Month: March 2024

China’s property turmoil hits midsized bank Everbright

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Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. China’s Everbright Bank missed profit estimates due to investment losses and an increase in cash set aside for souring property loans, sending shares of the regional lender almost 13 per cent lower in Hong Kong on Thursday. Everbright, an important midsized bank in China, reported a 9 per cent decline in annual net profit to Rmb40.8bn ($5.6bn), widely missing analyst expectations. The bank’s profit was hit by a…

Singapore has lessons for countries worrying about debt

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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. The writer is an FT contributing editor Singapore is a poster child for fiscal prudence. It almost always runs a budget surplus, and its constitution virtually prohibits borrowing to pay for current spending. All three major credit rating agencies assign it triple-A ratings, and the IMF judges its sovereign debt risks to be low. But the country also has a whopping ratio of debt to gross domestic product — around…

Chinese scientists identify ‘bizarre’ find as world’s first parasite worm fossil

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Nearly 100 million years ago, a shark or ray infected with an ancient tapeworm became stranded on the shore of what is now known as Myanmar. As a dinosaur feasted on the marine creature, it ripped apart the parasite, flinging it into the resin of a nearby tree. That is the best guess of a scientific team from China, Myanmar, Germany and Britain, led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who puzzled over the “bizarre fossil” trapped in Cretaceous amber in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state. The find is…

China Lifts Heavy Tariffs on Australian Wine as Ties Improve

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China on Thursday said it will lift tariffs placed on Australian wine over three years ago, in a sign of improving ties between the two countries. China’s Ministry of Commerce said the decision will take effect Friday. China imposed tariffs on Australian wine in 2020 during a diplomatic feud over Australia’s support for a global inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. The duties on Australian wine skyrocketed above 200%. Australian wine producers took a heavy hit from the tariffs, as China was Australia’s top wine export destination. The Australian government…

China urges Asian neighbours to take peace and security ‘into their own hands’

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While the world faces complex security threats, “we will … take the future destiny of Asia’s long-lasting peace and security into our own hands, so that the flame of peace can be passed on from one generation to the next,” Zhao said, without specifically mentioning the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and the Red Sea. Zhao delivered the speech on the third day of the conference, where former and current officials, business executives and academics discussed Asian financial cooperation, trade, investment, and geopolitics. Zhao, China’s No 3 leader, also promised more…

Liu Cixin: ‘I’m often asked – there’s science fiction in China?’

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Chinese author Liu Cixin’s science-fiction novels have sold millions of copies all over the world, and have won him numerous awards, including the global Hugo award for science fiction in 2015. Now, the English translation of the first book in Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy, The Three-Body Problem, is back in the Amazon bestsellers charts, after the release of a TV adaptation by the creators of Game of Thrones. But a decade ago, few in the UK had heard of Liu and The Three-Body Problem, which begins as a…

Mosque in Jakarta a Haven for Ethnic Chinese Indonesians Embracing Islam

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JAKARTA, Indonesia —  Surrounded by ordinary gray shop houses on Jakarta’s bustling Lautze Street, the building with the yellow façade stands out. Red overhangs echo the rooflines of traditional Chinese temples, and red arched wooden doors suggest a welcome within. At a glance, the building could be mistaken for a Chinese temple. Built in 1991 by Haji Junus Jahya, an Indonesian businessman of Chinese descent, the Lautze Mosque embodies his interest in encouraging assimilation between the ethnic Chinese people and Indigenous Malay community known as Pribumi. “Haji” indicates that he…

Alibaba’s AliExpress eyes European success with Euro2024 football sponsorship, after rival Temu cracked US market with Super Bowl ads

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Alibaba Group Holding’s international e-commerce platform AliExpress is betting on a European market breakthrough by sponsoring this year’s European Football Championship, or Euro 2024, a move that comes after its rival Temu cracked the US market through ads that ran in the Super Bowl. AliExpress is the first exclusive e-commerce platform partner for the national men’s teams of European members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the association said in a statement on its website on Wednesday. The monetary amount involved in the deal was not disclosed. Euro…

China’s short video and live streaming sector still growing, with more than 15 million hosts, as online shopping fuels demand

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The CNSA estimated this e-commerce segment was already worth hundreds of billions of dollars on the mainland. The state-run body reports to the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA), China’s broadcasting regulator. 02:50 China’s live-streaming industry heats up as millions of would-be hosts vie to break into the field China’s live-streaming industry heats up as millions of would-be hosts vie to break into the field Last year, 71.2 per cent of users surveyed by the CNSA said that they made online purchases based on viewing short videos and live streams,…

China’s spy agency warns foreign groups are using consulting ‘as a cover’ to steal secrets

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In the video, a man travels in time to remind his past self to stay alert and avoid leaking information related to the economy, technology and military to the consultancy. China warns foreign hackers are infiltrating business and government networks Over the past year, the state security ministry has become more active on social media to warn about the threat from foreign spies and call on the public to share information about suspicious activity. The country’s revised counter-espionage law, which came into effect in July 2023, expands both the definition…