By Kevin Yao and Ryan Woo | BEIJING BEIJING China’s Premier Li Keqiang reassured investors on Wednesday that the world’s second-largest economy is strong and not at risk of a hard landing, while stressing Beijing’s support for globalization and free trade at a time of rising protectionism. Li also reiterated that China does not want a trade war with the United States, and urged talks with Washington […]
Shares in Cathay Pacific fell as much as 6.9 per cent on Wednesday after the Hong Kong flag carrier swung to its first annual loss since 2008. The airline reported a net loss of HK$575m ($74m) for 2016 in the face of increased competition from mainland Chinese airlines and falling demand for its premium class seats. The net loss compares with a HK$6bn profit reported in 2015, […]
China plans to introduce a bond trading link between Hong Kong and the mainland by year-end, according to premier Li Keqiang. Dubbed “Bond Connect”, the programme would operate alongside the existing Stock Connect system that allows international and mainland investors their only direct access to each others’ markets. On Wednesday, the Chinese premier said: “We are preparing to implement for the first time this year a bond […]
TAIPEI China’s accelerated military development and recent activity by its military aircraft and ships around Taiwan pose an increased threat to the self-ruled island, according to a Taiwanese government defence report draft reviewed by Reuters. The 2017 Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR) also highlights the uncertainty over the future strategic direction of the United States in the region, the impact of Japan flexing its military capabilities and “conflict […]
BEIJING Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said on Wednesday that China hopes to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea by pushing forward with negotiations for a code of conduct for rival claimants in the disputed waters. Addressing a news conference at the end of the annual meeting of China’s parliament, Li said that “substantive progress” has been made on the code. Negotiations began in 2010 […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. and South Korean military chiefs warned on Tuesday that North Korea could “conduct provocative actions” in response to large-scale joint drills between the two countries, as China’s premier also said tensions could lead to conflict. “The chairmen recognized the possibility that North Korea could conduct provocative actions during the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise, or in connection with North Korean major political events in April,” […]
Wednesday 02:40 GMT Overview A rally in crude oil prices that erased the losses of the previous session failed to bolster energy stocks in Asia, as bond and currency traders also shunned major moves ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rates decision later in the day. Hot topic Crude was climbing in Asia after a slide on Tuesday. Brent, the international benchmark, was up 1.3 per […]
The longlist for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction was announced last week, and it is as diverse and intriguing as always. Of particular notes are Nigerian Ayobami Adebayo’s debut Stay With Me about the impact of infertility on a couple, Yewande Omotoso’s Cape Town chronicle The Woman Next Door, and Madeleine Thein’s (pictured) Chinese epic Do Not Say We Have Nothing. The usual big hitters – […]
Rumor has it that the successor to OnePlus 3T will skip the “4” and just jump into OnePlus 5, a la Note 5 jumping into the Note 7 naming scheme. The 3T has only been out for a few months, becoming available this past November. Yet, because of how fast-paced smartphone development has become, we’re now seeing rumors of the OnePlus 5, and they’re all sounding pretty good […]
MANILA The Philippines went on the offensive on Tuesday to assert its sovereign rights over a fishing ground in the Pacific Ocean, stressing a need to protect it after a Chinese survey ship was monitored in the area last year. Manila has lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing after a Chinese vessel was tracked moving back and forth over Benham Rise, a vast area east of the […]
YANGON Dozens of Myanmar soldiers have been killed in several clashes between ethnic rebels and the army along the border with China, state media reported on Tuesday, threatening leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s chief goal of ending decades of ethnic strife. More than 20,000 people from Myanmar have crossed China’s border in recent weeks to escape the bitter fighting in the north, prompting Beijing to call for […]
SEOUL North Korea warned the United States on Tuesday of “merciless” attacks if an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson, which is joining South Korean forces for exercises, infringes on its sovereignty or dignity. North Korea, which has alarmed its neighbours with two nuclear tests and a string of missile launches since last year, said the arrival of the U.S. strike group was […]
