Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Millions of Americans in rural areas may be denied access to faster and lower-priced broadband connections because of Washington's restrictive moves against Huawei, a Chinese company which has offered equipment to U.S. rural telecom operators for years.

The U.S. government last week announced it would "prohibit transactions posing an unacceptable risk" to the country by declaring a national emergency over what it claimed are technological threats, and announced restrictions on the sale and transfer of U.S. technologies to Chinese company Huawei.

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- China firmly opposes the United States using state power to suppress Chinese companies, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Thursday.

China will take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate right and interests of Chinese enterprises, said Gao Feng, a spokesperson with the MOC.

The United States has used state power to suppress Chinese companies, which not only seriously damaged the normal business cooperation of enterprises in the two countries, but also posed a great threat to the global industrial and supply chains, Gao noted.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday that nuclear negotiations with the United States will never resume unless the Trump administration moves away from what Pyongyang described as unilateral demands for disarmament.

The statement by an unnamed North Korean foreign ministry spokesman published in state media was the country’s latest expression of displeasure over the stalled negotiations. It follows two separate launches of short-range missiles earlier this month that were apparently aimed at pressuring Washington and Seoul.

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- "Fair trade" has been a frequently invoked theory by the United States in pressuring its trade partners including China for concessions, and a most deceptive one.

In a word, the U.S. version of "fair trade" is just a thin, frail layer of paint to whitewash over the headstrong pursuit of its "America First" policy.

The core of U.S. "fair trade" is its so-called "reciprocal" opening, which demands that all countries apply identical tariff levels and offer identical market access with that provided by the United States.

MANILA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines said it has rejected Canada's new proposal to ship back tons of trash it dumped in the Philippines by June 30, the spokesperson of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday.

"They said it will take the end of June. The president will not agree with this. I understand from (Finance) Secretary (Carlos) Dominguez that it will be set the soonest. The trash will be sent back the soonest," the Philippine Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a news conference.

BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S.-China tariff disputes are having a negative impact on businesses of American companies in China, according to a survey jointly conducted by AmCham China and AmCham Shanghai.

The United States increased additional tariffs on 200 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese goods from 10 percent to 25 percent earlier this month, and has threatened to raise tariffs on some 300 billion dollars' worth of Chinese imports yet to be hit.

BEIJING (AP) — China held the door open to resuming talks in the tariff war with Washington on Thursday, but lashed out at limits on access to key technologies that it said might hurt global supply chains.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China hopes to restart the talks that broke down earlier this month after the U.S. hiked tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese imports, but only if the conditions are deemed fair.

SINGAPORE (AP) — World stock markets fell sharply Thursday as traders focused on tensions between the U.S. and China and braced for the impact of their tariff hikes.

Private surveys, meanwhile, showed continued weakness in the eurozone economy in May, with a slowdown in manufacturing and services.

France’s CAC 40 dropped 1.7% to 5,286 and the DAX in Germany was down 1.8% at 11,948. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 1.5% to 7,226, after lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s latest Brexit offer and called for her resignation.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The defeated candidate in Indonesia’s presidential election is expected to challenge the result in court Thursday as calm returned to the capital following a 24-hour spasm of apparently orchestrated violence.

The campaign team of former general Prabowo Subianto has alleged massive election fraud but not provided any credible evidence. It has said it will file a challenge to the Constitutional Court on Thursday.

BEIJING (AP) — Looking for ways to hit back at Washington as a tariff fight escalates, President Xi Jinping and his economy czar visited a Chinese factory that processes rare earths — exotic minerals used in electric cars, mobile phones and other technology.

Rare earths are “an important strategic resource,” the official Xinhua News Agency cited Xi as saying.