BEIJING Two Beijing police officers have been punished following the death of an environmentalist in custody in May, state media said on Friday, a case that sparked public disquiet about China’s law enforcement methods. Lei Yang, 29, was arrested in a massage parlour as part of a police operation against prostitution and died hours later after choking on his own vomit. While prosecutors decided last week not […]
Chinese netizens are mourning the demise of a popular online talk show that dared to tackle social and political topics in a media landscape dominated by vapid soap operas, staid costume dramas and webcam girls. The final episode of “Xiaosong-pedia“, hosted by songwriter, music producer and film director Gao Xiaosong, was aired on Friday on iQiyi, the online video platform owned by internet search group Baidu. The show received […]
Samsung Electronics’ 2017 premium TV line-up to debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), branded Samsung QLED TV, applied ‘metal coating’ to improve the integrity of the quantum dot (QD) materials, company insiders say, allowing colour in a wider range to be accurately represented at higher brightness level or better than those reached in OLED TVs. Internally called the “Q Project,” the business set a target resolution […]
BEIJING A Chinese general is being investigated for suspected bribery, the defence ministry said on Thursday, a man connected to the jailed former domestic security chief and one of the most senior incumbent military officials to be targeted for graft. Military prosecutors had already opened a case into Wang Jianping, a deputy chief of the joint staff department under the powerful Central Military Commission, ministry spokesman Yang […]
MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened corrupt government officials with the prospect of being thrown out of a helicopter mid-air, warning he has done it himself before and had no qualms about doing it again. The fiery-tempered former prosecutor said he once hurled a Chinese man suspected of rape and murder out of a helicopter. “If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter […]
BEIJING Attackers drove a car into a government building in China’s unruly far western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday and set off an explosive device killing one person, while all four of the attackers were shot dead, the regional government said. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent years in resource-rich Xinjiang, on the borders of central Asia, in violence between the Muslim Uighur people who […]
TAIPEI Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will pass through the United States when she visits Latin America next month, the foreign ministry said Thursday, a move bound to infuriate China which had urged the United States to block a transit stopover. China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade […]
Chinese technology giant Tencent, along with Beijing-based mapping company NavInfo and Singapore state-owned investment firm GIC, announced this week the trio intended to jointly take up a 10 percent share of mapping company Here, with current owners Audi, BMW, and Daimler reducing their indirect holding by the same amount. As well as the share purchase, the companies announced the creation of a 50/50 joint venture between Here […]
Some of the biggest law firms on Wall Street are scrambling to shore up their defences against cyber attacks, in the wake of a raid by Chinese hackers which led to millions of dollars of profits from insider trading. Preet Bharara, US attorney for the southern district of New York, this week charged three individuals who he said infiltrated law firms over a period of about 18 […]
When Jack Ma criticised Hong Kong last month for having outdated stock market listing practices, the Alibaba founder hit the city where it hurts. Hong Kong’s rivalry with New York has only heightened since the billionaire chose the US for his ecommerce group’s initial public offering two years ago. And next year, the battle between the world’s two largest listing centres will only become more heated, as three […]
The FTSE 100 was within touching distance of a closing high on Wednesday, as optimism about the outlook for metal prices lifted the shares of the heavyweight miners on Britain’s blue-chip index. On the market’s first day back after the Christmas holiday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.6 per cent at 7107.56 in early afternoon trading, putting it on track to surpass its closing high of 7103.98 […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: Law firm hacking: Three Chinese traders earned more than $4 million in illegal profits after they hacked into the computer systems of prominent U.S. law firms and stole nonpublic information on mergers and acquisitions, according to an unsealed federal indictment. [WSJ, NYT] Student loan bankruptcy: Borrowers are beginning to win battles to erase some student loans in bankruptcy court, […]
