On Monday, a Hong Kong court convicted Jimmy Lai of national security offences, the end to a landmark trial for the city and its hobbled protest movement. The verdict was expected. Long a thorn in the side of Beijing, Lai, a 78-year-old media tycoon and activist, was a primary target of the most recent and definitive crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. Authorities cast him as a traitor and a criminal. Lai’s trial was one of the last unfinished national security prosecutions of Hong Kong’s high profile activists, over their…
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China investment falls for third straight month as economic fears deepen
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. China’s investment fell for the third straight month in November, official data showed, just days after President Xi Jinping called on officials to reverse a decline that threatens to undermine growth in the world’s second-largest economy. Fixed asset investment for the year to date to November 30 declined 2.6 per cent on a year earlier, a steeper fall than the 2.3 per cent decline forecast by a Bloomberg survey of…
China investment falls for third straight month in blow to economy
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. China’s investment fell for the third straight month in November, official data showed, just days after President Xi Jinping called on officials to reverse a decline that threatens to undermine growth in the world’s second-largest economy. Fixed asset investment for the year to date to November 30 declined 2.6 per cent on a year earlier, a steeper fall than the 2.3 per cent decline forecast by a Bloomberg survey of…
Hong Kong convicts Jimmy Lai in national security trial
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Hong Kong’s High Court has found billionaire media mogul Jimmy Lai guilty on national security charges, in the most closely watched trial since Beijing’s crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement six years ago. The trial has been viewed both within Hong Kong and abroad as a barometer for political and media freedoms in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, and has been a source of tension between Beijing and the west. Lai,…
Jimmy Lai verdict: Hong Kong pro-democracy figure convicted of national security offences
Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon, is facing life in prison after being found guilty of national security and sedition offences, in one of the most closely watched rulings since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997. The 78-year-old has been in jail since late 2020 on remand and serving several protest-related sentences totalling almost 10 years. Monday’s conviction, in which judges called him a “mastermind” of conspiracies designed to destabilise the Chinese government, could see him given an extra life sentence. Lai had been charged with…
Labubus, TikTok and KPop Demon Hunters: how childhood went east Asian – podcast
From matcha and bubble tea to manga and Studio Ghibli, east Asian culture has become mainstream culture for millions of young people around the world. Jeff Yang, the co-author of Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now, describes to Nosheen Iqbal how after decades of American pop-cultural exceptionalism, the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of interest in east Asian culture, particularly as western attitudes towards subtitles shifted. The pair discuss the influence of social media on young people, the South Korean government’s deliberate…
China investment falls for third successive month
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Beijing sanctions former Japanese military chief for ‘colluding with Taiwan separatists’
Beijing has imposed sanctions on Shigeru Iwasaki, former chief of the Joint Staff of the Japan Self-Defence Forces, saying he had “colluded with separatist forces” in Taiwan, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday. It comes after Beijing lodged a protest with Tokyo in March over the appointment of Iwasaki as an honorary adviser to the Executive Yuan, the Taiwanese government’s highest administrative body. The “countermeasures” include freezing Iwasaki’s movable and immovable assets and other types of property within China, the foreign ministry statement said. Advertisement It said organisations and…
China’s growth engines sputter as retail and investment hit in November
China faces mounting pressure to ramp up stimulus as new data shows its growth engines sputtering, with retail sales growth slowing for six straight months and investment showing renewed signs of strain in November despite recent policy support. The deceleration in consumption growth and the deepening property slump underscore the challenges Beijing faces in revitalising the economy heading into 2026. Retail sales, a key gauge of consumer spending, grew in November by just 1.3 per cent, year on year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)…
Jimmy Lai verdict: Hong Kong court to decide on national security charges against pro-democracy figure – live
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