Day: August 19, 2023

China set to cut lending rates as economic recovery drags

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Receive free Chinese economy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Chinese economy news every morning. China is expected to make the biggest cuts this year to two of its core lending rates, as pressure mounts on policymakers and banks to reverse a trend of slowing momentum and revive flagging demand in the world’s second-biggest economy. The People’s Bank of China is set to announce reductions to both one-year and five-year loan prime rates, which affect borrowing costs for businesses and households, at a…

India to expand digital payments with AI-powered voice transactions

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Receive free Indian economy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Indian economy news every morning. India is to roll out ways of making voice-based and offline digital payments to expand the country’s fast-growing digital infrastructure and close a yawning divide between rural and urban areas. The growth of the Universal Payments Interface, a digital payments system, is an important part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitions to build out India’s digital infrastructure and bring the world’s most populous country online. Since UPI was…

Japan’s high standards of service face ‘shrinkflation’

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Receive free Japanese economy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Japanese economy news every morning. Last Sunday morning, at a large suburban restaurant, the Slow Food movement oozed its languid charms on the local breakfast crowd. Unhurried table service. A 22-minute wait for pancakes. A primeval pang of appreciation when they did turn up. Delightful but part of the scene in Genoa or Santorini; unexpected at a bustling McDonald’s just outside Yokohama. The slowness was unintentional and apologetic, and the point is not…

Philippines to Resupply South China Sea Troops After Beijing’s Block

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MANILA —  The Philippine armed forces said Saturday it would again seek to resupply troops stationed in a rusty World War II-era ship on a reef in the South China Sea, after China blocked a previous attempt with water cannons. “This exercise of our sovereign rights and jurisdiction is a testament to our firm belief in the rules-based international order that underpins regional peace and stability,” armed forces spokesperson Medel Aguilar said in a statement. Manila filed a diplomatic protest against Beijing this month after China’s coast guard used water…

Biden plan to curb China investments focuses EU minds as deadline looms

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“We are in close contact with the US administration and look forward to continued cooperation on this topic,” Ferrer said. Experts say that if Biden’s plan to block venture capital and private equity flowing into China’s semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence sectors is to work, it is essential that partners are on board – otherwise banned dollars could be theoretically replaced with euros. Advertisement Emily Benson, a trade and technology expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, pointed to last year’s export ban on cutting-edge chips to…

To the Chinese diaspora in New Zealand, China mutes critics and feeds talking points

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Su Wende’s Mandarin Pages newspaper thrived in New Zealand for years – until blacklists and advertising boycotts driven by China’s consulate cut the Chinese-language daily to a weekly.  Chen Weijian’s New Times Weekly was hit by the same tactics and then driven out of business by a lawsuit. The Auckland publishers clashed with a force that was named among top concerns by New Zealand’s intelligence agency in its annual security threat report: the targeting of ethnic Chinese communities by people and entities linked to Beijing.  The report followed a similar…

U.S.-Japan-South Korea Security Pact Likely to Deepen China’s Dismay

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Ever since members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization sprang into action to help Ukraine try to thwart Russia’s invasion last year, China has warned about a similar U.S.-led security alliance forming in Asia that would seek to hobble Beijing’s ambitions and provoke a confrontation. President Biden’s Camp David summit on Friday with the leaders of Japan and South Korea most likely reinforces Beijing’s perception. The talks saw Japan and South Korea put aside their historical animosities to forge a defense pact with the United States aimed at deterring Chinese…

Swiss National Arrested in Myanmar for Allegedly Insulting Buddhism in Film

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BANGKOK —  A Swiss citizen was arrested in military-ruled Myanmar for creating a film that allegedly insulted Buddhism, state media reported Saturday. Didier Nusbaumer, 52, was arrested on Aug. 8 along with 13 Myanmar nationals, including a 12-year-old girl, Myanma Alinn newspaper said. Insulting Buddhism is a punishable offense in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where religious nationalism has surged in recent years. About 90% of Myanmar people are Buddhist. The news report said that Nusbaumer wrote, filmed and edited the 75-minute movie Don’t Expect Anything, which was posted on YouTube on July…

China launches military drills around Taiwan after vice-president’s US stopover

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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. China has launched military exercises around Taiwan, lashing out against the country’s vice-president and election frontrunner Lai Ching-te for visiting the US this week. The drills, which the People’s Liberation Army called a “serious warning against the provocation of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces colluding with external forces”, came after Lai returned on Friday from one of the most low-profile US visits by a top Taiwanese politician in recent years. Lai made…

In China, Artists Create Miniature Homes From Memories

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Not long after Shen Peng’s grandfather died, his grandmother visited the site of the house where she and her husband once lived. The government had demolished the house, in northern China, nearly 15 years before as part of a redevelopment project. The site still hadn’t been developed, and she could barely walk around the family’s old plot because the grass was so overgrown. Mr. Shen wondered: Could he help her relive her memories another way? For more than six months, he labored in secret after his day job as a…