Is the COE system broken? Experts say it does its job but a review is needed

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Singapore’s car population has been under the control of the system for the past 33 years since Certificates of Entitlement ( COEs ) for vehicle ownership were introduced.

However, authorities told CNA that private cars are now being used for ride-hailing providers and that the COE system has not undergone a” more basic review” to address these shifts. & nbsp,

COE costs for all types of cars once more peaked on Wednesday, October 18. While Category B cars, which are bigger and more powerful, breached an eye-watering S$ 150, 000, COE for smaller cars in Category A increased to S$ 106, 000 ( US$ 77, 500 ).

Members of the public have questioned whether the system is broken as data continue to be broken at each COE selling practice.

Singapore is being” penalized unnecessarily by a good system gone rogue ,” according to one Facebook commenter. Another advocated for its abolition and claimed that it is ineffective because there are still customers jam.

Economists were questioned by CNA regarding the validity of claims that the system cannot be repaired or whether it is operating properly.

Prices may be rising as a result of personal trucks being used for business purposes, they claimed. Consumers, for instance, & nbsp, must contend with rental companies and customers who plan to use the cars as private-hire cars.

According to Mr. Yeo Swee Guan, a control connect at Motorist Singapore,” PHVs and car rental ships may be significantly contributing to the historically high Department costs we are currently experiencing.“

” While the cost of a COE at current costs may be an extremely significant cost to individuals and communities, they would be less of an issue to organizations whose companies are in rental or rent.”

According to Mr. Ng Lee Kwang, board director at commercial car rental company Goldbell Corp., purchasing a car makes feeling for those who are using it for business, such as hire fleet owners or people who drive private-hire vehicles.

We don’t include a( profit and loss statement ) as individual consumers, he claimed. ” We buy the car and we’re stuck with it ,” said & nbsp.

Private-hire cars can be transformed into private vehicles for sale. S$ 100( US$ 73 ) is required for the conversion.

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IT salaries in Malaysia show largest % jump according to Pikom’s Economic and Digital Job Market Outlook 2023

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25.5 % projected growth in the digital economy in 2024, surpassing the national goalPikom also experiences an annual average growth rate of 6.45 %& nbsp over a 10-year period.According to Vanessa Tan, CEO and owner of HT Consulting( Asia ) Sdn Bhd of Pikom’s( National ICT Association of Malaysia ) Economic…Continue Reading

Country Garden: China property giant default fears grow

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Aerial view of a housing project built by China's property giant Country Garden.shabby graphics
authored by Mariko Oi
journalist for company

Country Garden, the largest private estate developer in China, is thought to be the most recent real estate juggernaut to default on its international loan.

A default would be one of the largest corporate debt restructurings in the nation, with the company owing$ 11 billion(£ 9 billion ) in debt and another$ 6 billion in onshore loans.

Its potential definition raises questions about China’s ability to recover from the pandemic.

China’s real estate market, which makes up a fourth of the business, is experiencing significant problems.

According to the most recent statistics, the nation’s economy expanded 4.9 % in the three months between July and September. Compared to the 6.3 % growth in the second quarter, that is slower.

Despite Beijing’s efforts to increase cover need, the number of home sales is also lower than it was last year.

According to the most recent data, the nation’s real estate investment decreased by 9.1 % during the first nine months of the year.

The crisis-stricken Country Garden reported a record$ 6.7 billion($ 5.2 billion ) loss for the first six months of the year in August. Given the size of the debt, if its definition is confirmed, Country Garden’s offshore lenders will begin talks with the company ‘ financial counselors to launch a restructuring process that may take several months.

According to Raymond Cheng, Standard Chartered’s North Asia main purchase officer,” This will spark our worries about the housing market in China.”

In order to regain confidence and trust in the market, markets will probably seek a more coordinated policy approach, Mr. Cheng continued.

The current real estate market turmoil in China began when Country Garden’s competition Evergrande was declared to be in proxy in 2021. Police are currently keeping an eye on Evergrande’s president.

When new regulations to regulate the amount of money that large real estate firms may acquire were implemented in 2020, China’s housing market was rocked.

