Month: January 2024

Blossoms — the television sensation that’s gripping China

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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. It’s an ordinary weekday on Shanghai’s Huanghe Road, but many of those assembled have worn their Sunday best. Against a flurry of winter red coats, hats and Burberry scarves, visitors queue up to have their photograph taken in front of the Tai Sheng Yuan restaurant. Blossoms, a Chinese television sensation that launched in late December, has for weeks drawn crowds to the locations it references. Next to its name, the…

Ukraine, Middle East Conflicts Hamper Fight Against Graft

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Global efforts to curb public sector corruption are stalling, even reversing in some regions due to armed conflicts and dysfunctional justice systems, a leading corruption watchdog said on Tuesday. Berlin-based Transparency International’s annual report paints a grim picture, revealing that most countries have made negligible or no progress in tackling corruption. “Both authoritarian regimes and democratic leaders undermining justice contribute to increasing impunity for corruption and, in some cases, even encourage it by removing consequences for wrongdoers,” the company said in a statement. Even while it repels the Russian invasion,…

Hong Kong Begins Work on Its Own National Security Law After Beijing’s Version Crushed Dissent

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Hong Kong began public consultation on a local National Security Law on Tuesday, more than three years after Beijing imposed a similar law that has all but wiped out dissent in the semi-autonomous city. The new law could expand the government’s ability to prosecute residents for offenses like collaborating with foreign forces to influence legislation or “publish misleading statements,” and to close down civil society organizations. Some of its provisions threaten criminal prosecutions for acts committed anywhere in the world. Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, calls for the city…

Red Sea attacks: no official mention after US-China talks but progress ‘likely’ to have been made, observers say

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But official statements from either side made no mention of the issue. 03:21 US-led coalition strikes Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen US-led coalition strikes Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen The meeting was “part of the effort to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage competition in the relationship as directed by the leaders”, the statement said, in a reference to a long-planned presidential summit in November that kicked off a reset process after prolonged bilateral acrimony. The Chinese foreign ministry also called the talks “productive”, saying both sides discussed…

‘We have to be ready ourselves before we can help anyone else’

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It’s Jan. 12, the day before Taiwan’s presidential elections, and dozens of people are tramping around a park in the central city of Taichung carrying heavy backpacks in the dark. From time to time, a trainer yells “Air strike!” and a person drops to the ground to have their mock injuries treated by trainee first-aiders by flashlight. The Taichung Self-Training Group is a grassroots civilian defense operation that hopes to take the pressure off emergency services in the event of war or major disaster, its leader You Chiao-chun, a 36-year-old…

Taiwan’s Election Has Big Ramifications for Energy Security

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Taiwan’s next president, Lai Ching-te of the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is planning to decommission all nuclear power plants by 2025. Taiwan is one of the most energy-insecure economies in the developed world and cannot afford to retire nuclear power without undermining its national security interests and climate goals.  Under current President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan decommissioned two of its three nuclear power plants, straining a power grid that has already experienced three major blackouts since 2017. Taiwan’s last operational nuclear power station will retire next summer. President-elect Lai therefore…

China stakes global dominance in race to build intelligent ports

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The country’s first fully automated container terminal began service in Qingdao in 2017. It relied on complex information systems that were “monopolised by foreign manufacturers”, Chen Qiang, the deputy manager of information technology at the port, said in a report by state-owned newspaper Guangming Daily on Monday. Melbourne container terminal buys two cranes from Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Automated container terminals, which load and unload cargo between ships and transport vehicles autonomously, require complex software, Chen said. The more than 28,000 components of the third phase of the automated terminal…

Prominent Australians urge Albanese government to adopt activist middle power role to head off war between US and China

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Australia must step up diplomatic efforts to “avert the horror of great power conflict” and reduce the risk of being dragged into a war between the US and China, according to 50 prominent Australians. The group, which includes the former foreign ministers Bob Carr and Gareth Evans, is urging the Albanese government to play an “activist middle power” role to reduce tensions between Australia’s top security ally and its biggest trading partner. In a statement published on Wednesday, the prominent Australians said they were “apprehensive these tensions may lead to…

China and the US are playing nice for now but flashpoints remain. They must agree to peace | Bob Carr and Gareth Evans

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The environment in the Asia-Pacific is less alarming than it was a year ago. Washington and Beijing are talking again. So are Canberra and Beijing. The United States is focused, externally, on the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war and, internally, on this year’s presidential election. China is preoccupied with stabilising and energising its domestic economy. For now Beijing has largely silenced its diplomatic wolf warriors, Washington has been less accusatory and neither side seems in the mood to escalate tensions – over Taiwan, trade or anything else. But none…

Toyota testing scandals overshadow top sales ranking

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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. Toyota Motor has topped the world’s carmaker rankings. It sold the most passenger cars in the world last year, keeping its position ahead of Volkswagen. But investors should not dismiss Toyota’s looming reputational problems. Those include brand damage from a series of testing scandals and the fact it has fallen behind rivals in the electric car race.  Sales in North America and Europe were especially strong. They pushed global group…