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How Chinese networks clean dirty money on a vast scale

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IT IS RARE these days for America and China to co-operate on anything. During a three-day visit to Beijing and Shanghai, beginning on April 24th, America’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will press his hosts to stop sending weapons-related materials to Russia’s defence industries. He will be lucky to get much more than a polite smile. So it is noteworthy that the two countries have recently decided to boost mutual support in another domain: the fight against money-laundering. This month they launched a new bilateral forum to discuss the problem.…

Myanmar’s figurehead vice president, holdover from Suu Kyi’s government, retires

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BANGKOK —  Myanmar’s Vice President Henry Van Thio, who served in the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and then continued in the position after the military ousted her to seize power in 2021, is stepping down for unspecified health reasons, state media said Monday. State television MRTV announced Monday night that 65-year-old Van Thio had been allowed to retire from his post for health reasons in accordance with the constitution but did not provide any details of his health or say who, if anyone, will replace him. Van…

Smuggling of used cars into North Korea rises amid post-COVID demand

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A recent surge in demand for used cars in North Korea has triggered an increase in car smuggling from China, with dozens of vehicles crossing a shallow section of the Yalu River every day, several sources told Radio Free Asia. The used vehicles include a variety of cars that are often dismantled once they reach North Korea so that their parts can be used for the repair and maintenance of other vehicles, the sources said. Trucks are also among the recent imports, raising the possibility that they’re needed on development…

INTERVIEW: ‘There’s exposure across Wall Street’

Chin@Strategy

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party last week released a report detailing investments by two American financial institutions for Chinese companies “red-flagged or blacklisted” by the United States for advancing China’s military or for rights abuses. The report says two fund providers, in particular, are responsible for funneling billions of dollars invested by regular Americans in their index and retirement funds into the companies – even if it’s all legal. The first, MSCI, which it calls “the world’s foremost index fund provider,” has $3.7 billion invested in…

Chile’s tariffs on Chinese steel products boost local steelmaker CAP’s stock

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The Chilean government’s decision to impose anti-dumping tariffs on two steel products from China boosted shares of the local steelmaker CAP on Monday, which decided to suspend an announced closure of a plant. Shares of the local steel company rose up to 3.1 per cent on Monday morning on the Santiago Stock Exchange. Chile’s finance ministry published a decree over the weekend that imposed a “provisional antidumping duty” of 24.9 per cent on steel bars to manufacture conventional grinding balls with a diameter of less than four inches and 33.5…

Record rainfall hits southern China, triggering mass evacuations

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State media in China say heavy rainfall in the southern part of the country has forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate, destroying homes and causing multiple fatalities. China’s Xinhua News Agency says at least four people have died and 10 are missing, adding that the storms hitting the area, once dubbed the factory of the world,” could lead to flooding that hasn’t been seen in a century. As of Monday, Guangdong province’s capital, Guangzhou, received more monthly rainfall in April — about 24 inches — than since record-keeping…

Top Chinese General Takes Harsh Line on Taiwan, Other Disputes at International Naval Gathering

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One of China’s top military leaders took a harsh line on regional territorial disputes, telling an international naval gathering in northeastern China on Monday that the country would strike back with force if its interests came under threat. The 19th biennial meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium opened in Qingdao, where China’s northern naval force is based, providing a vivid backdrop to China’s massive military expansion over the past two decades that has seen it build or refurbish three aircraft carriers. The two-day talks have drawn representatives from partners…

Germany arrests three on suspicion of spying for China, as Britain charges two

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The double whammy comes amid rising anxiety in some European capitals over the threat of Chinese surveillance practices and as authorities mull how to counter foreign interference in democratic institutions, industry and academia. “We are aware of the significant threat posed by Chinese espionage in business, industry and science,” said Nancy Faeser, the German interior minister, in a statement. In Germany, the suspects are accused of gathering sensitive industrial data with military uses, with a view to “expanding China’s maritime combat power”, the prosecutor said in a statement. The arrest…

Three German citizens arrested on suspicion of spying for China

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Three German citizens, a married couple from Düsseldorf and a man from Bad Homburg, have been arrested on suspicion of spying on behalf of China, prosecutors have said, in the second high-profile alleged espionage case reported in the country in days. The three are accused of passing on technical military knowhow to Chinese authorities in return for money. The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said it could be “just the tip of the iceberg” of spy rings operating in Germany. In one case, prosecutors allege, the trio exported a…

In Myanmar, paying bribes to evade the draft

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Myanmar’s military draft has created a cottage industry of corruption as administrators across the country offer eligible citizens a way out of fighting in exchange for a price, Radio Free Asia has learned. Desperate to shore up its dwindling ranks amid mounting losses to rebel groups and mass surrenders, the junta enacted a conscription law that came into effect in April, three years after the military seized power in a coup d’etat. Now anyone aged 18-35 can be forced to serve for up to five years – and local administrators…