South China Morning Post (August 3)
“Plummeting scores in English-language tests among Japanese lower secondary school students have triggered concern that future generations will be unable to communicate in the world’s lingua franca. In nationwide tests conducted in April, just 12.4 per cent of 15-year-olds were able to reply correctly to five spoken questions in English.”
Tags: Communicate, Concern, English, Future generations, Japan, Language, Plummeting, School, Scores, Students, Tests
Sydney Morning Herald (August 10)
“There are 68 trusts in China with about $4.3 trillion of assets – property loans, shares, bonds and commodities – under management, with property accounting for at least $500 billion of the total.” The National Audit Office has been instructed “to inspect the books of the country’s biggest trust firms.” This shows “the increasing concern of the Chinese authorities that the implosion of their property development sector could ignite a wider financial crisis.”
Tags: $4.3 trillion, 68 trusts, Assets, Authorities, Bonds, China, Commodities, Concern, Implosion, Loans, National Audit Office, Property, Shares
Wall Street Journal (October 28)
The U.K. dialed back government stimulus for the fast growing British economy, one of the first big Western economies to step away from the emergency policies put in place to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.” The shift is being spurred by “a buoyant growth outlook and concern over surging inflation,” which is “expected to accelerate to around 5% next year, more than double the BOE’s 2% goal.”
Tags: Buoyant, Concern, Coronavirus, Emergency policies, Fast growing. British economy, Government, Growth, Inflation, Outlook, Pandemic, Stimulus, Surging, U.K.
The Irish Times (September 7)
With nearly 50,000 new cases last week, “Spain passed a grim milestone of recording more than half a million coronavirus cases on Monday, becoming the first western European country to do so amid a steep upward trend that is mirrored in neighbouring France.” Moreover, there is “significant concern” that the UK is moving down the same path to resurgence. All this comes as wet pubs look poised to reopen in Ireland on September 21.
WARC (July 21)
“High levels of concern over COVID-19 come as countries struggle to contain virus outbreak in tandem with the slow reopening of their economies. While 77% of respondents in China were worried, 90% of respondents were also confident about their country’s ability to deal with the virus compared the global percentage of 36%. In India, 53% of respondents were confident, down from a high of 64% in previous surveys, while Japan had the lowest confidence level at 19% but was up from a low of 11%.”
Tags: China, Concern, Confident, Contain, COVID-19, India, Outbreak, Reopening, Struggle, Virus, Worried
New York Times (December 14)
“The distress of 50 million Americans should concern everyone. Powerful economic forces are arrayed against rural America and, so far, efforts to turn it around have failed. Not every small town can be a tech hub, nor should it be. But that can’t be the only answer.”
Tags: Concern, Distress, Economic forces, Efforts, Failed, Powerful, Rural America, Small town, Tech hub
Wall Street Journal (June 4)
Despite the “unanimous concern and disappointment” expressed in a statement by G7 members Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK, ”the Trump administration showed no sign of backing down from restrictive tariffs” or provided any indication “that the administration was wary of inching closer to a trade war.”
Tags: Canada, Concern, Disappointment, France, G7, Germany, Italy, Japan, Tariffs, Trade war, Trump, UK, Unanimous
Wall Street Journal (April 3)
“Donald Trump hasn’t been talking about the rising stock market lately, and no wonder. Stocks have given up their earlier gains since the President unveiled his protectionist trade agenda” amid concern over “uncertainty from rising trade tension.” So far, China’s response “is measured, affecting $3 billion in annual trade or about 2% of U.S. goods exports to China, but it sends a pointed message that a larger trade war would hurt American businesses, farmers in particular.” If China subsequently moves to target “America’s biggest exports to China, such as soybeans and Boeing aircraft,” the pain will be much greater.
Tags: Boeing, China, Concern, Exports, Farmers, Protectionist, Soybeans, Stock market, Trade, Trade war, Trump, U.S., Uncertainty
Bloomberg Businessweek (February 14)
After enjoying a modest “baby bump,” births in China “are again trending down, despite the two-child policy.” Beijing’s inability “to ignite a baby boom is cause for concern in policy circles.” Recently, the China Daily, a state-owned newspaper, wrote, “There is growing concern that the country may experience a demographic time bomb, because in the decades to come the number of young people is likely to fall below the number required to maintain an optimum level of employment.” For that matter, China’s working-age population has “been shrinking since 2012 and fell by 5 million last year.”0
Tags: Baby bump, Births, China, China Daily, Concern, Demographic time bomb, Optimum employment, Population, Shrinking, Working-age
The Atlantic (September 11)
Amid “growing concern about the real possibility of war with North Korea,” many have still not realized the danger of “an even darker specter. Could events now cascading on the Korean Peninsula drag the U.S. and China into a great-power war?”
Tags: Cascading, China, Concern, Danger, Korean Peninsula, North Korea, U.S. War