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☆ Disney Gets Boost as China Clears Marvel Superhero Films for Release
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Dan Strumpf | Rachel Liang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Marvel Studios said on its Weibo social-media account that the latest Black Panther film would be released in China on Feb. 7. HONG KONG—China has cleared two of Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel movies for screening in the country, a significant victory for Hollywood after years of tighter Chinese restrictions on new releases. Disney’s Marvel Studios said on Chinese social media that two of its films, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” will hit Chinese theaters next month.

☆ Ten Chinese players face match-fixing charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] Snooker - Betway UK Championship - York Barbican - 28/11/15 Li Hang during his second round match Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Craig Brough Livepic EDITORIAL USE ONLY. Jan 18 (Reuters) - Ten Chinese snooker players face match fixing charges following an investigation by the governing World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA)'s integrity unit, it announced on Wednesday. Liang Wenbo, Li Hang, Lu Ning, Yan Bingtao, Zhao Xintong, Zhang Jiankang, Chen Zifan, Chang Bingyu, Zhao Jianbo and Bai Langning are the players charged. Zhao Xintong, who won the 2021 UK Championship and last year's German Masters, is ranked ninth in the world, while Yan is a former Masters champion. Zhao Xintong has been charged with being concerned in fixing matches on the World Snooker Tour and betting on snooker, while Yan has been charged with fixing matches on the World Snooker Tour and betting on snooker.

☆ Boeing 737 MAX Flies Again With Chinese Airline After Nearly Four-Year Halt
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Rachel Liang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Chinese airlines operated nearly 100 737 MAX aircraft as of the end of 2021. SINGAPORE—A Boeing Co. 737 MAX jetliner operated by China Southern Airlines took off from Guangzhou on Friday, in what industry experts say is the first commercial flight in nearly four years by a Chinese airline using the aircraft. According to customer service information available on China Southern’s website, the jet took off at 12:46 p.m. local time from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou and was heading to Zhengzhou.

☆ China International Flights to Recover Slowly After Covid Reopening
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Rachel Liang | Dan Strumpf | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

International flights are likely to rebound slowly after China lifted its Covid-19 border restrictions, with industry experts suggesting it would take months for a strong recovery and even longer to return to prepandemic levels. Governments have tightened entry requirements for passengers coming from China due to a large Covid-19 outbreak there, and Beijing has responded with travel restrictions of its own on some of those countries. Aviation regulators are still negotiating bilaterally with their Chinese counterparts on increasing flights. Plane ticket prices remain high, while airlines must also reroute their jets to fly again to China.

That abrupt U-turn unleashed COVID on a 1.4 billion population which has been shielded from the virus since it first erupted in China's Wuhan city in 2019. The outbreak is now overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums as it rips through the population, where many elderly are still not fully vaccinated. "This is a very pertinent suggestion, return to the home town...or put the health of the elderly first," wrote one user. The country did not report COVID fatalities data on Tuesday and Wednesday. But concerns about China's outbreak has prompted more than a dozen countries to demand negative COVID test results from people arriving from China.

☆ Mainland Chinese head to Hong Kong for mRNA COVID vaccines
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Joyce Zhou | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

HONG KONG, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Scores of mainland Chinese travellers are rushing to Hong Kong to receive mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which are not available on the Chinese mainland, as the country grapples with a torrent of infections which have overwhelmed its health system. A private hospital in the special Chinese administrative region of Hong Kong welcomed the first batch of mainland customers on Thursday, just five days after China reopened its borders for the first time in three years, allowing quarantine free travel. [1/5] Yoyo Liang, from mainland China, received a dose of BioNTech bivalent coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a private clinic in Hong Kong, China January 12, 2023. There is no bivalent vaccine available in mainland Chin," she explained after she received her jab. Virtus, which has received more than 300 inquiries so far about the vaccines, is expecting more mainland customers to come to Hong Kong in the coming weeks and months, the company's chief medical officer Samuel Kwok told reporters.

