Day: January 24, 2024

EU says any retaliatory trade probe by China must be ‘based on facts’

Media Library

“Something I’ve emphasised in my contacts with Chinese counterparts is that our investigation is going to be based on the rules and based on facts and figures, so it’s not arbitrary,” said Dombrovskis, who is from Latvia. 02:54 French and EU leaders visit China to discuss trade and the Russia-Ukraine war French and EU leaders visit China to discuss trade and the Russia-Ukraine war “Countries may have trade disputes, that is not unheard of, but it’s important that we follow rules and procedures to address them … I am emphasising…

Lithium price plunges on slowing Chinese demand for electric vehicles

Media Library

Lithium miners are cutting costs and scaling back plans to expand production after slowing demand in China for electric vehicles crushed the price of the battery metal. The price of lithium has tumbled more than 80 per cent in the past year to $13,200 per tonne, its lowest level since 2020, after excessive levels of supply hit the market, according to data group Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. The fallout has pushed miners — mainly in Australia, which produces 40 per cent of the world’s supplies — to constrain production as decelerating…

SK Hynix returns to profit boosted by AI memory chip demand

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Chipmaker SK Hynix reported its first quarterly operating profit in more than a year as it benefited from booming demand for high-end artificial intelligence memory chips. The South Korean company, which supplies the “high bandwidth memory” chips used in Nvidia’s H100 graphics processing units, posted an operating profit of Won346bn ($260mn) in the three months to December 31, outstripping analysts’ expectations compiled by LSEG SmartEstimates of a Won192bn loss. That…

North Korea Says It Tested New Strategic Cruise Missile  

Media Library

SEOUL, South Korea —  North Korea said Thursday that it had conducted its first flight test of a new cruise missile, as it expands its military capabilities in the face of deepening tensions with the United States and neighbors. The report in state media came a day after South Korea’s military said it had detected the North firing several cruise missiles into waters off its western coast. The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff did not provide more specific assessments, including the number of missiles fired or their flight characteristics. The…

Kim Jong Un acknowledges dire state of economy, urges action

Media Library

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un made a rare acknowledgement on the dire state of his country’s economy, urging ruling party officials to take immediate action. Speaking at the two-day party meeting, which began Tuesday, Kim labeled the economic problem as a “serious political issue,” saying that his government revealed the “inability to provide even basic necessities such as basic foodstuffs, groceries, and consumer goods to the local people.” “The overall local economy is currently in a very pitiful state, lacking even basic conditions,” Kim said at a politburo plenary…

China’s Foreign Visitor Numbers Slow to Recover

Media Library

Austin, Texas —  As China tries to show itself as welcoming foreign trade and tourism, its border authorities announced last week that the country had more than 35 million entries and exits by foreign nationals in 2023. That was nearly seven times more than 2022, when Beijing’s draconian Zero-COVID policy was still in effect and visitors stayed away. Still, the 2023 figure is around a third of the 97 million foreigner border crossings that were recorded in 2019 before the pandemic. Experts and visa applicants say concerns about personal freedom…

China sees hi-tech innovation as a boon for its global competitiveness and manufacturing dominance

Media Library

In the face of Washington’s tech-containment efforts, Beijing has unveiled a new strategy to turn home-grown innovations into commercialised products that it hopes will compete with international offerings. The ambitious plan, unveiled on Tuesday, will revolve around forming five advanced pilot-scale production facilities that are intended to help China climb up the global value chain and consolidate its status as the world’s top manufacturer. “We need to promote the simultaneous development of pilot-scale trials, innovation chains and industrial chains to provide strong support for the high-quality development of the manufacturing…

Vietnamese prisoner under constant surveillance: family member

Media Library

Vietnamese prisoner Huynh Minh Tam, who is serving an eight-year prison sentence for “anti-state propaganda,” has claimed he has been kept in solitary confinement for four years, with a camera monitoring his every move. Tam told his sister Huynh Thi To Nga about the surveillance when she visited him at Gia Trung Prison on Sunday. Tam and Nga were both arrested in Jan. 2019 and sentenced in November of the same year. Nga received a two-year sentence and was freed in March last year. Speaking to Radio Free Asia on…

Tuvalu election: what’s happening, and what could it mean for Taiwan, China and the Pacific?

Media Library

On Friday, the small Pacific island nation of Tuvalu will head to the polls to elect members of its 16-seat parliament. With the country’s population sitting at just over 11,000, Tuvalu’s elections rarely spark international headlines. But, against a backdrop of intense geopolitical competition and China’s rising influence in the region, greater scrutiny surrounds this year’s vote – and its outcome may have implications far beyond Tuvalu’s shores. What is happening? Candidates in Tuvalu are battling for one of the two seats in each of Tuvalu’s eight island electorates. Many…

In South Korea, a quiet debate over conscription is heating up

Media Library

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. South Koreans tend not to think about North Korea very much. But for me, this year will be different. Just after the new year began, my 19-year-old son suspended his university studies to join a frontline unit for his compulsory military service. Attending a ceremony for the new recruits in the freezing Seoul weather, many parents were visibly worried as to how their sons would adapt to military life. The…