Day: February 7, 2024

China’s seed industry at least a generation behind as Western giants enter ‘Industry 4.0 Era’, must increase collaboration

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China’s seed industry is at least a generation behind the Western giants in terms of technology, with a government-backed agency calling for enhanced financial, infrastructural and talent support for domestic suppliers in a rare but candid assessment of the sector. The China Seed Association, backed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, last week also encouraged firms to expand international collaboration efforts. “Overseas seed giants have entered the ‘Industry 4.0 Era’ utilising big data, artificial intelligence and gene editing, while Chinese seed suppliers are still in the transition stage to…

Chinese-Born Man Arrested in California for Theft of Trade Secrets

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WASHINGTON —  A Chinese-born U.S. researcher has been arrested on charges of stealing trade secrets, including technology used to detect nuclear missile launches, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, California, was arrested on Tuesday, the department said in a statement. Gong, who became a US citizen in 2011, is accused of transferring more than 3,600 files from the research and development company where he briefly worked to personal storage devices. The company was not identified. According to court documents, the files included blueprints for infrared…

Will Pakistan’s military regret turning on Imran Khan?

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Across Pakistan, colourful posters of candidates and their party symbols — tigers, arrows, kites — are strung over alleys and roads in a carnivalesque reminder of the scale of Thursday’s general election in the country of 240mn people. Absent from the display, however, is arguably the most talked-about symbol of all: the cricket bat representing the party of Imran Khan, the World Cup-winning all-rounder who went on to become prime minister and Pakistan’s most popular leader in a generation. The 71-year-old is watching the election unfold from a jail cell,…

North Korea Scraps Economic Cooperation with South Korea

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SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —  North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly has voted to scrap all agreements with South Korea on promoting economic cooperation, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported on Thursday, as the two Koreas’ ties continue to deteriorate. The assembly, which takes formal steps to adopt policy decisions of the ruling Workers’ Party, also voted to abolish laws governing economic ties with Seoul, including the special law on the operation of the Mount Kumgang tourism project. The tours to the scenic mountain just north of the eastern border were…

China’s prices fall at fastest rate in 15 years as economy battles deflation

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Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. China’s consumer prices fell at the fast rate in 15 years in January, missing analysts’ forecasts and underlining the challenges for policymakers to revive investor confidence in the world’s second-largest economy. The country’s consumer price index fell 0.8 per cent year on year in January, according to official statistics released on Thursday, the fourth straight month of declines and the biggest contraction since 2009. The fall, which was steeper than…

Mexico Overtakes China as Leading Source of Goods Imported to US

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WASHINGTON —  For the first time in more than two decades, Mexico last year surpassed China as the leading source of goods imported to the United States. The shift reflects the growing tensions between Washington and Beijing as well as U.S. efforts to import from countries that are friendlier and closer to home. Figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Commerce Department show that the value of goods imported to the United States from Mexico rose nearly 5% from 2022 to 2023, to more than $475 billion. At the same time,…

China inflation: consumer prices fall for fourth straight month in January, adding to deflation concerns

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Meanwhile, China’s producer price index (PPI) – which measures the cost of goods at the factory gate – declined by 2.5 per cent year on year last month, compared to a fall of 2.7 per cent in December and marking the 16th straight month of decline. Wind had predicted a 2.5 per cent fall. Unlike many parts of the world that have experienced inflation in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, China has seen growing risks of deflation. Food and energy prices have an estimated combined 43 per cent weighting…

Myanmar Fighting Raises Hopes, Fears in Bangladesh

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Growing apprehension is palpable in Bangladesh as the civil war in neighboring Myanmar inches closer to its border, with two deaths reported Tuesday when stray shells from Myanmar landed in a village in the hilly Bandarban District. Aware of the rising threat, Bangladesh placed security forces on high alert along its 270-mile frontier with Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state, with particular focus on the Naf River that serves as a natural boundary. Historically known as Arakan, Myanmar’s Rakhine state was the site of a brutal military crackdown in 2017 that drove…

North Koreans working in China ‘exploited like slaves’

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“Some people didn’t receive heating in their accommodation over the harsh winter months, and they couldn’t leave their compound at all, not even to shop for necessities,” he said. Jung was allowed to make one trip outside a week, accompanied by others, but during Covid even this little freedom was removed, he said, and he was not allowed to leave his workplace for a year. BBC

Hong Kong’s Messi backlash says more about digital fandom than football

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Of the many short videos that have spooled across social media since Sunday’s debacle in Hong Kong, the finest captures an enraged spectator kicking Lionel Messi’s head clean off his neck. The savagery — unleashed after an injured Messi failed to play in a showcase match on the island — was inflicted on a life-sized cut-out of the eight-time Ballon d’Or-winning superstar, which stood outside the Hong Kong Stadium. The Argentine striker’s four cardboard compadres, teammates from the Inter Miami pantheon, remained unharmed. The fact that this moment was filmed,…