The holiday, known before the pandemic as the world's largest annual migration of people, comes amid an escalating diplomatic spat over COVID curbs that saw Beijing introduce transit curbs for South Korean and Japanese nationals on Wednesday. The virus is spreading unchecked in China after Beijing abruptly began dismantling its previously tight curbs in early December following historic protests. Among them, South Korea and Japan have also limited flights and require tests on arrival, with passengers showing up as positive being sent to quarantine. COUNTING DEATHSSome of the governments that announced curbs on travellers from China cited concerns over Beijing's data transparency. Annual spending by Chinese tourists abroad reached $250 billion before the pandemic, with South Korea and Japan among the top shopping destinations.

☆ Taiwan exports fall for 4th month in December, decline seen extending into Q1
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Exports dropped 12.1% by value last month from a year earlier to $35.75 billion, the lowest in 20 months, the Ministry of Finance said on Saturday. That followed a 13.1% drop in November, and was slightly better than Reuters poll forecast for a 13.3% contraction. Taiwan's total exports of electronics components in December fell 1.4% to $16.04 billion, with semiconductor exports up 0.8% from a year earlier. At $14.28 billion in December, Taiwan's exports to China, the island's largest trading partner, were down 16.4% from a year ago, after suffering a 20.9% drop in November. December's exports to the United States were down 2.6%, compared with an 11.3% contraction recorded the previous month.

☆ China to Allow Rapid Tests to Confirm Covid Cases
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Rachel Liang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SINGAPORE—China said Friday that it would allow citizens to confirm Covid-19 infections using antigen tests, while no longer requiring a negative Covid test for patients to be discharged from hospitals, as Beijing moves to dismantle the last remaining vestiges of the “zero-Covid” regime that it has used for the past three years. Updates to follow as news develops.

☆ Taiwan c.bank to incorporate climate change risks into forecasting
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TAIPEI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Taiwan's central bank said on Friday it would begin incorporating climate change risks into its modelling and forecasts for inflation and economic growth and adapt monetary policy to promote sustainable development. The central bank, in a statement on climate change, pointed to the risk of "green swan" events, referring to an unexpected environmental catastrophe connected with global warming and pollution that would trigger a financial crisis. Other central banks around the world have already incorporated global warming into their planning, and Taiwan would follow suit, the central bank added. The bank would also "establish an overall model related to climate change at the industry level" to gain an in-depth understanding of the impact of climate change risks on the economy and finance. It added that it would use monetary policy tools to help promote sustainable financial development.

☆ In China, Protesting Travelers Avoid Last Days of Quarantine
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Sha Hua | Rachel Liang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SINGAPORE—Some groups of Chinese travelers have staged spot protests against being sent into still-mandatory quarantine—and they have won. China has announced an end to quarantine on arrival, but not until Jan. 8. At the Nanjing airport, about 100 travelers argued with health workers and police that it made no sense to follow a rule that was about to disappear.

☆ Tech stocks got whacked in 2022 — but one server maker soared almost 90%, beating all its peers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Heading into 2023, the outlook for the server market is murky, especially in the early part of the year. He said tech companies can move faster with Supermicro servers and are willing to pay for execution and the company's design skills. Another specialized market Supermicro is targeting is servers for 5G or telecom applications, using a new kind of approach called OpenRAN. Supermicro said in November that a big unnamed customer was responsible for nearly 22% of the company's sales in the quarter. Intel and AMD have issued downbeat prospects for the server market, and companies of all sizes are cutting costs.

☆ Chinese Rush for Exit as Beijing Ends Zero-Covid and Opens Its Doors
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Raffaele Huang | Rachel Liang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SINGAPORE—Moments after China said it would reopen its borders to international travel for the first time in almost three years, sales of air tickets out of the country soared, as people leapt at the chance to put the stifling restrictions of zero-Covid behind them. Top of the getaway wish list were regional destinations a short hop away, with Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan favorite choices. Bookings more than tripled from the day before, data from travel company Trip.com Group show.

