Month: June 2023

Chinese tech group joins the battle on falling birth rate

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Receive free Ctrip.com International Ltd updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Ctrip.com International Ltd news every morning. Chinese online travel agency Trip.com is preparing Rmb1bn ($140mn) in cash subsidies to encourage employees to have more babies, in one of the first instances of a local tech company working to turn around the country’s falling birth rate. The travel group, which owns booking sites including Ctrip, Skyscanner and Qunar, said it would pay out Rmb10,000 in annual bonuses to staff for each new child…

Dozens of ASML shipments to China face tougher export curbs

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Receive free Semiconductors updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Semiconductors news every morning. Dozens of ASML chipmaking machines destined for China will soon need a licence to be shipped after the Dutch government followed the US and Japan in imposing tough curbs on technology exports.  The Hague said that, from September 1, it will bar high-end chipmaking machines, which could be used for “advanced military applications”, from being exported abroad without such a permit. The Dutch trade minister insisted the controls were “country…

EU softens China strategy by adopting ‘de-risking’ approach

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EU leaders have launched a policy towards China of “de-risking”, a softening of its unofficial “decoupling” approach that reflects concerns over the economic damage of cutting off the world’s second-biggest economy or entering a trade war with it. The decision was agreed quickly at a summit of leaders in Brussels after the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, went into the summit with consensus among the 27 member states. The bloc took the view that supply chains for chemicals for electric vehicle batteries and semiconductors were especially vulnerable to…

Lavrov: Iran To Join Shanghai Alliance With China, Russia Next Week

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Iran will be formally approved as a member of the regional Shanghai Cooperation Organization with China, Russia and Central Asian countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday. “At the meeting of heads of state on July 4, the full membership of Iran will be approved,” Lavrov said at the opening of an SCO center in Moscow. Iran has intensified its diplomacy with friends and foes alike in recent months, seeking to reduce its isolation, improve its economy and project strength. SCO membership was already on the cards and Iran…

Analysts: Junta meetings with ethnic groups was just for show

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Myanmar’s military rulers held peace talks with five ethnic armed groups in the capital Naypyidaw this week, but the meetings produced no agreement and several analysts criticized the talks as an attempt by the junta to deceive the international community. ASEAN – Southeast Asia’s main regional bloc – has repeatedly urged Myanmar’s junta to find a peaceful solution to the crisis that erupted after the military ousted an elected government on Feb. 1, 2021.  The United Nations and human rights groups say the junta’s security forces have killed thousands of…

HSBC accused of siding with China in tussle over pension funds

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Receive free HSBC Holdings PLC updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest HSBC Holdings PLC news every morning. Two influential China hawks in the US Congress and UK parliament have accused HSBC of oppressing Hongkongers over pension rights if they want to emigrate, in a sign of the pressure on the bank as it straddles western and Asian markets. Mike Gallagher, the US Republican representative and chair of the House China committee, and Alicia Kearns, the Conservative MP who heads the UK foreign affairs…

China’s Massive Economic Stimulus Is Not Coming Back 

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Advertisement During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, China’s then-Premier Wen Jiabao declared: “In the face of economic difficulties, confidence is more important than gold and currency.” Consequently, a Chinese economic stimulus worth 4 trillion Chinese yuan ($586 billion) was issued to shore up the economy during that year. This economic measure was Beijing’s largest move to respond to the financial crisis. Nowadays, the prospects of the Chinese economy are worse than over a decade ago, thanks to both internal and external factors. The unemployment rate of Chinese people aged between…

Junta cracks down on town in southern Myanmar, arresting more than 30 locals

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Myanmar’s junta has been cracking down on residents of a Tanintharyi region town, raiding homes and arresting more than 30 locals this week, Kawthoung residents told RFA. Residents said that the arrests were made after the Kawthoung People’s Defense Force attacked an army outpost and the home of a local leader of the junta-affiliated Pyu Saw Htee militia on June 22. The following day, the defense force announced that it had killed the leader and second-in-command of the local Pyu Saw Htee. One local, who didn’t want to be named…

Australia to Use Psychedelic Drugs as Approved Medicines

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SYDNEY – Australia on Saturday will become one of the first countries to recognize psychedelic drugs as medicines. In February, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia’s medical regulator, sanctioned use of psychedelics for some mental health conditions. Experts agree that psychedelic-assisted therapies in Australia are in their infancy. Starting Saturday, authorized psychiatrists in Australia will be able to prescribe methylenedioxy methamphetamine – MDMA, the active ingredient in such party drugs as ecstasy or molly — to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. They will also be allowed to prescribe psilocybin, a compound found…

Expansions to China’s Espionage Law Create Anxiety for Foreign Media  

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WASHINGTON – Amendments to China’s counterespionage law that take effect Saturday could create even more challenges for foreign correspondents reporting inside the country, journalists and media analysts say. Passed in April, the revisions broaden the definition of espionage and ban the transfer of any information deemed related to national security. Some foreign journalists based in China say they are anxiously waiting to see how the changes will affect their work, with press freedom analysts predicting the revisions will make news gathering more difficult. “Quite a few of us are worried…