Good morning and welcome back to FirstFT Asia. In today’s newsletter:
Shein’s mysterious founder appears
China hits Japanese companies with export curbs
Trump’s Iran ‘crisis of his own making’
We start in Guangzhou, where the mysterious founder of fast-fashion giant Shein used his first major public appearance yesterday to stress the company’s Chinese roots.
What to know: Xu Yangtian’s remarks at an event organised by the Guangdong provincial government contrasted sharply with Shein’s efforts in recent years to present itself as a Singapore-headquartered international ecommerce platform. “Guangdong is where Shein has its roots and also where our struggle began. We are sure that, on the wave of Guangdong’s high-quality development, Shein can together with this dynamic land make ‘made in Guangdong’ the global standard for the fashion industry,” Xu said.
He pledged to invest Rmb10bn ($1.45bn) in supply chains in Guangdong over the next three years, saying leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and government in the province had given his company vital support.
Shein’s challenges: Xu had previously maintained a studiously low profile and Shein has never made photographs of him available. His emergence comes as the company faces an array of challenges including consumer weariness and global regulatory scrutiny, as it seeks a public share listing. The FT reported in 2024 that efforts to “de-Chinafy” Shein, seen as helping it to maintain access to international markets, had irked regulators in Beijing, who must greenlight any overseas IPO.
William Langley reports from Guangzhou on Xu’s rare appearance.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:
Economic data: Hong Kong publishes fourth-quarter GDP and January CPI inflation data. Australia also reports consumer prices for last month.
China-Germany relations: Friedrich Merz said he would seek to forge a “balanced, reliable, regulated and fair” partnership with Chinese President Xi Jinping when the two leaders meet today in Beijing.
Hong Kong: Financial secretary Paul Chan unveils the city’s budget.
US politics: President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address Tuesday evening (local time) in Washington.
Monetary policy: The Bank of Thailand announces its interest rate decision.
Five more top stories
1. China has restricted exports of rare earth magnets and other critical materials to dozens of leading Japanese companies in an escalation of a dispute with Tokyo. Beijing said it would freeze the flow of “dual-use” materials, which have applications to both civilian and military industries, to 20 Japanese companies.
2. US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has threatened to cut Anthropic from his department’s supply chain unless it agrees to sign off on its technology being used in all lawful military applications by Friday. Read more about the feud between the Pentagon and the AI group.
3. Honda has suspended operations at a major facility in Mexico, after a wave of violence was unleashed by the killing of one of the country’s most wanted cartel leaders. The Japanese company told the FT that “out of an abundance of caution” it suspended operations on Monday at its facility in Guadalajara, a manufacturing hub for many global carmakers.
More Japanese business: Panasonic will hand over parts of its TV operations to Skyworth, marking the end of an era as Japanese electronics groups transfer a business they dominated for decades to Chinese rivals.
4. Utilities, energy and materials stocks have emerged as winners from the AI anxiety gripping Wall Street, as investors fleeing sectors seen as vulnerable to disruption seek businesses with tangible assets. Here are the S&P 500’s biggest gainers so far this year.
5. Stripe’s valuation has soared by more than 70 per cent to $159bn in the past year as the payments company agreed its latest employee share sale in a move that will allow it to remain private for longer. The deal alleviates the pressure on the 15-year-old Irish-American group to seek a public listing as it allows employees to cash in on their holdings.
News in-depth
A US military build-up has so far failed to bring any real concessions from Iran and Trump now finds himself in a corner as he weighs a full-scale attack on the Islamic republic. “This is a crisis of his own making,” said Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
We’re also reading . . .
China isn’t dumping US Treasuries: Ignore the amateur geopolitical strategists talking eloquently about the end of dollar dominance, writes Brad Setser.
Louvre museum: The director of the Paris institution has stepped down, four months after the spectacular heist of €88mn in crown jewels.
Dethroning ‘El Mencho’: The Mexican government’s killing of a notorious cartel leader is one of the biggest wins of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s biggest wins — riskiest bets.
Chart of the day
Over the past year, Iran and Pakistan have deported an estimated 3mn Afghans after decades and sometimes lifetimes in exile, according to the UN. The influx is straining Afghanistan’s overstretched schools and hospitals, driving up rents and depressing wages — and more are to come.
Take a break from the news . . .
“Within the perceptible world, there is no other structure like the human face,” wrote the 19th-century German sociologist Georg Simmel. “[It] merges such a great variety of shapes and surfaces into an absolute unity of meaning.” But in the age of Botox and Instagram the face now changes as fast as any other part of the human body. Is your face on trend?