As well as being consumed in large quantities this Christmas, the turkey has been taking a starring role in live online video. Food — whether eating it or cooking it — has become one of the most popular subjects to show online, from social networks to a new app specialising in foodie culture. Live video has been taking over social feeds, from Facebook to Twitter’s Periscope and […]
When the direct trading link between stock markets in Shenzhen and Hong Kong opened this month, local dignitaries were easy to spot at the launch events. Less conspicuous were international investors ready to take advantage of what was billed as a big opportunity to buy into Chinese equities. The link offers foreign investors greater access to shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, home to some of China’s up […]
BEIJING The eastern Chinese city of Wuxi will suspend poultry trade from Thursday amid fears about bird flu, becoming the second city in Jiangsu province to halt live poultry markets, it said. The city will close live poultry wholesale markets, restrict vehicles carrying live poultry from entering Wuxi markets and temporarily ban the entry of outside poultry, the city’s information office said on Wednesday on its official […]
Nearly half of all new mobile device and app activations across the United States during the week leading up to Christmas and the beginning of Chanukah were for the Apple iPhone, according to analyst firm Flurry. Flurry reported that during the week, 44 percent of all new phone and tablet activations involved Apple devices, while just 21 percent were across Samsung smartphones and tablets, with the latter […]
By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Asia stocks followed Wall Street higher on Wednesday, while the dollar firmed against the yen following the release of upbeat U.S. economic data overnight. Crude oil prices held large gains on expectations of supply tightening once oil-producing nations implement a scheduled output cut. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.4 percent. Australian stocks rode a rise in […]
Qualcomm has been fined 1.03 trillion won ($865 million) by the South Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) over antitrust violations, with the regulator finding the chip giant’s business practices to be in violation of competition law. Qualcomm’s business model includes collecting royalty payments from clients, which are calculated on the price of the handset using the chip, rather than the price of the chipset itself, and royalties […]
BEIJING The Vatican should take steps to improve relations with China, the Chinese head of religious affairs said on Tuesday, a week after the Roman Catholic Church said it was hoping for “positive signals” from Beijing. Pope Francis is trying to heal a decades-old rift with China where Catholics are divided between those loyal to him and those who are members of a government-controlled official church. One […]
TAIPEI China’s sole aircraft carrier the Liaoning has arrived at a naval base on the southern Chinese province of Hainan, a senior Taiwanese military officer said on Wednesday, after drills that took it around the island China claims as its own. China has given few details of what the Soviet-built Liaoning is up to, save that it is on a routine exercise. Taiwan has said the aircraft […]
By Thomas Wilson and Saeed Azhar | TOKYO/SINGAPORE TOKYO/SINGAPORE Japan Inc may become a more important force in dealmaking next year as its cashed-up companies seek to buy growth prospects elsewhere in the world and as Beijing’s crackdown on capital outflows prevents some Chinese companies from making foreign acquisitions, bankers and lawyers said. Facing tepid prospects at home after decades of stagnation amid a shrinking population, Japanese […]
Obama says Japanese leader’s Pearl Harbor visit shows power of reconciliation | Reuters ‘+Reuters.inlinevideo.title+’ ‘+Reuters.inlinevideo.length+’ ‘); } PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the site of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor showed the power of reconciliation. “This historic gesture speaks to the power of reconciliation. … A reminder that even the deepest wounds of […]
Dec. 27, 2016 6:57 p.m. ET The conviction rate for blasphemy in Indonesia is 100%, and that’s bad news for Basuki Tjahaja Purnama. The talented Jakarta Governor faces up to five years in prison after a court decided Tuesday that prosecutors have a credible case against him for making lighthearted comments about the Quran. A conviction will deprive Jakarta of an able administrator and reformer, but the […]
By Nate Raymond | NEW YORK NEW YORK Three Chinese citizens have been criminally charged in the United States with trading on confidential corporate information obtained by hacking into networks and servers of law firms working on mergers, U.S. prosecutors said on Tuesday. Iat Hong of Macau, Bo Zheng of Changsha, China, and Chin Hung of Macau were charged in an indictment filed in Manhattan federal court […]
