AFP, Hong Kong :
Asian markets advanced Tuesday, with Beijing’s planned stimulus measures pushing up Chinese shares as investors turn their attention to this week’s release of corporate earnings reports.
Tensions persist over a potential global trade war, however, with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker heading to Washington on Wednesday to meet with President Donald Trump and try to avert an escalation of tit-for-tat tariffs.
The US leader is already embroiled in a messy trade spat with China and Europe, while negotiations with Canada and Mexico to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement have stalled.
Beijing signaled it would shift to a looser fiscal policy to shield the world’s second-largest economy from the worsening trade row with Washington, prompting Chinese shares, buffeted for months by the spat, to make gains.
Shanghai jumped 1.6 percent while Hong Kong advanced 1.3 percent. The gains were mirrored across Asia, with Tokyo and Seoul both rising 0.5 percent and Sydney adding 0.6 percent.
Chinese policymakers have had to juggle competing priorities: transitioning the world’s second-largest economy to an expected era of slower growth, while also cleansing the financial system of dodgy credit.
That balancing act has become even more tricky as China’s export engine braces for the impact of US tariffs on Chinese goods, imposed by President Donald Trump to punish Beijing for “unfair” trade practices.
Premier Li Keqiang stressed the government would accelerate plans to reduce taxes by more than 1.1 trillion yuan ($160 billion) and to issue 1.35 trillion yuan in local government special bonds for infrastructure.
