Senators ask charter court to impeach PM, new minister Pichit

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PUBLISHED: 17 May 2024 at 16: 27

Senators ask charter court to impeach PM, new minister Pichit
Srettha Thavisin, the prime minister, poses for a team photo at Government House on May 7 as she leads the new government members. ( Photo: Chanat Katanyu )

After the latter was appointed as a secretary in the most recent cabinet reshuffle, forty lawmakers have requested that the Constitutional Court make a decision regarding the status of PM Pichit Chuenban and Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

According to Section 170( 4 ) and ( 5 ) of the charter, which deal with moral and ethical standards of a cabinet minister, the senators asked the court to decide whether the ministerial status of Mr. Srettha and Mr. Pichit should be terminated in response to the petition submitted to the court via Senate Speaker Pornpetch Wichitcholchai.

When Mr. Pichit dropped a package of meals containing$ 2 million ringgit at the Supreme Court in what was regarded as an attempted reward, he was sentenced to a six-month prison term in 2008, along with his two coworkers, for contempt of court.

In the notorious Ratchadaphisek property purchase situation, Mr. Pichit therefore represented former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his ex-wife, Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra. That time, Thaksin was given a two-year prison sentence.

Direkrit Jenkhrongtham, one of the lawmakers who signed the petition, said it is the Senate’s responsibility to seek a court decision on the discussion surrounding Mr Pichit’s requirements.

He claimed that Mr. Srettha should be held responsible for his choice to appoint a minister with a dubious history because Mr. Pichit’s do is frequently seen as an attempted bribe that renders him ineligible for a cabinet position.

Pichit Chuenban, the prime minister, arrives at Government House on May 7. ( Photo: Chanat Katanyu )

The Office of the Court, in the senator’s opinion, received the complaint and would likely decide on the reputation of the pair if the court takes it into consideration.

Earlier this month, Mr Srettha insisted he had submitted the new government line- up to the Council of State, the president’s legal shoulder, for evaluation before he really submitted it for royal support.

A source inside the case even claimed at the time that Mr. Pichit’s prison in the case involving the contempt of court in 2008 did not prevent him from being elected cabinet minister. Between the completion of a prison expression and the appointment, the faith had long passed the 10-year mark.

However, the issue of whether Mr. Pichit upholds the charter’s requirements for moral and ethical conduct is a different issue, according to the cause.

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US opens door for China advances in the Pacific - Asia Times

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China and the US are competing for wet real estate, underwater resources and military edge among the South Pacific’s secluded island nations, a powerhouse contest to gain influence over their economies, airstrips, seaports and security forces.

China is commonly perceived as expanding its Belt and Road system across the Pacific’s wet” Blue Continent” to finally reach North, Central, and South America plus Antarctica, all the while empowering Beijing’s military, businesses, global policies and politics.

China won a victory on May 2 when the strategically important Solomon Islands elected pro-Beijing Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele, 55, a former foreign minister in the country’s once-friendly state of incoming prime minister Manasseh Sogavare.

Because the two nations had signed a diplomatic Solomon Islands Security Agreement in 2022, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and their allies were now concerned.

The China-Salomon Islands agreement, according to critics, might enable Beijing to establish a military base on the islands, which are 2, 000 kilometers east of Australia. According to China and the Solomon Islands, the agreement would certainly lead to the establishment of a Chinese military center on the country’s 900 smaller islands or its six main islands.

In the event of an armed conflict between the big forces, Manele, the next foreign secretary, told Parliament in 2022,” We are no stupid to ask for a military base, as we ourselves could be the goal of a military attack in the future.”

He said,” Having a stable Solomon Islands is also about ensuring stable and prosperous Pacific region.”

China trained the Solomon Islands ‘ police, provided water cannon vehicles and boosted their anti- riot tactics after unrest, some of it anti- Chinese, disrupted the islands.

Protests, riots, arson and looting erupted in 2021 after the Solomon Islands switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 2019 when Manele was foreign minister. Australia, under its joint security pact with the Solomon Islands, sent police to the islands ‘ capital Honiara to quash the civil unrest.

On November 26, 2021, as rioting broke out in Honiara’s Chinatown and thousands of people refused to comply with a government lockdown order, flames rose from buildings. Photo: Asia Times Files / AFP via Getty Images / Charley Piringi

Manele was expected to maintain Solomon Islands ‘ friendly relations with China, which dramatically improved under the leadership of incoming prime minister Sogavare, who chose Manele as a candidate for prime minister. The Solomon Islands will be “friends to all, and enemies to none”, Manele said.

