South Korea imposed unilateral sanctions on North Korean individuals involved in illicit financing of the country’s high-stake nuclear programs that have posed threats to the United States and its regional allies. New sanctions target eight individuals, including the Director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau Ri Chang-ho, and the CEO of a company called Beijing New Technology Park Yong-han, South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday. The ministry asserted that the individuals were actively involved in generating income for supporting Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs through what it described…
Year: 2023
Victim? Villain? Huawei finds itself trapped in US-China dispute
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Technology sector myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. What would it take for a large private company to betray its founding purpose, its customers and its staff? Such is the question raised by Huawei, the world’s largest maker of telecoms equipment. US intelligence officials view it as a glove for the hand of China’s military, a national security threat to be placed under sanctions and driven out of international phone networks. It views itself as an entrepreneurial, research-driven…
China’s dreamers and dropouts ‘lie flat’ in Dali
Unlike many Chinese people of her generation, Zhu Xiangjuan does not believe in saving money, nor does she like formal schooling. Pouring tea in her rustic bookshop in Dali, in south-west China’s Yunnan province, the 40-something mother of one explains that she sends her child to a home-schooling group instead where they learn “naturally” by reading Confucian tomes. “The younger children will follow the older ones, the older ones will follow their parents, it will come naturally,” she said, smiling disarmingly. Zhu’s views might be radical for China, which has…
China’s dreamers and dropouts: ‘lying flat’ generation checks out in Dali
Unlike many Chinese people of her generation, Zhu Xiangjuan does not believe in saving money, nor does she like formal schooling. Pouring tea in her rustic bookshop in Dali, in south-west China’s Yunnan province, the 40-something mother of one explains that she sends her child to a home-schooling group instead where they learn “naturally” by reading Confucian tomes. “The younger children will follow the older ones, the older ones will follow their parents, it will come naturally,” she said, smiling disarmingly. Zhu’s views might be radical for China, which has…
China’s ‘lying flat’ generation checks out in Dali
Unlike many Chinese people of her generation, Zhu Xiangjuan does not believe in saving money, nor does she like formal schooling. Pouring tea in her rustic bookshop in Dali, in south-west China’s Yunnan province, the 40-something mother of one explains that she sends her child to a home-schooling group instead where they learn “naturally” by reading Confucian tomes. “The younger children will follow the older ones, the older ones will follow their parents, it will come naturally,” she said, smiling disarmingly. Zhu’s views might be radical for China, which has…
After TikTok-owner ByteDance cuts the fat to focus on fundamentals, social commerce challenges and US election loom
In other words, ByteDance – which had divided itself into six units including gaming, education, TikTok, Douyin, enterprise collaboration platform Feishu and cloud service Volcano Engine – has drastically shrunk two of its businesses. Meanwhile, education has hardly lit up the room since Beijing cracked down on private tutoring in 2021. It is quite a reversal for the company that disrupted the decade-old BAT stranglehold on China’s tech sector, made up of search engine and AI giant Baidu, e-commerce heavyweight Alibaba Group Holding and social media and video gaming titan…
Chinese chess champion stripped of title after defecating in hotel bathtub
The world of Chinese chess is in uproar over rumours of cheating and a bad behaviour scandal that saw the national champion stripped of his title on Monday after a victory celebration ended with him defecating in a hotel bathtub. Xiangqi, or Chinese chess, has been hugely popular for hundreds of years across Asia – and 48-year-old Yan Chenglong beat dozens of contenders last week to win the title of “Xiangqi King” at a national tournament hosted by the Chinese Xiangqi Association. But his joy was short-lived, with the CXA…
‘Get bolder please’: economic powerhouse all out to lift exporter initiative amid Beijing’s urge for bigger responsibilities
“Later on I learned my peers also received calls and were asked if they needed goal-setting help,” he said. “We were told to ‘get bolder’ with a ‘moderate to high’ growth target next year.” 02:39 China’s economy sees a resurgence in the third quarter, beating forecasts China’s economy sees a resurgence in the third quarter, beating forecasts It is not just exporters like Hong who are being rallied, as Chinese leaders beat the drum for the country’s economic powerhouses to “shoulder bigger responsibilities” in helping promote the nation’s economic recovery…
Military burned more than 440 bodies over 19-month period
More than 440 bodies, mostly those of civilians, were burned by ruling junta forces across Myanmar between March 2022 and September 2023, according to a report by a U.K.-based nonprofit group dedicated to exposing human rights abuses and war crimes. The report from the Centre for Information Resilience, or CIR, said the military regime’s soldiers have routinely set villages ablaze and torched civilians – including some believed to be burned alive – amid the ongoing conflict with anti-junta forces to spread fear and control the population. The report, issued on…
Outspoken former Vietnam lawmaker facing additional criminal charge
A former lawmaker who was expelled from Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party following his arrest last month is facing an additional criminal charge of “abusing power for personal benefit,” police announced on Tuesday. Luu Binh Nhuong was widely known for speaking out against law enforcement agencies at the National Assembly during the 2016-2021 term. The Thai Binh Provincial Police’s Investigation Agency issued its first arrest warrant for him – for extortion charges – on Nov. 14. The newest charge from Thai Binh police alleges that Nhuong made hundreds of thousands of…