.S. government last month banned the sale of American technology to the company. The closure appears to be part of the cessation of “major operating activities” described by the Shenzhen-based company in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. ZTE was slapped with a seven-year ban prohibiting it from any transactions with the U.S. for breaching the terms of a settlement related to its business dealings with Iran. No products were listed on ZTE’s official online store on e-commerce platform Tmall and the website said it was “undergoing revision”. The company’s main Chinese-language webpage said “the website is under revision, please stay tuned.”

ZTE said that it maintains sufficient cash as of now and “strictly adheres to its commercial obligations subject to compliance with laws and regulations”. The company had immediately halted almost all of its operations both overseas and at home after the denial order came into effect on April 15. Beyond the company’s executives and employees, the denial order also categorized any “representatives” or “agents” as falling under the ban that prohibited participation “in any way in any transaction involving any commodity, software or technology exported or to be exported” from the U.S. ZTE declined to comment on the suspension of its sales channels and after-sale services as well as the revision and redirection of its websites.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that Chinese officials had made “solemn representations” over the ZTE case to the U.S. trade delegation visiting China for trade talks earlier this month. On May 12, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he has asked the Commerce Department to help ZTE “get back into business, fast”. “Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!” Trump wrote on Twitter, saying he is working with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a solution. President Trump added in a second tweet: “China and the United States are working well together on trade, but past negotiations have been so one sided in favor of China, for so many years, that it is hard for them to make a deal that benefits both countries. But be cool, it will all work out!” ZTE could be back in business within a few weeks.

In 2017, ZTE paid over USD2.3 billion to 211 U.S. exporters, a senior company official said. In the first quarter of this year, ZTE shipped 6.6 million smartphones globally, 72% of which were to the U.S. market.