China’s recent construction of an airfield on Guadalcanal, the largest of the Solomon Islands, evoked chilling reminders of America’s World War II Battle of Guadalcanal to seize it from Japan.

Guadalcanal Island was the first major US military offensive to stop Japan from using the Solomons to bomb ships passing between the US and Australia in 1942.

Under intense enemy fire, US forces scurried west across the Pacific to defeat Japan after capturing control of the Solomon Islands and other island nations.

Today, many of the Solomon Islands ‘ 720, 000 citizens say they favor Manele not for his international stance, but in hopes his Ownership, Unity and Responsibility ( OUR) Party will upgrade the islands ‘ poor health care, transportation infrastructure, electricity supply, schools, employment opportunities, housing and other daily needs.

The Solomon Islands is one of the world’s poorest nations. To enable Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications company, to build mobile telecommunications towers on its islands, China granted the Solomon Islands a$ 66 million loan.

The Solomon Islands and Australia also provided funding for Huawei’s 2018 contract for underwater telecommunication cables to and from the islands.

In a meeting billed as a” Ministerial Dialogue on Police Capacity Building and Cooperation Between China and Pacific Island Countries in Beijing,” the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and the Cook Islands sent delegates to hear China’s plan to strengthen law enforcement and security cooperation in 2023.

In a joint 2023 statement, the Solomon Islands reportedly agreed to Beijing’s positions on Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet.

” China has been on the front foot across the Pacific for many years, doing trade and security deals with island countries, while the US is only now stepping up with new embassies opening in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Tonga”, said Ben Bohane, a Vanuatu- based Pacific political analyst and photojournalist.

From the perspective of islands, the competition has given them for the first time as various powers try to court them, including Arab nations like Israel, Japan, and even India, according to Bohane in an interview.

Meanwhile, on the island nation of Kiribati, a” Chinese police delegation team works with the Kiribati Police Service to assist a community policing program, and martial arts kung fu, and an IT ( information technology ) department, assisting our crime database”, Kiribati’s acting Police Commissioner Eeri Aritiera told Reuters in February.

About a dozen uniformed Chinese police officers landed for a six-month rotation in 2023 and have since been updated.

When asked about Kiribati and China, the US State Department told government-run Voice of America (VOA ) in February,” We do not believe importing security forces from [ China ] will help any country.” After excluding Taiwan, Kiribati established relations with China in 2019 and is located two hundred kilometers south of Hawaii.

China is considering how to finance the reconstruction of Kanton Island, a coral atoll in Kiribati, which had been a major stopover for military and commercial aircraft during World War II.

Kanton will now be a tourist destination that Chinese tourists visiting other islands would enjoy visiting, according to China and Kiribati. If financed and built by China, the airstrip on Kanton would be for passenger flights, including within Kiribati’s chain of islands, but not for military use, Kiribati said.

Kiribati also receives financial assistance from the US, Canada, Japan, the European Union and others.

” Australia is supporting the Kiribati Police Service with major upgrades to its policing infrastructure, including a new barracks and headquarters and radio network”, Australia’s Foreign Affairs Department told Reuters in February.

The International Dateline intersects the Equator, and Kiribati’s islands are splattered across the map in four different areas.

Some islands are east of the dateline, while others are west of it, and some islands are north of the Equator, while others are below it.

One of the largest exclusive economic areas on earth is Kiribati, which asserts more than 3.5 million square kilometers of territorial rights in the Pacific Ocean.

” Pacific countries have long felt their infrastructure needs have not been met, so it is difficult for them to tell island nations not to accept assistance from China if traditional partners like Australia, New Zealand, and the US do n’t provide the wharves, roads, and airports,” Bohane said.

Under The Compacts of Free Association ( COFA ), Washington exerts some control over three island countries: Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau.

Palau’s Rock Islands. Palau, a tiny island nation in the Pacific, established one of the largest marine sanctuaries in the world, claiming to be interested in protecting the ocean for future generations. And the country’s Covid- free. Photo: The Pew Charitable Trusts

The Pentagon has the power to land troops and weapons on COFA’s territories under the agreement, which was signed in 2023, and to prevent other nations from doing so. Many COFA citizens who enlisted in the US armed forces as a quick way to become Americans after serving in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries are familiar with the US military.

