Day: July 6, 2023

Samsung forecasts 96% quarterly profit fall to 14-year low due to chip glut

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Receive free Samsung Electronics Co Ltd updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Samsung Electronics Co Ltd news every morning. Samsung Electronics has estimated its second-quarter operating profit plunged 96 per cent to the lowest in 14 years as memory chip prices continue to fall due to oversupply despite production cuts. However, the price decline has slowed as Samsung joins its rivals in cutting chip supply. Analysts expect chip prices to bottom out in the current quarter and stage a recovery next year. “We…

Taiwan disputes China’s claim of ability to sink US Navy aircraft carrier group

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Receive free Taiwan updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Taiwan news every morning. Taiwan has rejected China’s claim that it could easily sink the US Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier strike group, as Taipei seeks to strengthen public confidence and fight back against a persistent Chinese intimidation campaign. In a paper published in May, researchers at the People’s Liberation Army-backed North University of China said a war game had shown that an attack with 24 hypersonic anti-ship missiles would sink a flotilla led…

‘Keep the blade clean’: Xi’s corruption investigators turn focus on themselves

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Receive free Chinese corruption updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Chinese corruption news every morning. For 10 years, China’s president Xi Jinping has deployed the communist party’s internal watchdogs to eradicate political treachery and corruption across almost every facet of Chinese officialdom. Now, these deeply feared investigators are being let loose on a new target: themselves. At least 20 officials from China’s powerful anti-corruption units — the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and National Supervisory Commission — have come under investigation this year,…

At Vilnius Summit, NATO to Seek Concrete Actions on China

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WHITE HOUSE – As the war on Ukraine rages, Russia remains the biggest and most immediate threat for NATO. However, as allied leaders meet for their summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, next week, a key agenda item will be to implement the Strategic Concept adopted during the Madrid summit in 2022, where the alliance recognized security challenges emanating from China. NATO’s strategic concept states that the alliance faces “systemic competition” from Beijing’s “ambitions and coercive policies” that challenge members’ “interests, security and values.” While allies may agree that the China challenge…

Experts: China Sees Fukushima Water Release as Tool to Divide Seoul and Tokyo

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WASHINGTON – South Korean officials are seeking to tamp down domestic opposition to the likely release of treated wastewater from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant. The release has the potential to undermine a recent warming of relations between the two countries in the face of an increasingly aggressive China, and some analysts worry that Beijing could use it to try to drive a wedge between them. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi is expected to visit Seoul from Friday to Sunday to explain his approval for Japanese…

Chinese President Xi Jinping praises military branch central to keeping up pressure on Taiwan

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The People’s Liberation Army must boost combat readiness, Chinese President Xi Jinping told its Eastern Theatre Command, the branch central to keeping up cross-strait pressure on Taiwan, while praising its efforts in “safeguarding China’s sovereignty”. “It is imperative for us to deepen planning on war and combat, upgrade the joint system of theatre commands, focus on actual combat training, and improve our ability to win any war,” Xi said during an inspection tour of the command headquarters in Nanjing on Thursday. He also praised the command’s “significant contributions” in safeguarding…

Chinese regulator takes aim at market-moving ‘little essays’ on social media

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Receive free Chinese business & finance updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Chinese business & finance news every morning. China’s securities regulator is struggling to get to grips with a social media phenomenon that is driving share prices as stricter government control over information has forced traders and investors to turn to alternative sources. Xiaozuowen — meaning “little essay” in Chinese — is typically a small item of unverified news, shared as an image in WeChat messaging groups or other social media apps…

It’s Getting Harder to Be a Journalist in Hong Kong, Survey Finds

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Working conditions for reporters in Hong Kong have grown more challenging over the past 18 months, according to a new survey, with surveillance and wary sources among the issues that are making the reporting environment more difficult. Of the survey’s 66 respondents, 55 people — or 83% — said the landscape for reporters has worsened in the past 18 months. Published Wednesday, the anonymous survey was conducted in May by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong. “This finding, if taken as a true indication of the sentiment amongst other members,…

Japan’s Radioactive Water Release Plan Safe, IAEA Chief Says

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The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency is visiting the Asia-Pacific region this week after giving Tokyo the green light on Tuesday to release more than 1 million metric tons of treated nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. The IAEA says the water is safe for release, but the decision has done little to ease concerns of fishing and environmental communities throughout the region. VOA’s Jessica Stone reports. Voice of America

Dalai Lama celebrates 88th birthday, expects to live to 100

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The Dalai Lama celebrated his 88th birthday at his residence in Dharamsala, India, on Thursday, feted by song-and-dance performances and declaring he was in good health and expected to live to be 100. “Today, you are celebrating my 88th birthday, but when I look in the mirror, I feel I look as if I’m still in my 50s,” the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism said to those gathered for the celebration. “My face doesn’t look old, it isn’t wrinkled with age. What’s more I still have all my teeth so…