Day: November 1, 2023

China ‘cooperating’ with Finland over damaged pipeline

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China is cooperating with Helsinki’s investigation into the damaged Balticconnector gas pipeline, in which a Chinese vessel has been named as the prime suspect, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said.  “We have opened diplomatic discussions with the Chinese and also we have started cooperation with Chinese authorities,” Orpo told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Nordic countries in Oslo on Tuesday. His comments come as the suspected ship changed its operator. Finnish police last week named the Hong Kong-flagged container vessel Newnew Polar Bear as their main suspect…

Li Keqiang funeral in China brings out crowds despite suppression effort

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Hundreds of people gathered near a state funeral home in China on Thursday as former premier Li Keqiang was being laid to rest. Plainclothes and uniformed police lined the roadway leading to the funeral home, blocking traffic and telling people to move along while watching for the presence of unofficial or foreign media. Public tributes to Li have been strictly controlled as the government seeks to prevent a mass outpouring of grief that it regards as a possible trigger for social unrest. But despite censorship targeting “overly effusive” comments and…

China and US reportedly agree to rare nuclear arms control talks

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China and the United States will reportedly discuss nuclear arms control next week, the first such talks since the Obama administration. The talks would be led on Monday by Mallory Stewart, a senior state department official, and Sun Xiaobo, the head of the arms control department at China’s foreign ministry, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. On Monday, China’s foreign ministry said the two countries would hold “consultations on arms control and non-proliferation” in the coming days, as well as separate talks on maritime affairs and other issues. It…

How to grow China’s soft power: love dogs, don’t eat them

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Last week, when I learned that one of my family’s pet dogs was dying from a long-time tumour, which was too close to a blood vessel to be removed, I left an important meeting in Shanghai and rushed back home to Beijing, hoping to do something to prolong his life or ease his pain. But he died an hour before I could get there. Losing our pet of 13 years, all my family cried. I belong to a rapidly growing population of pet lovers in China. Indeed, raising a pet…

Costs of US chip curbs force China’s YMTC into major fundraising round

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. China’s biggest memory chipmaker has had to raise billions of dollars in fresh capital, after burning through $7bn in funding over the past year trying to adapt to tough US restrictions on its business. Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp, which last December was added to a trade blacklist and prohibited from procuring US equipment to manufacture chips, exceeded its target for a new round, according to four people familiar with the…

Should investors be spooked by Tokyo’s Halloween?

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. By 10.15 on Tuesday night, Princess Peach, Luigi and a reanimated vampire corpse had cut their losses. The once simple joy of dressing up, getting sloshed and being a mild public nuisance had just become too onerous. In their fallback position, drinking outside a FamilyMart roughly 500 metres from the centre of Tokyo’s youth-centric Shibuya district, the trio had space to dissect their disappointment in Halloween 2023. They may not…

‘Culture is humanity’: cultural diplomacy expert Cathy Barbash reflects on 30 years of building US-China ties

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When Cathy Barbash first visited Beijing in the spring of 1993, she knew she had an important mission. As an orchestra manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra, she was expected to lay the groundwork for a performance in the Chinese capital to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the ensemble’s historic 1973 trip. That year it became the first American orchestra to perform in China following Richard Nixon’s ice-breaking visit to Beijing the year before. “It was very emotional, because when the orchestra went in 1973, of course it was history-making, but…

The breakdown of China’s social contract

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In Yuxinzhuang village, a warren of narrow streets on Beijing’s outskirts known for its vibrant community of migrant workers, Zhou wolfs down noodles in a tiny Muslim restaurant. The 30-year-old father of one has a job setting up shell companies with fake cash flow for struggling small business owners, who then use them to raise new loans to pay off their previous creditors. But even this dubious line of business, which should thrive in a downturn, is suffering from China’s economic slowdown. Last month, Zhou’s income fell to a fraction…

Police harass environmental activists in Phnom Penh

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The activists, dressed in clothes made of plastic bags and carrying signs emblazoned with environmentalist slogans, marched to the rallying point where they would submit their petition to Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment. It was supposed to be a peaceful march to urge the government to raise taxes on plastic bags and charge customers more for using them, in a bid to protect Cambodia’s environment. But plainclothes officers blocked the way of the 20 marchers, pushed them, snatched their phones, and attempted to confiscate their banners. “They didn’t listen to us.…

US Intelligence Agency Optimistic It Can Gauge China’s ‘Will to Fight’ 

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washington —  A top U.S. intelligence official is confident his agency will not fall victim to the same mistakes that allowed the United States to misjudge the military will of allies and adversaries in recent years. U.S. intelligence has been widely criticized for overestimating the “will to fight” of the Afghan military, which collapsed as U.S. forces were withdrawing from the country, and for underestimating the ability of Ukrainian forces to hold off the Russian invasion. But Defense Intelligence Agency Director Scott Berrier told an audience Wednesday that he was…