Xie Yu for South China Morning Post:
O-Film Group, a major supplier of camera and touch-screen components for Apple, has reportedly laid off more than 8,000 staff at its plant in central China, adding to concerns about whether the country’s businesses can withstand a protracted trade war with the United States.
Weighed down by a gloomy market outlook for smartphones, increasingly fierce competition and the affects of trade tariffs, O-Film has seen its profits crash this year… Some financial institutions are already clearing their exposure to the company. A joint stock bank based in south China’s Guangzhou said it was in the process of exiting its investment in O-Film, which was mainly in the form of bonds.
In recent months, state-owned think tanks and bureaucrats have been touring the country to assess whether the domestic economy can withstand a drawn-out dispute with the US… A measure of China’s manufacturing activity shrank for a third straight month in July. The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) came in at 49.7, where a number below 50 represents contraction.
MacDailyNews Take: Increasing pressure in this case could result in a greater degree of balance.
I’m cognizant that in both the U.S. and China, there have been cases where everyone hasn’t benefited, where the benefit hasn’t been balanced. My belief is that one plus one equals three. The pie gets larger, working together. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, March 24, 2018
The United States is insisting that all countries that have placed artificial Trade Barriers and Tariffs on goods going into their country, remove those Barriers & Tariffs or be met with more than Reciprocity by the U.S.A. Trade must be fair and no longer a one way street!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2018
At least half of the popular fallacies about economics come from assuming that economic activity is a zero-sum game, in which what is gained by someone is lost by someone else. But transactions would not continue unless both sides gained, whether in international trade, employment, or renting an apartment. — Thomas Sowell, June 14, 2006