Month: January 2024

US, China Launch Fentanyl Talks in Sign of Cooperation Amid Differences

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BEIJING —  American and Chinese officials met Tuesday to discuss joint efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., a sign of cooperation as the two global powers try to manage their contentious ties. The two-day meeting was the first for a new counternarcotics working group. One focus of the talks was fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is ravaging America, and in particular ingredients for the drug that are made in China. Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to restart cooperation in a handful of areas, including drug trafficking,…

ByteDance CEO wants to whip employees into shape, as they lack a ‘sense of crisis’ amid fierce competition at home and abroad

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The chief executive of ByteDance, owner of TikTok and its Chinese sibling Douyin, said the company lacks a sense of crisis, which has made the Chinese social media giant slow and inefficient in the face of fierce competition. That introspection was made by Liang Rubo – co-founder of ByteDance who took over as its chief executive when fellow founder Zhang Yiming stepped down in 2021 – at an online speech on Tuesday before the company’s employees, whom he urged to stay “always day one”, referring to the Beijing-based firm’s entrepreneurial…

Why China needs to mind the earnings gap

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The property meltdown hit the middle classes especially hard as 70 per cent of urban dweller’s family wealth in 2019 was stored in properties, according to the central bank, and many families are burdened with heavy mortgage loans. Meanwhile, wages are falling in some places. The average salaries offered to new hires in 38 of the biggest cities fell to 10,420 yuan (US$1,454) a month in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the same period 12 months earlier. According to data from online recruitment platform Zhaopin compiled by…

Tencent CEO Pony Ma asks fintech unit to cede share in payments market to avoid challenging banks

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Pony Ma Huateng, founder and chief executive of Tencent Holdings, told employees that the firm’s financial technology unit needs to reduce its share in China’s payments market, as the social media and video gaming giant tries to avoid ruffling the feathers of banks, according to Chinese media reports and a person familiar with the situation. At a staff meeting on Monday, Ma reviewed Tencent’s business segments and said that the payment service was the only one that “was requested to” seek a smaller slice of the market, according to a…

Chinese and US officials meet in effort to stop flow of deadly fentanyl

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American and Chinese officials met on Tuesday to discuss joint efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl into the US, a sign of cooperation as the two global powers try to manage their contentious ties. The two-day meeting was the first for a new counternarcotics working group. One focus of the talks was fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is ravaging the US, and in particular ingredients for the drug that are made in China. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, agreed to restart cooperation in a handful of areas, including drug…

Imran Khan sentenced to 10 years in prison ahead of Pakistan election

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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. A Pakistani court has sentenced Imran Khan to 10 years in prison just days before the country’s general election, in what his party said was part of an escalating campaign to sideline the popular former prime minister. Khan, who has been in jail since August and was already barred from standing in the February 8 general election, was convicted by a special court of violating the Official Secrets Act by…

The ‘tinderbox’ Middle Eastern borderlands where US troops are under attack

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For years, Arab and western officials have kept a watchful eye over an arid tract of land in a remote corner of the Middle East, where US troops, Iran-linked militias and the remnants of Isis all operate. Tehran-backed militants sit at checkpoints and makeshift bases along the Baghdad-Damascus highway, which they long ago seized — the centre of a highly prized smuggling network in the border triangle, used by militants and criminal gangs to smuggle drugs and weapons. On Sunday, this corner between Jordan, Syria and Iraq became the latest…

Hong Kong Pushes New Security Law to Root Out ‘Seeds of Unrest’

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The Hong Kong government will enact a long-shelved security law to curb foreign influence and expand the definition of offenses like stealing state secrets and treason, officials announced on Tuesday, in a move expected to further silence dissent in the once-freewheeling Chinese territory. The proposed law would lay out five major areas of offenses: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets, sabotage and external interference. Some of the definitions would echo mainland Chinese treatments of those offenses. “Foreign intelligence organizations, the C.I.A. and British intelligence agencies have publicly stated that they…

Karen army claims 5 dead after junta helicopter crash

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The Karen National Liberation Army shot down a junta aircraft, killing soldiers onboard, a member of the ethnic force told Radio Free Asia. The group shot a helicopter down in Kayin state while it was enroute to a battalion based in Myawaddy, near the Thai border, he said, asking to remain nameless for fear of reprisals.  “Two helicopters flew in at around 2:30 p.m. today,” the Karen National Liberation Army member told RFA on Monday. “They were targeted and shot with heavy weapons, missiles, drones, and cannons at the same…

AI, cross-border e-commerce are bright spots for Chinese internet firms in 2024, UBS says

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Chinese internet firms can look to chase growth through international markets and artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024, according to UBS. China’s e-commerce platforms, facing intense domestic competition with new rivals and short-video app operators, are ramping up overseas expansion, Kenneth Fong, head of China internet research at the Swiss investment bank, said in a briefing in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Temu – owned by Pinduoduo parent PDD Holdings and based in Boston – and Shein – founded in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing and headquartered in Singapore – were…