Nokia has won important contracts in both India and China recently, demonstrating that “both-and” still works in the “either-or” world of decoupling from China. That may be a lesson for Sweden’s Ericcson, which has taken a different route. On October 17, Finland’s telecom infrastructure company announced that it had been selected by Reliance Jio Infocomm […]Continue Reading
China’s government will implement a series of measures to attract foreign companies to invest in high-end manufacturing in mainland China, a counter to US-led efforts to persuade firms and allied nations to “decouple” from China and its supply chains. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and […]Continue Reading
Vietnam currently benefits from China’s Covid-19 lockdowns and the geopolitical tensions between the United States and China — especially in electronics manufacturing. The country flirted with its own “zero-Covid” policy and lockdowns in 2021 but changed course quickly to have two-thirds of its population vaccinated by December 2021. News leaked that Apple would move its iPad […]Continue Reading
Stock markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai fell sharply on Monday (October 24) as China’s new leadership was formed after the week-long 20th Communist Party National Congress closed on Saturday. The Hang Seng Index fell 1,030 points, or 6.36%, to 15,180, the lowest level in 13 years. Technology and property stocks fell by more than […]Continue Reading
Southeast Asia’s second-largest and once one of its most dynamic economies is struggling under the weight of an aging population, a deteriorating education system and low-yield rice farming. Thailand looks trapped as a middle-income country, unable to get rich, and stuck between a younger, dynamic Vietnam and a larger Indonesia. Getting out of its economic […]Continue Reading
TOKYO – On October 18, the top article on the front page of Japan’s leading business daily screamed that cutting off imports from China would cost Japan 53 trillion yen (US$353 billion) in lost production, or about 10% of annual gross domestic product (GDP). Meanwhile, the yen has depreciated by 31% against the US dollar […]Continue Reading
It’s never been a better time to be in the red in Hong Kong. The financial hub plans to ease its listing rules to allow more firms that have never turned a profit to go public as part of a plan to attract at least 100 innovative tech firms to list on the local bourse […]Continue Reading
The European Union has just approved new sanctions against Russia, including a price cap on oil sales, following the United States’ September 30 announcement of new economic sanctions. Both announcements are in response to Russia’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine. The goal of sanctions against Russia is to cripple Russia’s capacity to wage war […]Continue Reading
China aims to recruit and groom a new team of strategic scientists and engineers in an inward-looking reaction to new US sanctions that will force American experts to quit working at Chinese semiconductor fabs. On October 18, the Ministry of Industrial and Information (MIIT) suggested in an opinion document that China should encourage top graduates […]Continue Reading
In late August 2022, news broke that Apple was in talks to manufacture its famed Apple Watches and MacBooks in Vietnam for the first time. Some view this as a move by transnational corporations and their core suppliers to diversify their production away from China, buffering themselves from intensifying US-China geoeconomic competition. Others interpret this as a sign of […]Continue Reading