Category: Media Library

China’s crackdown on fuel and fertiliser exports spurs supply fears

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China is throttling exports of jet fuel, diesel and fertilisers, adding to fears in some of Asia’s biggest resource, manufacturing and agricultural nations that supplies could run short because of the war in the Middle East. The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, has in recent days told fertiliser exporters to halt overseas shipments of some product lines, according to industry insiders, diplomats and analysts. This follows NDRC’s instructions earlier this month to large state-backed oil refiners to stop overseas shipments of jet fuel, diesel and kerosene.…

China cracks down on fuel and fertiliser exports

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China is throttling exports of jet fuel, diesel and fertilisers, adding to fears in some of Asia’s biggest resource, manufacturing and agricultural nations that supplies could run short because of the war in the Middle East. The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, has in recent days told fertiliser exporters to halt overseas shipments of some product lines, according to industry insiders, diplomats and analysts. This follows NDRC’s instructions earlier this month to large state-backed oil refiners to stop overseas shipments of jet fuel, diesel and kerosene.…

China has been preparing for a global energy crisis for years. It is paying off now

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Xi Jinping has been preparing for a crisis like this for years. China must secure its energy supply “in its own hands”, its president was reported to have said during a visit to one of its vast oilfields in 2021. The US-Israel war on Iran plunged the Middle East into a deep conflict, with the strait of Hormuz – one of the most important waterways in global trade – all but closed and key energy facilities across the region under attack. Oil exports from the Middle East have tumbled 61%…

Supermicro co-founder charged in conspiracy to export Nvidia chips to 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. Supermicro’s co-founder and two others working for the company have been charged in New York for allegedly violating US export controls by smuggling $2.5bn of Nvidia’s AI chip servers to Chinese customers. The US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said Wally Liaw, a co-founder and member of Supermicro’s board of directors, conspired with a Taiwan-based Supermicro employee and a contractor to co-ordinate illegal shipments of chips…

SEC urged to restrict Chinese companies’ access to US capital markets

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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 head of the Securities and Exchange Commission is facing fresh pressure from lawmakers to restrict Chinese companies from accessing US capital markets. In a rare display of bipartisanship, Republican Senate banking committee chair Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, his Democratic counterpart, on Thursday sent a letter to Paul Atkins, who has served as SEC chair since April 2025 after being nominated by President Donald Trump to run…

China curbs ‘low-quality’ listings to cool Hong Kong IPO boom

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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. China has moved to stop “low-quality” companies from listing in Hong Kong as it seeks to slow but not halt an IPO boom. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has blocked listings by some companies with opaque offshore structures, while stressing that the market remains open for business. It shows how the regulator has learned from 2015, when a rush of low-quality issues helped to fuel a market bubble, and…

How to dress like an emperor — according to a connoisseur of rare Chinese textiles

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“It amuses me to think I may be the youngest thing in my flat,” says Chris Hall. The 74-year-old tax accountant has spent 40 years amassing nearly 3,000 textiles from across China, ranging from imperial robes to a weaving created to celebrate the 2008 Beijing Olympics — a significant collection which he has recently donated to the Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM).  Hall made the donation to secure the future of his archive and open it up to the people of Hong Kong — despite the joy he gets from…

Thai parliament backs first conservative PM this century

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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. Thailand’s parliament has endorsed Anutin Charnvirakul as prime minister after he led the country’s conservatives to their first election win this century.  Anutin was elected by 293 of the 500-member lower house on Thursday, after winning February’s election with his Bhumjaithai Party. Per the Thai constitution, the parliament elects the prime minister.  Anutin could form a government within the next few days, having assembled a coalition of more than a…

Chair of India’s largest private bank quits over ‘ethical differences’

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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. The chair of HDFC Bank has resigned suddenly because of “ethical differences” in a move that raised questions about the governance of India’s largest private lender. A former ministry of finance bureaucrat who was appointed as non-executive chair of the bank in 2021, Atanu Chakraborty quit after the market closed on Wednesday. “Certain happenings and practices within the bank, that I have observed over the past two years, are not…

Inside China’s robotics revolution

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Chen Liang, the founder of Guchi Robotics, an automation company headquartered in Shanghai, is a tall, heavy-set man in his mid-40s with square-rimmed glasses. His everyday manner is calm and understated, but when he is in his element – up close with the technology he builds, or in business meetings discussing the imminent replacement of human workers by robots – he wears an exuberant smile that brings to mind an intern on his first day at his dream job. Guchi makes the machines that install wheels, dashboards and windows for…