Month: March 2024

China’s new rules for finance pull the brakes on gravy train, bringing ‘greed is good’ era to a halt

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“Everyone, from the top brass to people like us in middle ranks, earn less than before,” said a credit manager with Bank of China, one of the country’s “big four” state-owned banks, lamenting the loss of the staggering bonuses that she used to bag in the industry’s heyday. China’s financial sector is always beholden to the government … No businesses in any country can operate in a vacuumLi Xuenan Pay cuts, first imposed on executives of state-owned financial institutions in 2010 by the banking regulator and now an industry-wide practice,…

Returning from China, North Korean workers are paid in dubious IOUs

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North Korean workers returning from China with hopes of a big payday are incensed because the government is not paying them in cash. Instead, it’s giving them bank-issued money vouchers, which the workers are worried might end up being worthless, residents told Radio Free Asia. The vouchers, essentially IOUs, were issued in 2021 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Authorities explained that they could be used just like cash, and that they would be phased out once the pandemic ended.  Until then, the vouchers – printed on lower quality…

US to put new visa limits on Hong Kong officials after Article 23 passage

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America’s top diplomat said on Friday that the US is preparing to impose new visa restrictions Hong Kong officials deemed “responsible for the intensifying crackdown on rights and freedoms” in the semi-autonomous city, without elaborating on the targets of the new sanctions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken added in a statement that he would once again certify that Hong Kong will not receive the special consideration under US law that it enjoyed before its handover to China on July 1, 1997, and which remained in place for more than two…

Facebook videos show Lao fishermen using grenades to boost catch

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Fishermen in northern Laos are using grenades to haul in large catches that otherwise might take hours of work to net, according to residents and officials, who say the practice threatens to impact fish populations in the region. It is also illegal. Two videos posted to Facebook in recent days show fishermen whose identities are obscured, hurling grenades from outboard motor boats into the Mekong River and the Namtha 1 Dam reservoir in Bokeo province. In the videos, underwater concussive blasts churn sediment to the surface before they cut to…

Vietnamese police arrest 4 more Khmer Krom monks in pagoda dispute

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Vietnamese police have arrested four more Buddhist monks from the Khmer Krom indigenous group in an ongoing clash over a pagoda in the country’s south. Authorities in Vinh Long province also arrested an activist during a raid on Thursday at Dai Tho Pagoda, known as the Tro Nom Sek pagoda in Khmer, police said in a statement posted on Facebook.  The nearly 1.3-million strong Khmer Krom indigenous community live in a part of Vietnam that was once southeastern Cambodia. They face discrimination in Vietnam and suspicion in Cambodia, where they…

Fired Myanmar garment workers await court resolution after 4 years

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When Phyu Phyu Mar from Myanmar got a job at VK Garments in 2017, she had plans to one day open her own small business.  Located in Mae Sot, a town straddling the Thai-Myanmar border, VK Garments appeared to be a promising employer, especially since it was a supplier for the British retail giant Tesco. Yet, Phyu’s dreams quickly dissolved into disillusionment. Despite the initial optimism, Phyu Phyu Mar and 135 of her colleagues found themselves embroiled in a struggle against debt, job insecurity and the loss of their legal…

Indonesian President-elect Prabowo to visit China in first official post-polls foreign trip

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Nickel downstreaming refers to domestic processing of nickel ore, that is, to refine commodities at home to make exports more valuable. Chinese-linked companies dominate the nickel smelter industry in Indonesia. Another reason for China’s invitation to Prabowo was that Beijing wanted to ensure that under Prabowo, Indonesia does not move closer to the United States and the West. “I suspect that China wants to ensure that Prabowo continues the foreign policy that Jokowi previously carried out,” he said. China is invested in the Prabowo presidency because it wants its projects…

The Baltimore bridge collapse and its impact on global trade

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All 22 crew members, almost all from India, have remained aboard the vessel and have been questioned by a team of the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators have obtained the ship’s data recorder and so far ruled out foul play. 01:18 US bridge collapses in Baltimore after ship collision, leaving several people missing US bridge collapses in Baltimore after ship collision, leaving several people missing Clean-up and rebuild The US government has announced US$60 million in emergency relief aid for early recovery and clean-up. President Joe Biden has pledged to…

The Guardian view on global women’s rights: Saudi Arabia isn’t the only problem | Editorial

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Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the Beijing declaration, a landmark blueprint for advancing women’s rights. It marked the mainstreaming of feminist concerns, with 189 states signing up to the text at a conference in China, where Hillary Clinton, then first lady of the US, declared that “women’s rights are human rights”. Yet when the United Nations celebrates that achievement, its commission for promoting and evaluating progress on gender equality will be steered by Saudi Arabia. A country known for its abysmal record on women’s rights was chosen…

RFA closes Hong Kong bureau after passage of new security law

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Radio Free Asia on Friday announced it has closed its Hong Kong bureau, saying the city’s recently enacted national security law, also known as “Article 23,” has raised safety concerns for its reporters and staff members. RFA will no longer have full-time personnel in Hong Kong but will retain its official media registration there, the organization’s president and chief executive, Bay Fang, said in a statement. “We recognize RFA’s frontline status – as it is among the last independent news organizations reporting on events happening in Hong Kong in Cantonese…