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Will feathers or shrapnel fly in the Sino-American trade war over IP
Expert thinking appears to be converging on the likelihood of a Sino-American trade war in the New Year unless some issue or event emerges to break the logjam over Intellectual Property rights.
At issue is technology transfer with the bullish Trump administration saying that Beijing's insistence that if Americans want to market its own technology it must first tell all while at the same time forbidding the export of new Chinese technologies the US might copy.
There's much more to it than that, of course, but that is the nub of the matter, about which China is inscrutably silent as ever. 
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Heroic US Navy seamen praised, officers fired in lethal warship collision
Hair raising rescues were recorded by an official inquiry into the causes of accidental collisions of two US guided missile destroyers with two merchantmen in which bridge teams and absent officers were blamed and relieved of their duties.
"Multiple failures" by US Navy crews contributed to two deadly collisions, according to the Collision Report for USS Fitzgerald on June 16 and USS John S McCain on August 21, entitled "Supplemental Preliminary Inquiry and Line of Duty Determination".
The inquiry found the two collisions that killed 17 sailors at sea were preventable and caused by errors by those standing watch.
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It's a been year of Trump protectionist bark - but little protectionist bite
Signs of authoritarianism continue to appear, deflating China's once growing laissez-faire spirit, but the standing terror of western global protectionism has failed to materialise record Asian exports are anything to go by.
US President Donald Trump's fierce protectionist rhetoric and similar grumblings from the European Union have not slowed what has been an enormous recovery of world trade on mainline routes.
On the export side, China's top 20 container ports have gained momentum in growth with mid-2017 monthly volumes increasing 8.7 per cent, building to a 7.5 per cent jump throughout most of the year.
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Belt and Road means a vigorous expansion of China's merchant fleet going forward
Expectations of robust growth in the China-owned merchant ship fleet this year have been reinforced by expansion during the first half have been largely fulfilled as the year ends.
New containerships, tankers and bulk carriers contributed a large increment, writes Richard Scott, editor of Global Maritime News, produced by Southampton Solent University's China Maritime Centre for Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide. This trend, he said, looks set to continue, as many new vessels are on order for delivery over the next few years, said the report.
Further reorganisation progress among Chinese state-owned shipping companies has also marked the rest of 2017. Changes under way are designed to improve efficiency and boost competitiveness, enhancing financial performance amid difficult global circumstances in the main market sectors.
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