☆ 'The music stopped': 6 founders tell how they survived this year's bursting VC funding bubble, customers unwilling to spend, and a graveyard of fallen startup peers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

This year's economic caution marked a huge contrast to 2021's exuberance and record VC funding. Insider spoke with six founders about how they've handled the abrupt switch from market exuberance to economic caution. But at the same time, they said, they've sought to pounce on new opportunities created by the economic downturn. ElektraShifting landscapes, changing prioritiesAfter a year of record venture capital funding, the abrupt shift in investor sentiment hit hard in 2022, founders told Insider. Artificial intelligence startups are the latest beneficiary of VC hype, buoyed by breakthrough software tools such as DALL-E and ChatGPT.

☆ TikTok owner ByteDance reportedly confirmed employees in US and China accessed the user data of some US citizens, including 2 journalists
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

TikTok-owner ByteDance said workers accessed user data from US journalists and other private citizens, NYT reports. ByteDance said the data collection was part of an unsuccessful attempt to track down leaks, per the report. The revelation contradicts an earlier statement from TikTok that said the app had never been used to "target" journalists. ByteDance reportedly said it had restricted its audit and risk teams, now removing access to US data from that department moving forward. TikTok's parent company ByteDance did not immediately respond to comment from Insider.

☆ TikTok confirms that journalists’ data was accessed by employees of its parent company
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —TikTok parent company ByteDance has fired four employees who improperly accessed the personal data of two journalists on the platform, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter confirmed to CNN Thursday. TikTok user data from the two journalists, who worked for the Financial Times and BuzzFeed, was accessed while ByteDance employees were investigating potential employee leaks to the press, according to the company. “The individuals involved misused their authority to obtain access to TikTok user data,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in his email to employees, according to an excerpt of the email reviewed by CNN. In October, Forbes reported that ByteDance planned to use TikTok data to surveil certain US citizens. It has also said it has taken steps to isolate US user data from other parts of its business, including through a partnership with US-based Oracle.

The decision came after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by an expected 50 basis points on Wednesday and said it would deliver more interest rate hikes next year even as the economy slips towards a possible recession. Taiwan's central bank, at its quarterly monetary policy meeting, raised the benchmark discount rate (TWINTR=ECI) by 12.5 basis points to 1.75%, in line with economists' expectations in a Reuters poll. Governor Yang Chin-long said that, while the bank was still tightening monetary policy, the direction this time was "mild" given the lack of another reserve requirement rise. "For next year's monetary policy, we will focus on stabilising prices," he told reporters. The central bank again cut its 2022 estimate for gross domestic product growth, to 2.91% from its previous forecast of 3.51% in September.

☆ Businesses in China's Wuhan face fresh worries after COVID easing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Martin Quin Pollard | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WUHAN, China, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Infections are delivering a fresh kick in the teeth for many small businesses in China's central city of Wuhan, despite the easing of most stringent curbs last week. "This street is considered a top location in Wuhan," Zhu added. The only queue within several hundred metres was outside a pharmacy, where people waited to stock up on medicines to treat the symptoms of COVID. People just do not have much money anymore, said a Wuhan taxi driver, surnamed Sun, adding that subsidies had made the 2020 lockdown more manageable than this year's measures. "Now, it’s a tiny bit better, but I can only make enough to pay back the company my monthly taxi rental fee."

☆ China's Yan suspended amid match-fixing investigation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 12 (Reuters) - China's former Masters champion Yan Bingtao has been suspended from the World Snooker Tour as part of an investigation into alleged match-fixing, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) said on Monday. The 22-year-old Yan beat Scotland's John Higgins 10-8 last year to become the youngest Masters champion in 26 years. "WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson has taken the decision to suspend Yan Bingtao from attending or competing on the World Snooker Tour with immediate effect," WPBSA, which governs professional snooker, said in a statement. The WPBSA last week suspended five Chinese players - Lu Ning, Li Hang, Zhao Jianbo, Bai Langning and Chang Bingyu - as part of the match-fixing investigation. Their compatriot Liang Wenbo was suspended in October pending the results of a misconduct investigation.

