China Financial News

By Ryan Woo and Liangping Gao

The script at China’s National People’s Congress is pre-determined months before the event, but there had been speculation this week that Beijing might name a new foreign minister. Instead, it seems senior diplomat Wang Yi will continue in the role. The world’s second-largest economy has missed a trick.

TikTok once again finds itself in a precarious position

Arizona officials say a Saudi-owned company they targeted over its use of virtually unfettered amounts of groundwater to grow forage crops is moving its farming operation out of a valley in the Southwestern state’s rural west

French Open badminton crown for the second time with a dominating straight game win over Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan in the men's doubles final here on Sunday. The world No. 1 Indian pair had finished runners-up in the French Open in 2019 before winning the title in 2022. On Sunday, the Asian Games champions outwitted Lee and Yang 21-11 21-17 in 37 minutes to regain the Super 750 tournament title and also win their first crown of the season after reaching the summit clash for the third time in 2023. The Indian duo had finished second best at Malaysia Super 1000, India Super 750 this year, while signing off as runners-up at China Masters Super 750 as well last year.

Russia-Ukraine conflict raged in 2022, the United States started «preparing rigorously» for a potential nuclear strike by Moscow against Kyiv, in what would have been the first nuclear attack since the US dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki nearly eighty years before, CNN reported citing two senior administration officials. The report stated that outreach from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other countries also played an important role in averting the crisis. The Biden administration was specifically concerned Russia might use a tactical or battlefield nuclear weapon, the officials said.

BEIJING (Reuters) — Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) said on Sunday its cranes do not pose a cybersecurity threat, after U.S. congressional committees questioned the Chinese state-owned company's work on cranes bound for the United States.

By Peter Hobson

By Maha El Dahan and Yousef Saba

India signed a free trade pact on Sunday with a group of European nations — Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein — committing to reduce tariffs, while New Delhi receives $100 billion in investments over the next 15 years. India and the members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) held 21 rounds of talks over 16 years to clinch the broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement. Here are key facts about the trade pact:

Chinese tech companies, including memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, in a fresh bid to restrain the Asian country’s development of advanced semiconductors. The US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is considering adding ChangXin to its so-called Entity List, which restricts companies’ access to US technology, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the conversations are private. BIS is also considering restricting five other Chinese firms, the people said, while emphasizing that the list isn’t final.

China has intensified efforts to block software that enables internet users to access banned websites during a top political meeting this week, a leading provider of firewall-leaping software told AFP. Beijing operates some of the world's most extensive censorship over the internet, with web users in mainland China unable to access everything from Google to news websites without using a virtual private network (VPN).

European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged for a fourth meeting as a softer outlook for inflation and economic growth bolstered expectations for cuts starting in June. Separate data showed the euro-area economy stagnated at the end of last year, underscoring the central bank’s forecast for slower growth in 2024 than previously estimated. In the US, the unemployment rate climbed to a two-year high in February even as hiring remained healthy, pointing to a cooler yet resilient labour market. In Japan, inflation in Tokyo last month surged back above the central bank’s target, bolstering the case to raise interest rates.

class sizes across Canada, a new study is suggesting “smaller class sizes” may not give students a boost after all.The study found minimizing the number of students in classrooms did not lead to better grades, and suggests it may even decrease their odds at achieving the best results. The study looked at data from Macau, China and Japan, of 2,700 “disadvantaged” secondary school students with class sizes of 15 or fewer pupils to more than 50.It notes the quantity of teachers didn’t increase the odds for students from what they deemed the poorest backgrounds.

China, Xi Jinping appears imperiously assured that he possesses the right road map to surpass Western rivals. China's economy has lurched into a slower gear. Its population is shrinking and aging. Its rival, the United States, has built up a lead in artificial intelligence. Xi's pronouncement several years ago that the «East is rising and West is declining» — that his country was on the way up while American power shrank — now seems premature, if not outright hubristic.

Zardari, was resoundingly elected as Pakistan's 14th President on Saturday, making history as the nation's only civilian leader for a second time. Zardari, the co-chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was the joint candidate of the ruling alliance of the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

ByteDance to divest TikTok, rather than simply banning the short video app used by 170 million Americans, the Justice Department told Congress in a document seen by Reuters. Lawmakers and the Biden administration say TikTok poses enormous national security risks because the Chinese government could gain access to data from millions of American users.

Kazakhstan with its hackers penetrating the telecom sector of the region’s biggest country. Kazakhstan’s National Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert.kz), has recently alleged that a group of Chinese hackers had access to the infrastructure of Kazakhstani telecommunication operators for two years, according to persons familiar with the development. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defence and the country’s national airline may have been one of the targets. At least one Chinese hacker group had full access to the critical infrastructure of Kazakhstani telecommunication operators in the past two years. The Kazakh Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry Ministry said in a statement on 20 February 2024 that it has, together with the National Security Committee, (KNB), begun analyzing the leaked information to learn more.

India’s fledgling electric vehicle market on expectations that a government push towards ecofriendly mobility and greater consumer awareness will further accelerate sales. Domestic electric passenger vehicle sales have picked up pace, with the number of mass-market models growing threefold to a dozen by seven companies in 2023, from just four models by three manufacturers prior to the pandemic, according to data collated by automotive market research firm Jato Dynamics. Tata Motors dominates the local EV market with its Tiago, Nexon, Tigor and Punch, followed by MG Motor India and Mahindra & Mahindra. China’s BYD, a relatively new entrant, is making strong inroads, surging ahead of even established rivals such as South Korea’s Hyundai and Kia. BYD, the world's number one electric vehicle maker, launched the Seal sedan earlier this week — the third model in its portfolio after the e6 multipurpose vehicle and Atto 3 SUV.

India will soon start making equipment for semiconductor manufacturing, Union telecom and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday. «The entire semiconductor ecosystem of fabs, ATMP units, chemicals, gases, substrate, consumables and equipment for semiconductor manufacturing will be made in India,» he said. He was speaking at the inauguration of American chip equipment supplier Applied Materials' India Validation Centre in Bengaluru which was set up at a cost of $20 million.

India will soon start making equipment for semiconductor manufacturing, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday. “The entire semiconductor ecosystem of fabs, ATMP units, chemicals, gases, substrate, consumables and equipment for semiconductor manufacturing will be made in India,” he said. He was speaking at the inauguration of American chip equipment supplier Applied Materials’ India Validation Centre in Bengaluru which was set up at a cost of $20 million.