Evergrande, which was once China’s top-selling developer, amassed debts totaling more than$ 300 billion as it aggressively grew to become one of the largest corporations in the nation.

With a number of other developers defaulting on their debts and abandoning empty construction projects across the nation, the government’s property industry has been affected by its economic issues.

China is also dealing with different issues, such as slow economic growth, rising regional government debts, and record-high youth unemployment.

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Didi, Huawei lead the way for a China bounce back

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If ever there were a business story proving the folly of sanctions in today’s hyper-integrated world, it’s Huawei and the runaway success of the Mate 60 Pro smartphone it unveiled last month.

For years now, Huawei has been central to US efforts to stymie Chinese tech development. Since 2019, when Donald Trump was in the White House, Huawei has been on Washington’s “Entity List.” That greatly limited the Shenzhen-based company’s access to key technology, essentially knocking it out of the smartphone game.

Well, not so much. “This is a breakthrough for Huawei, which has not been able to produce a 5G mobile phone since 2020 and has seen its once-commanding global market share shrivel to basically zero,” says analyst Tilly Zhang at Gavekal Research.

“It’s led to fierce debate over the efficacy of the US measures,” Zhang says, “with boosters in China and critics in the US claiming that the new phone shows the sanctions are ineffective and that China has already overcome them.”

In reality, Zhang says, “it’s more of a symbolic victory for Huawei that will not fundamentally change the trajectory of China’s technology sector under US sanctions.”

And yet it’s also a strong case study not just of Beijing’s ability to steer around trade curbs, but also of what China Inc needs to do to raise its game.

Didi Global is simultaneously offering another case study. Didi was among the most recognized global brands caught up in the tech crackdown President Xi Jinping launched in late 2020. Now, the ride-hailing juggernaut plans to list in Hong Kong early next year.

The comeback — and Didi’s success in restoring relations with Chinese regulators — is all the more remarkable considering the drama surrounding its forced delisting last year.

Its ill-fated New York initial public offering (IPO) came as Xi’s team was reining in top internet platforms, starting with Alibaba Holdings and later extending to Didi, Baidu, ByteDance, JD.com, Meituan, Tencent and others.

Naturally, Didi needs the blessings of Xi and Premier Li Qiang to arrange any new share listing. It set the stage for an IPO by acceding to regulators’ concerns about corporate governance and data privacy — and paying an 8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) fine in 2022.

Didi was forced to take a ride-hailing break after authorities demanded changes to its data-collection practices. Photo: Asia Times Files / AFP

Damage has been done, of course. The company’s market share at home dropped to about 70% today from 90% before Xi’s tech clampdown. Yet like Alibaba, Didi is offering peers a blueprint for how to make peace with the regulatory squeeze of recent years — and come out the other side with a still dominant position.

While a work in progress, Alibaba’s metamorphosis into a holding company with six different business groups offers its own pointers to mainland chieftains. Now add Huawei and Didi to the list of companies reminding Beijing that the way forward is savvy restructuring and disruption, not giant stock bailout funds.

Xi’s Communist Party is considering creating a state-backed stabilization mechanism, backed by hundreds of billions of yuan of public funds, to stabilize a shaky US$9.5 trillion stock market.

Global funds have been net sellers of mainland stocks in recent months amid disappointment over the strength of China’s post-Covid economic recovery. Recently, China’s sovereign wealth fund bought about US$65 million of stock in the nation’s biggest banks.

A broader stabilization fund would be akin to how Beijing dealt with the stock crash of 2015. That was when Shanghai shares fell by more than 30% in just three weeks.

This “national team buying,” as Li Fuwen, a fund manager at Guangdong Value Forest Private Securities Investment, puts it, is a more potent way “to salvage confidence” than others Xi has taken, including tax cuts and lower stamp duties.

David Nealis, president of consultancy Ceres Ltd, adds that the policy “sounds like an opportunity.”

Yet many market players are critical of the stock-buying fund, arguing it treats the symptoms, not the underlying causes, of China’s market rout.

