Month: August 2025

South China Sea: Beijing asserts ‘control measures’ against Philippine ships

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China says it has taken “control measures” against two Philippine vessels near the Sierra Madre, a warship grounded on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, as tensions re-emerge in the contested waters of the South China Sea. Advertisement In a short statement on Friday morning, China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu accused the two Philippine ships deployed from the Sierra Madre of “deliberately engaging in provocative collisions” when approaching a Chinese coastguard vessel. He did not specify when the confrontation took place, but said the Chinese side “implemented control measures” in…

China tech billionaire shoots for US-style ‘March Madness’ basketball league

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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. One of the best-known billionaires to emerge from China’s tech sector is hoping to tap into the country’s passion for basketball by backing a pan-Asian college league styled on the US “March Madness” knockout tournament. Alibaba chair Joe Tsai — who owns the Brooklyn Nets, the US professional National Basketball Association team — hopes to build on enthusiasm for live events in China with a new amateur competition. The Asian…

College basketball league shoots for success in China

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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. One of the best-known billionaires to emerge from China’s tech sector is hoping to tap into the country’s passion for basketball by backing a pan-Asian college league styled on the US “March Madness” knockout tournament. Alibaba chair Joe Tsai — who owns the Brooklyn Nets, the US professional National Basketball Association team — hopes to build on enthusiasm for live events in China with a new amateur competition. The Asian…

Study reveals how corn has evolved to sense and respond to environment

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Corn communicates with its neighbours by releasing a gas that prompts nearby plants to alter their soil, a new study has found. Advertisement And when corn is densely planted, that can boost defences against pests and predation. But emission of the volatile gas – called linalool – can also reduce maize growth. The international team of scientists who discovered this mechanism says it offers clues on how the release of linalool could be optimised to combat pests and increase yield. The researchers from Zhejiang University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Leiden…

Indira Gandhi and the Years that Transformed India — democracy vs authoritarianism

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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. Indira Gandhi attained the pinnacle of power when few women leaders anywhere could. As the daughter of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, her 15 years in office — a decade spanning the 1960s and 70s, then another spell in the 1980s — seemed predestined. Yet it was anything but, as Srinath Raghavan recounts in this masterful study of her political life. Nehru’s Congress party dominated post-independence politics, establishing a…

Hedge funds bet against European car firms as tariffs bite

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Hedge funds are betting against Europe’s struggling car industry, as auto and parts makers battle a market slowdown worsened by US President Donald Trump’s trade war and fierce competition from Chinese rivals. Short positions against some of Europe’s biggest parts manufacturers and carmakers have been on the rise this year following Trump’s return to the White House in January. French components maker Valeo is Europe’s second-most shorted stock as a percentage of issued shares, based on disclosed short positions, according to data provider Breakout Point. Shares out on loan —…

India dogged by Trump spotlight on Russian oil

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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. There is no dearth of drama in this country. The monsoon session of parliament closed yesterday with the house in uproar over last-minute legislation that would allow the government to remove elected senior officials who have been arrested over criminal charges. In a country where the average legal case takes between five to 15 years for resolution, removing…

AI scientist Cao Ting leaves Microsoft lab for Tsinghua University

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Cao Ting, a leading artificial intelligence researcher and former research manager at Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), has left the US tech giant to join Tsinghua University, as AI becomes a new front in the US-China tech rivalry. Advertisement According to the university’s website, Cao left MSRA in July to join Tsinghua’s Institute for AI Industry Research under Zhang Yaqin, a former MSRA managing director. The Beijing-based MSRA, established by Bill Gates in 1998 to tap China’s “deep pool of intellectual talent” and once hailed as the “hottest computer lab in…

In China’s crippling price wars, an updated law seeks ‘sustainable equilibrium’

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It has been a tumultuous couple of months for Alex Xu’s company – a solar panel manufacturer based in eastern China’s Zhejiang province – as product prices have surged by about 20 per cent. Advertisement Long plagued by severe oversupply, China’s photovoltaic industry is grappling with cutthroat price wars and even loss-making sales. From Xu’s perspective, nearly half of the industry’s capacity is excessive. But a rebound in prices has followed recent calls from Chinese authorities to combat “involution”, or neijuan – a buzzword referring to destructive competition that is…

FirstFT: Taiwan votes on nuclear power amid energy security concerns

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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: Taiwan votes on nuclear power China restricts Nvidia after Lutnick’s “insulting” remarks Saudi Arabia’s snow mountain Indonesia’s economic alarm bells We start in Taiwan, which is set to vote tomorrow on whether to return to nuclear energy just three months after shutting down its last reactor.…