Month: January 2024

Bank of China plans US$21 billion bond sales to comply with global capital requirements

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Bank of China said it plans to sell up to 150 billion yuan (US$21 billion) of loss-absorbing bonds, becoming the nation’s first big state bank to plug a major funding shortfall before a 2025 deadline to meet global capital requirements. The lender said it plans to tap both domestic and overseas debt markets to sell a new category of total loss-absorbing capacity (TLAC) bonds, according to a Friday filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. China’s banking regulator in 2022 allowed the nation’s major state-owned banks to issue the bonds, in…

US, China Set to Launch Effort to Counter Fentanyl Production and Distribution

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U.S. and Chinese officials are set to hold talks on addressing the supply of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals as they meet Tuesday and Wednesday in Beijing. The U.S.-PRC Counternarcotics Working Group sessions follow a commitment for the two countries to work together on the issue following a November meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. A senior U.S. administration official told reporters Sunday that China has already taken some action against Chinese suppliers of synthetic drugs and chemical precursors, including shutting down some companies and…

Global Impact: China’s economic, demographic dilemma for 2024 as problems continue for the world’s second-largest economy

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They also said China is facing an urgent need to re-establish the bond with the market to increase the public’s sense of gain. This has resulted in the government contending with unprecedented challenges that it has not encountered in previous decades: how to lift market confidence about China’s growth prospects, and how to persuade foreign investors that China is still a prime investment destination. The next thing to watch is how high Beijing will set its economic growth target for 2024 after last year’s upbeat expansion, and crucially, how it…

The Japanese semiconductor deal spooking rivals and investors

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In June 2023, an obscure semiconductor materials supplier announced that it was set to be taken over by an investment fund in a $6.4bn deal. Even many Japanese have not heard of JSR, a company that embodies one of the few areas of the semiconductor industry where Japan retains dominance. It is a leading provider of so-called photoresists — specialist chemicals used for printing circuit designs on chip wafers — to chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Intel. But it was the identity of the acquirer…

Japan’s lunar craft regains power after upside-down landing

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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. Japan has resurrected a spacecraft that lost power shortly after making a historic lunar touchdown this month, allowing it to resume a mission that seeks to illuminate the origins and composition of the Moon. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) confirmed on Monday that it had established communication with the spacecraft, which now rests on the lunar surface in what appears to be an upside-down position. “Science observations were immediately…

China Evergrande Ordered to Liquidate, Owing $300 Billion

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HONG KONG —  A Hong Kong court on Monday ordered the liquidation of property giant China Evergrande Group, a move likely to send ripples through China’s crumbling financial markets as policymakers scramble to contain a deepening crisis. The decision to liquidate the world’s most indebted developer with more than $300 billion of total liabilities was made by Hong Kong Justice Linda Chan, who noted Evergrande had been unable to offer a concrete restructuring plan despite months of delays. “It is time for the court to say enough is enough,” she…

Evergrande collapse: Hong Kong court orders liquidation of China property giant

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Embattled Chinese development company, Evergrande, has been ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court after an 18-month long hearing. Evergrande, which holds the ignominious title of the world’s most indebted property developer with about $300bn in liabilities, failed to convince the court that it had a viable restructuring plan, after having been given seven extensions since court proceedings were first brought in June 2022. However it can still appeal. Justice Linda Chan delivered the ruling on Monday morning, saying “it is time for the court to say enough is…

Japan Says Moon Lander ‘Resumed Operations’

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TOKYO —  Japan’s moon lander has resumed operations, the space agency said on Monday, indicating that power had been restored. After it landed on Jan. 20, JAXA had said that problems with the craft’s solar batteries meant they were not generating power. “Last evening we succeeded in establishing communication with SLIM, and resumed operations,” JAXA said on X, formerly Twitter. “We immediately started scientific observations with MBC and have successfully obtained first light for 10-band observation,” it said, referring to the lander’s multiband spectroscopic camera. The agency posted on X…

Covid-19 origins: researchers challenge early paper pointing to Wuhan market as epicentre of pandemic

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The paper was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A: Statistics in Society on January 16. It was first uploaded to the preprint server arXiv in August 2022 ahead of peer review, one month after the 2022 study – described by Stoyan and Chiu as a “prominent study” – was published. In the 2022 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science, a global team of scientists said their results “provide evidence that the Huanan market was the early epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic and suggest…

Human Rights Watch dismisses Vietnam govt criticism

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New York-based Human Rights Watch has hit back at the Vietnamese government for accusing the non-governmental organization of fabricating its World Report 2024. The report, published on Jan. 11, accused Vietnam of suppressing people’s rights “to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, movement, and religion,” and said the communist party “severely punishes anyone who challenges its monopoly on power.”  On Thursday, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang called the report “factually inaccurate and fabricated,” claiming that, “the efforts, determination and achievements of the government of Vietnam in ensuring the basic rights…