Day: October 16, 2025

China’s central bank sets yuan at highest rate against US dollar in a year

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China’s central bank has set the yuan’s daily reference rate against the US dollar at the strongest level in a year, as expectations grow that the US Federal Reserve will cut rates again this month. Advertisement On Thursday, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the yuan’s midpoint rate – also known as the daily fixing rate – at 7.0968 per US dollar, its strongest since October last year. Two days earlier, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that America’s labour market and inflation outlooks were little changed from…

China unleashes battery export controls amid strides in solid-state science

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The future of warfare is being powered by a quiet revolution in energy technology, and China has positioned itself at the forefront of this paradigm shift with a new tactic: combining cutting-edge solid-state battery research with strategic export controls on critical battery materials and technology set to take effect next month. Advertisement These advancements include technologies that push the energy density of batteries to 600 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) and enable batteries to maintain high capacity after numerous charge-discharge cycles, with some claiming potential for mass production within the next…

Private equity groups Carlyle and Boyu lead bids for Starbucks 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. Private equity groups Carlyle and Boyu Capital are the leading contenders to acquire a majority stake in Starbucks’ China business, as the US coffee chain seeks a local partner to help steer it through an increasingly competitive market. Three people close to the deal process said the two groups were currently seen as Starbucks’ preferred partners, with a valuation for the full China business likely to come in at about…

US may take strategic stakes in rare earths companies to tackle China ‘power grab’

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The Trump administration has criticised China’s increased restrictions on rare earth exports as a threat to global supply chains, and said it would seek to tighten control over strategic sectors by taking more stakes in key companies to counter Beijing. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told an event on Wednesday that China’s dramatic new restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets demonstrated the need for the US to be self-sufficient in critical materials or rely more on trusted allies. He later characterised Beijing’s rare earth export curbs as “China versus the…

China’s passion for five-year plans

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Hundreds of China’s top political cadres will next week lock themselves away in a Beijing hotel for four days to map out the country’s next five-year plan — the blueprint for everything from the economy and trade to society and culture. Framed in party speak, China’s five-year plans — the next will be its 15th since 1953 and will run from 2026-2030 — can seem arcane to the outside world. Often seen as a relic of the command economy, five-year plans were quietly abandoned by Russia after the fall of…

Trump’s war on the enemy within may reward the enemy without

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Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world The author is a Hoover fellow at Stanford University Standing in front of the Pentagon, as a Metallica song blared in the background and drones buzzed around him, US secretary of war Pete Hegseth looked into the camera and promised to cut bureaucratic red tape, “unleashing American drone dominance” to “match capabilities to the threats of today”. A few weeks later, he doubled down on technology, telling assembled…

Inside Hong Kong’s makeshift fashion markets

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On Sundays, Daniela joins thousands of other domestic workers on the streets of Hong Kong. It is their one day off from the all-consuming task of caring for the families that employ them across the city. Lining the sidewalks of the financial and shopping hub, Central, are makeshift picnic blankets. Some helpers lounge in fully shaded tents, or sing karaoke on the cardboard boxes just outside them. Others go shopping — not at the rows of designer brands surrounding each MTR station, but at the small array of stalls set-up…

Japan’s gardens embody the subtle side of wealth

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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. Wealth in Japan has long been hidden in plain sight. What better place to hide wealth than by deploying it in the intensely private garden space? The meticulously fashioned Japanese garden requires significant resources to create — redirecting water sources, carving out artificial ponds, selecting and “setting” rare stones of symbolic value — and, once established, needs long-term commitment and vast expense to maintain in perpetuity. The life of the…