Month: September 2023

Alibaba’s Cainiao files for US$1 billion IPO, helping Hong Kong to land the world’s second-biggest listing of 2023

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Cainiao Smart Logistics Network has applied to raise funds in Hong Kong in what is widely expected to be the world’s second-largest initial public offering (IPO) this year, as the first of Alibaba Group Holding’s six spin-off companies tests the appetite for new listings in Asia’s third-biggest capital market. Cainiao has submitted its A1 filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Alibaba said in an exchange filing in Hong Kong. The company is aiming to raise at least US$1 billion, subject to market conditions, according to sources. Upon completion of…

China, Japan and South Korea agree talks to calm fears over US ties

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The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea will hold three-way talks “as soon as possible” after a meeting intended to ease Chinese concerns over Washington’s stronger security presence in the region. Official said on Tuesday that the three countries’ deputy foreign ministers had agreed to revive trilateral talks after a four-year hiatus during which tensions have risen over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme and Chinese military activity. Lim Soo-suk, a spokesperson for South Korea’s foreign ministry, said the leaders’ summit would be held at the “earliest mutually convenient time”,…

Behind China-U.S. Tensions Are Misunderstandings, Author Says.

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This article is from a special report on the Athens Democracy Forum in association with The New York Times. Keyu Jin was a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Beijing when she transferred as an exchange student to New York. She moved in with an American host family, and attended Horace Mann, a private high school in the Bronx. She was accepted to Harvard University, where she picked up economics degrees, including a Ph.D., and is now an associate professor at the London School of Economics. Steeped in the two cultures — she…

China produces world record peanut test crop amid national food security push

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In a coup for China’s push for food security, a research field in the eastern province of Shandong has hosted a world record-breaking peanut yield, state media reported on Saturday. The yield of 12,980kg (28,600lb) per hectare is a breakthrough for researchers at the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS) who have been working to increase the yield of peanuts for more than two decades, according to a Shandong TV report. The yield from the 4 hectare (10 acre) field was 3.4 times the national crop average of 3,780kg per…

Beijing should be cautious about going too far on China’s public security, academic tells forum

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Beijing should beware of blind spots as it pursues its security objectives and be more mindful of the impact of its policies on society’s most vulnerable, an academic with an official think tank said. Xu Jin, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, made the remarks at a security forum in eastern China. He said Beijing should be cautious about going too far on security, do more research and be more flexible in its approach. “While pursuing security goals, it needs to take into account the needs of…

Thai Lawyer Accused of Insulting King Gets 4-Year Prison Term

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BANGKOK —  A prominent Thai human rights lawyer was convicted on Tuesday of insulting the monarchy and sentenced to four years in prison, the first conviction under a controversial law guarding the royal institution since a civilian government took office after years of military-backed rule. Arnon Nampa was found guilty of defaming King Maha Vajiralongkorn during a student-led rally on Oct. 14, 2020, that commemorated a popular uprising in 1973 that led to the fall of a decade-long military dictatorship. He was also fined 20,000 baht ($550) for violating an…

Why China’s soaring youth unemployment doesn’t signal an economic apocalypse

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China’s youth unemployment rate, after rising every month this year, reached a record high of 21.3 per cent in June. Faced with hypercompetitive work environments and grim job prospects, many of the country’s young workers and middle-class professionals have embraced the “lying flat” movement – which means opting out of the culture of overwork and consumerism – while others have quit to become “full-time children”. In the wake of these startling trends, the Chinese government has stopped publishing monthly youth unemployment data, triggering a stream of negative headlines about China’s…

Philippines Removes China’s Floating Barrier at South China Sea Lagoon

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The Philippine coast guard said it removed a Chinese floating barrier that blocked access to a disputed South China Sea lagoon. A coast guard statement said it conducted a “special operation” to remove the barrier, which China put in place last week. The Philippine coast guard also released a video showing a diver using a knife to cut a rope attached to buoys. The action followed a statement by Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano, who said China’s barrier violated traditional Filipino fishing rights. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin…

UNODC: Cyber Scam Bases Creep More Deeply into Myanmar

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BANGKOK —  Organized crime gangs behind Asia’s so-called “scamdemic” have set up remote bases in Myanmar’s border area with China — locations that are hard for police to reach and where the trafficking victims they use to perpetrate online scams have little hope of escape, a U.N. report said Tuesday. Billions of dollars have been scammed by powerful Chinese and Taiwanese crime groups based in the Mekong region — as well as in the Philippines — who bombard the internet with romance scams, extortion and investment pyramid schemes. While some…

Slowing, Graying and in Debt, Can China’s Industrial Heartland Be Revived?

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Hundreds of workers at a factory in Shenyang in northeastern China weld automated machines, 95 yards long, that are used to bore subway tunnels. At another factory there, employees assemble robots that China’s solar panel makers will use to streamline their production. Shenyang is the capital of Liaoning Province, one of three large provinces in the northeast that constitute the cradle of China’s heavy industry. Now the central government, confronting a national economy that has slowed because of a real estate crisis that defies easy fixes, is turning to cities…