Economist Victor Shih at the University of California, San Diego says “that’s basically re-nationalization,” running counter to Xi’s pledges 10 years ago to let market forces play a “decisive” role in China’s future.

Economist Trinh Nguyen at Natixis says the problem is that “underwhelming economic data and dejected retail investors” are fueling more sell orders than buying opportunities.

It’s a movie China investors have seen before, says Jeroen Blokland, founder of advisory True Insights. “In 2015, China did something similar, giving China Securities Finance Corp nearly $500 billion in firepower to stop the crash in Chinese stocks. It did not help. Chinese stocks dropped by another 20% after the announcement of the intervention.”

An investor is seen in front of an electronic screen showing stock information (green for losses) at a brokerage house in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Photo: China Daily via Reuters
An investor is seen in front of an electronic screen showing stock information (green for losses) at a brokerage house in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Photo: China Daily

Morgan Stanley analyst Laura Wang adds that previous interventions had no real lasting effect — including in 2015. “Whether the market could be effectively stabilized or reversed into an upward trend is not, in our view, solely dependent on such state purchase actions.”

What’s needed, Wang notes, is credible financial reforms that increase trust among foreign investors.

In the short run, investors are troubled by Xi’s reluctance to act bigger and bolder in rolling out fresh stimulus efforts to boost the economy and cushion the blow of a property slump. Xi worries that opening the fiscal and monetary floodgates might incentivize more bad lending behavior and that doing so would squander efforts to reduce leverage.

“Whatever does emerge from Beijing over the coming months, it likely won’t be quick enough to make any meaningful difference to 2023,” says Robert Carnell, head of Asia-Pacific research at ING Bank. “At best, it should be viewed as a pain management tool for the transition to a less leveraged economy.”

But structural reform is the key to stabilizing stocks. Priorities include strengthening China’s capital markets, financial infrastructure and corporate governance. Others: incentivizing innovation, increasing productivity and expanding opportunities for economic disruption.

Easier monetary and fiscal policies or bailing out markets won’t prod local governments to devise more competitive business environments, build social safety nets needed to get households to spend more and save less or address the nation’s fast aging population.

Stimulus won’t accelerate China’s transition from debt-and-investment-driven growth to a more domestic-demand-led model. It’s not sufficient to bolster foreign investors’ confidence to bet big on China.  And it can’t stabilize the nation’s deeply troubled property markets.

That’s not to say the People’s Bank of China central bank shouldn’t ease in the months ahead. As the government moves to sell bonds to smooth out growth, “the PBOC may need to step up its liquidity support and lower interest rates to accommodate the issuance, which adds conviction to our call for another cut to reserve-requirement ratios and a policy rate cut in the fourth quarter,” says analyst Maggie Wei at Goldman Sachs Group.

Yet Xi’s team must work faster to repair China’s shaky property sector. Two years after China Evergrande Group defaulted, fellow giant developer Country Garden is signaling it may miss payments on offshore obligations — as soon as this week. Country Garden’s debt load was about US$196 billion at the end of 2022.

A “default would likely hurt homebuyer confidence, especially in lower-tier cities where its properties are concentrated, which would undermine policies to boost sales across the country,” says analyst Rick Waters at the Eurasia Group risk consultancy.

China’s Country Garden is the latest property developer that can’t pay its debts. Image: Screengrab / CNN

However, Waters notes, “Beijing is likely still reluctant to bail out the company. In fact, the government launched an investigation against Evergrande that prevents it from restructuring debt. If Beijing does help, it would probably focus on acquiring and completing unbuilt residential projects.”

A stock-buying fund, circa 2023, does get at a big paradox of the Xi era: if these periodic interventions work, why are they still necessary 10 years on?

To be sure, the bear market signals emanating from Shanghai today aren’t as dire as in the summer of 2015. Those chaotic declines slammed bourses from Tokyo to London to New York and fueled contagion fears.

At the time, Xi’s government scrambled to loosen rules on leverage and reduce reserve requirements. It also delayed all IPOs, suspended trading in thousands of listed companies, allowed apartments to be used as collateral to buy shares and lobbied households to invest in stocks out of a sense of patriotism.

