Month: January 2024

Can China rebound in 2024?

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While markets around the world took off last year, China continued to stumble. Will 2024 be any different? Today on the show, Ethan Wu and Katie Martin try to understand why the country is lagging, and if its leadership can do anything about it. Also, we go short snowball derivatives, and long God’s plan for crypto. For a free 30-day trial to the Unhedged newsletter go to: https://www.ft.com/unhedgedoffer Follow Ethan Wu (@ethanywu) and Katie Martin (@katie_martin_fx) on X. You can email Ethan at ethan.wu@ft.com. Read a transcript of this episode…

Malaysian rapper takes aim at China’s ‘little pinks’ for New Year

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As many in East Asia gear up to celebrate the Year of the Dragon, Malaysian rapper Namewee has once more taken satirical aim at the Chinese Communist Party and its “little pink” supporters – this time at those who are stridently patriotic but who live anywhere but the motherland. According to the singer’s Facebook page, the song is satirically “dedicated to every Chinese at home and abroad from all over the world (including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan), to defend the dignity of the Chinese people!” “As a ‘descendant…

China’s President Receives Afghan Ambassador; Taliban Seek Recognition From Russia, Iran

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Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday received the credentials of ambassadors from several countries, including neighboring Afghanistan, in what amounts to the first official recognition of the interim Taliban government by a major nation. Xi welcomed Bilal Karimi, the Taliban-appointed Afghan ambassador, in a formal ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, along with ambassadors from Cuba, Pakistan, Iran and 38 other countries. “China has understood what the rest of the world has not,” Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, said Tuesday at an event on the social media…

Report: ‘Little to no’ progress on fighting corruption in Asia

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For yet another year, there was “little to no meaningful progress towards curbing corruption” in Asia in 2023, according to the latest annual graft index from Transparency International, with only three regional jurisdictions making it into the world top 20. Singapore (5th), Hong Kong (14th) and Japan (16th) remain the jurisdictions with the most “clean” government in Asia, according to the 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, which was released Tuesday.  Ahead of Singapore on the list, the top four countries remain Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Norway, rendering the top five…

European Union forum on Indo-Pacific will lack US and China, which were not invited

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Although it was not represented at the inaugural summit in Paris in 2022, Washington sent a high-level delegation to the second edition of the forum in Stockholm last year, led by Derek Chollet, counsellor of the US Department of State. Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, speaking after the EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum in Stockholm on May 13, 2023. Photo: TT News Agency / AFP The EU did not immediately respond to a request seeking an explanation for the snub. Britain has also been left off the invitation list.…

Can Biden respond to Iran-backed attack without escalating the war?

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Outside the White House on Tuesday, Joe Biden walked over to the cameras to say that he had finally decided on the US response to a deadly attack on its troops in Jordan, after two days of talks with his national security team. But the US president tempered that message with another: that he was not seeking a broader conflict in the region. “I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for,” Biden told reporters. The drone attack that killed three…

Biden seeks response to Iran-backed attack that avoids a wider war

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Outside the White House on Tuesday, Joe Biden walked over to the cameras to say that he had finally decided on the US response to a deadly attack on its troops in Jordan, after two days of talks with his national security team.  But the US president tempered that message with another: that he was not seeking a broader conflict in the region.  “I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for,” Biden told reporters.  The drone attack that killed three…

Variety of problems will result in ‘vexing year for China’, says think tank report

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China faces a host of economic, demographic and geopolitical challenges that will test its people and governance structure in 2024, but is also likely to take a greater leadership role in setting climate targets and expanding its investment and outreach to the Global South, according to a report released on Tuesday by the New York-based Asia Society. “This is go be a vexing year for China,” said Bates Gill, executive director of the Centre for China Analysis, which produced “China 2024, What to Watch”. “We’ll see a much, much sharper…

Iran calls in UK ambassador over ‘murder for hire’ sanctions

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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. Iran has summoned Britain’s ambassador in Tehran after the UK and US imposed sanctions on Iranian officials and intelligence officers accused of running a global “murder-for-hire” scheme targeting dissidents and activists. Iran’s foreign ministry said it had called in UK diplomat Simon Shercliff in protest at what it called London’s “baseless accusations”. Its move came after the UK said senior officials in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had plotted to…

Three Years After Coup, Myanmar’s Junta Losing Ground but Holding On

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Bangkok —  February 1 will mark three years since Myanmar’s military toppled the country’s democratically elected government, setting off a bloody civil war that continues to tear apart the country of 54 million people. It will also be just over three months since the launch of Operation 1027, a major offensive by some of the armed groups arrayed against the junta. The campaign has handed the military an unprecedented string of losses and redefined the war. “When we talk about where we are today after three years, we’re really talking…