09/05/2026

BIZ & FINANCE SATURDAY | MAY 9, 2026

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What does China want from Trump’s visit?

Russia’s internet crackdown hits small businesses MOSCOW: Russian dogwear entrepreneur Natalia Kukovinets has had to switch messaging apps multiple times to stay in touch with customers, one of many web dependent businesses struggling with the Kremlin’s widening internet crackdown. Restrictions on popular messenger apps such as Telegram, curbs on VPNs, and security-linked mobile internet shutdowns have affected much of Russia this year, but the unpredictable outages pose a particular headache for many small companies, with billions of dollars in digital sales at risk. Despite state efforts to rein in its use, Telegram remains one of the top messengers. It has been the only source of sales for Kukovinets’s Wag’n Tails brand since Russian authorities restricted Meta’s Instagram in 2022 and WhatsApp in February. “Telegram is basically everything when it comes to client communication,“ said Kukovinets, standing in her Moscow workshop where she makes embroidered hats and clothes for dog-lovers. But “it has become harder to track incoming requests. It does not work without a VPN turned on, and notifications often do not come through,“ she said, wearing a custom t-shirt declaring: ‘Peace, friendship, puppy’. She is not the only one feeling the squeeze. Around 2.9 million small-to medium-sized firms and 14.1 million self-employed individuals use messaging apps for business, state news agency Interfax reported last September. Nevertheless, this week the Kremlin said it would not compensate businesses for losses suffered as a result of its days-long shutdown of mobile internet coverage in Moscow. It jammed coverage in the capital for nearly three weeks in March and regularly blocks it elsewhere. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said such internet restrictions are essential for security. But the policy has faced rare pushback from the business elite and over two-thirds of Russians believe it has made life more difficult, according to a March survey by independent pollster Levada. Moscow restaurant Skrepka said a restrictions-linked glitch in April left it unable to process the many online orders for its traditional iced Easter cakes. “Telegram was down, so the customers started shouting,“ said manager Daria Teterina. “It was a reputational loss.” There is no official data on the economic impact of the various internet curbs. But goods and services sold via digital platforms totalled 11.5 trillion roubles (RM601 billion) in 2025, the Association of Internet Trade Companies, an industry body, said in March. “When I’m in the city centre, I don’t see messages until much later,“ said Anton Belykh, who runs Moscow based property firm DNA Realty. “Clients lose revenue, communication becomes more difficult, and both we and our clients end up losing money.” The Kremlin has rejected criticism that the measures represent a return to the repressive information control of the Soviet era and says they are temporary. But it appears unlikely that access to messaging apps will return to normal any time soon. – Reuters

Boeing jets. China, he said, might hope “that will put Trump and his team in a positive frame of mind when they’re then discussing more complex, thornier issues”. against instability brought about by Trump through diversifying trade towards Southeast Asia and the Global South, and strengthening regional ties, said the Asia Society’s Lee. Beijing has also sharpened its legal and regulatory toolbox, she said, and “has a potentially more extensive playbook”, as seen in the recent blocking of tech giant Meta’s acquisition of AI firm Manus. However, a lot of these measures, including diversification of energy imports, a push towards electrification and tech self-sufficiency, predate Trump’s second term, Mazur said. “If this meeting goes exceptionally well, it’s not going to change the trajectory that China’s on,” he said. “This push to America-proof the Chinese economy is going to continue, no matter what happens.” Is China confident? Beijing will enter talks “cautiously confident”, Lee said. It believes it can absorb pressure better now and is more comfortable playing “a long game” than Trump, who is facing midterm election pressure, she said. A visit to Beijing by Russian President Vladimir Putin is also on the cards, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – who met Xi in April – saying it would happen in the first half of this year. A back-to-back visit would send the message that “just because he (Xi) had a good meeting with Trump, it doesn’t mean that Chinese support for Russia is going anywhere”, Mazur told AFP. “That relationship is rock solid.” How has Beijing prepared? China has hedged

pressure from the US to take action on Iran or Russia, over whom it “may have some influence but not decisive control”, the EIU’s Su said. Beijing will also aim to avoid “additional complications” such as new US tariffs linked to China’s trade with Iran being introduced into an “already complex relationship”, Su said. The Iran war will add “another layer of mutual pressure”, Lee said, but the real negotiating terrain remains in trade and investment. What are China’s bargaining chips? One of China’s key bargaining chips is its rare earths – metals crucial in the production of everything from smartphones to electric cars. China’s dominance in the rare earths industry, from natural reserves and mining through processing and innovation, is the result of a decades-long drive. It remains China’s strongest tool if meaningful concessions from the US are needed, Su said. Trump has shown that he “cares a lot about” rare earths, said Joe Mazur, a geopolitics analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China. “I think that’s sort of something that the US doesn’t really have an answer to,” he said. Mazur thinks that China is “going to line up quick wins” before the visit, which may include buying more US agricultural products or

o Beijing aiming to avoid fresh US tariffs linked to Iran while pushing for a broader reset in strained US-China relations