The common thread between then and now is Team Xi’s penchant for prioritizing market-opening efforts over reforms – a tendency to over-promise and under-deliver financial upgrade-wise.

Since 2015, Xi’s regulators accelerated steps to open equity markets wider and wider to overseas investors. As Beijing increased quotas for foreign funds, it prioritized getting its government bonds added to benchmarks like the FTSE-Russell.

Likewise, moves to include Shanghai and Shenzhen stocks in benchmarks like MSCI outpaced reforms needed to prepare China Inc for global prime time. Flipping the script requires methodically increasing transparency, ensuring companies tighten corporate governance, building reliable surveillance mechanisms like trusted credit rating companies and erecting a robust market infrastructure before the world shows up with its funds.

A freer media also would help Xi’s inner circle intensify anti-corruption efforts and would be a natural ally in policing the malfeasance that distorts economic incentives and squanders the benefits of rapid gross domestic product (GDP).

But as Huawei and Didi are demonstrating, the ways in which top tech names are emerging from three years of regulatory shocks offers intriguing counterprogramming as the property sector continues to stumble.

Huawei alone is causing big ripples among Western tech communities who assumed US export controls curbing access to chip supplies had sidelined China Inc. Huawei’s 7-nanometer chip, which powers the smartphone’s processor, was designed in-house and manufactured by the mainland’s top chip vendor, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC).

While there are questions about whether Huawei’s 5G capabilities match Apple’s, the 7-nanometer chip “demonstrates the technical progress China’s semiconductor industry has been able to make without Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) tools,” says Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of TechInsights.

Huawei’s exhibit dominated this year’s Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona. Image: Facebook

Significantly, Hutcheson says, the componentry used for Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro showcases the progress of Xi’s signature “Made in China 2025” plan. It aims to dominate everything from semiconductors to electric vehicles to renewable energy to artificial intelligence to biotechnology to aviation.

In part, Huawei’s success “does signify” that Beijing’s tech subsidies are gaining traction, says analyst Hanna Dohmen at the Washington-based Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Without the role of state-backed SMIC, Huawei’s feat would’ve been much harder to pull off.

Yet Huawei is reminding US President Joe Biden’s White House, which this week doubled down on restricting access to cutting-edge tech including semiconductors and chipmaking gear, that China Inc has the wherewithal to navigate around sanctions.

Didi, meanwhile, is demonstrating in other ways how China’s most innovative tech platforms are shifting into higher gear. Xi’s reform team would be wise to lean into these promising case studies, implementing reforms to ensure they’re more the norm than the exception.

Follow William Pesek on X, formerly Twitter, at @WilliamPesek

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China’s Country Garden fiasco is a lesson to investors

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Country Garden, the largest personal property developer in China, has run out of money and is likely to default on a US$ 15 million discount pay at the end of the 30-day joy time.

Another significant Chinese real estate tycoon, Evergrande, filed for bankruptcy in 2021, signaling the beginning of a panic that has shook China’s economy.

There are serious concerns about Beijing’s ability to control the implosion given that the two companies alone have a combined debt of$ 500 billion.

One thing this major economic situation can teach us is that diversification is essential.

For a number of factors, China’s decades-long reliance on real estate as the main driver of economic growth is inherently flawed.

Second, the overzealous target of the real estate industry has resulted in a housing market marked by skyrocketing home prices and affordability for the average person. Cultural unrest and a sizable success divide are the results of this. Some people find housing to be an elusive dream as a result, which has an effect on social security and Chinese citizens’ wellbeing.

Second, the nation’s obsession with real estate has resulted in an oversupply of accommodation, creating many” spirit cities” with a large number of vacant properties. Investments have been diverted away from more productive areas of the business as a result of resource mismanagement, which has hampered technology and long-term growth.

Finally, as we can now see, the real estate industry’s enormous debt load is concerning. To finance infrastructure and construction jobs, local governments and property programmers have taken out significant loans. Due to this emphasis on debt, the economy is extremely susceptible to market fluctuations and not only carries a financial risk but also connects the government’s financial health to the fortunes of the real estate market.