After feeling economically exploited and destabilized by China’s overwhelming wealth, Palau President Surangel Whipps reportedly requested from the Pentagon to construct ports, bases, and airfields on its islands.

Under COFA, the US agreed to pay$ 7 billion over the next 20 years in assistance to Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau. In February however,” the funding was dropped from the security supplemental in the US Senate, under pressure from conservatives who wanted to lower costs”, VOA reported.

” With no amendment process permitted, the funds could not be added back in”.

A mangled COFA could wreck the islands ‘ confidence in US backing, critics said. It “opens the door for China to make similar overtures to the COFA nations”, Hawaii’s Senator Mazie Hirono warned.

The US West coast is protected from China’s eastern shores by a Three Island Chain, a theory that was developed in the US during the US-Korea War to protect against China and the Soviet Union.

Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Borneo, and other islands in the increasingly militarized and contested South China and East China seas are included in the First Island Chain.

Further southward, the Second Island Chain connects Guam with the Mariana Islands, Palau, Yap, and islands farther south.

The Third Island Chain runs south from the Aleutian Islands, through the center of the Pacific and the Hawaiian Islands, to American Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand.

Since 1978, Richard S. Ehrlich, an American foreign correspondent reporting from Asia and the recipient of Columbia University’s Foreign Correspondents ‘ Award, has been based in Bangkok. Excerpts from his two new nonfiction books,” Rituals. Killers. Wars. &amp, Sex. — Tibet, India, Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka &amp, New York” and” Apocalyptic Tribes, Smugglers &amp, Freaks” are available here.

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Squad ditches Quad to keep US heat on China - Asia Times

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In early April 2024, the fleets of four nations —Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and the United States — held a seafaring training in the South China Sea.

Australia ‘s&nbsp, Warramunga, Japan ‘s&nbsp, Akebono, the Philippines ‘&nbsp, Antonio Luna, and America’s Mobile worked together in these waters to strengthen their joint abilities and – as they said in a joint&nbsp, statement – to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight and respect for maritime rights under international law”.

For Exercise Balikatan 2024, boats from the Philippines and the US operated alongside American and European naval forces a few weeks later, between April 22 and May 8.

For this Balikatan (” make- to- back” ), over 16, 000 forces participated in an area of the South China Sea that is outside the territorial waters of the Philippines. The Coast Guard of the Philippines participated in Exercise Balikatan along with the warships of these countries.

This is important because it is the ships of the Coast Guard that most often&nbsp, encounter&nbsp, Taiwanese ships in these global waters, portion of which are disputed between China and the Philippines.

Although China is not named in the standard documents accompanying these exercises, they are undoubtedly intended to be a part of the growing military action the US is engaged in along China’s maritime border. &nbsp,

The Philippine Navy&nbsp, BRP Lake Caliraya, was simultaneously attacked and sunk during the Balikatan practice by the military arteries from the Philippines and the United States. The Philippine National Oil Company gave the ship, which was made in China, to the military in 2014 as a donation.

The notion that it was the only ship in the Philippines ‘ army that was made in China did not go&nbsp, unnoticed&nbsp, within China. Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla- Taborlupa, a director of the military forces of the Philippines, &nbsp, said&nbsp, that this was “purely coincidental”.

The four major countries ‘ defence ministers met in Honolulu, Hawaii to explain the political repercussions of these martial exercises off China’s beach during Balikatan.

Australia’s Richard Marles, Japan’s Kihara Minoru, the Philippines ‘ Gilberto Teodoro, and the United States ‘ Lloyd Austin met for their next meeting to discuss their engagement in the region that they call the Indo- Pacific.

The officials ‘ public relations team began using the name” Squad” to send to these four nations just before the start of this appointment. Although they did not officially announce the establishment of a new alliance in East Asia, this fresh moniker merely serves as a de facto denotation of its life.

From Quad to Squad

In 2007, the leaders of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States met in Manila ( Philippines ) to establish the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue ( or Quad ) while their militaries conducted Exercise Malabar in the Philippines Sea.

The Quad did not initially involve the Philippines, whose president at the time—Gloria Arroyo—was trying to&nbsp, improve&nbsp, ties between her country and China.

