China

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the current bookmakers' favorite to be the next pope, is facing renewed scrutiny over a deal he made with China seven years ago.

The 70-year-old Vatican Secretary of State has long been in the running as a contender to replace Pope Francis as the head of the Catholic church, which explains why the 2018 deal he made with the Chinese Communist Party is once again under the spotlight.

Newsweek has contacted the Vatican, via email, for comment.

The Context

Stacks of unsold socks, gloves, toys, and storage boxes now clog warehouse floors in Yiwu—the Chinese city that once sent cut-price trinkets to every corner of the planet.

Cross‑border e‑commerce orders from the world’s biggest small‑commodity hub have plunged by roughly 70 percent since the U.S.–China tariff standoff escalated, a local freight‑forwarding executive says. The shock has hit Yiwu’s merchants and logistics firms so hard that many are teetering on collapse.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday signaled his opposition to a TikTok ban being considered in Congress, arguing that it would help Facebook, which he called “a true Enemy of the People!”

“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump, 77, claimed in a Truth Social post, apparently referring to Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 

“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” he added...

Former President Donald Trump plans to escalate the U.S-China trade war he launched during his first term as president if he is elected to the office again in November.

The GOP frontrunner confirmed in an interview broadcast on Sunday that he is considering a plan to impose tariffs of 60% or higher on Chinese goods in his potential second term.

“We have to do it,” Trump said in an interview on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures...

China is blaming the United States for the origin of COVID-19, accusing Washington of "evading responsibility" for the virus amid multiple statements by President Donald Trump that it was leaked from a lab in Wuhan.

In a multipage paper, the Communist regime said the infectious disease was present in the U.S. earlier than what was officially determined. 

China’s manufacturing engine is sputtering, with new data revealing the most severe hit to China’s economy since the COVID shutdown.

The country’s economy slipped from growth to contraction after the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell below 50 in April. New export orders sank to their lowest level since December 2022 when China was still under lockdown, according to figures reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Major financial institutions including UBS and Goldman Sachs have slashed their growth forecasts for China.

Shipments of goods from China to the U.S. are dropping sharply with the Trump administration's steep tariffs in place, leading major U.S. retailers to warn about impending supply shortages. 

The trade war between China and the U.S. has escalated over the past few weeks, with each nation hiking its import duties multiple times in a tit-for-tat. While Trump has given other countries a 90-day pause on the tariffs, as their leaders pledged to negotiate with the U.S., China has remained the exception. 

Canada’s federal election is on April 28. How leaders might manage an erratic White House is a major campaign theme; repairing the economy after nearly a decade of disastrous mismanagement under Justin Trudeau is another. One issue that deserves more attention, however, is how the next prime minister will deal with China and what is going on in the electoral district of Markham-Unionville, in the Greater Toronto Area.

U.S. President Donald Trump claimed in an interview published Friday that tariff negotiations were underway with China, but Beijing denied any talks were happening, adding to the series of conflicting signals over efforts to de-escalate a trade war threatening global growth.

China’s government has exempted some U.S. imports that the country would struggle to immediately source from elsewhere from its retaliatory tariffs, people familiar with the matter said.

Chinese authorities have told some importers of American goods that they would waive the most recent 125% increases in tariff rates for certain U.S. imports. Those products include certain semiconductors and chipmaking equipment, medical products and aviation parts, the people said...