"Everywhere you look in China, progress in protecting the environment is evident. China rang in 2015 by adopting a new, stronger environmental protection law. The leadership has issued tough new targets for regional coal consumption and air quality. Chart-topping levels of investment in clean energy continue despite plummeting oil prices. And courts are levying significant fines on polluting enterprises to help force improved practices. Yet all of this effort will come to naught if the continued mismatch between the leaders' ambitions and the capacity of local officials to realize that ambition is not addressed," explains an opinion article from The Diplomat. 

The New York Times reports, "On a tour of central Henan Province in May of last year, China's president, Xi Jinping, first raised the notion of the economy adjusting to a 'new normal.' Eight months later, with the economy growing at its slowest pace in more than two decades, it is increasingly clear what this adjustment will mean for China. The leadership in Beijing will tolerate slower growth in order to reduce the economy's reliance on credit-fueled investment, replacing it with domestic demand as a key driver of growth. The effect of this slowdown on global markets has been drastic. China is the world's biggest consumer of coal, iron ore and copper - and the prices of all three have in recent weeks fallen to their lowest levels in more than five years. Less certain, however, is what effect this new normal will have for foreign investors in China." 

"President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the United States and not China must write trade rules for Asia and called on Congress to give the White House a freer hand to close trade deals. Obama, who is pushing to overcome resistance to so-called fast-track authority from within his own party as well as conservative Republicans, said if China prevailed, U.S. workers and businesses would be at a disadvantage." In his State of the Union address, Obama said, " 'That's why I'm asking both parties to give me trade promotion authority to protect American workers, with strong new trade deals from Asia to Europe that aren't just free, but fair,'...China is not part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership the United States is negotiating with 11 other trading partners, which aims to set common standards on issues such as workers' rights and the environment as well as lower trade barriers," writes Reuters.