Day: March 5, 2023

China Premier Li Keqiang Bows Out as Xi Loyalists Take Reins

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Beijing —  After a decade in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s shadow, Li Keqiang is taking his final bow as the country’s premier, marking a shift away from the skilled technocrats who have helped steer the world’s second-biggest economy in favor of officials known mainly for their unquestioned loyalty to China’s most powerful leader in recent history. After exiting the ruling Communist Party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in October — despite being below retirement age — Li’s last major task was delivering the state of the nation address to the rubber-stamp…

Seven Missing as Boat Capsizes Off Disputed Japan Islands

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Tokyo —  Japan’s coastguard said Monday it was searching for seven people missing after their boat capsized and was spotted in waters off the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku islets, which are also claimed by China. The overturned boat was spotted on Sunday afternoon, drifting in waters north of the islands by a Japanese navy patrol in the area, coastguard spokesman Keisuke Nakao told AFP. The crew are one Taiwanese and six Indonesians, he added. “We have been searching the area with patrol ships and helicopters since receiving the information at around 1:30…

Ohtani, Star-Studded US Eye World Baseball Classic Crown

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Los Angeles —  The battle to find baseball’s global champions gets under way this week when the pandemic-delayed World Baseball Classic returns after a six-year absence with Shohei Ohtani hoping to inspire Japan to a record third title. Teams from 20 countries are participating in the fifth edition of the tournament, with the four first round groups hosted at venues in Taiwan, Tokyo, Arizona and Florida before the bulk of the knockout rounds get under way in the United States. The tournament was last staged in 2017, with the United…

China border reopening kick-starts doubling of Standard Chartered wealth-management income in Hong Kong, executive says

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The number of mainlanders who came to Hong Kong to open a new account at Standard Chartered in the first two months this year is 3.5 times greater than in the same period last year and higher than in the same period in 2019, Man said. Standard Chartered’s insurance sales to mainland visitors in the first two months of 2023 have already surpassed last year’s total sales in terms of annualised premiums, and Man believes the bank’s insurance sales to mainlanders will return to pre-Covid levels in the second quarter.…

China Expands Defense Budget 7.2%, Marking Slight Increase

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China announced Sunday a 7.2% increase in its defense budget for the coming year, up slightly from last year’s 7.1% rate of increase. That marks the eighth consecutive year of single-digit percentage point increases in what is now the world’s second-largest military budget. The 2023 figure was given as 1.55 trillion yuan ($224 billion), roughly double the figure from 2013. Along with the world’s biggest standing army, China has the world’s largest navy and recently launched its third aircraft carrier. According to the U.S., it also has the largest aviation…

Chinese Company Rejects Rights Accusation After US Sanctions

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Beijing —  BGI Group, one of the world’s biggest genetics analysis companies, said Sunday it never would be involved in human rights abuses after the U.S. government said there was a danger some of its units might contribute to Chinese surveillance. Three BGI units were among Chinese companies added to an “entity list” last week that limits access to U.S. technology on security or human rights grounds. The Commerce Department cited a risk BGI technology might contribute to surveillance. Activists say Beijing is trying to create a database of genetic…

Germany’s Scholz Warns of ‘Consequences’ if China Sends Arms to Russia

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Berlin —  German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says there would be “consequences” if China sent weapons to Russia for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, but he’s optimistic that Beijing will refrain from doing so. Scholz’s comments came in an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, two days after he met U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington. U.S. officials have warned recently that China could step off the sidelines and begin providing arms and ammunition to Moscow. Ahead of his trip, Scholz had urged Beijing to refrain from sending weapons and instead use…

Border town residents feel safer after Malaysia cracked down on human smuggling

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Residents of this community near where mass graves of trafficked migrants were discovered eight years ago say the border area is much quieter now – and they’re hoping it stays that way. A decade ago, distressed foreigners on foot used to knock on doors asking for food. And city dwellers arrived by car from hundreds of kilometers away to buy smuggled goods for cheap at outposts just inside Malaysia. But all that changed in 2015, after Malaysian authorities discovered more than 100 bodies –thought to be Rohingya and Bangladeshis –…

Interpreting China’s unambitious growth target

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OVER THE next week China’s National People’s Congress, its rubber-stamp parliament, will formally confirm Xi Jinping’s new term as president and the appointment of a new economic team around him. On March 5th Li Keqiang, the country’s outgoing prime minister (pictured, right), opened the congress with his annual “work report”. It confirmed a GDP growth target of “around 5%” for China in 2023, lower than many external forecasts. The target’s conservatism sets the tone for an event which is likely to be about China’s leaders tightening their control over the…

Nine Years On, Families Urge New Search for Missing Malaysian Plane

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Kuala Lumpur —  Families of those on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared mysteriously nine years ago, called on the Malaysian government on Sunday to allow U.S. seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity to mount a new search for the missing plane. The fate of flight MH370 became one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries when it disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. In 2018, Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity to search for the aircraft in the southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to…