Last but not least, China’s transition to a more balanced, consumer-driven market has been hampered by this one-dimensional development model. Growth and a decrease in real estate dependence are essential for achieving sustainable and inclusive development. & nbsp,

lack of diversity

Major economic, social, and economic challenges are presented by the current model, necessitating a more complex approach to economic development.

Beijing’s decades-long lack of economic growth may serve as a micro-warning to private buyers.

The improper diversification of a profile you have significant repercussions for an investor’s financial security. & nbsp,

Growth is a risk-management method that spreads investments across various asset classes, industries, and regional areas in order to lessen the effects of an underperforming investment on the portfolio as whole. & nbsp,

A second advantage or resource class is very vulnerable to the performance of that specific investment in an illiquid portfolio with a higher concentration. The value of the entire portfolio may decline if that advantage or sector performs poorly or experiences a slump.

Lack of diversification can lead to a portfolio that is more dangerous, meaning that the value of the portfolio may fluctuate significantly, making it more difficult to meet long-term economic objectives.

Additionally, concentrating on a single asset class might prevent investors from taking advantage of opportunities in various sectors.

In other words, China bet everything on red and came out on dark, endangering its claim to financial success. That ought to serve as a session for all of us.

The founder and CEO of deVere & nbsp, Group is Nigel Green. @ nigeljgreen on Twitter, follow him.

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MI5 head warns of ‘epic scale’ of Chinese espionage

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The head of MI5, Ken McCallum
Gordon Corera
BBC News’ security editor

Chinese spies have then secretly approached more than 20,000 people in the UK online, according to MI5’s brain.

Tens of thousands of American businesses have been given a fresh warning about the possibility of having their innovation stolen.

The safety leaders of the Five Eyes bond made an extraordinary public appearance in California where Ken McCallum was speaking to the BBC.

The eyes of the safety agencies in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand all showed up at once.

For the first time, they did this to alert people that China was obtaining commercial strategies.

Due to its location in Silicon Valley, Stanford University in California was selected as the location for the first open conference. Safety rulers forewarned that cutting-edge research is being stolen in both open claims and a private meeting with business owners and shareholders.

In an interview with the BBC during the function, Mr. McCallum stated that” we have witnessed a sustained campaign on an almost incredible scale.”

The heads of US, UK, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand security agencies sitting in a row at a public event.

MI5 used to concentrate on safeguarding authorities information from foreign spies, but now there is concern that creativity is frequently taken from startups, small businesses, and researchers who may not have previously been concerned about security.

Even if you have no interest in politics, Mr. McCallum said,” If you’re working now at the cutting edge of technology, therefore it’s engaged in you.”

Tens of thousands of UK businesses may be at risk as a result of MI5’s efforts to inform them, necessitating an unprecedented level of public disclosure by the security company.

According to Mr. McCallum, MI5 has now approached over 20,000 people in the UK via reputable networking sites like LinkedIn in an effort to persuade them to divulge sensitive data, doubling the earlier reported amount.

MI5 boss Ken McCallum

More than 20 cases of Taiwanese businesses considering or actively attempting to access sensitive technologies created by UK businesses and universities through investments or other means where China’s full position is concealed, frequently through convoluted business structures, have also occurred in the last year, according to MI5.

At least two Chinese businesses have participated in this effort to avoid the legal examination necessary to access sensitive UK company technology covertly.

A prestigious UK university’s research statistics may have been stolen by another Chinese business. In order to get and sway cutting-edge analysis, it is also believed that efforts have been made to get around and undercut the management and regulatory restrictions at another two prestigious institutions.

The learning of a delicate UK tech firm connected to UK defense supply chains and other significant northern industrial companies was even hampered by MI5 and its allies. China has continuously refuted allegations of wrongdoing and spy.

The mind of MI5 forewarned that the effects of studies being stolen in cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence are not only detrimental to a company’s success but also to the future of eastern nations.

According to Mr. McCallum,” These technologies are at a traditional moment where they are starting to change our world in some very basic ways.”

And we are aware that totalitarian states are laser-focused on any potential benefits of these solutions.

