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Good morning, happy Friday and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:
US and Taiwanese defence officials held secret talks in Alaska last week, days before President Xi Jinping flaunted China’s military might to the world at a massive parade in Beijing.
What we know: Jed Royal, the Pentagon’s top Indo-Pacific official, met Hsu Szu-chien, then Taiwan’s deputy national security adviser, in Anchorage, according to several people familiar with the matter. The talks came months after a Washington meeting between more senior American and Taiwanese officials was cancelled, partly over concerns that it could derail a potential bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump and the Chinese leader.
Why it matters: News of the meeting in Alaska comes amid questions about how far Trump is willing to support Taiwan as he seeks a summit with Xi and the two countries hold talks to end their trade war. “The Trump administration may be trying to thread the needle between assuring Taiwan and keeping the possibility of a trade deal and summit with China alive,” said Amanda Hsiao, China director at Eurasia Group. Here’s more on the secret meeting in Alaska.
Xi-Kim meeting: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un held in-person talks for the first time in six years, amid concerns among western countries of an emerging “autocratic alliance”.
US-China AI race: Anthropic will stop selling artificial intelligence services to groups majority owned by Chinese entities, in the first such policy shift by an American AI company.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today and over the weekend:
Economic data: Taiwan and the Philippines report August inflation data. Vietnam on Saturday publishes August inflation, trade balance and industrial output.
Tennis: The US Open women’s singles final is tomorrow, while the men’s championship is on Sunday.
How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.
Five more top stories
1. Chinese stocks have fallen the most in five months, a day after President Xi Jinping projected his nation’s global ambition with a landmark military parade in Beijing. Prior to today’s fall, the index was up more than 14 per cent this year, reaching its highest level since 2022. Here’s more on the reason for the falls.
2. Giorgio Armani, the visionary Italian designer, has died at the age of 91. More than perhaps any other designer, Armani understood that fashion was not only about clothes but lifestyle, and changed not only how men and women dressed, but also how they ate, travelled and decorated their homes, reshaping the fashion industry in the process. Read our obituary.
Armani’s last interview: In an exclusive conversation published the weekend before his death, the designer looked back at five decades in business.
3. The US is to phase out security assistance programmes for European armies along Russia’s border, as it pushes the continent to pay for more of its own defence. A White House official said the move aligned with Trump’s efforts to “re-evaluate and realign” foreign aid.
4. Trump’s nominee to join the Federal Reserve said the president was “entitled” to take a view on monetary policy even as he vowed to uphold the independence of the US central bank. Stephen Miran told the Senate banking committee yesterday that he viewed Fed independence as “paramount” as he sought to assuage lawmakers’ fears that his actions in the role would be based on Trump’s instructions.
US news: The US Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, in an escalation of the Trump administration’s attempts to remove her from the board of the central bank.
5. Nidec, one of Japan’s most acquisitive companies, launched a probe into “improper accounting”, sending the motor maker’s shares down 22 per cent yesterday. The parts supplier to major automakers including Volkswagen and BMW said that it was establishing a third-party committee to investigate accounting practices at its Chinese subsidiary.
FT Magazine
The Trump’s business operations in the Gulf predate the family’s diversification into politics, the media and the cryptoverse. This year though, Gulf powers have become the answer to a list of seemingly intractable problems from Israel’s war in Gaza to spurring growth at home. Critics accuse the president of blurring the lines between family and official business but others say Trump has genuine affection for the area. Chloe Cornish traces how the Trumps won the Gulf.
We’re also reading . . .
China-Russia pipeline: Beijing and Moscow have just reshaped the global gas game without signing a single supply contract, writes Tatiana Mitrova.
Why France is stuck: A failure to spend less is at the root of the country’s political problems, writes Simon Kuper. Where might this end?
Silicon future: Champions of AI claim it could fuel genuine economic growth. But will it also raise living standards?
Chart of the day
South-east Asia has become “ground zero” for fraudsters, with industrial scam centres in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos — staffed by hundreds of thousands of trafficked workers — targeting victims around the world. As the world’s leading experts on preventing cyber fraud met in Singapore this week, even they got scammed, Owen Walker reports.
Take a break from the news . . .
New online slang words such as “skibidi” and “clanker” are increasingly being pushed into the mainstream, writes Adam Aleksic, who is known as the Etymology Nerd. He explains how the online engagement treadmill works.