The Quad did not develop because Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was angry with Washington’s growing antagonism towards Beijing. The Quad revived in 2017, when more in&nbsp, Manila, with a more honest plan to operate against China’s Belt and Road interests in the region, which subsequently- US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson&nbsp, called&nbsp, “predatory economics”.

The US has been frustrated with India’s pain with the kind of pressure battle the US has been launching against China and Russia over the past two decades. India refused to stop buying discounted Russian energy, which was a pragmatic decision during an election period ( although India’s purchase of Russian energy has &nbsp, declined&nbsp, over time ).

When asked if India may consider being a NATO part, India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar&nbsp, said&nbsp, that India does not promote the “NATO mentality”.

The US government was irritated by India’s reluctance to engage in the full-fledged New Cold War with China, which led to the decision to leave the Triple and form the Club with the more resolute and determined Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

It is important to observe, however, that in April India&nbsp, delivered&nbsp, a batch of hypersonic BrahMos cruise missiles to the Philippines, sold for US$ 375 million and produced by a joint venture between wings manufacturers in India and Russia.

The fine print of the package does not hide the possibility that these weapons might be used in the fresh pressure campaign against China.

Pivot threats

Since its “pivot to Asia”, the US has sought to inspire China. The US trade war that began in 2018 generally fizzled out due to China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its attempt to build the superior production lines to avoid US trade regulations ( for example, when the US tried to prevent China from importing silicon chips, the Chinese&nbsp, developed&nbsp, their own production capability ).

The US’s campaign to pressure Taiwan into being at the forefront of its efforts has also failed. The inauguration of Taiwan’s new President Lai Ching- te on May 20 brings to the helm a man who is&nbsp, not interested&nbsp, in pushing for Taiwan’s independence, only 6 % of Taiwan’s population&nbsp, favors&nbsp, unification with China or independence, with the rest of the population satisfied with the status quo.

The US moved its gunsights to the Philippines because it was unable to create the necessary controversies about Taiwan. Although the Philippines and China disagree on the status of several islands in the waters between them, these disagreements do not suffice to compel either nation to go to war.

In April 2024, former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte&nbsp, recalled&nbsp, that when he was president ( 2016- 2022 ),” there was no quarrel. We can return to normalcy. I hope that the ruckus can be stopped because Americans are the ones who are urging the Philippine government to go out and find a conflict and, perhaps, start a war there.

In March, President Marcos&nbsp, said&nbsp, that he is” not poking the bear” and does not want to “provoke” China. However, the Squad’s formation two months later indicates that the Philippines has now taken Taiwan as the country’s frontline for US provocations against China.

China’s vice chair of its Central Military Commission, Zhang Youxia, &nbsp, warned&nbsp, against “gunboat muscles”. ” Reality has shown”, he said,” that those who make deliberate provocations, stoke tensions, or support one side against another for selfish gains will ultimately only hurt themselves”.

This article was produced by&nbsp, Globetrotter and is republished with kind permission.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor, journalist and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is also an editor of&nbsp, LeftWord Books &nbsp, and the director of&nbsp, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

He has written more than 20 books, including&nbsp, The Darker Nations&nbsp, and&nbsp, The Poorer Nations. His latest books are &nbsp, Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism&nbsp, and ( with Noam Chomsky ) &nbsp, The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U. S. Power.

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China tech shares hint at economic green shoots - Asia Times

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Strong tech company results are obscuring China’s gross domestic product ( GDP ) data, which some analysts believe will indicate better days for Xi Jinping’s largely underperforming economy.

China’s standard data readouts these weeks can make for disturbing reading. Deflationary pressures are making headlines, but there are n’t any indications of a clear and sustained acceleration.

Case in point: news on Friday ( May 17 ) that China’s consumer spending lost steam in April, rising just 2.3 % year on year versus 3.1 % in March.

Industrial output accelerated, while, expanding 6.7 % over the same time. The discrepancy demonstrates how the Chinese market is still reliant on global demand and the uneven nature of growth.

According to Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank,” the history of this week’s statistics is that of prevailing prudence by households and the private sector, as financial sales and fixed property purchase came in weaker than expected.”

Alibaba Group, Tencent Holdings, and another Chinese tech behemoths are, however, presenting a pleasant counternarrative of financial green stems that suggest Beijing’s signal initiatives are gaining some sway.

