Page 173 - China

Japan OKs record $56 bn defence budget amid China, North Korea tensions

Japan's defence spending will surge more than 16 per cent next year under a record military budget approved on Friday by the Cabinet that will accelerate deployment of long-range cruise missiles that can hit targets in China or North Korea. It also will further fortify the military with F-35 stealth combat jets and other American weapons as Japanese troops increasingly work with allies and take on more offensive roles. The 7.95 trillion-yen (USD 56 billion) budget plan for the 2024 fiscal year beginning March marks the second year of a five-year military buildup program under a new security strategy Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government adopted a year ago. The reinforcement of strike capability under the strategy is a major break from Japan's postwar principle of limiting use of force to self-defence. Japan plans to spend 43 trillion yen (USD 300 billion) through 2027 to bolster military power and nearly double its annual spending to around 10 trillion yen (USD 68 billion), maki

Chinese govt drafts new rules proposing restrictions on online gaming

China released draft guidelines on Friday aimed at curbing excessive spending on online gaming in the latest move by the ruling Communist Party to keep control of the virtual economy. The proposal caused shares in the biggest Chinese gaming companies, Tencent and NetEase, to plunge in Hong Kong. China's gaming regulator, the National Press and Publication Administration, issued guidelines saying online games cannot offer incentives for daily log-ins or purchases. Other restrictions include limiting how much users can recharge and issuing warnings for irrational consumption behaviour. Shares in Tencent, China's largest gaming company, dived about 16 per cent before recovering some ground to close 12 per cent lower. Rival NetEase's stock price lost about 25 per cent. Beijing has taken various measures against the online games sector in recent years. In 2021, regulators set strict restrictions on the amount of time children could spend on games to just three hours a week. A state med

US to gather intelligence on Chinese chipmakers as Biden mulls tariffs

In January, agency's Bureau of Industry and Security will survey more than 100 cos in autos, aerospace, defense and other to understand how they procure, use legacy chips, according to official

Challenging for Apple to live up to $1 trn rally performance in 2024

Such gains in 2024 will be harder to come by. As it looks to arrest four consecutive quarters of declining revenue, the world's most valuable publicly-traded company faces uncertainty in China

China to keep up military pressure against Philippines as disputes escalate

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi says the country will maintain military pressure on the Philippines amid a dispute over sovereignty in the South China Sea that could involve US forces defending their treaty partner. In a phone conversation on Wednesday with his Philippine counterpart, Enrique A. Manalo, Wang warned that if the Philippine side misjudges the situation, goes its own way, or even colludes with ill-intentioned external forces to continue to stir up troubles, China will defend its rights in accordance with law and respond resolutely, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Wang's comments follow China's mobilization of its coast guard and maritime militia to block Philippine supply missions to support its soldiers and fishermen. China claims sovereignty over virtually the entire South China Sea, one of the world's most crucial waterways for shipping, putting it at odds with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, who all maintain claims over islands, ree

Earthquake in China kills at least 134 people; deadliest in 9 years

A strong overnight earthquake rattled a mountainous region of northwestern China, authorities said on Tuesday, reducing homes to rubble, leaving residents outside in a below-freezing winter night and killing 131 people in the nation's deadliest quake in nine years. The magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck just before midnight on Monday, injuring more than 700 people, damaging roads and knocking out power and communication lines in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, officials and Chinese media reports said. As emergency workers searched for the missing in collapsed buildings and at least one landslide, people who lost their homes spent a cold winter night in tents at hastily erected evacuation sites. I just feel anxious, what other feelings could there be? said Ma Dongdong, who noted in a phone interview that three bedrooms in his house had been destroyed and a part of his milk tea shop was cracked wide open. Afraid to return home because of aftershocks, he spent the first night in a field wit

LIVE news updates: Lok Sabha has passed The Telecommunications Bill, 2023

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US flies long-range bomber for joint drills with South Korea, Japan

The United States flew a long-range bomber for joint drills with South Korea and Japan on Wednesday in a show of force against North Korea, days after the North performed its first interconnectional ballistic missile test in five months. The trilateral training off South Korea's southern island of Jeju was meant to strengthen the countries' joint response against North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The exercise involved a B-1B bomber and South Korean and Japanese fighter jets, the statement said. It said the B-1B's flyover is the 13th time that a US bomber has been temporarily deployed near and over the Korean Peninsula this year. A B-1B is capable of carrying a large conventional weapons payload. North Korean has previously called the bomber's deployment a proof of US hostility and had reacted with missile tests. North Korea on Monday launched a Hwasong-18 ICBM into the sea in a drill it said was meant as a warning over the US and

