Month: August 2023

US OKs Military Aid to Taiwan Under Program Usually Reserved for Sovereign Nations

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WASHINGTON —  The Biden administration has approved the first-ever U.S. military transfer to Taiwan under a program generally reserved for assistance to sovereign, independent states. The State Department notified Congress of the sale on Wednesday. It said the material would “be used to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities through joint and combined defense capability and enhanced maritime domain awareness and maritime security capability.” The package is modest — only $80 million of what Congress had set aside as a potential $2 billion — but the implications of using the so-called Foreign…

Will a rare strike threaten the ‘buy Japan’ moment?

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Receive free Japanese business & finance updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Japanese business & finance news every morning. As incarnations of customer service go, the staff at a Japanese department store take some topping.  Pristine, polite and propelled through their day by an atomic engine of etiquette, these were the people whose expertise and charm once redefined urban retail across the country. In the hands of their superlative salesforce, these stores were democratisers of finery, and pioneers in the peddling of luxury…

Remembering enforced disappearance victims in Asia

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What do a prize-winning rural development expert from Laos, two Tibetan sisters, a Uyghur anthropologist and a Burmese monk have in common? They are all victims of enforced disappearance, taken against their will with their whereabouts unknown. The United Nations and civic groups are marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances Wednesday with calls for an end to impunity for governments and non-state actors who have made hundreds of thousands of people in 85 countries disappear in conflicts and crackdowns. “Enforced disappearance is a serious human rights…

Brics’ biggest challenge in the near term is not falling apart

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In mid-August, the front runner in Argentina’s presidential race, Javier Milei, called for radical changes. If elected, he would bring Argentina closer to the US, reform trade with Brazil, freeze ties with socialist countries, leave the Mercosur trading group, and end Argentina’s relationship with China. Milei referred to China as an “assassin”, pointing fingers at the Chinese government for not respecting people’s freedoms. A little more than a week later, it was announced that Argentina would join Brics, a grouping that currently comprises Brazil, China, India and Russia, in addition…

India’s rice export ban brings chaos to Thai market

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Receive free Thailand updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Thailand news every morning. Rice trading in Thailand, the world’s second-largest rice exporter after India, has turned chaotic after India’s recent ban on rice exports sparked panic buying. Speculative hoarding has drained supply from the market, leaving less rice available for export. Thailand’s domestic milled rice prices jumped nearly 20 per cent in mid-August to 21,000 baht ($597) a tonne, up from about Bt17,000 over the previous few weeks. That has pushed up the…

China’s proposed new VAT law faces second review, hopes to alleviate burden on enterprises

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Revisions to China’s proposed value-added tax (VAT) law will be considered by legislators this week, with hopes that they will make it easier for policymakers to extend preferences for taxpayers and alleviate the burden on enterprises. The second reading of the revisions to the proposed law, which covers the central government’s largest revenue source, will be conducted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) by Friday. Last year, VAT revenue in China reached around 4.87 trillion yuan (US$669 billion). Since the first draft of the law was…

Meta rejects its oversight board’s advice to suspend Hun Sen’s Facebook account

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Facebook parent company Meta Platform Inc. this week rejected the advice of its oversight board to suspend Hun Sen’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, where the former Cambodian leader had threatened violence against political opponents. Meta said in a statement on Monday that while it would remove the content that led to the review, it would not ban Hun Sen’s use of the site, citing the company’s “commitment to voice” in its protocol on restricting the accounts of public figures. “Upon assessing Hun Sen’s Facebook Page and Instagram account, we determined…

FirstFT: Country Garden reveals $7bn loss as China’s property sector turmoil grows

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Receive free Global Economy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Global Economy news every morning. Good morning. We start today with more bleak news from Country Garden, the troubled private property developer that is China’s largest by sales. The company revealed a record Rmb48.9bn ($6.7bn) loss for the first half of the year as it battles to survive the liquidity crisis afflicting China’s real estate sector. The six-month results released on Wednesday represent the highest ever losses for the group, until recently considered…

In a first, US approves Taiwan military aid transfer under scheme reserved for sovereign nations

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In a deal that is relatively modest in size but potentially significant politically, the White House approved its first-ever transfer of military equipment to Taiwan under a programme normally reserved for helping sovereign independent nations. The State Department let Congress know on Wednesday of the US$80 million deal as is customary, Associated Press reported. The structure of the sale, using a provision known as Foreign Military Financing (FMF), was expected to anger China, which considers the self-governed island part of its territory. In its advisory, the administration of US President…