Alibaba, the e-commerce giant, reported its biggest annual growth increase in the first quarter, with net income rising 10 %. Gaming giant Tencent, meanwhile, reported a 62 % surge in net profit.

Example abound among other island computer systems, suggesting Beijing’s efforts to achieve this year’s 5 % GDP growth target are fairly working.

They even mention Team Xi’s renewed assurance that the country’s government is finally committed to resolving the housing crisis that is the source of the country’s sagging consumer prices and uncertain economic prospects.

According to UBS’s planner Meng Lei, current property sales and fresh starts have yet to reach bottom, while total earnings have remained pressured despite subdued demand in the first quarter.

China’s home shortage will remain to stymie growth in 2024. Image: Twitter Screengrab

However, Meng predicted that as house exercise stabilizes and inflation recovers, earnings will increase as inflation and household income rise.

Venu Krishna, a planner at Barclays, continues,” The club for the party to offer has been set very high, but the Big Tech basics still look good below and we think there’s room to run over the next pair of rooms.” Post-quarter income from the largest companies in the S&amp, P 500, and now the big tech adjustments have increased even more.

This year, Xi’s group unveiled plans to address real land troubles some economists compare to Japan’s 1990s awful- product debacle. According to reports, Beijing is reportedly coercing local governments and state-owned corporations to purchase thousands of properties that have not been sold.

Strong efforts to clear China’s extensive undisclosed housing stock may significantly increase consumer and business confidence.

Reversing the turmoil narrative had likewise stifle Xi and Premier Li Qiang’s ability to boost capital markets, rebalance growth engines toward new products and services, and create more potent social safety nets. The former effort is essential for influencing customers to invest more and keep less.

In a fresh document, JPMorgan asserts that” we believe this could be a game change in the sense that home sales may at least maintain rather than worsen.”

Franklin Templeton also cited positive indicators that the real estate nightmare is coming to an end in a note to clients. The signs that” Chinese authorities have been easing home purchase restrictions – these restrict buyers to purchases in their home province and/or limit the purchase of a second property” and that” they have been lowering mortgage interest rate floor limits” encourage this.

As Beijing addresses economic headwinds more forcefully, count Michael Burry among the China tech optimists. The investor made famous by the book&nbsp,” The Big Short” &nbsp, upped his bets on Alibaba and JD.com in the first quarter of this year.

According to recent filings, JD is the top holding by Burry’s Scion Asset Management, with its stake in the e- commerce giant increasing by 80 % in the first quarter, representing an additional 50, 000 shares.

Burry, who saw the 2008 US subprime crisis coming better than peers, has seen a zigzag in China tech investments recently.

Burry’s most recent bets demonstrate the cautious yet discernible return by global investors as China’s stock market shifts from a US$ 7 trillion rout from a 2021 peak to January 2024.

Among Burry’s new holdings is in search engine giant Baidu, sometimes likened to China’s Google. Those on which he’s scaling back include Amazon, Google parent Alphabet and Warner Bros Discovery.

Of course, the decisions of one investor do n’t make or break global investment trends. It’s interesting that a well-known value investor known for his grave warnings and cataclysmic predictions is bullish on a sector that many Western peers have left for dead in recent years.

According to Brendan Ahern, chief investment officer at KraneShares, a provider of exchange-traded funds in China,” we believe many Asia-focused investors who have been overweight India and Japan are becoming concerned about India’s high valuations and Japan’s continued currency weakness.”

According to Ahern,” China’s equity market could benefit from investors shifting profits from high-value markets to low-value markets.”

People pass by the Tencent headquarters in Shenzhen, in the Guangdong province of southern China. Photo: Asia Times Files / AFP / Noel Celis

It also highlights the dangers of Xi and Li failing to take bold financial decisions at the moment. Since 2015, a well-established cycle of boom-bust cycles has plagued Chinese markets. In the summer of that year, Shanghai shares plunged 30 % in just a few weeks.

Many top fund managers have found that success in bolstering capital markets, increasing transparency, and reducing the dominance of state-owned enterprises has been too inconsistent since then. Xi’s headline- grabbing clampdown on tech platforms, including Alibaba and Tencent, beginning in late 2020 and arguably still ongoing, also torpedoed confidence in the sector’s future profitability.

