Day: March 10, 2024

Ex-workers at Temu owner PDD suffer surveillance and financial ruin over non-competes

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After graduating from a Shanghai university in 2022, self-described introvert Yao joined the grocery operations of the city’s fastest-rising tech giant, Pinduoduo.   A year later, he found himself losing his hair, one sign of the stress of his entry-level job, and decided to find work elsewhere. Soon after leaving, he was put under surveillance by Pinduoduo. A subsequent labour arbitration case means he now owes the Chinese tech giant around double the amount he earned during his year of working there. Yao is one of at least a dozen former…

How high will the BoJ go after ditching negative interest rates?

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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. Policymakers at the Bank of Japan are tackling a series of thorny policy debates as they confront the practicalities of raising interest rates for the first time since the summer of 2006. While Japan’s central bank has signalled that it is almost ready to end an unprecedented era of cheap money, with the first rate increase expected as early as March or April, it still faces a number of challenging…

China touts openness while tightening control

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The dimming of the spotlight on the premier, along with a shorter congress this year, are all signs of ongoing structural change within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) where President Xi Jinping is increasingly accumulating power at the expense of other individuals and institutions, noted Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore who studies Chinese governance. BBC

China cuts arms imports to rely more on its own weapons tech but Russia still biggest overseas supplier: SIPRI

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Despite the war with Russia, Ukraine remained the third-largest source of China’s imports with 8.2 per cent, supplying gas turbines for destroyers and engines for China’s L-15 trainer/light combat aircraft. SIPRI did not say how China’s imports from Russia and Ukraine changed after the Russian invasion in early 2022. But previous reports from the institute said Ukraine accounted for 5.9 per cent of China’s total arms imports in 2017-21. Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme, said Russia could not replace Ukraine as a supplier for…

China’s ‘two sessions’ 2024: new mandate, party control push central bank beyond ordinary role

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Rather than take drastic action to silo China from the US and insulate its economy from what already looked like a ticking time bomb, Wang promised his old friend the country would not dump its massive holdings of US treasury bills. Though that news was a massive relief for the imperiled US economy, it did not come lightly. According to Paulson’s memoir, published in 2010, Wang ended the call with a warning: “I know you think this may end all of your problems, but it may not be over yet.”…

FirstFT: Hedge funds threaten to pull India investments

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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. This article is an on-site version of our FirstFT newsletter. Sign up to our Asia, Europe/Africa or Americas edition to get it sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning Good morning. Hedge funds are threatening to pull investments from India because of controversial new rules introduced in response to last year’s short seller attack on Adani, one of the country’s biggest companies. The rules, from Indian markets regulator Sebi,…

China’s Shanghai Zhenhua Denies Posing Cybersecurity Risk to US Ports

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Beijing, China —  Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, or ZPMC, said on Sunday its cranes do not pose a cybersecurity threat, after U.S. congressional committees questioned the Chinese state-owned company’s work on cranes bound for the United States. The House of Representatives’ security panels, scrutinizing ZPMC’s installation of Swiss engineering group ABB’s equipment onto U.S.-bound ship-to-shore cranes, in January invited ABB executives to public hearings to clarify its relationship with ZPMC, which they said raised “significant concerns.” “ZPMC takes the U.S. concerns seriously and believes that these reports can easily mislead…

China Tightens Grip Over Internet During Key Political Meeting

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Beijing, China —  China has intensified efforts to block software that enables internet users to access banned websites during a top political meeting this week, a leading provider of firewall-leaping software told AFP. Beijing operates some of the world’s most extensive censorship over the internet, with web users in mainland China unable to access everything from Google to news websites without using a virtual private network (VPN). And as thousands of delegates gather in Beijing this week for the annual “Two Sessions” meeting, VPN software has increasingly struggled to circumvent…

Muslims Spot Ramadan Crescent Moon in Saudi Arabia

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates —  Officials saw the crescent moon Sunday night in Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, marking the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan for many of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims. The sacred month, which sees those observing abstain from food and water from sunrise to sunset, marks a period of religious reflection, family get-togethers and giving across the Muslim world. Seeing the moon Sunday night means Monday is the first day of the fast. Saudi state television reported authorities there…

India strikes free trade deal with countries including Switzerland

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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. India has announced a trade pact with four small European countries featuring what New Delhi described as a “binding” commitment by the partner states to invest $100bn and create 1mn jobs over 15 years. The deal was struck after more than 15 years of negotiations with the European Free Trade Association, whose members are Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, none of which are big trading partners for New Delhi. The…