In addition to the information gathered by China, AI may also present the opportunity to meddle in politics in a much more powerful manner, he cautioned.

Another Five Eyes bond members shared their worries about China.

According to FBI Director Chris Wray,” China has made financial espionage and stealing other people’s work and ideas a key part of its regional strategy, and entrepreneurs in all five of our countries are at the expense of spies.”

” In recent years, that danger has just gotten riskier and more sneaky.”

He claimed that his organization was once starting a new research every 12 days and that there were currently more than 2, 000 FBI investigations related to China.

The heads of US, UK, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand security agencies stand in a row flanked by flags.

FBI

The head of Australia’s security services, Mike Burgess, stated at the public celebration featuring the five spy chiefs that” all countries spy ,” but” the behavior we are talking about here goes well beyond traditional eSpionage.” He claimed that the level needed to be called out because it was unprecedented in human story.

The security chiefs argued that decoupling northern economies from China may be unrealistic and harmful, so the goal should instead be to locate and safeguard sensitive areas. The introduction of new direction to reach those who had never previously interacted with security services coincided with their looks.
The meeting was held in the wake of Middle Eastern situations, worries about increased radicalization, and domestic risks.

The FBI Director said, describing the threat from China as” existential ,” adding that” we can focus on more than one thing at one time.”

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Japan on a dual-use mission against space junk

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TOKYO – Japanese venture companies EX-Fusion and Astroscale have entered in new space debris removal projects that will demonstrate the dual-use capabilities of their technologies and signal civilian-military fusion in the context of allied defense has arrived at Japan’s space program.

Japanese laser energy specialist EX-Fusion and Australia’s EOS Space Systems signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on October 8 to explore cooperation on space debris issues.

The collaborative goal, as reported by the Japanese media, is to develop technology capable of tracking space debris as small as three centimeters, which if accomplished would set a new precision standard for the identification of objects orbiting the Earth.

Headquartered in Canberra, EOS Space Systems is a prominent supplier of optical surveillance capabilities for space domain awareness.

Specializing in high-energy lasers for space object identification, characterization and tracking, remote maneuver and communications, the company is a division of Australian defense contractor Electro Optic Systems (EOS), which makes high-energy laser weapons.

EX-Fusion, headquartered in Osaka, aims to build the world’s first laser-based nuclear fusion reactor. It is also adapting its high-power laser technology to other applications, including communications and space debris tracking and removal.

It has been collaborating with the Institute of Laser Engineering at the University of Adelaide on a high-intensity laser project since last year. On October 10, it announced the establishment of a new subsidiary to facilitate its work with Australian companies.

New equipment combining technology and components from EX-Fusion and EOS Space Systems will be installed in an EOS satellite laser ranging and tracking station in Australia. It is expected to significantly improve the ability to locate debris in space before it potentially collides with and damages satellites.

EX-Fusion and EOS are not alone in the market: Arcsec, a spinoff from Belgian university KU Leuven, competes in the space. Arcsec, which supplies high-accuracy attitude determination and control systems for small and miniature satellites, is also working on technology capable of tracking space debris as small as three centimeters.

While the debris can be small, the problem is large and growing. According to figures from the Space Debris Office of the European Space Agency, about 34,890 objects are regularly tracked, most of them larger than 10 centimeters across.

Estimates of smaller space debris are much higher with about one million fragments from one to 10 centimeters in size and perhaps more than 130 million measured at less than one centimeter.

While space debris removal technology is compatible with and may contribute to identification and response to military threats in space, its development is not simply a cover story for clandestine military activity.

Yuri Borisov, director-general of Russian space agency Roscosmos, recently told reporters about the dangers of artificial debris in low-Earth orbit to the International Space Station, which he explained requires constant monitoring and elimination.

The problem, he said, “needs to be taken very seriously, comprehensively addressing issues of protection from garbage, as well as timely monitoring and evading it.” 

Meanwhile, Astroscale, Japan’s space debris removal company, announced on October 4 that it has shipped its debris inspection demonstration spacecraft, Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J), from its satellite manufacturing facility in Japan to Rocket
Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand. Rocket Lab is a space launch services provider headquartered in Long Beach, California.