And so John Woods, chief investment officer for Asia at Lombard Odier, speaks for many when he worries China’s equity rally is at odds with fundamentals.

” The equity rally may be driven by a combination of fear of missing out, hopes of a Chinese economic recovery, Beijing’s pro- growth policy stance, foreign investor rotation from US and Japan stocks, as well as attractive valuations, particularly in technology- related names”.

Furthermore, Woods notes,” the stability and consistency of Hong Kong’s dollar peg to the US dollar also offers foreign investors some confidence. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities would like to sustain the rally with policy proposals. The most recent proposal would exempt individual mainland investors from a 20 % tax on Hong Kong-listed dividends.

Yet the rally” seems to be expectation- based and liquidity- driven”, Woods says. ” Whether it can continue largely depends on China’s corporate revenue outlook”.

And the broader economy’s ability to turn the corner. The good news is that the first-quarter earnings for China’s major tech companies are encouraging signs of green growth.

According to Allianz Global Investors, “tighter control of costs has fed through into improved bottom-line profitability. While top- line growth has generally been as muted as expected.” A notable increase in dividend payouts has been witnessed in addition to the improved earnings picture. The dividend hikes have, to an extent, been spurred by a recent regulatory push, but from a fundamental perspective, there certainly appears to be room to increase dividends”.

The bad news is that Xi’s reform team has a lot to prove in light of the market’s frequently wild gyrations since 2015.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley, for example, counsel caution about the upside for mainland shares. ” We see near- term technical overbought signals, which could deter further buying by global quant funds”, they write. Consumption and the housing market” could continue to be under pressure” due to” continuing pressure on deflation and corporate earnings.”

The same goes for financial reforms. Along with China’s ever-present regulatory risks and concerns about growth, tech shares are subject to headwinds as a result of worries about the property crisis and the yuan asset exodus.

This latter dynamic is being complicated by the US Federal Reserve’s reluctance to ease interest rates, extending the “higher for longer” era for yields.

The success of Huawei Technologies&nbsp and other companies in avoiding US sanctions designed to stifle the sector has contributed to the bull case surrounding China technology.

How China Inc. has been catalyzed by US presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden to innovate and advance up the value-added scale is one of the potential unintended consequences of attempts to undermine the semiconductor industry.

US sanctions were characterized as “double-edged sword,” according to Bernstein analyst Qingyuan Lin. It “may stifle China’s progress in cutting-edge regions, and they also compel it to expand its supply chain, pursue self-sufficientness, and prosper in sectors that benefit from increased domestic substitution.”

However, Xi’s success in promoting private sector innovation over outdated state-owned enterprises depends on whether Chinese tech shares gain a wider audience. In theory, Beijing must do so more quickly and credibly to establish equal playing fields, strengthen capital markets, promote transparency, and strengthen corporate governance.

And, of course, to end a property crisis that has China in global headlines for all the wrong reasons. Beijing is now asking SOEs to purchase unsold property, which would introduce non-commercial distortions in a market already fraught with them. This is significant because it is already rife with them. &nbsp,

In February, Premier Li called for “pragmatic and forceful” steps aimed at “boosting confidence”. He urged policymakers to” concentrate on addressing real-world problems that concern both consumers and businesses.”

President Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Qiang. Photo: Xinhua, China .com.cn

Li’s comments came around the time Beijing statisticians were confirming the lowest annual&nbsp, foreign direct investment&nbsp, since 1993— just$ 33 billion in 2023. The figure, which records monetary flows involving foreign- owned entities in China, was 82 % lower than the 2022 tally.

Xi’s efforts to rebuild confidence have been hampered by MSCI’s earlier this year decision to remove dozens of Chinese companies from multiple indexes. The action highlighted the need for reform as investors look for less risky places to invest, including Japan, which is nearby.

The trick is to take the lessons learned in 2015 and subsequent years.

At the time, Xi’s Communist Party loosened rules on leverage, reduced reserve requirements, delayed all initial public offerings, suspended trading in thousands of listed companies and allowed mainlanders&nbsp, to use apartments as collateral to buy shares. Then, Xi’s government rolled out advertising campaigns to buy stocks out of&nbsp, patriotism.

Given the severity of the property crisis and deflationary pressures of the present, it seems as though merely providing stimulus will be less effective this time.

Another issue is the US’s continued efforts to slow China’s growth as a tech superpower. Biden unveiled a new round of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles earlier this week, totaling 100 % of Trump’s.

