Month: August 2023

A growing crisis in China’s “shadow banking” sector is threatening further damage to an economy reeling from multiple problems, even as a new report questions the ability of the government in Beijing to come to the rescue via fiscal stimulus. On Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that Chinese authorities have enlisted the Citic Trust Co., a subsidiary of the state-owned China Construction Bank, to assess the state of Zhongrong International Trust Co. When Citic was asked to make a similar assessment of a large asset manager in 2021, it was the…

SYDNEY —  Fiji will sign a defense agreement with France, after the Cabinet of the Pacific Islands nation approved the deal, Fiji’s government said in a statement Thursday. France’s President Emmanuel Macron in July toured the Pacific Islands, where France has overseas territories, denouncing predatory behavior by big powers in a region where China is extending trade and security ties. Macron’s advisers say France can be an “alternative” and help island nations diversify their partnerships without becoming too reliant on one single country. A statement from the Fiji Prime Minister’s…

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —  North Korea’s military has practiced occupying all of South Korea as part of a counterstrike exercise, a type of exercise involving all the North’s military never before reported by its state media. The exercise was followed by a “tactical nuclear strike drill” overnight. Two posts on the North’s Korean Central News Agency on Thursday reporting the exercises came as the U.S. and South Korean militaries wrap up an 11-day defensive drill dubbed Ulchi Freedom Shield, the largest in scale in years. The U.S.-South Korea computer-simulated exercises,…