Global News

[ad_1] As part of its retaliation against China over the alleged spy balloon that flew across U.S. airspace last week, the U.S. has blacklisted six Chinese entities it says were linked to Beijing's aerospace programs. The economic restrictions announced Friday followed the Biden administration's pledge to consider broader efforts to address Chinese surveillance activities and will make it more difficult for the five companies and one research institute to obtain American technology exports. The move is likely to further escalate the diplomatic row between the U.S. and China sparked by the balloon, which was shot down last weekend off the Carolina coast. The U.S. said the balloon was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals, but Beijing insists it was a weather craft that had blown off course. The incident prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to abruptly cancel a trip to Beijing aimed at easing tensions. The U.

[ad_1] Pedestrians walk past Yum! Brands Inc. Pizza Hut and KFC restaurants in Shanghai, China. Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images China is leaving behind pandemic lockdowns, and U.S. companies like Procter & Gamble , Starbucks and MGM Resorts International say the country's recovery is boosting their overall sales as consumers in their home markets watch their wallets. With its large population and swelling middle class, China is a desirable market for many multinational companies that have seen their U.S. businesses mature. But its zero- Covid policy, which imposed harsh restrictions to stop the spread of the virus, hurt the country's economy — and revenue for the many U.S. companies that sell their goods or services there. After rolling back the policy in December, China's economy grew 4.5% in the first quarter. U.S. companies are reporting that demand in China is returning, boosting their sales at a time when many U.S. consumers are pulling back their spe

[ad_1] Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday said that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has received $700 million from the China Development Bank (CDB) in a much-needed boost to forex reserves as the country grapples with a worsening economic crisis. The finance minister took to Twitter to make the announcement. "AlhamdoLilah! Funds $700 million received today by State Bank of Pakistan from China Development Bank". In an earlier tweet, Dar had maintained that the loan would "shore up" Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves. Formalities completed and Board of China Development Bank has approved the facility of US $ 700 million for Pakistan. This amount is expected to be received this week by State Bank of Pakistan which will shore up its forex reserves! — Ishaq Dar (@MIshaqDar50) February 22, 2023 Earlier this month, the country's foreign exchange reserves slipped to the alarming level of below $3 billion for the first time in nine years, reducing

[ad_1] China is restricting the exports of gallium and germanium, two metals key to the manufacturing of semiconductors, its commerce ministry said in a statement late on July 3, escalating a technological trade war over access to microchips with Europe and the United States. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images China is restricting the exports of two metals key to the manufacturing of semiconductors, its commerce ministry said late Monday , escalating a technological trade war with Europe and the United States over access to microchips. These new regulations — imposed on grounds of national security — will require exporters to seek a license to ship some gallium and germanium compounds starting Aug. 1, China's commerce ministry said . Applications for these export licenses must identify importers and end users and stipulate how these metals will be used. This move is part of an intensifying global battle for technological supremacy — with China as the world's largest sourc

[ad_1] SINGAPORE: Saudi Aramco raised its multi-billion-dollar investment in China by finalising and upgrading a planned joint venture in northeast China and acquiring an expanded stake in a privately controlled petrochemical group. The two deals, announced separately on Sunday and Monday, will see Aramco supplying the two Chinese companies with a combined 690,000 barrels a day of crude oil, bolstering its rank as China’s top provider of the commodity. Aramco said on Monday it had agreed to acquire a 10% stake in privately controlled Rongsheng Petrochemical Co Ltd for about $3.6 billion. The deal includes the supply of 480,000 bpd of crude oil to Rongsheng-controlled Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC) for 20 years, Aramco added. It follows a preliminary agreement Aramco reached with the Zhejiang provincial government in 2018 for a 9% stake in ZPC. The deals are the biggest to be announced since Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the kingdom in December where he called for o

