SHANGHAI Chinese trainmaker CRRC (601766.SS)(1766.HK) plans to build more factories abroad as part of its plan to double sales outside of China to up to $15 billion by 2020, state-run China Daily reported on Monday. CRRC expects a total of $8 billion worth of orders from overseas customers this year, and was also open to teaming up with competitors to win bids in some markets, company executives […]
Every morning in the Philippines, a handful of bodies are found littering the streets. Their faces are often covered in black plastic tape. Sometimes there are signs of torture. Usually, they have been shot in the head. Few bother police – they are usually suspected of being responsible. No one, frankly, should be surprised that it is happening. The country’s democratically elected leader, after all, was elected […]
Two days after Donald Trump created a diplomatic dispute with China over Taiwan, the president-elect took to Twitter on Sunday evening to criticise Beijing and defend his decision to speak with the Taiwanese president. China issued a protest on Saturday after Mr Trump spoke on the phone with Tsai Ing-wen, the first such contact with a Taiwanese leader since the US severed diplomatic ties in 1979. Although […]
GENEVA Europe’s trade negotiator blamed China on Sunday for scuppering a global environmental trade deal by submitting impossible late demands at World Trade Organization talks aimed at scrapping import tariffs on exports worth more than $1 trillion. “China came in with their list, bringing in totally new elements of perspective, which was very late in the process,” European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told Reuters. The change of […]
New energy vehicles (NEVs) at Beijing Institute of Technology’s campus. Credit: Yu Hao Many Chinese cities are suffering from deteriorating environmental quality—particularly due to air pollution that contributes to fog and haze. Air pollutant levels now far exceed “safe” limits established by the European Union, and one of the main culprits behind it is the rapid increase in automobile ownership and usage. These rising environmental concerns are […]
By Roberta Rampton | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Sunday downplayed the significance of a phone conversation between Donald Trump and Taiwan’s president, describing it as a “courtesy call” that was not intended to show a shift in U.S. foreign policy. Trump’s call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president with a Taiwanese leader since […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s phone conversation with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday, which prompted a diplomatic protest from China, was simply a “courtesy call,” Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on NBC on Sunday. Asked whether any shift in policy should be read into the call, Pence said: “I don’t think so.” The call with Tsai was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president with […]
China’s state broadcaster CCTV, better known as a conduit for Beijing’s propaganda efforts, is growing an international network beaming soap operas and news to audiences as far afield as Africa, the Middle East and the US. China International Communications Co (CICC), the commercial arm of China Central TV, streams Chinese content from CCTV and provincial broadcasters to overseas Chinese audiences — and is now setting its sights […]
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Google is promising that its widely used translation service is now even more fluent, thanks to an advance that’s enabling its computers to interpret complete sentences. That may sound simple, but it took years of engineering to pull off. Until now, Google’s technology analyzed phrases in pieces and then cobbled together a sometimes stilted translation. Now that Google’s machines can interpret entire […]
Beijing’s infamous smog spiked on Sunday despite draconian measures in surrounding cities to reduce persistent pollution during the winter in northern China. The thick layer of haze has become a political liability for the ruling Communist party and has driven China’s participation in the Paris climate accord to limit emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases. An air monitor index released by the US embassy in Beijing breached 600 […]
Every year, Brazilian venture capital firm Monashees takes entrepreneurs from its portfolio companies on an overseas discovery tour. This year, instead of Silicon Valley, the firm headed to the Yangtze Valley, in a clear sign of a new front opening for Chinese investment in Latin America. China is seeking to expand lending and investment in Brazil and elsewhere on the continent, as it shifts from its traditional […]
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
BEIJING The death toll from a northern Chinese coal mine disaster rose to 32 on Sunday, state media reported, the latest accident in a country with a poor record of industrial safety. The blast took place on Saturday in a small mine in the Inner Mongolia region, next to Mongolia, Xinhua news agency said. A total of 181 workers were initially trapped underground and 149 of them […]
BEIJING China’s armed forces must be smaller but more capable, and if reforms are not properly carried out the military risks falling behind, affecting its ability to wage war, Chinese state media on Saturday cited President Xi Jinping as saying. Xi unexpectedly announced in September last year that he would cut troop numbers by 300,000, or some 13 percent of the world’s biggest military, currently 2.3-million strong. […]
Apple logo. Apple has revealed it is investing heavily in autonomous vehicles in a letter asking the government to make it easier to develop self-driving cars. The company is “excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation,” Apple said in a November 22 letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offering Apple’s opinion about draft regulations for the sector. “Apple looks […]
In June, speaking at a former steelworks in western Pennsylvania that now processes scrap aluminium, Donald Trump promised a bright future for US steel if he became president. “It will be American steel that will fortify American’s crumbling bridges. It will be American steel that sends our skyscrapers soaring into the sky,” he said. “We are going to put American-produced steel back into the backbone of our […]
FRANKFURT German semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron will explore with its Chinese suitor what can be salvaged of the planned takeover after a U.S. presidential order ruled the deal posed a national security risk, the company said on Saturday. U.S. President Barack Obama blocked China’s Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund (FGC) from acquiring Aixtron’s U.S. business, the Treasury Department said on Friday. “The bidder and Aixtron are evaluating […]
newslide Jolie and Pitt could lose adopted sons Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s troubles just got worse. According to radaronline.com, their adopted sons Pax and Maddox could be taken away from them. Pax’s birth mum, Pham Thu Dung, is set to be released from prison soon and when she is, she says she wants her son back. Jolie adopted 13-year-old Pax when he was three years old. […]
For months we’ve been warning that real estate markets in NYC and San Francisco, among others, are getting ready to rollover as the market is about to be flooded with new supply of luxury apartments (see here and here). Real estate in both markets are just starting to show signs of cracking as the apartments sales cycle is getting stretched out and pricing growth has stalled. Now, […]
Virginia-based Kryptowire said that it had discovered the problem in a number of Android-based phones using firmware from the Chinese company Shanghai ADUPS Technology A US security company says a Chinese-made smartphone popular in the United States forwarded detailed user data and user texts back to a Chinese server without the phone owner’s knowledge. Virginia-based Kryptowire, which provides mobile security services to government agencies and private businesses, […]
BEIJING At least 38 people have died in two separate coal mine disasters in China in the last five days, state media said, the latest accidents in a country with a poor record of industrial safety. In the first incident, authorities confirmed on Friday night that 21 people died after a coal mine blast in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, the official Xinhua news agency said. It […]
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales promised tough action over the airline crash that killed most of the Brazilian football team Chapecoense on Monday night. The deaths of the 71 people, who also included team officials and journalists, in the crash follow indications the British Aerospace regional jet had run out of fuel and amid speculation that it was on a flight path that was longer than its specified range. “Drastic […]
BEIJING China’s success at turning around relations with the Philippines under its new president Rodrigo Duterte show the “conspiracies” of certain countries to stir up trouble in the South China Sea have been defeated, China’s foreign minister said on Saturday. In July, the Philippines won a case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague challenging China’s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, which infuriated […]
BEIJING U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s call with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen was a “petty action” by Taiwan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday, Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television reported. The conversation was the first such contact with Taiwan by a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of “one China”. “This is […]
