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☆ Beijing Claims U.K. Recruited Chinese State Officials as Spies
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-03 | by ( Daisuke Wakabayashi | Claire Fu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

China’s top security ministry accused Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency on Monday of persuading a married couple working for unnamed central Chinese government bodies to become spies for the British government, the latest in a volley of continuing espionage accusations between the two countries. The Chinese ministry said MI6 trained Mr. Wang to become a spy and ordered him to return to China to gather intelligence. It said that his wife, who has the surname Zhou, also agreed to spy for Britain. China said the matter was under further investigation, but it is not clear whether the couple are being detained by the Chinese authorities. This is the latest in a series of back-and-forth espionage accusations between Beijing and London, a source of escalating tension between the two countries.

Persons: Wang, Zhou Organizations: China’s Ministry of State Security Locations: British, Britain, China, Beijing, London

☆ Dollar sags as slower U.S. inflation boosts rate cut expectations
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The dollar skidded to multi-month lows on Thursday after U.S. core inflation hit its slowest in three years and retail sales turned flat, which pulled forward expectations for rate cuts in the world's biggest economy. The dollar skidded to multi-month lows on Thursday after U.S. core inflation hit its slowest in three years and retail sales turned flat, which pulled forward expectations for rate cuts in the world's biggest economy. Stocks and other risk-sensitive assets such as the Australian dollar led gains in the wake of the data release. The New Zealand dollar hit a two-month high at $0.6131. Softer-than-expected retail sales figures, which were flat last month instead of the 0.4% gain that economists had forecast, reinforced the newfound confidence in rate cuts.

Persons: Sterling, Bart Wakabayashi, China's, Bitcoin Organizations: Australian, New Zealand, U.S, State, European Central Bank Locations: Asia, Tokyo, Treasuries

☆ China Is Buying Gold Like There’s No Tomorrow
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-05 | by ( Daisuke Wakabayashi | Claire Fu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As gold surged this year to its highest price ever, Xena Lin joined the frenzy by making monthly purchases of gold “beans,” pebble-like morsels of the precious metal. For Ms. Lin, a 25-year-old administrative worker in southern China, the $80 beans — small enough to rest on a fingertip and weighing about one-thirtieth of an ounce — were an affordable way to buy into the gold excitement without splurging for jewelry, gold bars or coins. She had dabbled with investing in stocks in the past, but she said buying gold, especially in this fun way, inspired her to continue investing. “I’m still working hard to save more,” Ms. Lin said. But gold’s climb to highs above $2,400 per ounce has proved more resilient, and lasted longer, because of China.

Persons: Xena Lin, Lin, “ I’m, Ms Locations: China, Ukraine, Gaza

☆ There Is No TikTok in China, but There Is Douyin. Here’s What It Is.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Claire Fu | Daisuke Wakabayashi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In China, there is no TikTok. After President Biden signed a bill on Wednesday forcing Chinese company ByteDance to sell its ownership of TikTok, the United States moved one step closer to an internet without the short video app. It is a staple of the Chinese internet the way TikTok is in the rest of the world. But because it has no presence outside China, Douyin, which means a “shaking sound” in Chinese, is not as well known globally. Will ByteDance succumb to political demands from Washington, or will it refuse to sell TikTok and face the consequences?

Persons: Biden, Douyin, Will ByteDance Organizations: ByteDance Locations: China, United States, U.S, Washington

☆ The Chinese Site That Rewired Online Shopping
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-22 | by ( Daisuke Wakabayashi | Claire Fu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Pinduoduo, the Chinese discount shopping app, debuted nearly a decade ago, the tech giants Alibaba and JD.com dominated China’s e-commerce business. It was a combination of a game arcade, a shopping mall and a social network. Like TikTok, Temu is the foreign version of a highly successful Chinese company. As its popularity has grown in the United States, its business practices have also come under scrutiny. It has encountered criticism for its labor practices and failure to enforce intellectual property laws.

