Day: July 21, 2025

‘Make Ishiba Go Away’: Japan’s LDP reels after historic defeat

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After an election that has reduced Japan’s Liberal Democratic party to its weakest parliamentary position in 70 years, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to remain in office to protect the country’s politics from instability. Many suspect, however, that he has guaranteed months of turmoil. Ishiba’s party, which has governed Japan for all but a few years since 1955, has lost its majority in the lower and upper houses of parliament. Ishiba was in charge in both elections — a snap lower house election called in October and Sunday’s vote for…

Rare close-ups signal China’s J-35 stealth jets ready for Fujian carrier

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Rare close-up images of two PLA Navy J-35 stealth fighters flying in close formation have surfaced online, giving the clearest view yet of China’s next-generation carrier-based aircraft. Advertisement A military observer said the markings and flight characteristics offered the strongest evidence yet that the J-35 had entered production and was approaching operational readiness for deployment aboard China’s latest aircraft carrier. Unlike previously circulated ground-based photos, the latest images appear to be air-to-air studies in tight formation. Their clearly visible identification marks suggest the fifth-generation fighter jets have entered initial production,…

Taiwan’s once-dominant KMT falls ‘out of step’ with the electorate

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Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang party has been on a roll. Since becoming the largest party in parliament early last year, the KMT has used its position to obstruct President Lai Ching-te’s government at every turn. Now, it faces a reckoning: from July 26, a series of recall votes could result in the KMT losing up to 31 of its 52 seats, giving the ruling Democratic Progressive party a chance to win back control of the assembly. The recall effort was triggered by a wave of outrage over what the KMT’s…

How Taiwan’s once-dominant KMT fell ‘out of step’ with the electorate

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Taiwan’s main opposition Kuomintang party has been on a roll. Since becoming the largest party in parliament early last year, the KMT has used its position to obstruct President Lai Ching-te’s government at every turn. Now, it faces a reckoning: from July 26, a series of recall votes could result in the KMT losing up to 31 of its 52 seats, giving the ruling Democratic Progressive party a chance to win back control of the assembly. The recall effort was triggered by a wave of outrage over what the KMT’s…

Multinationals turn to India’s back offices for AI engineers

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Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Indian business & finance myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Multinational companies struggling to compete for hires in the red-hot market for artificial intelligence engineers in their home countries are turning to back offices in India to meet their core AI needs. Several groups including McDonald’s and UK insurer Bupa have unveiled plans in recent months to establish so-called global capability centres, which can perform a wide range of big-data tasks such as remotely monitoring fridge temperatures and…

Allianz returns to India in tie-up with Ambani’s Jio

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This article is an on-site version of the India Business Briefing newsletter. To receive it in your inbox regularly, sign up if you’re a premium subscriber, or upgrade your subscription here. Good morning. I am back after spending a week with my family in Kerala. We stayed for two days in Fort Kochi, where I was introduced to Breudher, a sweetish nutty bread that the Dutch brought with them in the 17th century. (I grew up not far away but had never heard of it before this.) I am grateful to…

Trump’s tariffs have a silver lining as nations move to free up their economies

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Most people hate and ridicule Donald Trump’s universal tariffs. But if there is a silver lining, it’s that they expose the hypocrisy and self-defeating internal trade barriers that countries or trading blocs have built up over a long time, resulting in a huge drag on their own economies. That loss in potential earnings could equal or even exceed the tariffs Trump has imposed on them. Advertisement This has been the case, for example, in Canada, China and the European Union. The tariff crisis has brought significant movement in removing barriers…

Chinese Officers Questioned U.S. Government Employee About His Army Service

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Chinese intelligence officers began tracking an employee of the U.S. Commerce Department this spring, when he was in southwest China and where he has family members, at one point interrogating him about his prior service in the U.S. military, according to a U.S. government document. The man, who is an American citizen, has been prevented from leaving China since mid-April, according to the document, a State Department cable that was obtained by The New York Times. The cable, from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, was dated May 2 and sent…

Can China pass on-the-ground tests to ace economic report card for rest of 2025?

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Having gone five years without a raise, and now facing increased odds of being laid off, a 36-year-old accountant in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu is among those feeling a disconnect between robust headline economic figures and the day-to-day reality. Advertisement Justin Li has been struggling to make ends meet since the onset of the pandemic. Since then, his monthly salary of 7,000 yuan (US$975) has not changed. And now, as his company undergoes a round of lay-offs, his dream of buying a home seems more distant than ever.…

FirstFT: US embassy in China warns that exit bans risk damaging relations

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This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Subscribers can sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get the newsletter delivered every weekday morning. Explore all of our newsletters here Good morning and welcome to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter: Chinese exit bans stoke tension with US Japan’s PM clings to power Land sales slump in small Chinese cities The US embassy in China has expressed concerns about damage to bilateral relations from exit bans, following reports that a commerce department employee had been prevented…