Year: 2023

Pakistan steps up tax evasion crackdown: pay up or lose your phone

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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. Television viewers in Pakistan this winter have been bombarded with a series of threatening advertisements: pay your taxes, or risk losing your cell phone, gas or electricity connections. The advertisements, which were run by Pakistan’s tax authority, point to a persistent challenge for the government: the country is one of the world’s worst performers on income tax collection. Islamabad’s failure to improve its tax haul, which has forced the country…

Japan Moon Lander Enters Lunar Orbit

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Tokyo, Japan —  Japan’s SLIM space probe entered the moon’s orbit Monday in a major step toward the country’s first successful lunar landing, expected next month. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is nicknamed the “Moon Sniper” because it is designed to land within 100 meters (328 feet) of a specific target on the lunar surface. If successful, the touchdown would make Japan only the fifth country to have successfully landed a probe on the moon, after the United States, Russia, China and India. On Monday, SLIM “successfully entered…

China’s ‘first coffee village’ brewing up change amid digital transformation as jobseekers give it a shot, tourists take a sip

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In recent years, however, Wang said a change has been brewing in the mountainous region, and now, not only are adults beginning to return, outsiders have begun flowing in. There are affluent job opportunities. Returning young people can easily find work.Wang Jiawei “You can earn as much as what you make in [a top-tier city such as] Shenzhen,” Wang explained at a seminar on the local economy in Xinzhai in November. “And there are affluent job opportunities. Returning young people can easily find work.” Xinzhai has also become an example…

China Approves 105 Online Games After Draft Curbs Trigger Losses

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BANGKOK —  China’s press and publications authority has approved 105 new online games, saying it fully supports the industry after proposed curbs caused massive losses last week for investors in major games makers. The National Press and Publication Administration issued a statement on its WeChat social media account Monday saying the approvals by the Game Working Committee of China Music and Digital Association were “positive signals that support the prosperity and healthy development of the online game industry.” Tencent’s “Counter War: Future” and NetEase’s “Firefly Assault” were among games approved.…

China pushes for more security operations along Mekong in summit with Southeast Asian neighbours

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Beijing will push for stepped up security operations targeting cyber scam syndicates and illegal gambling, among other crimes, as a key area of cooperation along the Lancang-Mekong River region, Chinese Premier Li Qiang told his Southeast Asian counterparts on Monday. “We should strengthen governance about security, deepen the progress of security operations along the Mekong, and strike hard against cyber crimes like gambling and fraud,” Li said via video-link in a summit that he jointly hosted with co-chair, Myanmar’s military government leader Min Aung Hlaing. The Lancang-Mekong summit took place…

Chinese dancing frog goes viral doing the worm

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An anthropomorphised frog has joined celebrity live-streamers and social media commentators among China’s ranks of influencers, as a trend that began with street sellers in Chinese cities takes on a new life online – and raised questions over who, if anyone, owns the intellectual property rights to a dancing amphibian. Alternatively known as a “frog seller” or “frog influencer”, the meme involves a person in a frog suit with a blue neckerchief selling frog-themed products such as balloons and toys. The magic ingredient for going viral on social media, though,…

Force of nature: China’s top climate envoy Xie Zhenhua steps down after more than 15 years in environment diplomacy

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A Tianjin native, Xie was trained as an engineering physicist at Tsinghua University in the 1970s and started his career in various government agencies responsible for environmental affairs. While he rose through the ranks, he earned a master’s degree in environmental law from Wuhan University in 1993. Xie was made the head of the State Environmental Protection Administration in 1998 and in 2003 he was awarded the UN’s highest environmental honour, the United Nations Environment Programme Sasakawa environment prize. But this chapter of his career had a turbulent end when…

Chinese Migration Up at Border as US Marks Anniversary of Repeal of Exclusion Act

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Washington —  As the U.S marks the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, thousands of Chinese immigrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, mostly for the same reasons as their countrymen did more than a century ago. Zhongwei Wang made that journey this spring through Central America with his family. “When I knew there was a way to leave China, I felt overjoyed, really overjoyed,” he said. According to the U.S. Border Patrol, from January through September, more than 24,000 Chinese migrants crossed the border without authorization,…

Philippine Actions in South China Sea ‘Extremely Dangerous’ – Chinese State Media 

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Beijing —  Chinese state media accused the Philippines Monday of repeatedly infringing on China’s territory in the South China Sea, spreading false information and colluding with extraterritorial forces to cause trouble. The Philippines has relied on U.S. support to continually provoke China, with such “extremely dangerous” behavior seriously harming regional peace and stability, China’s Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, wrote in a commentary Monday. The Philippines foreign ministry and a national task force handling the South China Sea did not immediately respond on Christmas Day to requests for comment…

‘Not a peaceful night’: Chinese state media urge citizens to remember Christmas Eve for Korean war battle victory

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“[The soldiers] fought for nights of peace for the new China, with their blood and their lives,” the post said. The 12-second video included clips from the 2021 domestic film The Battle of Lake Changjin, which depicts a pivotal Korean war battle, also known as the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. The battle took place about a month after China entered the war in 1950. The Chinese forces, sent to aid North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, surprised United Nations troops led by the US in the northeastern part of North Korea…