Persons: Pinduoduo, haven’t Locations: Temu, China, United States, U.S

The Chinese company NetEase said on Wednesday that it had struck a deal to distribute titles from Microsoft’s Blizzard Entertainment, restoring access to popular video games like World of Warcraft for Chinese gamers. More than a year ago, NetEase and Blizzard called an end to their long-running partnership when renewal talks turned testy, with both sides accusing each other of bad-faith negotiations. An uproar ensued among Chinese gamers, upset about losing access to a slew of popular titles from Blizzard’s parent company, the U.S. game developer Activision Blizzard. NetEase said on Wednesday that it had reached the new deal with Microsoft, which acquired Activision Blizzard in a $69 billion deal in October. The two companies said they had also agreed to distribute NetEase titles on Microsoft’s Xbox game device.

Persons: NetEase, we’ve, ” William Ding Organizations: Microsoft’s Blizzard Entertainment, Activision Blizzard, Microsoft Locations: U.S

☆ Furry Slippers and Sweatpants: Young Chinese Embrace ‘Gross Outfits’ at Work
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( Claire Fu | Daisuke Wakabayashi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the weather turned cold in December, Cindy Luo started to wear her fluffy pajamas over a hooded sweatshirt at the office. Wearing cozy sleepwear to work became a habit and soon she didn’t even bother to wear matching tops and bottoms, selecting whatever was most comfortable. A few months later, she posted photos of herself to a “gross outfits at work” thread that had spread on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese app similar to Instagram. “I just want to wear whatever I want,” said Ms. Luo, 30, an interior designer in Wuhan, a city in Hubei Province. “I just don’t think it’s worth spending money to dress up for work, since I’m just sitting there.”

Persons: Cindy Luo, didn’t, ”, Luo, I’m Locations: China, onesies, “, Wuhan, Hubei Province

☆ What’s in Our Queue? ‘Alex Neptune’ and More
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Daisuke Wakabayashi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What’s in Our Queue? ‘Alex Neptune’ and MoreI’m the Asia business correspondent for The New York Times. I live in South Korea, and I write mostly about China. I feel a constant tug of war between wanting to understand the place where I live and the place that I write about frequently. Here are five things I’ve been watching, reading and listening to →

Persons: Alex Neptune ’, I’ve Organizations: The New York Times Locations: Asia, South Korea, China

☆ Big American Tech Profits From Chinese Ad Spending Spree
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Daisuke Wakabayashi | Mike Isaac | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Temu, the international arm of the Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo, is flooding Google with ads for absurdly inexpensive goods. With an initial public offering looming, the fast-fashion merchant Shein is inundating Instagram with ads for clothes and accessories at rock-bottom prices. Developers of China’s video streaming and gaming apps are dumping marketing dollars into Facebook, X and YouTube to entice potential users. In the last year, Temu has placed about 1.4 million ads globally across Google services, and at least 26,000 different versions of ads on Meta, according to Meta’s Ad Library. “You can’t escape their ads across Facebook, Instagram and Google Search.”

Persons: Shein, Temu, ”, Canaves Organizations: Facebook, YouTube, Google, Meta, Ad Locations: China, United States, eMarketer

China passed revisions to an already stringent state secrets law, broadening the scope of the type of information that would be considered a national security risk in the world’s second-largest economy. Over the last year, China has targeted consultants and business executives in espionage cases as part of a push to limit the spread of information sought by investors and foreign companies. The amendments to the state secrets law, which were passed by China’s top legislative body on Tuesday and go into effect in May, include a new legal concept called “work secrets.” It is defined as information that is not an official state secret, but “will cause certain adverse effects if leaked,” according to the law’s text. “The law is vague and the definition of state secret so broad that it could include anything that the party-state decides it should,” said Diana Choyleva, chief economist at Enodo Economics, a London-based research firm focused on China. “It will also further complicate life for foreign firms and their employees based in China.”

