The Karenni Nationalities Defense Force captured a mineral-rich city in northeast Myanmar, the group announced, saying most junta troops fled from checkpoints and camps on Friday, two days before the ethnic army moved in. Karenni troops captured Mawchee city in Kayah state on Sunday with no subsequent battle, a spokesperson told Radio Free Asia. The city in Hpasawng township is home to one of the world’s largest tin ore and tungsten mines. “The entire city of Mawchee has been captured and controlled by the Karenni revolutionary forces,” he said. “The…
Month: January 2024
Evergrande is the teetering domino that can topple its real estate peers
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The world’s most indebted property developer, China Evergrande Group, built an empire once deemed too big to fail. No longer. On Monday, a Hong Kong court ordered the company, once the country’s largest builder by sales, to be liquidated. The effect will spread far beyond Evergrande’s creditors. Hong Kong-listed shares of Evergrande fell a fifth before trading was halted on Monday morning. Evergrande now has a market value of less…
Evergrande is the teetering domino that can tumble its real estate peers
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The world’s most indebted property developer, China Evergrande Group, built an empire once deemed too big to fail. No longer. On Monday, a Hong Kong court ordered the company, once the country’s largest builder by sales, to be liquidated. The effect will spread far beyond Evergrande’s creditors. Hong Kong-listed shares of Evergrande fell a fifth before trading was halted on Monday morning. Evergrande now has a market value of less…
China’s industrial profits set for rebound in 2024, increase as much as 11% due to improved US export outlook
Profits at China’s largest industrial enterprises, having suffered their second straight yearly decline in 2023, are expected to see a moderate rise this year thanks to an improved export outlook and Beijing’s supportive policies. An improvement in external demand led by stock replenishment from the United States would partly help drive further recovery of industrial profits in the world’s second-largest economy in 2024, analysts said. Industrial profits have been gaining recovery momentum since the summer, and December marked the fifth month of year-on-year increases, despite the overall figure for 2023…
Amazon’s Expats series not available in Hong Kong, where it is set
Amazon’s big-ticket series Expats, set and filmed in Hong Kong, is not available for viewing in the city despite being billed as a worldwide release. The first two episodes of the drama, starring Nicole Kidman and directed by The Farewell’s Lulu Wang, were released on Friday but listed as “currently unavailable” for viewers in Hong Kong. The series, based on a 2014 novel, The Expatriates, focuses on the lives of three American women in Hong Kong. The production of Expats had been largely welcomed by authorities. In 2021 Kidman was…
Nicole Kidman Hong Kong drama not shown in city
In an interview with the BBC Radio 4’s Front Row this month, filmmaker Lulu Wang mentioned how the team treaded carefully on the political scenes of the show. “We shot most of the political stuff in Los Angeles, it’s definitely challenging. You know there is a lot of questions of like ‘Can you show this’, ‘What can you not’,” says Wang. “We worked with legal teams to really guide us, because you have to do it responsibly also, and there’s so many people who are working on it, who live…
China’s US embassy cautions students after ‘interrogating, harassing’ treatment at Washington airport
China has lodged a formal protest against the United States for allegedly blocking Chinese students at the border, and issued a caution over travelling through a key American airport. Beijing’s embassy in Washington accused US authorities of “unwarrantedly” interrogating, harassing, cancelling the visas of and even deporting several students from China with valid travel permits upon their arrival at Dulles International Airport near the US capital. In a statement on Monday, the embassy said the students had been returning to the US after holidays in China, trips to a third…
Papua New Guinea in talks with China on security cooperation, foreign minister says
Papua New Guinea is in early talks with China on a potential security and policing deal, the country’s foreign minister Justin Tkachenko has told the Reuters news agency, weeks after deadly riots in the country’s capital. Amid jostling between Washington and Beijing for influence in the Pacific, the biggest Pacific Islands nation, Papua New Guinea (PNG), has previously said Australia and the United States are its security partners, while China is an important economic partner. China approached PNG in September with an offer to assist its police force with training,…
Chinese developer Evergrande ordered to be wound up by Hong Kong court
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A Hong Kong court has ordered China Evergrande to be wound up, opening a new and unpredictable phase in the collapse of the world’s most indebted property developer. The liquidation order comes just over two years after the company’s official default, which triggered a cash crunch for Chinese developers that is still hobbling the world’s second-largest economy. High Court Judge Linda Chan issued the order on Monday after the developer…
Australia Boosts Funding to East Timor Police
SYDNEY — Australia said it will spend $23 million to support policing in East Timor, boosting disaster response and technology capabilities in the small Southeast Asian neighbor that recently upgraded ties with China. Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy arrived in East Timor on Monday and met with Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão. “Australia is committed to working with Timor-Leste to deliver skilled and professional policing services that contribute to a stable and secure Timor-Leste,” Conroy said in a statement. Australia will provide the $23 million to continue…