Asia

27 Jan Opinion | China can absorb its property crisis. Can the US and Europe say the same for theirs?

Posted at 21:30h in Asia

Commentators, especially those who appear not to have experienced past real estate-linked financial crises that have occurred in places ranging from the US and Europe to Hong Kong and Latin America, fail to appreciate the significance of accompanying systemic risk.Thus, while China appears able in...

27 Jan Shanghai offers financing and land-use support to foreign investors, as city commits to meet 5 per cent economic growth in 2024

Posted at 08:19h in Asia

“We will give more policy guarantees in the areas of land use, energy supply, environmental evaluation and financing, [while] encouraging more foreign companies to invest in green transition, digitalisation and technological innovation,” Gong told a press conference after the close of the annual Shanghai People’s...

27 Jan Tech war: US wants cloud firms to report foreign users tapping their computing power for AI applications

Posted at 03:53h in Asia

United States Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said her department is exploring how to force cloud companies to disclose when a foreigner taps their computing power to fuel artificial intelligence (AI) applications, signalling the next phase of the tech war between Washington...

27 Jan Wilting fortunes: Wong Kar-wai’s Blossoms Shanghai drama series offers stock investors painful reality check on past glory

Posted at 02:00h in Asia

“It is all tears and sorrow now, when people like me look back at the stock market,” said Lu Shunxi, a stock punter since trading first began in Shanghai in November 1990. “The birth of China’s stock market gave an opportunity to novice investors who...

26 Jan Samsung to integrate Baidu’s AI model into new Galaxy S24 handsets, as mainland Chinese rivals push new smartphones with similar tech

Posted at 23:00h in Asia

Under a strategic partnership between Samsung’s China arm and Baidu AI Cloud, the recently unveiled Galaxy S24 series will deploy the Ernie LLM to perform the handset’s new “Circle to Search” feature that enables users on the mainland to search texts, images...

26 Jan Tech war: strong China demand for chip tools bolsters revenue at Lam Research and ASML despite US trade sanctions

Posted at 13:00h in Asia

China’s strong demand for chip-making tools bolstered revenue at Lam Research and ASML in 2023 despite the imposition of tough US trade sanctions, according to the latest financial results from the semiconductor firms.US etching and deposition tool giant Lam Research saw sales to mainland China...

26 Jan China’s commercial sector to get 2024 boost from rural commerce, green products, ‘silver’ economy: analysts

Posted at 12:34h in Asia

China’s commercial sector will see a rebound in 2024 as retail sales are expected to grow by more than 6 per cent thanks to supportive government policies and recovering consumer confidence, according to a Hong Kong-based think tank.Despite gloomy prospects for the property market, China’s...

26 Jan China approves 115 video games for January, the most in 18 months, in supportive sign after December market rout

Posted at 12:00h in Asia

China approved 115 new video game titles in the first month of 2024, the largest batch of approvals in 18 months, in a supportive gesture to the industry.Among this month’s approvals is a mobile game Tencent developed in collaboration with the American sport league National...

26 Jan Alibaba launches AI-assisted slide-deck creation tool through cloud storage platform Quark

Posted at 09:13h in Asia

Quark’s new service, called AI PPT, lets users create their own topics or choose from a list that includes options, such as an online marketing campaign, a business plan, or product launch event. Once users confirm an outline generated by the app, it will produce...

26 Jan Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund posts fourth best annual returns in 2023 on bond and overseas stock market rallies: HKMA

Posted at 08:49h in Asia

Breaking | Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund posts fourth best annual returns in 2023 on bond and overseas stock market rallies: HKMAHong Kong’s Exchange Fund, the war chest used to defend the local currency, rebounded strongly in 2023, as rallies in bond and overseas stock markets...