China announced a series of measures to protect its economy and workers from the impact of an intensifying trade war with the United States on Monday, as officials said they remained “fully confident” of hitting the country’s annual economic growth target of about 5 per cent.

Beijing will encourage companies to maintain stable hiring, stepping up vocational training schemes, expanding employment through public works programmes and other supportive projects, and strengthening public employment services, according to Zhao.

Sheng Qiuping, deputy minister of commerce, said Beijing would increase support for companies affected by US tariffs by helping them pivot to the domestic market and providing fiscal and financial services.

The government has already allocated 160 billion yuan (US$22 billion) for trade-in programmes to encourage consumers to spend on a range of big-ticket consumer goods so far this year, with another 140 billion yuan of investment to follow, according to Zhao.

It is also working on a range of other consumption-boosting policies, including a childcare subsidy scheme, targeted re-lending tools, expanded support for the services and elderly care sectors, and moves to relax municipal restrictions on car license plates to allow more households to buy vehicles, Zhao added.

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Taiwan has launched a crackdown on holders of illegal Chinese identity documents, revoking the Taiwanese status of more than 20 people and putting tens of thousands of Chinese-born residents under scrutiny.

Under Taiwan law it is illegal for Taiwanese people to hold Chinese identity documents. In the past decade, hundreds of people have had their Taiwanese papers or passports cancelled for also holding Chinese ID, effectively revoking their citizenship.

But a renewed hunt for dual ID-holders has drawn controversy after the public expulsion of three women and threats to the permanent residencies of more than 10,000 Chinese-born people, including many who had built lives and families in Taiwan over decades.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping has agreed to finance the construction of Kenyan roads and railways including the rebuilding of a notorious accident black spot.

Xi made the pledge when he welcomed his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto to Beijing on Thursday, promising also to support “high-level connectivity, and sustainable trade”.

The funding he pledged will include work to rebuild the Nithi Bridge in central Kenya, a notorious death trap that has claimed hundreds of lives since its commissioning four decades ago. The plan involves the building of a viaduct that will remove the steep descents and sharp corners that make the bridge so dangerous.

Kenya is a key partner for China’s Belt and Road Initiative – a transcontinental infrastructure project – that has already helped build a rail link between Mombasa, Nairobi and the Central Rift Valley at a cost of around US$5 billion.

Apart from railway projects, China also agreed to allow Kenya to explore the issuing of yuan-denominated panda bonds while Xi pledged to continue talks about a free-trade agreement and to “import more fine Kenyan products and promote the balanced and sustainable development of bilateral trade”.

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The US commerce department has announced the new tariffs, targeting companies in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, after an investigation begun a year ago when American manufacturers of solar panels accused Chinese companies of flooding the market with subsidised, cheap goods.

Products from Cambodia would face the highest tariffs, of 3,521%, because its companies did not cooperate with the US investigation, while products made in Malaysia by the Chinese manufacturer Jinko Solar face duties of just over 41%; rival Trina Solar’s products from Thailand will incur tariffs of 375%.

However, critics, including the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group, have said tariffs would harm US solar producers because they would raise prices on the imported cells that are assembled into panels at American factories.

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Nearly a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin called Afghanistan’s Taliban an “ally” in countering terrorism, Moscow lifted a two-decade-old ban on the group, aiming to bolster ties with Kabul to crush a joint enemy — the Islamic State.

The move was “no surprise,” given Putin has spoken of growing cooperation with the Taliban on terrorism, said John Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. Those comments were “specifically directed against ISIS,” which claimed responsibility for the bloody Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in March 2024, he said.

The decision will also “open the door for official recognition of the Taliban government,” which has remained a pariah since taking power in Afghanistan nearly four years ago, said Faizullah Jalal, an independent Afghan political analyst and human rights activist.

Normalizing relations could increase economic activity between the two countries. Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said late last year it’s looking to hammer out projects in the energy and agriculture sectors with the Taliban, according to the Tass news agency, and by the end of last year Afghanistan had become the top buyer of Russian flour.

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Ukraine said on Thursday that it had failed to reach a deal with holders of $2.6bn of its debt, in a blow to its hopes of securing a restructuring ahead of a payment deadline next month.

The country’s finance ministry said it would “consider all available options” and continue negotiations after the failure of opening talks in Washington this week with holders of its so-called GDP warrants.

Last month the IMF said that “if left untreated” the warrants “constitute an important risk” for the stability of an ongoing $15.5bn bailout and Kyiv’s restructuring of more than $20bn in bonds last year.

“The GDP warrants were designed for a world that no longer exists,” said Ukraine’s finance ministry on Thursday. “Ukraine’s modest economic growth in 2023 was not a sign of surging prosperity but a fragile rebound from a nearly 30 per cent downturn caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion.”

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