Biden also slapped new taxes on mainland solar cells, batteries, construction cranes and medical equipment as well as steel and aluminum.

Team Xi has already stated that it will “take resolute measures to defend its rights and interests.” That could, in turn, see Biden up the sanctions ante ahead of the November 5 election, putting China’s tech industry on edge.

The next wave of restrictions, it seems likely, will attempt to stymie China’s ambitions in the field of artificial intelligence. Already, the specter of heavy- handed regulation – and Xi’s party putting its own priorities ahead of tech development – are clouding China’s AI future. &nbsp,

Even before Biden’s latest tariffs, analysts at Barclays were doubtful about China’s ambitious goal of reaching 70 % self- sufficiency in semiconductors by 2025. The endeavor is still “at the start of a very long journey”, Barclays says.

China is indeed moving quickly toward a faster transition of its economy, moving away from property to technology and services. Tech profits are telling the story, and they are piqued by optimism in some circles that the economy is moving on a more dynamic, value-added path.

Follow William Pesek on X at @WilliamPesek

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'My ex took my children': Hope for divorced parents as Japan to allow joint child custody

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Minako (right) and her daughterSupplied
By Shaimaa Khalil
Tokyo journalist

A decades-old law that allows divorced people to share custody of their children starting in 2026 has been approved by the Chinese congress.

Usually, custody is granted to a single family who is then able to completely cut off the other parent’s access to their children.

Japan was the only G7 member that did not acknowledge the constitutional principle of joint captivity up until Friday.

Most marriage in Japan occur through” notice marriage,” in which both parties sign a document and agree to finish a union.

In this situation, lawyers say, the pair is free to decide custody and visit plans. However, the judge grants one family custody if the two functions are separated in court.

This approach has drawn criticism from divorced families who claim that as a result, they have been separated from their kids.

Minako Sato* is one of them.

When Ms. Sato and her ex-husband agreed to bring her therefore 10-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter to visit on weekends when she moved to her old mother’s house to volunteer for a few months.

This design lasted for about a quarter and a half. However, Ms. Sato claimed she noticed a change in her ex-husband: he was slower and more remote.

” He stopped talking to me when he brought the kids to my family’s house”, she said.

” At first I thought he was tired from driving. I did n’t understand what was happening”.

Finally he informed her that he would no longer go see her every trip, claiming that his mother had criticized her for being a negative effect.

Whoever takes the child is granted prison.

” He said if I got any closer to the ( family ) home he’d call the police. I was afraid to go near it… ( in case ) he was violent or told lies to the police ( about me )”.

She attempted to call the property in-laws her husband and children shared with her mother, but her names were stymied. But in a desperate charge to see her child, she decided to show up anyway.

I went to see my mother-in-law, and I thought maybe she could speak to him to bring me home.

Her mom- in- law called the police otherwise.

” Five or six police came. They alleged that they would n’t let me leave unless I traveled to the station with them. Ms Sato said.

She and her daughter, who had entered the police vehicle with her, stayed there for three days.

Before her estranged father and his lawyer arrived to pick the baby away, she would spend the longest with her daughter.

The police agent ultimately expressed his regret, but he was unable to assist me.

After being separated from her children for two years, Ms. Sato learned that her ex-husband had been given the ultimate guardianship of the kids.

” I knew by then that whoever takes the baby gets custody”, she said. ” I knew it was coming”.

Akira Ueno, a lawyer with a focus on parental abduction situations, told the BBC that this system, which was based on the notion that babies were” the property of the home,” with the household’s mind being a man, dates back to before the second world war.

” So if the woman gets divorced, she ends up being kicked out of the house while the baby is kept with the daddy”, Mr Ueno explains.

Eventually, this changed as people tended to be their primary caregivers, with the majority of cases now granting the family sole custody.

Ai Fukuhara (R) of Japan and Hung-Chieh Chiang

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When Asian table tennis superstar Ai Fukuhara was accused by her ex-husband of abducting their son, the laws were once more brought into focus last year.

Chiang Hung- Chieh, a Chinese table tennis player, claimed they had filed for divorce several years ago and that they both officially agreed to joint custody while they were visiting Taiwan.

However, she stopped communicating with Chiang after she returned from Japan with their child and refused to return their child to Taiwan. The couple announced earlier this year that they had reached a settlement about two years later.