Nervousness in the US stock market has climbed to the highest level since the aftermath of the presidential election, even as equities have charted a mostly smooth path to further all-time highs in recent weeks. Credit Suisse’s fear barometer rose at the end of last week to 35.6, an increase of almost 10 points from the previous week and the highest reading since November 9, the day […]
SEATTLE Aspiring property moguls take note – the town of Tiller, Oregon, is for sale, asking price just $3.5 million. For an extra $350,000, you can have the old school too. The mostly uninhabited, unincorporated town about 225 miles (362 km) south of Portland originally went up for sale in 2015, but that did not include the building that used to house the school, said Garrett Zoller, […]
President Rodrigo Duterte said he has instructed the military to assert Philippine ownership of a large ocean region off the country’s northeastern coast, where China’s survey ships were spotted last year, in a discovery that alarmed Philippine defence officials. Duterte said on Monday that he ordered the military to assert ownership of Benham Rise in a friendly way, repeating that his country has no option but to […]
When it comes to easing stress, insomnia and nagging, painful knots in the neck and shoulders, Chinese cupping therapy is one of the most effective therapies around. But it can be hard to find practitioners, painful when the cups that are suctioned to the skin are removed and weird to walk around with circular bruises all over your back for days after. That’s why I was intrigued […]
Abraaj Group Art Prize In October last year, Rana Begum won the US$100,000 (Dh367,250) Abraaj Group Art Prize. The title is awarded each year to aid an artist realise a proposed project, which is later unveiled at Art Dubai. Begum, a Bangladeshi-born, London-raised artist, is interested in the geometry of a city. Her brightly coloured, angular metal sculptures and installations look at the unexpected architecture of a […]
By James Pomfret | NANSAN, China NANSAN, China Within earshot of mortar fire echoing from beyond a ring of hills, a sprawling relief camp in Southwestern China is swelling steadily after fighting erupted last week between a rebel ethnic army in Myanmar and government troops just across the border. In a recent Reuters visit to the rugged area in southwestern Yunnan province, aid workers and those displaced […]
TAIPEI China does not understand Taiwan’s laws and its democracy, a senior Taiwanese justice ministry official said Monday, in the latest spat between the self-ruled island and Beijing, after island authorities detained a Chinese man in a suspected spy case. Deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang said comments from a senior Chinese official that Taiwan was trying to use the case to stir up trouble with China was […]
MALACCA: The mass resignation of DAP members here is clear evidence of a loss of faith and confidence by party members towards the DAP leadership. State Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Idris Haron, who is also Malacca Chief Minister, said the resignation of the 182 members also proved that the recent resignation of four DAP lawmakers here had a huge impact on their party, although denied by […]
March 13, 2017 by: Lucy Hornby and Archie Zhang in Beijing and Jane Pong in Hong Kong Sceptics about China’s economic statistics have taken a special pleasure in revelations of faked data in the north-eastern province of Liaoning dating at least to 2011. Along with an officially reported contraction in its economy last year, they have given the impression that Liaoning’s economy is unusually troubled. That impression may be […]
By Jeremy Wagstaff | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE In today’s so-called smart home, you can dim the lights, order more toothpaste or tell the kids to go to bed simply by talking to a small Wifi-connected speaker, such as Amazon’s (AMZN.O) Echo or Google’s (GOOGL.O) Home. This voice-first market – combining voice with artificial intelligence (AI) – barely existed in 2014. This year, Voice Labs, a consultancy, expects 24.5 […]
The Trump administration’s sweeping dismissal of dozens of US attorneys held over from the Obama administration leaves the president with sudden gaps in top law enforcement positions across the country. The swift dismissals which began with Friday phone calls from Dana Boente, the acting deputy attorney-general, to 46 US attorneys, now puts pressure on the Trump administration to select candidates who will pass congressional scrutiny to fill […]
Now that a little of the hype has disappeared from the release by WikiLeaks of allegedly more than 8,000 internal CIA documents, and the sorts of hacking the American spy agency was up to, what has changed in the world of security? Unlike the Snowden documents, which fundamentally shook the world of many people with and without an interest in the world of cybers, this cache offers […]
