Day: January 8, 2024

Pakistan’s top court paves way for ex-premier Sharif to contest election

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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. Pakistan’s Supreme Court has scrapped lifetime bans on people with criminal convictions from contesting elections, opening the way for Nawaz Sharif to run for prime minister for a fourth time in elections due next month. Sharif, 74, returned from self-imposed exile in the UK in October. He was removed as prime minister by the Supreme Court in 2017 over “dishonest practices” following revelations of unaccounted family wealth. The ruling late…

Soldier’s freezing death prompts military to build inns across country

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After a soldier froze to death in November due to a lack of lodging, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally ordered the construction of inns and restaurants specifically for military use, residents in the country told Radio Free Asia. The soldier was traveling for work, delivering secret documents from one part of the country to another. When he arrived in Hamju county in the eastern province of South Hamgyong, he was not able to afford a room, so he stayed out in the open air and froze to death,…

Samsung earnings signal chip sector turnaround in 2024

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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. Operating profit at Samsung Electronics fell by more than a third in the fourth quarter despite a rebound in chip prices, but analysts expect a semiconductor industry recovery to gather pace this year on growing demand for high-performance chips. The world’s largest memory-chip maker estimated on Tuesday that operating profit fell 35 per cent to Won2.8tn ($2.1bn) in preliminary numbers for its October-December quarter. That was worse than analysts’ expectations…

S Korea revamps National Security Office with economic focus

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South Korea has reorganized its National Security Office to prioritize “economic security,” reflecting a growing global trend where countries are combining their economic and political tactics to optimize their diplomatic interests.  Established in 2013, the office serves as a control tower to oversee the national security affairs of South Korea and frequently holds emergency meetings when North Korea shows hostile or provocative movements towards the South. Its director often serves as the counterpart of the National Security Advisor of the United States. South Korea’s President Yook Suk Yeol convened a…

Xi Jinping tells China’s corruption hunters to show no mercy in ‘severe and complex’ battle

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The campaign, which has netted thousands of officials since 2013, last year intensively targeted the country’s vast and opaque financial and healthcare sector. This year, the focus should be on “high-risk areas”, such as finance, state-owned businesses, energy, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure and engineering, said Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party. Will China’s anti-corruption crackdown remedy its healthcare woes? Xi called on the CCDI cadres to “fully centralise funds and resources to … clean up hidden risks, punish bribes and corruption” to give people “a greater sense of…

Chinese city offers firms 6-figure subsidies to keep fires burning for Lunar New Year holiday

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China’s southern export hub of Dongguan has announced it would issue sizeable subsidies to local enterprises over the coming two months to maintain stable production over the course of a long holiday period, mitigating disruptions and ensuring a robust start to the year. The city will offer subsidies of up to 600,000 yuan (US$84,289) each to manufacturers that maintain full-scale production for the whole of February, according to a 14-point plan released by its development and reform bureau last week. Dongguan will also provide transport subsidies of up to 300…

Alibaba’s AliExpress, PDD-owned Temu face supply chain challenges in South Korea amid rapid business expansion

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This article was first published by The Korea Times in a partnership with the South China Morning Post. China’s e-commerce giants are now the fastest-growing online platforms for Korean shoppers, but they are still grappling with problems of long delivery time and unstable product quality, according to consumers and retail industry officials. Alibaba Group Holding and PDD, two of the largest e-commerce companies in China, have been aggressively expanding their foothold in South Korea, offering prices as low as US$1 for some small gadgets on their overseas shopping platforms AliExpress…

Chinese military scientists bring energy shield from science fiction to life to defend against enemy radiation: paper

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These powerful waves wreak havoc on the electrical currents within the chip and send its internal temperature soaring. The team led by Chen Zongsheng, an associate researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Pulsed Power Laser Technology at the National University of Defence Technology, said their “low-temperature plasma shield” could protect sensitive circuits from electromagnetic weapon bombardments with up to 170kW at a distance of only 3 metres (9.8 feet). Laboratory tests have shown the feasibility of this unusual technology. “We’re in the process of developing miniaturised devices to bring…

In the race for AI supremacy, China and the US are travelling on entirely different tracks | Manya Koetse

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Of the many events that stand out as noteworthy in online discussions across Chinese social media in 2023, it’s perhaps the rise of ChatGPT that will prove to be the most significant. Although the chatbot made by the US-based OpenAI was officially launched in late 2022, it took until 2023 for its unprecedented growth to raise eyebrows in China, where the government has set the goal of becoming the global AI leader by 2030. Over the past decade, the focus on AI in Chinese society and digital culture has grown.…

US naval officer sentenced to two years in prison over spying for China

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A US navy petty officer who pleaded guilty to providing sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Monday, the US justice department said. Wenheng Zhao, 26, and another US sailor, Jinchao Wei, were arrested in August on suspicion of spying for China. Zhao pleaded guilty in a federal court in California in October to charges of conspiring with a foreign intelligence officer and accepting a bribe. He was sentenced on Monday to 27 months in prison and a $5,500…