Month: September 2025

Chinese woman convicted after ‘world’s biggest’ bitcoin seizure

Media Library

A Chinese national has been convicted of playing a key role in what is believed to be the single largest cryptocurrency seizure in the world, worth more than £5.5bn ($7.4bn). Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, pleaded guilty on Monday at Southwark Crown Court, London of illegally acquiring and possessing the cryptocurrency. Between 2014 and 2017, she led a large-scale scam in China by cheating more than 128,000 victims and storing the stolen funds in bitcoin assets, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. The Met said the 47-year-old’s…

China’s factory activity contracts for sixth straight month in September

Media Library

China’s official gauge of manufacturing activity has stayed in contraction for a sixth consecutive month in September, providing more fuel for calls to step up government support amid persistent external headwinds and weak domestic demand. Advertisement The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) stood at 49.8 in September according to a Tuesday release from the National Bureau of Statistics, higher than August’s reading of 49.4 but falling short of a 50.1 projection from a survey of economists by financial data provider Wind. The monthly index compiles survey data given by supply…

Hong Kong should be China’s gateway to the United Nations

Media Library

Donald Trump may have a point in highlighting the UN’s ability to address global challenges. However, the antidote to stunted multilateralism isn’t abandoning the concept altogether, but inclusive reforms that empower countries that lack representation. Advertisement Besides its New York headquarters, the UN has three large secretariat hubs in Nairobi, Vienna and Geneva, but few offices located in Asia, a continent with around 60 per cent of the world’s population. Bangkok does serve as a de facto Asia-Pacific hub for various UN entities. However, Thailand’s recent history of political turmoil…

Pakistan, protests and public opinion: Narendra Modi’s terrible year

Media Library

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. The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee is meeting this week. While the general expectation is that the central bank will hold interest rates, a cut cannot be ruled out entirely. We will keep an eye on the meeting (while you celebrate Dussehra) and inform you on Friday about what transpired. In today’s newsletter, Tata Capital is…

China court sentences 11 people to death over alleged role in family-run Myanmar scam operations

Media Library

A court in China has sentenced 11 people to death for their alleged roles in a family-run crime syndicate accused of running illegal gambling and scam operations worth more than $1.4bn, and for the deaths of workers who disobeyed them. The Wenzhou intermediate people’s court on Monday sentenced 11 members of the powerful Ming family in Kokang, Myanmar to death while another five were handed death sentences suspended for two years. A further 12 defendants received jail sentences of between five and 24 years. Two-year suspended death sentences are often…

China’s Alibaba is a late entrant to the AI pantheon

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Rocketing share price, ambitious investment plans and a liberal peppering of artificial intelligence jargon? It took a while, but China’s Alibaba is taking its place among the high-rolling hyperscalers. This past month US-listed shares in the group, which started as an online retailer but has branched out into entertainment and cloud computing, are up some 40 per cent. Alibaba has been a better investment this year so far than US…

China’s US ambassador chides Washington for ‘closing doors’, enacting tariffs

Media Library

Beijing’s top US envoy on Monday presented China as a global leader in globalisation and multilateralism, taking a jibe at Washington for “closing doors” as the US under President Donald Trump imposes hefty unilateral tariffs on countries around the world and tightens its visa policies. Advertisement Characterising China and the US as “two main builders of the post [second world war] international order”, and celebrating the economic relationship that grew once Washington reestablished official relations with Beijing, Xie Feng, China’s ambassador also said that the two global powers must “act…

A window to a future where China wins the green race

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A few weeks ago a colleague and I travelled to Changsha, the capital of central China’s Hunan province to take a glimpse at the future of trucking and logistics. Inside a new $3bn industrial park on the city’s outskirts Sany group, which is already China’s biggest producer of construction equipment, a highly automated factory is churning out tens of thousands of battery-powered trucks as well as solar-powered battery charging and…

Efficiency, not involution: China curbs metals sector to fight extreme competition

Media Library

China has announced production curbs in its strategic non-ferrous metals sector, the latest step in Beijing’s drive to rein in cutthroat competition and boost industrial efficiency. Advertisement In a new action plan the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has projected output growth of 1.5 per cent for primary non-ferrous metals this year, down from 4.3 per cent last year. The initiative expands Beijing’s campaign against “involution”, or neijuan in Chinese – a self-defeating cycle of intensifying competition that erodes profits and stifles innovation across industries, including photovoltaics, wind…