Year: 2023

Vietnam Wary of China’s ‘Swift, Large-Scale’ Investment

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WASHINGTON —  An influx of Chinese investors in Vietnamese supporting industries could cause domestic businesses to suffer from the competition, the president of the Vietnam Association for Supporting Industries warned. Phan Dang Tuat’s statement came a week after Vietnam and China agreed to expand their trade cooperation during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s mid-December visit, during which the two countries signed 36 cooperation documents. Vietnam and China pledged to strengthen their cooperation in economic zones, investment, trade and other areas, said a joint statement issued on December 13. According to economic…

How Should Beijing Engage with the Next Taiwanese Administration?

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The presidential election in Taiwan, set for January 13, is proving to be a tight race between the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate, Lai Ching-te, more commonly called William Lai, and the Kuomintang candidate, Hou Yu-ih; the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) candidate, Ko Wen-je’s campaign is increasingly becoming a lost cause. The most recent MyFormosa poll (poll number 97, released on December 26) gives Lai an almost 10 percent lead, his largest lead in the MyFormosa poll in months. Other polls indicate the gap is much narrower. An ET-Today…

Myanmar junta and ethnic army alliance fail to reach agreement to reduce combat

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Myanmar’s military junta and the Three Brotherhood Alliance held talks earlier this week about reducing armed conflict in northern Shan state, but failed to agree to meet each other’s demands, officials from one of the alliance’s ethnic armies said. The Arakan Army (AA), Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) formed the alliance in June 2019, and gained prominence in fighting junta soldiers following the February 2021 military coup.  The alliance has captured several cities and border hubs crucial for trade with China, as…

Unpaid wages lead Sichuan doctors to protest on window ledges

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Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan have denied reports that a group of doctors clung to the outside of a hospital building this week in protest at unpaid wages. A video clip posted to social media on Dec. 26 showed a number of people in white coats straddling upper-story window frames at the Zhenjiang Temple Community Health Service Center in Suining city, with comments that they were doctors protesting unpaid salaries.  In the video, a large crowd looks on as fire and rescue services lay out large inflatables…

Vietnamese court sentences 3 ex-officers in detainee’s beating death

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Three former police officers accused in the beating death of a 49-year-old man were convicted on Thursday and given prison sentences, state-owned media reported. The death of Bui Van Bich at a detention facility in Thai Binh province in 2022 was yet another instance of a suspect dying from “unidentified causes” while in Vietnamese police custody in recent years.  At least 16 people died in police stations or detention facilities between 2018 and 2021, according to statistics collected by Radio Free Asia from Vietnamese state-owned media reports. Many of those…

US cracks down on money flow to Iran-backed Houthis

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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 US has slapped sanctions on groups in Turkey and Yemen allegedly responsible for funnelling money to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in a crackdown driven by their attacks on commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea. The move by Washington expands its efforts to curb financial flows to Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East — including Hamas, Hizbollah and the Houthis — since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Based…

Three defence industry leaders removed from China advisory body

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Three senior aerospace and defence business leaders have been removed from a top political advisory body to the Chinese Communist party (CCP), in the latest purge of figures linked to China’s military. State media reported that the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) had revoked the seats of Liu Shiqian, the chair of the weapons manufacturer China North Industries Group; Wu Yansheng, the chair of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation; and Wang Changqing, a deputy manager of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (Casic). The CPPCC is…

Tibetans forced to celebrate Mao’s 130th birthday

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Chinese authorities in Tibet forced locals to celebrate the 130th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s birth on Tuesday, crediting the late leader with “the peaceful liberation of Tibet” in 1950, which Tibetan authorities in exile consider an invasion and the start of an illegal annexation. Officials used Mao’s birthday “to spread false information and distort facts about Tibet’s past history, in the hope of making the Tibetan people believe this disinformation,” a young Tibetan in Lhasa told Radio Free Asia, requesting anonymity for safety reasons. The source said the public celebrations…

INTERVIEWS: ‘I don’t know how I’m going to survive this winter.’

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China’s army of migrant workers has been hot hard by the economic downtown, with many citing a wave of bankruptcies, factory closures and mass layoffs, telling Radio Free Asia in recent interviews that jobs are getting harder and harder to come by, as wages shrink.  Despite reassuring claims of modest economic recovery from the ruling Chinese Communist Party leadership in Beijing, the struggling economy has left employers and governments unable to pay wages, or forced companies to shut down facilities and lay off staff. All of that comes at a…

China’s Property Crisis Blew Up Investments That Couldn’t Lose

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One of China’s largest investment firms, Citic Trust, had a clear pitch to investors when it was aiming to raise $1.7 billion to fund property development in 2020: There is no safer Chinese investment than real estate. The trust, the investment arm of the state-owned financial conglomerate Citic, called housing “China’s economic ballast” and “an indispensable value investment.” The money it raised would be put toward four projects from Sunac China Holdings, a major developer. Three years later, investors who put their money in the Citic fund have recouped only…