this is the business briefing, i'm sally bundock. face—to—face talks get underway in beijing aimed at ending the bitter trade war between the world's two biggest economies, the us and china. and is the future of smartphones flexible? we will bring you a sneak preview of the folding phone expected to be first to market. and on the markets, as we start a new trading week, the only way is up in asia, as it follows the lead from wall street. trade negotiators from the world's two biggest economies, the us and china, are holding their first face—to—face talks since presidents donald trump and xijinping agreed on a 90—day truce in argentina on1 december. last year saw the two sides impose tit—for—tat tariffs on a total of $363 billion worth of each other‘s imports. mr trump initiated the trade war,

claiming unfair chinese trade practices, concerns shared by the eu, japan and others. but there have been signs of progress in the past month. china has resumed imports of us soybeans and suspended extra tariffs on us—made cars and auto parts due to come into effect on 1january. it has also announced a new crackdown on intellectual property rights infringement — all moves to address us concerns. last week mr trump said he was expecting big progress in the negotiations, after a long and very good call with his chinese counterpart. but today's meeting in beijing doesn't involve the key players. the us delegation is led by deputy us trade representativejeffrey gerrish. this is what donald trump had to say about the talks as he prepared to board a helicopter bound for camp david.

i spoke to president xi recently. i really believe they want to make a deal. the tariffs have absolutely hit china very badly, but our country is — they've given a lot of money through tariffs, a lot of money. a lot of tariffs, steel dumping tariffs and others. but i think china wants to get a result. their economy's not doing well, they're down close to 38%. that's a lot, and i think that gives them a great incentive to negotiate. but we are doing very well with china. my relationship with president xi is as good as any relationship that president here has had with the president or in china. —— or leader in china. joining me is linda yueh, economist and author of the great economists.

so there is a real hope that we will see some progress this week, what do you think? i think we will see some progress. this set of talks is not led by the top players, the top trade officials in the us and china, so what they are trying to do is lay the groundwork over the next couple of days. can they work through some chinese proposals about increasing market access for american exports? because that is one way to reduce the trade deficit, and they are going to give them further guarantees about the market opening and intellectual property. but i think the real sticking point here is all of those things, in world trade, it whether or not they will bea trade, it whether or not they will be a credible monitoring mechanism. what the americans want is notjust what they call promises on paper. they want to see compliance. that is really challenging to do in terms of any country, much less china, a country not known for its transparency when it comes to its own rulemaking. so if china was to shift on those key issues, as you

say, it has kind of made suggestions it will do, but this issue of monitoring, that would be huge, wouldn't it? that would be huge, and on one sense you can sense of frustration from the americans, it is china says it will open up its banking sector, 15 years after joining the trade organisation, not enough to address has been made. but there is a further issue which is that even if you have american business is saying we don't have the kind of access we were promised, what is the next step? do we revert to sanctions, at what point does that happen? but i think the key issueis that happen? but i think the key issue is going to be whether or not they can come to some degree of agreement within this 90 days, in order to prevent these massive ta riffs order to prevent these massive tariffs from coming in, which will hurt both economies. we are seeing some signs of the impact of the ta riffs some signs of the impact of the tariffs both in china and the united states. most people that i talk to say it is loose — lose. nobody wins when there is a trade war. but what do you make of trump's tactics? is

he forcing china to change? —— lose — lose. he forcing china to change? —— lose - lose. if he is successful in accelerating the chinese opening, some might say that is the push that china needed. the other side of it is that a lot of this market opening, especially around services, which is where the us is the biggest exporter in the world, china was already beginning to do because it is better for its own economy as it re bala nces is better for its own economy as it rebalances to open up the services sector, which is more domestically oriented, it has its middle—class consumers, and has us pressure deterred china from doing that so they can save it as a bargaining chip to put back on the table? so i don't necessarily think a trade war is the best way to move things along. but what is clear is that the best thing about a trade war is when it is over. and just really quickly, the outlook this year for the global economy? it is on a cyclical downturn and if you have a trade war than that will accelerate that downturn, so it is not a good time for the americans or the chinese,

and the americans have the 2020 elections coming up. and the americans have the 2020 elections coming uplj and the americans have the 2020 elections coming up. i think both sides know that, that they? good to have you on the programme. —— know that, don't they? now, a survey of south—east asian countries suggests they are wary of china's belt and road initiative. the survey polled more than 1,000 respondents from all ten asean countries. we can cross live to sharanjit leyl in singapore for more. this is really interesting, isn't it, to hear what the asean countries are thinking about belt and road. that's right, and of course asean is that grouping of nations in southeast asia, and that survey was essentially conducted by an academic institution here in singapore. as you mentioned, it polled just over 1000 responses from these asean countries that essentially are wary of china's belt and road projects, thatis of china's belt and road projects, that is the feedback that they got, and who sceptical of the us. most respondents said president xi jinping's belt and road initiative

