Month: September 2023

Evergrande chair put under ‘mandatory measures’ on suspicion of crimes

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Receive free Evergrande Real Estate Group updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Evergrande Real Estate Group news every morning. Evergrande on Thursday said its chair, Hui Ka Yan, had been placed under “mandatory measures” on suspicion of involvement in “illegal crimes”, a sign of escalating government pressure on the Chinese developer almost two years after its default shook global markets. In a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company said it had “received notification from relevant authorities” of the action against…

China’s property woes, deepened by Evergrande, test Beijing’s bottom line of no systemic risks

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China’s banks have seen an influx of bad assets in their once-thriving property-loan business, and more could be reported amid the restructuring of Evergrande and other struggling developers. The outstanding property-related non-performing loans (NPLs) of China’s top banks saw an annual increase in value of 37 per cent to 291 billion yuan (US$40 billion) from July 2022 to the end of June this year, according to the Post’s calculations of their midyear financial reports. Two-thirds of the banks have seen an increase in their property NPL ratio, signalling that they…

Gifts, Gadgets and Greece: Inside a Huawei Lobbying Campaign

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In November 2020, executives at Huawei, the Chinese telecom-equipment maker, exchanged messages about holding a meeting with a “friend” and an “adviser” in Greece. The contacts, identified as Greek government advisers, were set to provide Huawei with something valuable: a document outlining government contracts and “first priority projects” that the company might want to work on in the country. Huawei managers discussed giving the advisers a Huawei Mate XS smartphone, the company’s GT 2 smartwatch and wine, according to internal text messages and other documents reviewed by The New York…

After an unsuccessful boycott, women’s tennis is back in China

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Listen to this story.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Your browser does not support the <audio> element. Not long after Peng Shuai, a Chinese tennis star (pictured), accused a Communist Party grandee of sexual assault in 2021, her sport’s governing body, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), halted all tournaments in China. The WTA, based in America, called for Ms Peng’s allegation to be investigated “fully, fairly, transparently and without censorship”. That has not happened. Nevertheless, the WTA has returned. The China Open began in late September. The…

China’s persecution of Uyghurs extends to those it once favoured

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Rahile Dawut was once something of an establishment figure in China. The 57-year-old anthropologist from the Uyghur ethnic group was a member of the Communist Party. The state funded some of her work at the University of Xinjiang, the premier college in the region, where she was a professor and founder of a research centre studying ethnic minorities. She was awarded prizes by the Ministry of Culture, had met President Jiang Zemin in 2000 and was featured on the cover of a state-supported magazine in Xinjiang, the Uyghur heartland. But…

Politics hamper China’s efforts to stimulate the economy

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A decade ago the 200-plus members of the Communist Party’s Central Committee gathered in Beijing for the “third plenum”, a five-yearly meeting traditionally devoted to the economy. The plenum promised to give markets, not the state, the “decisive role in allocating resources”. The failure of Xi Jinping, China’s leader since 2012, to embrace that commitment explains much of the disappointment about China’s economy in the past ten years. But the economy’s immediate predicament is different. The problem this year is not that the state has too decisive a role at the…

Abu Dhabi group IHC sells out of two Adani companies

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Receive free Adani Group updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Adani Group news every morning. Abu Dhabi conglomerate International Holding Company is to sell its stake in two of Indian tycoon Gautam Adani’s companies, in a blow to the business empire battling allegations of accounting fraud. IHC announced in April 2022 that it was investing about $500mn each in renewables arm Adani Green Energy and power company Adani Transmission, and a further $1bn in the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises. At the time, IHC’s…

China’s vows to further open up appear to show how political motivations are changing in Beijing

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President Xi Jinping’s speech on Wednesday about economic reform and opening up has raised hopes that those guiding the world’s second-largest economy could have stronger political motivations to shore it up, and investor confidence along with it. But scepticism remains over how far policymakers will go ahead of the widely anticipated third plenum of the Communist Party later this year – a gathering that typically focuses on economic issues. At Wednesday’s Politburo study session dedicated to the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its reform, Xi acknowledged the…

Evergrande chair placed under ‘mandatory measures’ on suspicion of crimes

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Receive free Evergrande Real Estate Group updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Evergrande Real Estate Group news every morning. Evergrande on Thursday said its chair, Hui Ka Yan, had been placed under “mandatory measures” on suspicion of crimes, amid mounting pressures on the Chinese developer. In a statement on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the company said it had “received notification from relevant authorities” of the developments, but did not clarify any further. The announcement followed reports that Hui has been placed under…

US warns green transition raises ‘complex’ China security concerns

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Receive free Renewable energy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Renewable energy news every morning. US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm has warned that transitioning from fossil fuels will make energy security “infinitely more complex” because of China’s stranglehold on the processing of the critical minerals essential for renewable power. China dominates the cobalt, rare earths and graphite industries, which are vital for renewable energy, electric cars and defence technologies. Its global market share for the refining of each of those three materials exceeds…