Day: September 5, 2023

Xi Jinping’s absence from G20 frustrates European leaders eager for time with China’s decision maker

Media Library

European leaders’ efforts to gain a diplomatic foothold with China have been frustrated by President Xi Jinping’s decision to skip this week’s G20 summit in New Delhi. Capitals are increasingly of the view that Xi alone calls the shots in today’s China, and that time with him is a precious opportunity to pitch a Eurocentric view of key issues, starting with Ukraine, that he is unlikely to hear from his small pool of advisers. Last week, European Council President Charles Michel was informed that his meeting with Xi on the…

Tech war: top Chinese chip maker SMIC under the spotlight for ‘breakthrough’ 5G processor used in Huawei’s latest Mate smartphone

Media Library

US semiconductor research firm TechInsights said in a report that SMIC made the Kirin 9000s via its 7-nanometer process, known as the N+2 node, fuelling speculation that the chip maker was helping Huawei clandestinely overcome stifling US tech sanctions. A specialist removes a Kirin 9000s processor, reportedly fabricated in China by chip maker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, from a Huawei Technologies Mate 60 Pro smartphone in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, on September 3, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg That breakthrough in developing a new 5G processor in mainland China is expected…

Economic, Strategic Concerns Seen Pushing Vietnam Toward US

Media Library

An unsettling mix of economic and strategic pressures is seen as pushing Vietnam toward a historic upgrade in relations with the United States, part of a broader realignment that is expected to include closer ties with several U.S. allies in Asia. U.S. President Joe Biden will arrive in Hanoi on Sunday for talks with Vietnam’s top leaders on ways to deepen bilateral ties, the White House announced last week. The visit comes at the invitation of Nguyen Phu Trong, secretary general of the Communist Party of Vietnam, following a telephone…

Miners’ hunt for copper takes Barrick to Pakistan’s western frontier

Media Library

For three decades, international mining companies have tussled with officials and locals over a patch of desert around an extinct volcano in Pakistan’s neglected, insurgent-prone western province of Balochistan. Now, after resolving years of legal disputes, Barrick Gold wants to invest $7bn to revive the mining project, Reko Diq, which experts believe contains one of the world’s largest untapped reserves of copper and gold. Barrick and Pakistani authorities say Reko Diq will not only be Pakistan’s largest foreign fixed investment but a vital source of copper — a key component…

Inflation worries fuel Japanese rush to buy gold

Media Library

Receive free Japanese economy updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Japanese economy news every morning. The retail price of gold in Japan has jumped to an all-time high as the yen extends its historic slide against the US dollar and cash-laden households rush to find a hedge against inflation. Buying of yen-denominated gold at the nation’s largest dealer has driven the price of the yellow metal above the ¥10,000 per gramme level for the first time in recent days. It was trading at…

China dodges western 5G chip embargo with new Huawei Mate 60 phone

Media Library

China has produced a 5G smartphone using an advanced silicon chip on a scale of miniaturisation that was thought to be beyond its capabilities due to US-led export restrictions, analysts have said. Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro is powered by a new Kirin 9000s chip that was made in China by the partly state-owned Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), the analysis firm TechInsights said. Its processor is the first to use SMIC’s most advanced 7 nanometre (nm) technology and suggests the Chinese government is making some headway in attempts to build…

Japan seeks revival as a semiconductor powerhouse

Media Library

Receive free Semiconductors updates We’ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Semiconductors news every morning. There was a feeling of national pride in Japan as the biggest participants in the semiconductor industry from ASML to Applied Materials to Lam Research gathered on the northern island of Hokkaido when construction for the country’s new chip plant kicked off last week.  In front of the gathered guests, trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura boasted that Chitose, a city of less than 100,000 people where the plant for newly formed…

China’s ‘economic momentum is still weak’: 4 takeaways from August’s manufacturing, services activity data

Media Library

The Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing PMI, meanwhile, rose to 51 in August from 49.2 in July, marking the highest reading since February. “The Caixin manufacturing PMI rose by a larger clip compared with the official manufacturing index in August,” added analysts at Capital Economics. “Taken together, the average of the two is consistent with downward pressure on factory activity dissipating last month. Advertisement “The big picture is that overall economic momentum remains weak. But policy support is now being ramped up. Assuming this continues, then a modest cyclical rebound is likely.”…

Family blames police brutality for death of 28-year-old Vietnamese man

Media Library

Hours after being detained by police on Sunday, a 28-year-old Vietnamese man died. Family members accuse officers of beating him to death, saying his body was covered with bruises. Authorities, however, say Bui Van Hai died in the hospital after Duc Linh district police rushed him there when he showed signs of “fatigue and difficulty breathing,” a statement in Tuesday’s People’s Public Security Newspaper said.  The report said he was accused of stealing two dogs. Either way, Hai is the latest person to die from “unidentified causes” while in Vietnamese…

China’s foreign-investment push still boils down to transparency and cumbersome restrictions, business groups say

Media Library

Foreign investors remain deeply concerned about China’s tightening grip on matters of national security, and they are calling for greater transparency by Beijing to improve the business environment as they await the impact of policy changes and support measures. “New data privacy and counter-espionage laws have led some international companies to segregate their China operations, inhibiting integration and FDI inflow. A review of these regulations is imperative,” and Beijing needs to better integrate and open up into globalisation, said Noah Fraser, managing director and chief representative at the Canada China…