Persons: ”, Diana Choyleva Organizations: Enodo Locations: China, London

☆ Here's how to play Japan stocks, finally hitting a new high after 34 long years
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Japan's Nikkei 225 index , a price-weighted index of 225 Japanese stocks, has also hit an historic high. A few months before that, on December 29, 1989, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index hit an historic high that stood until this week. That's about the amount the U.S. stock market dropped at the start of the Great Depression, from 1929 to 1932. .N225 5Y mountain Nikkei 225 Index in past five years. The Japanese stock market took 20 years.

Persons: it's, Japan's, Minoru Isutani, Arnold Palmer, Richard Ferris, Peter Ueberroth, Clint Eastwood, Nori, Bart Wakabayashi Organizations: Nikkei, CNBC, Japan's Nikkei, Mitsubishi, Rockefeller Center, Lone Cypress Company, Sumitomo Bank, Taiheiyo, Lone Cypress, Toyota, Honda, Sony, Hitachi, Nintendo, Sumitomo Mitsui, Japan Hedged Equity, Dow Jones, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Retailing, Softbank, Vision Fund, Foreign, Bank of Japan, White Oak Capital, Reuters Locations: Tokyo, New York, Japanese, California, Japan, U.S, Singapore

☆ The Antitrust Enforcers Aimed at Big Tech. Then Came the Backlash.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Jin Yu Young | Daisuke Wakabayashi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The South Korean government unleashed a wave of panic across the internet industry: The country’s antitrust regulator said it would enact the toughest competition law outside Europe, curbing the influence of major technology companies. The Korea Fair Trade Commission, with the backing of President Yoon Suk Yeol, said in December that it planned to make a proposal modeled after the 2022 Digital Markets Act, the European Union’s landmark law to rein in American tech giants. This bill also seemed to target South Korea’s own internet conglomerates just as much as the Alphabets, Apples and Metas of the world. The commission said the law would designate certain companies as dominant platforms and limit their ability to use strongholds in one online business to expand into new areas. After a furious backlash from South Korean industry lobbyists and consumers, and even the U.S. government, the Fair Trade Commission said it would delay the bill’s formal introduction to solicit more opinions.

Persons: Yoon Suk Yeol Organizations: South, Korea Fair Trade, ., Fair Trade Commission Locations: Europe, South

☆ Japan’s Economy Slips Into Recession and to No. 4 in Global Ranking
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Hisako Ueno | Daisuke Wakabayashi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Japanese economy contracted at the end of last year, defying expectations for modest growth and pushing the country into a recession. Japan’s unexpectedly weak economy in the fourth quarter was the result of a slowdown in spending by businesses and consumers who are grappling with inflation at four-decade highs, a weak yen and climbing food prices. The end of the year also marked a moment that had been expected: Japan’s economy, now slightly smaller than Germany’s, fell one notch to become the world’s fourth-largest economy. On an annualized basis, gross domestic product fell 0.4 percent in October through December after a revised 3.3 percent decline in the previous three-month period. Economists had been forecasting fourth-quarter growth of around 1 percent.

☆ China’s Real Estate Crisis ‘Has Not Touched Bottom’
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Daisuke Wakabayashi | Claire Fu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The unwavering belief of Chinese home buyers that real estate was a can’t-lose investment propelled the country’s property sector to become the backbone of its economy. But over the last two years, as firms crumbled under the weight of massive debts and sales of new homes plunged, Chinese consumers have demonstrated an equally unshakable belief: Real estate has become a losing investment. The troubles of the country’s real estate sector were laid bare on Monday when a Hong Kong court ordered China Evergrande to wind up operations and liquidate the company, which is saddled with over $300 billion in debt. Like the industry it once ruled, Evergrande limped along for two years after defaulting on payments it owed investors. Evergrande, lacking the cash to pay creditors, tried to exude confidence that its apartments remained a sound investment.

