Prime Minister of the Republic of Fiji, Sitiveni Rabuka on Tuesday toured a border county in southwest China's Yunnan Province, to learn more about China's rural revitalization.
Rabuka made the trip to Yunnan during his official visit to China from Aug 12 to 21.
On Tuesday afternoon, Rabuka arrived at Malipo from Kunming, capital of Yunnan. Malipo is a county sitting on the China-Vietnam border, with a population of approximately 240,000.
The county was once among the most impoverished areas in China. But through targeted policy support and a series of industrial development initiatives, Malipo shook off extreme poverty in 2020.
The Prime Minister toured two villages – Ping'anpo and Nanyou, where he learned how rural revitalization is taking place, in terms of specialty agriculture development, education and protection of ethnic culture.
"I was very impressed with the pictures they showed me of the village in 1992. I was Prime Minister of Fiji in 1992, and I’m Prime Minister again now. But nowhere in Fiji have we seen any improvement to be close to what we have seen here. So I congratulate the Chinese leaders of the past, particularly President Xi, for his political efforts at the time to alleviate poverty and to raise the standards of living of the people of China, particularly in those disadvantaged areas where the minority ethnic groups live," Rabuka said.
Rabuka also went to local villagers' homes to hear what changes they have experienced over the past years.
"We used to live in a tile-roofed house, a kind of fence house, which is different from the houses today. And there were only dirt roads in the village, which was quite narrow," said a local villager.
The Fiji leader said he expects to learn more during the rest of his trip in China.
"We have a lot to learn, and I have been making a lot of notes since I arrived on how we might be able to turn the little things in the villages into big things in the provinces and the nation," he said.
Fiji was the first Pacific Island country to establish diplomatic ties with China. Over the past five decades, the two countries have witnessed closer exchanges and cooperation across various fields.
During their meeting in San Francisco last November, Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed China's readiness to enhance cooperation with Fiji in such areas as infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries and new energy, and expressed interest in importing more Fijian specialties.
Fiji's Prime Minister visits border county in Yunnan
The Trump administration's decision to impose "reciprocal tariffs" on all trade partners has sparked panic among investors, sending all three major U.S. stock indices into sharp declines on Thursday, with European stock markets also seeing significant losses, while the U.S. Dollar Index dropped substantially.
As of the close on Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,679.39 points to 40,545.93, down 3.98 percent, marking its largest single-day decline since June 2020.
The S and P 500 lost 274.45 points to settle at 5,396.52 points, a 4.84 percent decrease, its biggest drop since June 2020. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite fell 1,050.44 points to 16,550.61 points, down 5.97 percent, marking its largest single-day fall since March 2020.
The sell-off was widespread, with key individual stocks also taking a hit. Nike saw a steep 14 percent drop in its share price, while Apple fell by 9 percent. Bank stocks were under heavy pressure, with Western Alliance Bank dropping nearly 16 percent, Citigroup losing about 12 percent, and Bank of America slipping 11 percent.
In the small-cap segment, the Russell 2000 Index saw a notable decline of more than 6 percent. Compared to its peak in November of last year, the index has now dropped over 20 percent, entering a technical bear market.
This marks a stark contrast to the surge seen after the U.S. presidential election, when small-cap stocks were seen as beneficiaries of deregulation, tax cuts, and tariffs.
UBS analysts warned of the potential long-term economic consequences of the tariffs, suggesting that if they persist, inflation could rise sharply, severely impacting the macroeconomy, and potentially leading to significant deterioration in both U.S. and global economic growth and inflation over the next year.
The firm's U.S. economic team estimates that real GDP could decline by 1.5 to 2 percentage points in 2025, with inflation possibly reaching 5 percent.
Meanwhile, European markets followed suit, with all three major stock indices experiencing losses. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index closed at 8,474.74 points, down 133.74 points, or 1.55 percent, from the previous trading day. The French CAC40 dropped by 259.85 points to 7,598.98 points, a 3.31 percent decrease. In Germany, the DAX Index closed at 21,717.39 points, down 673.45 points, a 3.01 percent drop.
The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six key currencies, including the euro and the British pound, dropped 1.67 percent to 102.073, while the euro and pound both strengthened as investors sought safer assets amid rising market volatility.
US tariff moves trigger market panic, major indices suffer sharp losses
