Month: September 2023

Beijing doubled down on security, tackling corruption and preparing for “worst-case scenarios” at a Politburo meeting, signalling that national security risks remain the priority amid tensions with Washington. “It is crucial to coordinate both development and security, establish bottom-line thinking to deal with worst-case and extreme-case scenarios, take effective measures to prevent and defuse major risks, and firmly maintain the bottom line of safety,” according to a readout of Wednesday’s meeting from official news agency Xinhua. The main agenda of the meeting, chaired by President Xi Jinping, was to review…

Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall chief Dai steps away from roles at subsidiaries to focus on core e-commerce business: reports The head of Alibaba Group Holding’s e-commerce unit Taobao and Tmall Group, which provides 70 per cent of parent company revenue, has stepped away from multiple roles at Alibaba subsidiaries amid an ongoing business shake-up, according to local media reports and business registration information. Trudy Dai Shan, an early aide to Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and who returned to the front line of Alibaba in 2022, no longer holds legal representative…

Beijing will host the Xiangshan Forum in October, but it is not clear if defence chief General Li Shangfu – who has not been seen in public for a month – will attend the regional security talks. Defence ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Wu Qian confirmed on Thursday that the forum will be held from October 29 to 31. It is the first time that the event – China’s answer to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore – will be held in person since 2019. “So far, more than 40 countries and…

China’s longest holiday stretch of the year presents a golden opportunity to give the beleaguered economy a shot in the arm. Travellers and consumers are expected to be out in full force during the “golden week” holiday that begins on Friday and lasts until October 6. While the ongoing release of pent-up demand will add fuel to China’s economic recovery, which has recently shown initial signs of stabilisation after a disappointing second quarter, a strong rebound in the service sector has yet to spread to the broader economy, according to…

For the first time, China has sent its top security official to Germany for a high-level bilateral meeting as Beijing pledges deeper cooperation with Berlin. Chen Wenqing, a Politburo member and Communist Party secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, attended the China-Germany high-level security dialogue in Berlin, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday. Chen, 63, has been travelling since September 21, first stopping in Italy on a trip that also includes official visits to Serbia and Germany, according to state news agency Xinhua. This year’s bilateral…