However, not everyone is pleased with the new mutual prison law.

Some pro-feminism activists claim that the new law will require women who have accused their husbands of domestic abuse to keep relationships with them.

” If you implement the joint guardianship system, the perpetrator will have complete control over the children and victims of domestic assault.” They ca n’t escape”, said lawyer Harumi Okamura.

Ms. Okamura has extensive experience with women who have fled domestic violence and aggressive relationships. She adds that those people believe they are dependent on their abusive partners to raise their children.

However, another attorneys have cautioned against conflating home abuse and joint custody.

” Dear Mother, How are you? I have n’t seen you in years ‘

After two and a half decades in the divorce process, Ms. Sato learned that her two children had left their family home.

She looked online and discovered that the property had been for sale.

” One evening, I passed by and there was nothing. No automobile, no bicycles, everything. I did n’t know what to think. I did n’t know where they went,” she said.

Ms. Sato claimed she called the police to report that her children had been kidnapped, but all they returned with was confirmation that her children were safe and with their father and that her ex-husband did n’t want her to know where they were, so they could n’t tell her.

I do n’t have a restraining order in place against me. Legally, I should be able to view my kids. I should be able to understand where they’re living. ” She said.

According to Mr. Ueno, if a parent-child custody dispute persists for more than a year and the baby constantly resides with one parent, it becomes a significant factor in the jury’s determination of who gets custody.

” There’s an benefits to whoever takes the child second,” Mr Ueno said.

Ms Sato's son (right) and daughter

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While the criminal law of Japan clearly defines the term “abduction of a slight,” the interpretation becomes much less clear when a parent abducts their own child. Essentially, lawyers say, the authorities do n’t treat it as abduction.

This is known as “going estranged with kids” or “living individually with children” in Japan, and it is tolerated. ” Mr Ueno said.

” The police do n’t take action, saying it’s a matter between spouses. They do n’t intervene. It’s a historical rule in Japan.”

Visit privileges are discretionary and not a legitimate right in Japan, and are discretionary.

For Ms. Sato, her second attempt to obtain child support failed after a judge turned down her request on the grounds that there was a contentious debate between her and her soon-to-be-ex-husband.

According to Ms. Okamura, judges will only give trip in the majority of cases where it is in the child’s best interest. And when and if these sessions are granted, they happen under control.

After three and a half decades of being entirely cut off from her children, Ms. Sato was finally granted visitation with her kids in August of last year.

” I’d been trying to see my kids for three times,” she said, while in grief”. I was thus tired by next.”

For the first time in a long time, Ms. Sato, her brother, and daughter were in the same place, but they were both under court supervision. The second meeting was a test visitation.

She was given 30 minutes to talk to them, but she was informed that she could n’t inquire into their lives, where they lived, where they went to school, or who their friends were friends.

She claims that she was told related issues by another divorced parents and that she was never given a specific reason why she was required to continue with the “limited questions.”

” My girl was very silent. It’d been three- and- a- third times so I think she was nervous. But she claimed to have loved and had been wanting to discover me.

Her daughter even showed her a text, which read: Dear Mom, How are you? I’ve been missing for four to three times, so I’m worried. I’ve moved on to the fourth grade, and I have a lot of friends. I want to view you immediately because I love you.

Ms Sato smiles when she talks about her brother, then a teenager.

” I asked him’ Is that you?’ three or four times. Because he’d grown therefore much”, she said. ” He’s much taller than me now”.

If there had been a mutual prison system in Japan, “none of this would’ve happened”, she adds.

Mr. Ueno’s optimism is less cheerful, but she claims she is optimistic that the costs will eventually stop familial abduction cases.

He questions whether the authorities will basically pursue those who kidnap their children, not to mention how the shared custody system will really be enforced.

” Simply speaking, I think it’s’ plain vertebrae’- a bill without substance”, he says. When there is no infrastructure, how you shared custody be enforced?

Up in Tokyo, Ms Sato has suddenly been granted regular appointments with her kids. She presently meets them once per quarter.

She claims she does n’t know much about their lives, but she wants to make up for it.

” At least I’m getting the chance to view my children”, she says, smiling through tears.

Yumi Herman and Chie Kobayashi provided extra monitoring.

*Names have been altered to better reflect who they are.

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