Day: September 25, 2023

China Bans Nomura Senior Investment Banker From Leaving Mainland: Sources

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HONG KONG —  Authorities in China have ordered a senior Nomura Holdings banker overseeing the Japanese firm’s investment banking operations there not to leave the mainland, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. The ban comes as concerns grow among Western businesses about darkening prospects in the world’s second-largest economy at a time of slowing growth, coupled with new laws that make for tougher operating conditions. Charles Wang Zhonghe, China investment banking chairman at Nomura, is prohibited from traveling outside the mainland, said the sources, who sought anonymity as…

Vietnam music teacher loses appeal against 8-year sentence

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Updated Sept. 25, 2023, 11:52 p.m. ET. In an appeal that only lasted two hours, the High People’s Court in Vietnam’s Dak Lak province on Tuesday upheld an eight-year prison sentence for music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc, his wife Le Thi Ha told Radio Free Asia. The 61-year-old instructor at Dak Lak College of Pedagogy was convicted on June 6 this year of “making, storing, spreading or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”  He was prosecuted under the penal code’s…

Seoul warns of N Korean regime termination, if nuclear weapons used

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South Korea warned that it would seek to terminate the Kim Jong Un regime should nuclear weapons be used in practice, calling Pyongyang’s nuclear intimidation a “grave challenge” to the international community. “Despite repeated warnings from the international community over the past several decades, North Korea has been upgrading its nuclear and missile capabilities. Moreover, it has been blatantly threatening to use nuclear weapons,” South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday, in a speech to celebrate the South’s Oct. 1, Armed Forces Day. “If North Korea uses nuclear weapons,…

Indonesia vows to sue UK over Airbus corruption probe settlement

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Receive free Airbus SE updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Airbus SE news every morning. Indonesia has vowed to sue the UK for a share of a record €991mn bribery settlement struck with European aerospace group Airbus, a move that ramps up the pressure on the British government to resolve the dispute. The UK, along with the US and France, reached the deal in 2020 after the aircraft maker admitted to offences spanning multiple countries, including kickbacks to executives at Indonesia’s state-owned airline Garuda. Jakarta…

Hong Kong fraud probe tests city’s pro-crypto stance

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The teal-and-white advertisements of cryptocurrency group JPEX, or Japan Exchange, were inescapable in Hong Kong last year on building walls, taxis and trams. The company’s slogan “investment: more than just stocks”, was advertised for weeks on a massive billboard in the centre of the city’s financial district. Months later, JPEX’s name is prominent for a different reason: Hong Kong police have opened an investigation into alleged fraud and arrested JPEX staff, while the city’s regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, has accused the company of misleading investors. The investigation into…

JPEX probe tests Hong Kong’s crypto-friendly stance

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The teal-and-white advertisements of cryptocurrency group JPEX, or Japan Exchange, were inescapable in Hong Kong last year on building walls, taxis and trams. The company’s slogan “investment: more than just stocks”, was advertised for weeks on a massive billboard in the centre of the city’s financial district. Months later, JPEX’s name is prominent for a different reason: Hong Kong police have opened an investigation into alleged fraud and arrested JPEX staff, while the city’s regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission, has accused the company of misleading investors. The investigation into…

Why a weak yuan is spurring a retail gold rush in China

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With the yuan weak, housing in the doldrums and stocks as insecure as ever, China’s working and middle class are turning to one investment option that is regaining some shine: gold. For Chinese consumers with limited access to overseas investment products, the precious metal is one of the few ways they can try to counter the shrinking value of their other assets. The yuan is only expected to weaken, but most Chinese individuals cannot buy US dollars or US dollar-denominated products to hedge against the Chinese currency’s fall. Against that…

How TSMC’s chip plant is shaking up Japan

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People in Kikuyo have a term to encapsulate a new era of traffic jams, skyrocketing property prices and battles for staff: “the TSMC shock”.  The small Japanese town and its economy have been radically transformed since Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company began construction of its first factory in Japan five months ago. “TSMC’s arrival was a bolt from the blue,” Takatoshi Yoshimoto, Kikuyo’s mayor, said in an interview at his office. “We instantly became famous, and it was as if Kikuyo suddenly became an adult from a baby.” Kikuyo and the…

How TSMC’s chip plant is shaking up a small town in Japan

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People in Kikuyo have a term to encapsulate a new era of traffic jams, skyrocketing property prices and battles for staff: “the TSMC shock”.  The small Japanese town and its economy have been radically transformed since Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company began construction of its first factory in Japan five months ago. “TSMC’s arrival was a bolt from the blue,” Takatoshi Yoshimoto, Kikuyo’s mayor, said in an interview at his office. “We instantly became famous, and it was as if Kikuyo suddenly became an adult from a baby.” Kikuyo and the…

A hidden US-China decoupling

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Receive free Inside Business updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Inside Business news every morning. One illustration of how financial ties between the US and China are breaking down comes from the recent experience of private equity’s “placement agents”. These are companies hired by buyout groups to help them raise new funds. When their salespeople try to persuade US investors to commit cash to funds that will strike deals in China, they are in some cases not only being rejected but also criticised…