In recent years, China’s naval industries have made tremendous progress supporting the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) submarine force, both through robust commitment to research and development (R&D) and the upgrading of production infrastructure at the country’s three submarine shipyards: Bohai Shipyard, Huludao; Wuchang Shipyard, Wuhan; and Jiangnan Shipyard, Shanghai. Nevertheless, China’s submarine industrial base continues to suffer from surprising weaknesses in propulsion (from marine diesels to fuel cells) and submarine quieting. Closer ties with Russia could provide opportunities for China to overcome these enduring technological limitations…
Month: September 2023
Suicide bombers kill more than 50 people in Pakistan attacks
Receive free Pakistan updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Pakistan news every morning. Suicide bombers killed at least 56 people and injured scores of others on Friday in three separate bomb attacks in Pakistan’s volatile border region near Afghanistan. The attacks will heighten security concerns in Pakistan as the nuclear-armed south Asian nation of 220mn people grapples with escalating economic and political crises. While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Pakistan security officials said the bombings resembled other attacks carried out by…
Asian Games a chance for China to break the ice with sports diplomacy
More recently, in 2018 athletes from North and South Korea marched together under a unified flag, first at the Asian Games in Indonesia and then again at the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the Games last Saturday in front of 80,000 spectators at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Zhejiang province, with more than a dozen foreign guests in attendance. 02:32 China’s Xi Jinping opens Asian Games with calls for solidarity and inclusiveness through sports China’s Xi Jinping opens Asian Games with calls for solidarity…
Leading Chinese car engineer given provincial leadership role in Hubei
A prominent motor engineer has been promoted to the leadership of a central Chinese province as Beijing seeks to install more cadres with science and technology background in key positions of power. Shao Xinyu, who was made a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering for his research achievements, has been appointed to the standing committee of Hubei’s provincial Communist Party committee, the newspaper Hubei Daily reported on Thursday. 02:36 Chinese President Xi Jinping unveils new line-up of country’s top decision-making body Chinese President Xi Jinping unveils new line-up of…
Chinese President Xi Jinping tells children of fallen policemen to follow ‘heroic fathers’
Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged the descendents of police officers who died in the line of duty to become “loyal guards of the party and the people” and help uphold national security. Xi made the remark in a letter replying to eight students at the People’s Public Security University of China, all of whom lost parents in this way, the state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday. Praising their parents’ “courage … and willingness to sacrifice and contribute”, Xi said he hoped they would follow the example of their…
China’s Shipping Giant Gets Foothold in South America With New Multipurpose Port in Peru
Advertisement In the district of Chancay, Huaral province, approximately 80 kilometers from the Peruvian capital, Lima, a major private investment project is being developed that promises to change the logistics landscape in Latin America. It is the New Multipurpose Port Terminal of Chancay, a joint project by the Chinese company COSCO Shipping Ports Limited (CSPL), which owns a 60 percent share, and the Peruvian company Volcan Compañía Minera, with the remaining 40 percent. With an investment budget of over $3 billion, this ambitious project is in the development stage, over…
China pushes ‘pivot to South and Southeast Asia’ with Yunnan province as gateway to vast market
China has vowed to push its southwestern province of Yunnan as a gateway to the vast market of South and Southeast Asian nations to forge closer ties with the region and offset US-led geopolitical pressure and economic rivalry. Billed as the “pivot to South and Southeast Asia”, Yunnan has been tasked with building the “high land” of opening up, according to a statement by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner. It pledged to further support Yunnan, which borders three Southeast Asian neighbours – Myanmar,…
TikTok sends team to Jakarta in scramble to respond to Indonesia’s ban on social media e-commerce
TikTok, the short video app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, has sent a team from its global headquarters in Singapore to Indonesia to talk with local officials after Jakarta’s decision to ban e-commerce transactions on social media platforms, a move that could damage the platform’s business model, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The stakes are high for TikTok, which has pinned its hopes for future growth on e-commerce, turning the millions of eyeballs on its viral content into a steady revenue stream. TikTok first started offering in-app…
EU to unveil technologies targeted in China ‘de-risking’ agenda, but plan remains divisive within bloc
Asked at a Berlin forum about the risk of a trade war emanating from the probe, Scholz replied: “Obviously this will not happen.” The Social Democrat then launched into a diatribe against protectionism that led some to liken him to his predecessor Angela Merkel, who sat on the political right. “The economic model which I favour is to have a global competition. I’m very much in favour of globalisation,” Scholz said. Other German government departments, notably the economic and foreign ministries, have been more supportive of the probe and the…
Truckmaker Hino hauls in 49,900% return with Japan property deal
Receive free Hino updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Hino news every morning. Lossmaking Japanese truckmaker Hino Motors has humbled the world’s real estate titans with a masterclass in the art of the deal: selling land with a 49,900 per cent return on its book value. Hino, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor, achieved the gain by selling land adjacent to its headquarters in Tokyo for approximately ¥50bn ($334mn) to property developer Mitsui Fudosan. Hino attributed a book value to the land of ¥100mn…