Qin Gang, China’s erstwhile foreign minister, has officially been replaced by Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, in a surprise reshuffle that provided a sliver of clarity regarding Qin’s mysterious month-long absence. But many questions remain unanswered. On Tuesday, the standing committee of China’s National People’s Congress convened a surprise session. The brief readout of the meeting stated that Qin had been removed as foreign minister, stalling, for now, the career of a former rising star of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and close adviser to Xi Jinping, China’s leader. Qin…
Tag: Jack Ma
China to take ‘golden shares’ in tech firms Alibaba and Tencent
China is to take “golden shares” in two of its biggest tech companies, Alibaba and Tencent, as Beijing extends its influence on the country’s star tech firms and its most powerful and wealthy business people. Beijing’s move marks a shift away from imposing hefty fines and sanctions in its two-year tech crackdown, which was launched after Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, criticised regulators, The crackdown has proved tumultuous for Chinese tech firms, with billions wiped off their value, and moves including blocking the flotation of Ma’s financial services firm, Ant Group,…
Jack Ma to give up control of China’s Ant Group, firm says
China’s Ant Group says it will adjust its shareholding structure so that its billionaire founder, Jack Ma, will no longer hold control over the fintech giant. “No shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over Ant Group” after the completion of the adjustment, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The move marks another big development after a regulatory crackdown that scuppered Ant’s $37bn initial public offering (IPO) in late 2020 and led to a forced restructuring of the financial technology company. While Ma owns only…
India is quietly laying claim to economic superpower status
The rise of China has been the biggest story in the global economy in recent decades. But amid concern about its stumbling property market and global fears about inflation, the emergence of its neighbour, India, as a potential new economic superpower may be going under the radar. You won’t find mention of it in Liz Truss’s blueprint for a “modern brilliant Britain”, but the UK has just been overtaken by India as the world’s fifth biggest economy. The nation of 1.4 billion people is on track to move into third…