☆ Taiwan c.bank will adopt 'appropriate' monetary policy next year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TAIPEI, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Taiwan's central bank said on Saturday it will adopt an "appropriate" monetary policy and properly use various tools to promote price stability and help the economy next year. Taiwan's trade-dependent economy is flagging in the face of mounting global economic woes, with its exports last month dropping 13.1% on-year, though inflation, a key central bank concern, has been slowing. It will "adopt an appropriate monetary policy and properly use various monetary policy tools" to "promote price stability and assist in economic success", it said, without elaborating. The central bank will hold its quarterly rate-setting meeting on Thursday. At its meeting next week the central bank will also provide an updated forecast for economic growth this year and next.

China on Friday launched its first private pension scheme in 36 cities as it grapples with a rapidly ageing population, allowing individuals to open retirement accounts at banks to buy pension products ranging from deposits to mutual funds. The move marked the official launch of China's version of IRA, or Individual Retirement Accounts in the United States, a private pension scheme that offers tax advantages for individuals saving for retirement. As part of the new system, local domestic workers covered by China's public pension insurance can participate in the private pension scheme and contribute up to 12,000 yuan ($1,680) per year to their individual accounts and receive tax benefits. Eddy Wong, chief executive of China International Fund Management (CIFM), a joint venture between JPMorgan and Shanghai International Trust Co., said China's individual pension market has "huge potential and room for development". "The first movers in China's pension market enjoy an advantage," said Howhow Zhang, Greater China wealth and asset management strategy and transactions leader at consultancy EY.

☆ China Covid Protesters Become Targets of Beijing’s Surveillance State
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Rachel Liang | Brian Spegele | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BEIJING—Chinese police have begun leveraging the powers of the country’s surveillance state to go after demonstrators who participated in rare public displays of defiance over the government’s stringent Covid control policies. Wang Shengsheng, a lawyer providing legal support to more than 20 protesters from Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, said at least 15 people or their families and friends reached out to her for help after being contacted by local police. She said she suspected that police had used data from mobile phones, including apps used to monitor Covid exposure, to track the movements of people involved in protests. Police were also scanning social-media accounts to investigate protesters, she said.

☆ Treasury market liquidity crunch could derail the Federal Reserve's policy, New York Fed chief says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Dysfunctioning US bond markets run the risk of undermining central bank monetary policy, according to John Williams. "If the Treasury market isn't functioning well, it can impede the transmission of monetary policy to the economy," he said. "Monetary policy influences the economy by affecting financial conditions, with the Treasury market at the center of it all. If the Treasury market isn't functioning well, it can impede the transmission of monetary policy to the economy." Williams' comments come as a liquidity crunch takes hold of the $24 trillion Treasury market and threatens to grind the world's most vital bond market to a halt.

☆ Taiwan to continue U.S. communications on exchange rate policy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TAIPEI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Taiwan has "smooth" communication channels with the United States and the two will keep talking on issues such as exchange rate policy, a Taiwanese central bank official said on Friday after the U.S. Treasury kept the island on its monitoring list. A Taiwan central bank official told Reuters that communication channels between them and the U.S. Treasury were "smooth". "In the future, the two sides will continue to communicate on issues such as economic outlook and exchange rate policy on the basis of good interactions," said the official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity. Taiwan's central bank in the first half of this year sold a net $8.25 billion to intervene in the foreign exchange market to try and arrest the Taiwan dollar's devaluation. Taiwan was last formally labelled a currency manipulator by the United States in December 1992.

☆ Venture capitalists are betting on a part of China’s chip industry safe from U.S. bans
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The U.S. this month imposed new restrictions to maintain a lead over China in advanced chip technology. That gap leaves a large market opportunity far more insulated from U.S. restrictions — and one that Chinese startups can tap, some venture capitalists said. He claimed WestSummit-backed GigaDevice Semiconductor is one of the Chinese companies well-positioned to capture the mature market. "However, chip-making is a mature technology that has been developed many years. Looming risksDespite the large market opportunity, early-stage investment in Chinese chip startups still face risks from potential lawsuits and the complexity of the technology itself, Vertex's Tay said.

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