Alibaba names CEO Wu to head its e-commerce business as growth falters

China's Alibaba Group says its CEO Eddie Wu will head its core e-commerce business, as the company seeks to drive growth and fend off fast-growing online shopping rivals like Pinduoduo. Wu is replacing Trudy Dai, a longtime Alibaba executive who was one of the founding employees of the company. Alibaba's chairman Joe Tsai said in an internal letter dated Wednesday that Dai will help set up an asset management company aimed at improving returns on capital and enhance shareholder value. The reshuffle came after PDD Holdings Inc., which operates online shopping platform Pinduoduo and US-focused e-commerce site Temu, surpassed Alibaba in market value in the past month. As of Tuesday, PDD's market capitalization of its US-listed stock was USD 199.41 billion. Alibaba's was USD 191.75 billion. Alibaba founder Jack Ma earlier this month praised PDD for having managed to grow bigger than his Hangzhou-based company, which had for years been China's biggest e-commerce player. Alibaba needs

Myanmar ethnic group seizes another crossing point along Chinese border

An ethnic armed group in northeastern Myanmar has seized a major crossing point for trade along the Chinese border, residents and media reports said. The border gate in Laukkaing township, the capital of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone in the northern part of Shan state, became the fifth crossing seized by the group since it launched a coordinated offensive on October 27 with two other ethnic armed groups. The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, which took control of the crossing, joined with the Ta'ang National Liberation Army and the Arakan Army for the offensive that began in October and call themselves the Three Brotherhood Alliance. Laukkaing is known for hosting major organized criminal enterprises including cyberscam operations controlled by Chinese investors in cooperation with local Myanmar warlords. The Chinese government in recent weeks has initiated a crackdown on these operations, and thousands of people involved have been repatriated to China. Many of those w

China quake toll climbs to 127, over 700 injured; Gansu province most-hit

At least 118 people were killed and over 500 others injured when a powerful 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck a remote mountainous region in northwest China just before midnight, the local earthquake relief headquarters said on Tuesday. According to the China Earthquake Networks Centre, the shallow quake jolted Gansu and Qinghai provinces at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, with a focal depth of 10 kilometres. The epicentre of the earthquake Liugou township is about 8 kilometres from the county seat of Jishishan Bao'an, Dongxiang, Sala autonomous county in Linxia Hui autonomous prefecture in Gansu. Experts say shallow quakes cause heavy damage to infrastructure. Qinghai province is adjacent to the Tibet Himalayan region which is prone to frequent earthquakes due to shifting of continental plates. A second quake struck the neighbouring Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region hours later on Tuesday. The Atux City of Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Re

LIVE: No final decision taken yet on INDIA bloc PM face, says Cong chief

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China earthquake: 6.2-magnitude quake kills over 100

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck northwest China's Gansu and Qinghai provinces, resulting in at least 116 fatalities. Watch the video to learn more on the earthquake in China. #china #earthquake

Midnight earthquake kills 118 people, injures over 500 in northwest China

At least 111 people were killed in a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in a mountainous region in northwestern China, the country's state media reported on Tuesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said that 100 people died in the province of Gansu and another 11 in the neighbouring province of Qinghai in the quake, which occurred just before midnight on Monday. More than 200 people were injured, Xinhua said, 96 in Gansu and 124 in Qinghai. The quake struck in Gansu's Jishishan county, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the provincial boundary with Qinghai. The US Geological Survey put the quake's magnitude at 5.9. State broadcaster CCTV reported that there was damage to water and electricity lines, as well as transportation and communications infrastructure. The earthquake was felt in Lanzhou, the Gansu provincial capital, where university students rushed out of their dorms, according to a social media post that had images showing young people standing outside. Tents, folding beds and quil

India's inward remittances in 2023 rise 12.3% to $125 billion: World Bank

India continues to be the highest recipient of remittances globally, followed by Mexico ($67 billion) and China ($50 billion)

China earthquake: Xi Jinping urges all-out rescue; What we know so far

China earthquake today: The chilly temperature of -11 degrees Celsius in Gansu and Qinghai provinces is making the rescue operation more difficult

US, China agencies race to shield secrets from quantum computers: Report

Machines vastly more powerful than today's fastest supercomputers would be capable of cracking the codes that protect virtually all modern communication, a Canadian cyber security firm has warned

Five out of top 10 destinations see a rise in April-November exports

This comes even as overall exports from India contracted during the period

British firm Arm lays off over 70 engineers in China, relocating roles

Arm Holdings Plc has recently laid off over 70 software engineers in China though it will relocate some of the roles outside of the Asian nation, according to people with knowledge of the move.

Taiwan reports Chinese balloons near its territory amid pressure from China

Two Chinese balloons flew north of Taiwan, the island's Defense Ministry said Monday, as China increases pressure on the self-ruled territory it claims as its own ahead of a presidential election in January. The balloons crossed the sensitive Taiwan Strait separating the island from China and were detected about 110 nautical miles (204 kilometres) northwest of the northern port city of Keelung on Sunday, the ministry said. It was the second time this month Taiwan reported a Chinese balloon near its territory, after one crossed southwest of Keelung on December 7. China's potential for using weather balloons to spy on other governments came into focus earlier this year, when the United States shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean, drawing China's ire. Taiwan's Defense Ministry did not say whether it suspected the balloon could have been used for spying. China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately comment. Beijing has increased pressure on Taiwan by send