[ad_1] Hong Kong CNN  —  Ride-hailing giant Didi received approval to resume new user registration in China, it said Monday, providing more evidence that Beijing’s regulatory crackdown on tech giants might be coming to an end. The move is the latest sign that regulators are loosening the reins on the country’s beleaguered tech companies in a bid to spur economic growth. “For more than a year, our company has cooperated with the government’s cybersecurity review, seriously dealt with the security issues found in the review, and carried out a comprehensive rectification,” Didi said in a statement posted on its Weibo account. With the approval of the Cybersecurity Review Office, Didi will be able to resume adding new users “immediately,” it added. Didi is a poster child for Beijing’s years-long crackdown on its tech companies. Just days after its $4.4 billion IPO

[ad_1] Last Updated: January 17, 2023, 09:17 IST Children wave Chinese flags in front of a giant screen in Beijing, China (Image: Reuters) China's economy grew 3.0 percent in 2022, official data showed on Tuesday, one of the weakest rates in 40 years China’s economy grew 3.0 percent in 2022, official data showed on Tuesday, one of the weakest rates in 40 years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and a real estate crisis. Beijing had set itself a target of 5.5 percent, a rate already much lower than the performance of 2021, when GDP increased by more than eight percent. In the fourth quarter, China’s economy grew 2.9 percent year-on-year, compared with 3.9 percent in the third quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said (NBS). The world’s second-largest economy faced historic headwinds as 2022 drew to a close, with exports plunging last month due to a drop in global demand and rigid health restrictions that hammered economic activity. Tuesday’s figures represent China’s worst gr

[ad_1] China saw weaker imports despite rapid reopening: UBS China's economy saw weaker imports despite its rapid reopening, UBS' head of China economic research Wang Tao said in a note. "Despite a rapid reopening (sequentially) in the past 2 months, domestic demand growth on y/y basis may have been still relatively soft," she said in a note. She added the import volume of copper ore and iron ore both improved from December likely due to a pick up in construction activities. "Our channel checks suggest that work resumption of construction sector was slow in the first two weeks post CNY holiday, but accelerated in the 3rd and 4th weeks," she said, noting that crude oil import growth also fell alongside imports of IT components and auto products. China on Tuesday saw exports fall by 6.8% in February in U.S. dollar terms and imports also declined 10.2%. — Jihye Lee U.S. plans to lift Covid testing requirement for travelers from China: NBC The U.S. plans to

[ad_1] Taipei CNN  —  The number of companies in Taiwan saying they’re experiencing business disruptions due to rising tensions between Taipei and Beijing has almost doubled, according to the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan . An annual survey, which polled 214 member firms in Taiwan, showed that the number of companies reporting “significant disruption” rose from 17% to 33% between August and December 2022, the chamber said Tuesday . Last August, then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, and China stepped up military drills in response. China’s ruling Communist Party has increasingly exerted its territorial claims over democratic Taiwan, a self-governing island, despite having never controlled it. The business disruptions were caused by elevated concern from global headquarters, increased shipping, insurance or financial costs, as well as staff anxiety, the c

[ad_1] CNN  —  Authorities in Hong Kong have raided a shop suspected of selling dog and cat meat as food – more than 70 years after the trade was outlawed. Officers seized “suspected samples of dog or cat flesh” at a shop in the Yau Ma Tei district during a “joint blitz operation” by the city’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department and the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department on Thursday evening. The AFCD said it had carried out the raid after receiving reports that the meats were on sale in Yau Ma Tei – a densely populated commercial and residential district in the Kowloon area – and that it had arranged testing of the seized samples. It said it was also investigating whether the shop was trading fresh meat without a license. “Prosecution will be instituted should it be proven,” the AFCD said in a statement. Eating dog and cat meat

[ad_1] Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here . Abu Dhabi, UAE CNN  —  When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his decision to delay a controversial plan to weaken the country’s judiciary on Monday, he invoked the biblical story of the Judgement of Solomon, where the king had to rule between two women, both claiming to be the mother of a child. Solomon ordered that the child be cut in two, and the woman who protested the ruling was determined to be the real mother. Before Netanyahu spoke, supporters of the judicial overhaul had gathered in the streets following calls from right-wing politicians to come out, allowing the prime minister to make his address as protesters from both sides rallied simultaneously for the first time in weeks.