The Associated Press reports: "The loosening of China's one-child policy to allow all married couples to have two children will bring only a relatively small increase in population growth, a study predicted Friday, while recommending that the country increase its retirement age to address an expected labor shortage....The Lancet paper's researchers in Britain and China say the effects of the new policy on China's shrinking work force and aging population won't be seen for two decades. They recommend that the government increase 'the exceptionally low compulsory retirement age' of 50 or 55 for women and 60 for men, increasing pension coverage and encouraging the traditional practice of three generations living under the same roof. While authorities credit the one-child policy with preventing 400 million extra births, many demographers argue that the fertility rate would have fallen anyway as China's economy developed and education levels rose."
The New York Times reports: "Hillary Clinton privately said the U.S. would 'ring China with missile defense' if the Chinese government failed to curb North Korea's nuclear program, a potential hint at how the former secretary of state would act if elected president. Clinton's remarks were revealed by WikiLeaks in a hack of the Clinton campaign chairman's personal account. The emails include a document excerpting Clinton's private speech transcripts, which she has refused to release. A section on China features several issues in which Clinton said she confronted the Chinese while leading the U.S. State Department....Clinton also privately criticized China's position on another sensitive issue, the South China Sea....By China's logic, Clinton told a different audience in 2013, the U.S. after World War II could have labeled the Pacific Ocean the 'American Sea.' 'My counterpart sat up very straight and goes, 'Well, you can't do that,'' she said. 'And I said, 'Well, we have as much right to claim that as you do. I mean, you claim (the South China Sea) based on pottery shards from, you know, some fishing vessel that ran aground in an atoll somewhere.' In another remark revealed in the Wikileaks hack, Clinton called Xi 'a more sophisticated, more effective public leader' than his predecessor, Hu Jintao. She noted Xi's plans for economic and social reforms, but blamed what she called 'a resurgence of nationalism' on the Chinese government. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond Friday to faxed questions about Clinton's remarks."
Reuters reports: "Global stocks and the dollar rebounded on Friday from losses a day earlier, buoyed by a surprising rise in Chinese producer prices and U.S. economic data that bolstered expectations the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates in December....U.S. producer prices rose in September to post their biggest year-on-year rise since December 2014, while retail sales gained 0.6 percent after a 0.2 percent decline in August....In China, September producer prices unexpectedly rose for the first time in nearly five years and consumer inflation also beat expectations, easing some concerns about the health of the world's second-biggest economy....The gain in Chinese producer prices helped lift U.S. Treasury yields....Rising U.S. Treasury yields, on the growing perception the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December, pushed euro zone government bond yields higher."