would bring asean closer into china's aubert, but a third said the project lacked transparency while 16% predicted it would fail. now, a large majority of them, some 70%, said the government should be cautious in negotiating these belt and road to avoid getting into unsustainable financial debt with china. that is the view that seems to be strongest in countries like malaysia, the philippines and thailand, and it is something western governments have accused china of doing, of pulling countries into a debt trap with its belt and road projects. this is an accusation, of course, china has denied. nonetheless, china's might in this region goes without saying. some 73% of respondents say it is china with the greatest influence in this region, much more influence politically and strategically than the united states. thank you, very interesting. now let's brief you on some other business stories: the son of carlos ghosn has told a french newspaper that the former nissan boss will vigorously defend himself in a japanese court this week. anthony ghosn says his father has refused to sign a confession in return for his

release from custody. mr ghosn has been detained since his arrest in november on allegations of financial misconduct. he is due to appear before a tokyo court on tuesday to hear the reasons for his ongoing detention. the most senior bankers to face criminal charges in britain over their conduct during the 2008 financial crisis go on trial in london this week. former barclays chief executive john varley and three ex—colleagues face fraud charges over the bank's emergency refinancing deals with qatari investors. the cash injections helped barclays avoid the fate of high street rivals bailed out by the uk taxpayer. the four men deny the charges. in the past week, apple's sales warning has raised new questions about whether the era of the smarthone is drawing to a close. well, could the future be bendy smartphones, which fold out into a tablet? plenty are expected at the consumer electronics show show in las vegas.

samsung has already announced its plans for a folding phone, but it is a company called royole which is expected to be first to market. the bbc‘s dan simmons has tried it out. here is what he made of it. i got the chance to use the world's first flexible smartphone. it folds into a tablet, as well, and that is the secret of it. it is called the flex pie, it has been five years in production from a company called royole. so what's it like? quite heavy and it feels quite bulky. putting it in your pocket, anywhere, basically, is a little bit more bulkier than a regular phone. but just like something new in your hand that is shiny and slick, you want to play with it all the time, flip it over. and that is ok, because the os that runs on top of the android system it uses, they call it water, automatically changes the screen, so you can have it one way and then flip it around and use it the other way.

the screen flips with you. it takes a little bit of time to resolve when those changing of screens happen between the tablet and the phone, when you fold it. i wonder how many times you can actually fold that screen before it breaks. they say they have done the resilience testing. we are talking about tens of thousands of times that you can do it. that is what they say. we will have to see if it works in practice. at the moment, the browser and the existing apps that come with android are on it, and they do work with the flexibility of that screen. but specific apps that use that feature, well, they're thin on the ground. i didn't see any, weren't shown any, and that is why a developers' model is out at the moment, to encourage people to start programming for this unique aspect of the device. we will have more on that in just a moment in our news briefing. thousands of cambodian survivors

of the khmer rouge are marking a0 years since the fall of the brutal regime that killed an estimated one point seven million people. —— 1.7 million. 0ur correspondent, naa fam is in northwestern cambodia. todayis today is a national public holiday in cambodia, and people here mark the day as the anniversary of the end of the genocide, the fall of the khmer rouge regime, that killed almost 1.7 million people during the short four year period that the khmer rouge were ruling. so today i am in siem reap, where the landmine museum is going to reopen, one of

the events for the commemoration. and also in the phnom penh, there will be a very important event to commemorate the fall of the khmer rouge. today there will be the event starting with the blessing ceremony, and there will be a speech by the prime minister. he will talk about the importance of the fall of the khmer rouge. he'll be paying tribute to the victims of the regime and also, of course, give credit to his ruling party, the cpp, that has been governing cambodia since 1979. you've got to remember that 60% of the cambodian population is under 30. so, i spoke to lots of them, and most of them don't have much memory about the period, but they, of course, have heard from their parents and the other generations

about the brutality of the regime, and everyone was saying how good that the regime has terminated. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: more than 200 british mp‘s have written to theresa may urging her to rule out a no—deal brexit as she tries to bolster support ahead of next week's crucial vote. —— mps. bohemian rhapsody has won two of the top gongs at the golden globes awards in hollywood, beating the much more fancied favourites, including vice and a star is born. human rights watch has called on thailand to allow a young saudi woman fleeing her home country to continue her journey to australia. rahaf mohammed al-qunun is trapped in bangkok. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with the irish times,

which says a formal exchange of letters between the eu and the uk, stipulating that the northern ireland backstop will be temporary and superseded by a comprehensive trade deal, is to be examined by officials as a way to break the brexit impasse at westminster. the ft leads with reports us and chinese negotiators will meet today for trade talks after coming under mounting pressure to reach a deal. the move comes as fears grow of a bruising economic slowdown which has rattled global markets. in the south china morning post, this year's ces show is under way in las vegas — although traditionally tech giant apple will not be placing a giant booth at the technology trade show. the company has had to make a sales warning after fewer customers in china have been buying their signature iphone. the times focusses on the uk national health service and the news that all children with cancer will have their genetic code sequenced to guide treatment under

a new ten—year plan for the future of the nhs. and finally, the golden globes are here with us again. usa today has all the winners on its webpage. here we have a photo of bodyguard star richard madden holding his gong after winning best actor in a tv drama.