Day: December 5, 2023

Rio Tinto rosy on China over uptick in manufacturing activity

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rio Tinto, one of China’s largest iron ore suppliers, is confident that a recent pick-up in activity in the country’s manufacturing sector will be sustained despite a property slowdown. Jakob Stausholm, chief executive of the Anglo-Australian miner, said the property sector remained “challenging”, but Chinese steel mills, the biggest market for Australian iron ore, were “producing flat out”. He added that demand from China’s “seriously booming” infrastructure and automotive sectors…

Khmer Krom Buddhists say they face persecution at Vietnam pagoda

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Updated Dec. 05, 2023, 11:08 p.m. ET. A Buddhist pagoda serving the ethnic Khmer Krom group in Vietnam’s Vinh Long province has long been the target of government-backed religious repression, a senior monk at the Dai Tho Pagoda told Radio Free Asia. On Monday, state-controlled media reported that the pagoda’s abbot, Thach Chanh Da Ra, had been stripped of his position for violating the charter of the government-approved Vietnam Buddhist Sangha and breaking state laws. Duong Khai, in charge of security and protecting the heritage of the pagoda, told RFA…

Are China’s high-speed trains becoming Xi Jinping’s preferred way to travel within the country?

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However, sources familiar with the matter said Xi also took the train back to Beijing. “He came to Shanghai by train and he went back by train, too – that’s why he was able to stop in Yancheng,” said one source, who declined to be named. A second source, who also did not wish to be identified, said the high-speed train was a faster and cheaper option than flying between Beijing and Shanghai and also provided more flexibility for an additional stop. The 1,300km route between the two cities takes…

Poverty Pushes Freed Thai Hostages to Consider Return to Israel

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Isan region, Thailand —  Twenty-three Thai citizens have returned home from a weeks-long ordeal in Gaza; Hamas had taken the migrant workers captive during the militants’ October 7 assault on Israel. It was the sixth day of Wichian Temthong’s employment on an avocado farm when Hamas militants stormed into kibbutz Sa’ad in a hail of bullets and grenades, killing seven other Thai migrant workers and taking him hostage. He was marched into Gaza, his hands tied by wire, and spent the next seven weeks in captivity until his release in…

China advises state firms to keep eye on finances as risk becomes economic watchword

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China’s state assets watchdog has identified four areas within enterprises run by the central government worthy of careful monitoring – trust companies, finance subsidiaries, private equity and commercial factoring – indicating a tendency towards risk control running deep throughout the country’s economy. Including state-owned industrial giants in a call for mitigation of systemic shortfalls shows the uncertainty generated by solvency concerns over local government financing vehicles, property firms and smaller banks is not strictly limited to those precarious institutions. “[The central financial work conference] underscored the importance that each unit…

Taiwan presidential election: opposition in chaos as China looms in background

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On the eve of the deadline to formally register as a candidate for Taiwan’s presidential elections in January, the ruling party’s pick for vice-president held a slick and short press conference at a Taipei convention centre. Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s high-profile diplomatic representative to the US, took few questions from the massive crowd of press. She presented herself as an experienced and pragmatic deputy to presidential candidate Lai Ching-te in a Democratic Progressive party (DPP) administration. An administration run by Lai and Hsiao, she said, would continue to defend Taiwan’s democracy…

South Korean display industry still paying a heavy price for Chinese deal

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. While South Korea has a reputation for innovation, its economic development over the past half-century has been driven in large part by its ability to “absorb” and develop technologies — whether in the chip, battery, auto or shipbuilding sectors — that were invented elsewhere. This was achieved principally through officially sanctioned “technical co-operation” with US and Japanese companies long since replaced as market leaders by their former partners. But it…

Against the odds, China’s push to internationalise its currency is making gains

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The writer is chief economist for the Asia-Pacific at Natixis and senior research fellow at the Bruegel Institute It has been an extraordinary year for the renminbi. On the one hand, it has clearly disappointed investors, who were expecting the currency to appreciate as the Chinese economy moved out of zero-Covid policies at the end of 2022. Instead, after a short respite, it depreciated about 8.5 per cent against the…

Thai PM Srettha faces hard sell with $14bn stimulus handout

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When Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin took the stage on November 10 to announce the long-awaited details of his party’s flagship policy — a 10,000 baht ($280) handout of digital money — he asked citizens to shop for the sake of the country. “I encourage everyone who qualifies for the scheme to take pride in spending, as each of you is joining in the effort to boost economic growth and achieve economic stability for our country,” Srettha said in the televised address, arguing that a national effort to spend was the…

China’s economic recovery ‘stagnated’: 4 takeaways from November’s manufacturing, services activity

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Analysts at HSBC said the official manufacturing PMI was dragged down by a deeper contraction in new export orders, though they said business expectations improved again. The headline reading rose and is consistent with factory activity remaining largely unchanged last monthCapital Economics The survey, which focuses on export-oriented enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises in coastal regions, rose to 50.7 from 49.5 in October, marking the fastest expansion in three months. Looking at the average across both PMIs, the headline reading rose last month and was consistent with factory activity…