Day: August 1, 2023

Hang Seng Index laggard Country Garden Services surges 18 per cent, regains US$640 million in value on buy-back plan

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Country Garden Services Holdings, the property-management affiliate of Chinese property developer Country Garden Holdings, surged by 18 per cent to regain US$640 million in market capitalisation after it revealed a plan to buy back up to 10 per cent of its shares. The stock – the worst performer on the Hang Seng Index this year until Wednesday – closed 18 per cent higher at HK$9.91 in Hong Kong, after jumping by as much as 21 per cent in morning trading, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index fell by 2.5 per…

India’s fantasy sports sector fears new tax will kill real-money games

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Receive free Indian business & finance updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Indian business & finance news every morning. Indian authorities are set to decide on a new online gaming tax after a fierce backlash from companies and investors who warn it will kill the fast-growing multibillion-dollar industry for fantasy sports and other real-money games. The country’s Goods and Services Tax Council, a federal body that sets India’s indirect taxes, meets on Wednesday to discuss the introduction of a 28 per cent levy…

Solomon Islands newspaper pledged to promote ‘truth about China’s generosity’ in return for funding

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Local media in Solomon Islands have been accused of compromising their independence by entering into agreements with Chinese news organisations and accepting thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment from the Chinese embassy. Since the Solomon Islands government signed a high-profile security agreement with China in March 2022, some newspapers in the Pacific country have received cars, cameras, phones and printing machinery that costs thousands of dollars from the Chinese government, via its local embassy, according to local journalists. Some have raised concern about the gifts and the continued close dialogue…

Beijing must start spending to secure China’s economic future

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Receive free China Economic Slowdown updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest China Economic Slowdown news every morning. China’s economy defies analogies. Just as its growth over the past four decades was unprecedented, its current difficulties — and it certainly has a problem, if not quite a crisis — are unique. It is not Japan in 1990, Korea in 1997 or the US in 2008. China does not face a financial crisis or a balance sheet recession; indeed, with growth still roughly on course…

Beijing holds China’s economic future in its hands

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Receive free China Economic Slowdown updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest China Economic Slowdown news every morning. China’s economy defies analogies. Just as its growth over the past four decades was unprecedented, its current difficulties — and it certainly has a problem, if not quite a crisis — are unique. It is not Japan in 1990, Korea in 1997 or the US in 2008. China does not face a financial crisis or a balance sheet recession; indeed, with growth still roughly on course…

Africa sets sights on China as a top destination for military training

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The Eritrean president is among dozens of current and former African leaders who attended Chinese military schools such as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Command College in Nanjing – which hosts the highest number of African students. Another attendee was Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who came to power through a military coup that ousted long-time ruler Robert Mugabe in November 2017. He was one of Zimbabwe’s military chiefs who trained in Nanjing and was part of the core team in his country’s liberation struggle. Eritrea’s President Isaias Afewerki has spoken…

France and Japan Conduct Military Drills Amid China Tensions – but Paris Wary of NATO Role

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The French and Japanese air forces completed four days of aerial combat exercises in Japan Saturday, the first of their kind between the two allies. But even as Paris seeks to build its military alliances in the Indo-Pacific region, its government blocked proposals to open a NATO liaison office in Tokyo. Henry Ridgwell reports from Japan. Voice of America

Huge Buddha statue a fig leaf for Myanmar junta atrocities, critics say

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Myanmar’s junta inaugurated a 1,700-ton Buddha statue at a grand ceremony in the capital Tuesday that was secretly mocked by citizens used to the military’s efforts to win respectability through religion. The unveiling of the Maravijaya Buddha to mark the full moon day of Waso is the latest attempt by a military regime in Myanmar to present itself as being aligned with religion in the Buddhist-majority country, despite resorting to violence to enforce their grip on power. Civil servants had “no other choice but to go” to the ceremony, despite…

North Korea Responds to UN on US Soldier, Pentagon Says

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WASHINGTON — North Korea has offered a very brief response to the United Nations Command about a U.S. soldier who dashed across the heavily guarded border with South Korea in mid-July and was immediately taken into custody, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. However, Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said that North Korea only acknowledged the U.N. Command’s request for information about U.S. Army Private Travis King and did not offer detailed information about him. “I can confirm that the DPRK has responded to United Nations Command, but I don’t…