Persons: Evergrande Locations: Hong Kong, China

Before the sequel to “Aquaman” was released in China last month, Warner Bros. did everything it could to sustain the original movie’s success. The Hollywood studio blanketed Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, with movie clips, behind-the-scenes footage and a video of an Aquaman ice sculpture at a winter festival in Harbin, a city in China’s northeast. It sent the franchise’s star, Jason Momoa, and director, James Wan, on a publicity tour in China — the type of barnstorming that had disappeared since the Covid pandemic. Mr. Momoa said China’s fondness for the first “Aquaman” was why the sequel was debuting in China two days before the U.S. release. “I’m very proud that China loved it, so that’s why we brought it to you, and you guys are going to see it before the whole world,” he said in an interview with CCTV 6, China’s state-run film channel.

Persons: ”, Douyin, Jason Momoa, James Wan, Momoa, “ Organizations: Warner Bros Locations: China, Harbin, China’s, U.S

In Shenzhen, a metropolis born of China’s economic prosperity, Paibang Village is a reminder of the city’s modest past and the challenges ahead for reviving the country’s property sector. Paibang is what China calls an urban village, a labyrinth of low-slung apartment buildings and mom-and-pop storefronts connected by a maze of alleyways and narrow roads. There are hundreds of them in Shenzhen, a municipality of 18 million people next to Hong Kong, and thousands of such villages across China. Now with China mired in an unyielding property crisis, policymakers want to revamp aging urban neighborhoods like Paibang to kick-start construction and spur local economies. Seven years ago, Paibang was chosen for an “urban renewal” by city officials, and in 2019 China Evergrande, one of the country’s biggest real estate firms, took control of the project.

Persons: Paibang, Evergrande Locations: Shenzhen, China, Hong Kong

As developing countries weigh the consequences of borrowing heavily from China for major infrastructure projects, anti-corruption officials in Nepal have begun an investigation into a flagship airport financed and built by Chinese state-owned companies. Nepal’s $216 million international airport in Pokhara, the country’s second-biggest city, opened in January. China agreed to provide loans to build the airport more than a decade ago. Nepal tapped China CAMC Engineering, the construction arm of a state-owned conglomerate, Sinomach, as the contractor. Nepali officials have asked Beijing to change the loans into a grant to ease the financial burden, but China has not agreed to do so.

Persons: CAMC Organizations: China CAMC Engineering, New York Times, Civil Aviation Authority Locations: China, Nepal, Pokhara, Beijing

He went on to accuse Israel of being a terror organization because its airstrikes on Gaza had caused civilian casualties. A Chinese state broadcaster recently hosted a discussion page on Weibo stating that Jews controlled a disproportionate amount of U.S. wealth. Among the comments on recent posts from the official social media account of Israel’s embassy in China were similar comparisons of Israelis to Nazis. It is hard to say whether the anti-Israeli positions in state media and antisemitism on the Chinese internet are part of a coordinated campaign. “If China felt that it was dangerous and problematic to allow antisemitic comments to flourish, the censors would stop it.

Persons: Hu Xijin, I’m, ”, Israel, Shen Yi, Carice Witte Organizations: Global Times, Communist Party, Weibo, Fudan University, country’s Communist Party Locations: Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, China, Beijing, Israeli

☆ Yen intervention a hard sell even as 150 to the dollar 'red line' beckons
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-29 | by ( Kevin Buckland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But, Japanese authorities could find propping up their currency both difficult to achieve and hard to justify. To make even a ripple in the $5 trillion currency market, the BOJ would need to draw down massive amounts of dollar reserves. Wakabayashi, like many other analysts and investors, considers the 150 yen per dollar level a red line for currency intervention, not least because of its significance as a symbol of climbing costs of living from imported food and fuel. INTERVENTION IMMINENTThe yen careened to a 32-year trough at 151.94 last October before being reined in by several bouts of heavy intervention, the first by Japanese authorities in a generation. Measures of expected market volatility remain subdued.