Astroscale President Eddie Kato said, “We have officially moved from the development phase to the launch and operations preparations phase, and we are very much looking forward to the launch of the world’s first debris inspection mission.”

The ADRAS-J spacecraft was selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for the first phase of its demonstration program on the commercial removal of space debris. Astroscale is responsible for the design, manufacture, test, launch and operation of ADRAS-J.

The specific task of the ADRAS-J mission is to rendezvous with an old Japanese upper-stage rocket body drifting in space, maneuver around it in close proximity and collect images to assess its movement (spin, spin axis and so on) and structural condition.

Its purpose is to demonstrate inspection and situational awareness capabilities that will make space debris removal a practical option for governments and commercial businesses.

The spacecraft is equipped with eight diagonal thrusters for position control, four straight thrusters for high-thrust maneuvers, navigation sensors, visible light and infrared cameras and laser range finders. It also has an onboard data processor that works in tandem with ground control.

The launch of ADRAS-J was originally scheduled to take place in early November, but may be delayed as Rocket Lab investigates the failure of one of its rockets last month.

Its focus on space debris notwithstanding, Astroscale’s technology is dual use and its management has close ties with the space and defense establishments of Japan, the US and the UK. Astroscale has subsidiaries in the US, UK, France and Israel.

EX-Fusion, too, is moving into the realm of dual-use through its work with EOS, which also makes anti-drone, vehicle firepower and defense, and unmanned ground vehicle and marine lethality systems.

EX-Fusion is closely connected with some of Japan’s most advanced technical institutions. The company was founded in 2021 by Shinsuke Fujioka from Osaka University’s Institute of Laser Engineering; Kazuki Matsuo, an Osaka University specialist in laser fusion and high energy density plasma; and Yoshitaka Mori, associate professor at the Graduate School for the Creation of New Photonics Industries in the city of Hamamatsu.

Via the graduate school, EX-Fusion introduced laser technology from Hamamatsu Photonics, an optical and electronic device company that makes the world’s most powerful semiconductor lasers.

Japanese defense expert Paul Kallender, senior researcher with the Keio Research Institute at Keio University’s Shonan Fujisawa Campus west of Tokyo, believes that what EX-Fusion, EOS and Astroscale are now doing “will be a significant boost to Japan’s space domain
awareness,” which he describes as “Japan’s new, privatized national security hybrid space architecture supporting allied orbital battlespace awareness for both defensive and offensive counterspace operations.”

As used by the Space Systems Command of the US Space Force, space domain awareness means being able to “rapidly detect, warn, characterize, attribute, and predict threats to national, allied, and commercial space systems” using “high-capacity ground radars, detailed optical systems, and space-based assets.”

In an email to Asia Times, Kallender provided this assessment:

“The ability to track debris and other objects, particularly other satellites, has become an urgent concern for the US and its allies as Russia and China continue to develop a steadily widening range of anti-satellite capabilities that could threaten their space systems in the event of a conflict. Tracking can be performed by radars and telescopes on the ground, but is being increasingly pursued by new technologies, including using sensors on satellites, and using lasers.

Japan has been steadily increasing its dual-use and direct military-use tracking capabilities for over a decade. For example, for the ground layer, in addition to a specialized truck-based laser ranging system being developed for the Japanese Ministry of Defense, JAXA and the Ministry of Defense have been vastly improving civilian and military radars for the Combined Space Operations Center, the US military’s global processing center for military tracking data.

For the space layer, the US military is placing tracking sensors on Japan’s QZSS satellites, Japan’s version of GPS, which can triple their utility for centimeter-accurate navigation, precision-guided weapons targeting and now orbital tracking services. Japan’s Ministry of Defense will also be launching at least one further tracking ‘snooper’ satellite of its own.

The addition of centimeter-level tracking capability by Japan will be a major global service not only for space safety but also for Japan’s military space capabilities, helping plot not only space junk and debris, but new classes of very small nano- and pico-satellites that are being developed as space weapons.

