Evergrande Group, once the biggest property developer by sales, was ordered by a Hong Kong court to begin its liquidation process, which may take up to five years to complete. The Shenzhen-based company had tried to buy time to implement its debt-restructuring plan and deliver more apartments to its customers since Top Shine Global, one […]

The post Hong Kong court orders Evergrande to liquidate appeared first on Asia Times.

More Japanese and German firms with operations in China expect the Chinese economy to deteriorate in 2024 than think the opposite, two surveys show. About 39% of Chinese branches of Japanese firms said the Chinese economic situation will worsen this year while only 25% anticipated an improvement, according to a survey of 1,713 firms by […]

The post Japanese, German firms doubt China’s 2024 outlook appeared first on Asia Times.

After falling 12.2% this year, Hong Kong’s stocks rebounded 2.63% on Tuesday on news that Beijing may mobilize about 2 trillion yuan (US$278 billion) through offshore entities to support beaten-down Chinese stocks. The Hang Seng Index, the benchmark of Hong Kong markets, increased 392 points to close at 15,353 on Tuesday. But it is still […]

The post China mulls market rescue as tears of regret flow appeared first on Asia Times.

Beijing is grappling with a new challenge after Covid – an expanding war encircling its friends and neighbors. Is China a victim or a contributor to this new conflict? The country may or may not be aware but suspicions are mounting about its role. War is spreading like a virus during an epidemic. Two years […]

The post Is China driving the new war epidemic? appeared first on Asia Times.

Countries in the Global South are becoming increasingly important actors on the global stage.  While the term “Global South” is vague — and some have argued for abolishing it — it is used here to mean the larger and richer developing nations. The demands made by the Global South have created political and economic shifts that the […]

The post Save a seat for the Global South appeared first on Asia Times.

The startling divergence between China’s 5.2% growth and cratering stock market is putting Asia’s biggest economy in global headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Given the chaos of 2023 — a massive property crisis, record youth unemployment, trade headwinds from Washington and deflationary pressures — China’s ability to top 5% growth year on year is impressive indeed. But the stock market continues to stumble, a rout that shows few signs of slowing.

So how bad could things get? In the first two weeks of 2024, global funds sold more than US$1.1 billion of mainland stocks. China’s CSI 300 index this week fell to its lowest levels since 2019, losing more than 25% over the last year. That’s the mirror image of the 24% rally in the S&P 500 over the same period.

The post China stock rout shows investors want way more reform appeared first on Asia Times.

The good news, according to Yuan Xin, vice-president of the Population Association of China, is that the reduction in the national headcount this year will be milder due to a cultural preference for having a baby during the Year of the Dragon. In China, some families prefer to have a baby in the Year of […]

The post China hopes for new births in year of the dragon appeared first on Asia Times.

Evidence has accumulated that, despite the United States’ export controls, China’s military-related firms, research centers and universities can still acquire Nvidia’s high-end artificial intelligence (AI) chip. Technology experts say the Biden administration has failed so far to stop small distributors from reselling and smuggling the chips into the Chinese underground markets. The US Commerce Department’s […]

The post China gets banned Nvidia AI chips via gray markets appeared first on Asia Times.

A minority political group in Taiwan, which now controls eight key seats in the Legislative Yuan, is demanding reform of the lawmaking body as a precondition for partnership with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).  After the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a third consecutive four-year term at the January 13 election, the Taiwan People’s […]

The post Taiwan’s new kingmaker holds the key to war and peace appeared first on Asia Times.

Beijing is worried by news that the Biden administration is conducting a survey of the extent of use of Chinese chips in critical industries in the United States. In a phone call on Thursday, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo that China is seriously concerned by Washington’s latest move to […]

The post US-China chip war may extend to legacy chips appeared first on Asia Times.

Political tensions in the Taiwan Strait have risen recently as about 20 million Taiwanese voters prepare to elect their president and lawmakers on Saturday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office’s spokesperson Chen Binhua said Taiwanese people should not vote for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)’s presidential candidate Lai Ching-te, because Lai’s “Taiwan independence” approach is dangerous and will […]

The post Beijing reminds Taiwanese to pick the ‘right’ leaders appeared first on Asia Times.

A Chinese company has made a 72-qubit superconducting quantum chip with foreign machines as the United States’s curbs failed to slow China’s development in this area. Origin Quantum, a Hefei-based quantum computer maker, on January 6 officially launched its third-generation quantum computer called Wukong, which uses the name of the Monkey King in Chinese mythology […]

The post China uses foreign machines to make quantum computers appeared first on Asia Times.

Some highly unlikely claims about water in Chinese missiles and ill-fitting silo lids, which I addressed in a January 8 Asia Times article critiquing a Bloomberg News report, appear to have come from what the intelligence community calls HUMINT, that is, human-sourced intelligence. This would mean the US had agents in China who reported this […]

The post What’s behind the water-in-Chinese missiles tale? appeared first on Asia Times.

According to what Bloomberg News describes as a US intelligence report, Chinese authorities discovered that some of their missiles’ fuel tanks were filled with water – and that this was a marquee example of corruption whose unraveling led to Chinese President Xi’s recent military purge. Bloomberg reported that it got the information from unnamed people who […]

The post Water in Chinese missiles’ tanks is a fake story appeared first on Asia Times.

So you think you’re lonely Well my friend, I’m lonely too I wanna get back to my city – Journey To grow the pie, or to recut the pie, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler for China to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous infrastructure construction, or to take arms against a sea […]

The post To grow or to recut China’s pie, that is the question appeared first on Asia Times.

MANILA – In another sign that the South China Sea is at the heart of a brewing US-China new Cold War, both superpowers conducted tit-for-tat wargames in the disputed maritime area in the opening days of the new year. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) conducted the […]

The post Tit-for-tat wargames rumble and churn South China Sea appeared first on Asia Times.

Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and the resulting economic and political crises have led the resurgence of the “Global South” – developing countries seeking leverage through unity on the global stage. Increasingly, they have found themselves caught in the crossfire of larger nations, such as the United States and China. James Marape, prime minister of […]

The post India can unite Global South with developed world appeared first on Asia Times.

Nvidia, the world’s largest graphic chips supplier, reportedly will mass produce three reduced artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s customers in the second quarter of this year. The California-based company originally planned to unveil three AI chips – H20, L20 and L2 – for the Chinese markets last November but the launch was delayed to […]

The post Nvidia chips for China dumbed down but lean and mean appeared first on Asia Times.

China’s choices of immersion deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography systems that it can buy from ASML have narrowed in the wake of the Netherlands’ tightening of export rules.   ASML said in a recent statement that the Dutch government has partially revoked its license for the shipment of NXT:2050i and NXT:2100i lithography systems to China from the beginning […]

The post High-end DUV ban: China’s damage coming into focus appeared first on Asia Times.

Taiwan’s GDP growth declined to 1.4% in 2023, down from 2.6% the previous year and 6.6% in 2021. The economic slowdown raises questions about its future prosperity and makes a strong national defense less likely. The economic deceleration in 2023 is mainly due to soft global demand and weak domestic capital investment. Yet, post-Covid-19 private consumption has […]

The post Taiwan’s fading economy softens defense against China appeared first on Asia Times.