Persons: Kim Kyung, Bank of Japan's hesitancy, Kazuo Ueda, You've, they're, Bart Wakabayashi, Fumio Kishida, Shunichi Suzuki, Masayuki Kichikawa, Ray Attrill, Janet Yellen, Aninda Mitra, Mitra, Kevin Buckland, Alun John, Vidya Ranganathan, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: National Printing Bureau, Bank of Japan, REUTERS, Rights, Bank of Japan's, U.S . Federal Reserve, U.S, Treasury, Fed, State Street Bank, Trust, Finance, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management, Ministry of Finance, National Australia Bank, BNY Mellon Investment Management, Thomson Locations: Tokyo, Japan, U.S, Washington, Asia, London

An accountant in northeast China deposited her life savings and received a letter guaranteeing her investment in a trust firm. Workers at a state-owned utility pooled money from friends and relatives believing that their investments were backed by the government. A man sank $140,000 into an account that he was told would make a 10.1 percent annual return. They have offered no timetable for when people will be paid, fueling concerns that one of China’s largest so-called shadow banks may be near collapse. Zhongzhi has not made any public statements about its finances, and it did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Persons: Zhongzhi, Zhongrong Organizations: Workers, Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Locations: China

Country Garden, China’s biggest property developer, told creditors that it had made a late interest payment, averting an immediate default on its debts and keeping the company financially viable for the time being. Last month, the company missed two interest payments totaling $22.5 million on bonds that had been sold in U.S. dollars. It had a 30-day grace period to make the payment or risk default. Country Garden told the bondholders that it had made the payment within the grace period, a person close to the company said on Tuesday. The delayed payments underscored the financial pressure facing Country Garden, which has been China’s top-selling homebuilder for the last six years.

Organizations: Garden

When Country Garden, the biggest developer in China’s increasingly troubled real estate sector, published its annual report in April, the cover design exuded hope: a phoenix spreading its wings. The company said the image showed that China’s economy was “back on track” and that this year would see “growth soaring to new heights.”That was wishful thinking. Shortly after the report’s release, China’s nascent economic recovery lost steam and an already sluggish real estate market started to collapse. For the past three years, as dozens of major property developers defaulted after years of excessive borrowing, Country Garden was an outlier. But last month, it missed two interest payments — signaling that it, too, was at risk of financial collapse, with $187 billion in debt.

☆ China’s Biggest Homebuilder Raises Capital in Scramble to Pay Debts
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Daisuke Wakabayashi | More About Daisuke Wakabayashi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Country Garden said it planned to issue 350.6 million shares of the company at 77 Hong Kong cents apiece next Wednesday. Instead, they will go to a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Kingboard Holdings Limited, a materials and chemicals manufacturers with a property division to which Country Garden owes millions of dollars. Country Garden, China’s biggest property developer, is selling the shares at a 15 percent discount to Tuesday’s closing price. The company has until next week to repay the offshore bondholders or it will be in default to creditors. The financial trouble facing Country Garden is the latest fallout from a rapidly spreading real estate crisis in China.

Organizations: Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hong, Kingboard Holdings Locations: Hong Kong, China

Earlier this year, David Yang was brimming with confidence about the prospects for his perfume factory in eastern China. “It is disheartening,” Mr. Yang said. “The economy is really going downhill right now.”For much of the past four decades, China’s economy seemed like an unstoppable force, the engine behind the country’s rise to a global superpower. A real estate crisis borne from years of overbuilding and excessive borrowing is running alongside a larger debt crisis, while young people are struggling with record joblessness. And amid the drip feed of bad economic news, a new crisis is emerging: a crisis of confidence.

Persons: David Yang, Covid, Yang, Mr Locations: China

A model Chinese property developer in a sector replete with risk takers is teetering on the edge of default. Short of cash, one of China’s biggest asset managers has missed payments to investors. The broader economy has been threatened, and the confidence of consumers, businesses and investors undermined. So far, China’s typically hands-on policymakers have done little to ease anxieties and seem determined to reduce the country’s economic reliance on real estate. “What is happening in the Chinese property market is really unprecedented,” said Charles Chang, who heads corporate credit ratings for Greater China at Standard & Poor’s.

Persons: ”, Charles Chang Organizations: Greater, Standard Locations: China, Greater China

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