Centimeter class tracking is at the cutting edge and of major concern to all orbital users, but especially the military, as, for example, can be seen by the US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity’s recently announced Space Debris Identification and Tracking program.

With EX-Fusion and EOS, the combination of academic and commercial partners to pursue dual-use and paramilitary space technologies to build what are called hybrid space architectures, combining commercial and civilian technologies for military use reinforces a pronounced feature of Japan’s space program in recent years, echoing a similar sea-change in the United States.

Of course, Elon Musk’s Starlink constellation [a group of satellites working together], which has been of such service during the Ukraine war, is the most famous example of civilian-military fusion, where ostensibly commercial services are built with the ability to, or are in fact designed to, provide military or national security applications, even critical military capability.

More and more Japanese commercial companies are gearing up to provide paramilitary or military services for Japan’s national security hybrid space architecture, particularly for constellations of dual-use surveillance satellites such as iQPS or Synspective or, for example, with Space Compass.

The EX-Fusion and EOS development though has a different impact in that, just as intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (eyes and ears) are critically important to the terrestrial battlespace, tracking is now a sine qua non of both commercial orbital safety and orbital military operations.

It is particularly relevant coming just weeks after Astroscale, Japan’s premier orbital anti-satellite technology developer, signed a deal to work on dual-use technologies with the US Space Force’s development, acquisition, launch and logistics field command. This keeps Japan at the very forefront of developing real abilities to fight effectively in orbit.”

A US airman at a US Space Force ceremony at the 621st Contingency Response Wing, Travis AFB, California, February 12, 2021. Photo: US Air Force / Nicholas Pilch

On September 19, the US Space Systems Command’s Assured Access to Space Directorate, in collaboration with the Space Development Corps’ Space Enterprise Consortium, awarded a US$25.5 million contract to Astroscale US Inc to advance its space mobility and logistics capabilities.

Under the terms of the agreement, Astroscale will deliver a servicing vehicle prototype that will provide in-space refueling for compatible satellites by 2026. This will permit them to remain on-station and on-mission, increasing their operational capability and flexibility.

According to the Space Systems Command, “By itself, this innovation will transform the existing paradigm for space operations.”

It is a dual-use strategy that incorporates the expertise of US allies and which, in this case, advances both the commercial interests and national security of Japan.

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US-China chip war: Washington announces new export curbs

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In: Asia
Flag of the US and China on a microchip.shabby Pictures
authored by Mariko Oi
columnist for business
The Biden administration has announced plans to stop more developed chip exports to China, including two Nvidia cards designed specifically for China.
The goal is to close gaps that emerged following the US’s announcement of export restrictions on fries next October.

They are made to stop China’s government from bringing in sophisticated electronics or machinery.

Firms like Advanced Micro Devices and Intel find it more difficult to buy new or used chips to China as a result of the move.

Following the announcement, the securities of all three businesses dropped on Wall Street.

Two high-end artificial intelligence chips made for the Chinese market may be sold off due to the new export restrictions, according to a filing from Nvidia, and one of its game chips will also be affected.
The new measures are” overly broad” and” risk harming the US semiconductor ecosystem without advancing national security as they encourage overseas customers to look elsewhere ,” according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which earns 99 % of the country’s semiconductor industry.

The Chinese embassy’s spokesperson added that it” strongly opposes” the new restrictions, which will take effect in 30 days and even target Iran and Russia.

In retaliation, China began limiting imports of two components, chromium and tungsten, which are essential to the semiconductor sector.

The world’s largest supplier of tungsten and gallium is by far China. According to the Critical Raw Materials Alliance( CRMA ), an industry group, it produces 60 % of germanium and 80 % of gallium worldwide.

The materials are” minor metals ,” which means they are frequently by-products of other processes and are not typically found in nature on their own.

China has been subject to import restrictions on chip systems in addition to the US, Japan, and the Netherlands, which is home to important device equipment manufacturer ASML.

Concerns about the rise of so-called” resource nationalism” when governments hoard crucial materials to wield influence over various countries have been raised by the constant tit-for-tat between the world’s two largest economies.

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