BEIJING - Trading starts Monday on a Chinese stock market for high-tech companies that play a key role in official development plans that are straining relations with Washington. Regulators have approved 25 companies in information technology and other fields seen by communist leaders as a path to prosperity and global influence for the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Market. The STAR Market has no direct link to Beijing’s tariff war with President Donald Trump over U.S. complaints China steals or pressures companies to hand over technology. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOWChina’s stock exchanges in Shanghai and the southern city of Shenzhen were set up in the early 1990s to raise money for state industry. The STAR Market has more lenient standards for profitability and price volatility than the main exchanges.

Source: thestar July 21, 2019 00:47 UTC