BEIJING: US President Donald Trump is due to visit China on May 14-15, where he is expected to meet leader Xi Jinping, after delaying an earlier summit because of the Iran war. Here is what Beijing could be hoping to achieve: What does China want? Beyond diplomatic niceties and behind closed doors, Beijing will be looking for small, concrete achievements, analysts said, but will stay “realistically pragmatic” given Trump’s unpredictable nature. China wants a broad reset in ties but knows this would be unlikely, said Benjamin Ho from Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Beijing and Washington had been locked in a blistering trade war in which US levies on many Chinese goods reached an eye-watering 145%. The tit-for-tat escalation cooled off after Trump and Xi agreed in October to a one-year truce, with experts saying Beijing’s baseline goal for the upcoming meeting would be to extend that agreement. “What China needs is for Trump

to follow through on his promise to engage, with at least a few concrete outcomes discussed at the highest level,” said Yue Su from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Beijing will be satisfied with “targeted” results such as limited tariff reductions that would justify a measured rollback of its own tariffs or export restrictions, she said. What about the Iran war? The topic of Iran will be “hard to avoid” in the Trump-Xi meeting, experts said, but “this is not a domain China is eager to engage deeply on”. “The US is already raising pressure pre-summit on China by targeting its economic ties with Tehran,” said Lizzi Lee at the Asia Society Policy Institute. Trump warned last month he would hit China’s goods with a 50% tariff if it provided military assistance to Iran. Beijing is a close partner of Tehran and has called US-Israeli strikes on Iran illegal, but it has also criticised Iranian attacks on Gulf countries and called for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened. However, China will not accept

Oil tanker reaches S. Korea after passing Hormuz blockade SEOSAN CITY: An oil tanker that passed through the Strait of Hormuz arrived in South Korea yesterday, the first such vessel to reach the Asian nation by that route since Iran declared the critical waterway closed. South Korea relies heavily on Middle Eastern fuel imports, most of which transited through Hormuz until US-Israeli attacks on Iran in late February prompted Tehran to effectively shut the strait. The arrival of the Malta-flagged Odessa , carrying one million barrels of crude oil, will likely ease Seoul’s concerns over energy security as the war in the Middle East drags on. The hulking vessel was spotted at around 10am (0100 GMT) near a mooring facility off the coast of Seosan, according to AFP reporters. Its arrival is expected to help stabilise supply, securing crude equivalent to nearly half of South Korea’s daily oil consumption, industry sources told AFP. Its cargo will undergo refining before being supplied to the market as petroleum products, including gasoline and diesel, the sources said. The Odessa passed through the Strait of Hormuz on April 17, a source told AFP, during a brief reprieve in the blockade. Traffic through the waterway has plummeted since the war, with the US and Iran trading fire in the area on Thursday, threatening a fragile ceasefire. The months-long conflict has prompted South Korea, a major petrochemicals producer and refiner, to impose a fuel price cap for the first time in nearly 30 years.

It has also sought to diversify its fuel supply, securing more than 270 million barrels of crude – sufficient for more than three months of its oil needs – via routes unaffected by the blockade. Around 1,500 ships and 20,000 international crew are trapped in the Gulf region because of the conflict, the secretary-general of the UN’s International Maritime Organisation Arsenio Dominguez, said Thursday. US President Donald Trump briefly launched a naval operation this week to force open the strait to commercial vessels, only to stand it down within hours, citing progress on negotiations with Iran. He also accused Iran of attacking a South Korean-operated cargo ship in the strait this week, an act denied by Tehran’s embassy in Seoul. The fire-damaged HMM Namu arrived at port in Dubai yesterday, its operator told AFP.

The arrival of Odessa marks the first successful oil shipment to South Korea through the Strait of Hormuz since Iran declared the strategic waterway closed. – AFPPIX