China
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Enter Xu Zhangrun. A fifty-six-year-old professor of constitutional law at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University, Xu is well known in Beijing as a moderate and prolific critic of the government’s increasing embrace of authoritarianism. The government is, of course, adept at marginalizing such voices. As a result, Xu and his supporters are unknown to the vast majority of Chinese people. That makes it hard for public intellectuals to effect change. But they perform another, important function: reflecting the Zeitgeist of an era.
FILE PHOTO: The logo is seen next to a customer at a Luckin Coffee store in Beijing, China, February 28, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee
April 22, 2019
(Reuters) – China’s Luckin Coffee Inc on Monday filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The coffee chain, which intends to list under the symbol “LK” on the Nasdaq, set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of the IPO, a filing with the regulator showed. (https://bit.ly/2UtnC0g)
The size of the IPO stated in preliminary filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final IPO size could be different.
(Reporting by Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini GanguliEditing by Shinjini Ganguli)
Source: OANN
Chinese navy personnel attend an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) in Qingdao, China, April 22, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee
April 22, 2019
By Ben Blanchard
QINGDAO, China (Reuters) – China’s navy wants maritime “tranquillity and good order”, its chief said on Monday, ahead of a parade to mark its 70th anniversary at which the military is expected to display new warships including nuclear submarines and destroyers.
President Xi Jinping is overseeing a sweeping plan to refurbish the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by developing everything from stealth jets to aircraft carriers as China ramps up its presence in the South China Sea and around self-ruled Taiwan, which has rattled nerves in the region.
The navy has been a key beneficiary of the modernization plan, with China looking to project power far from its shores and protect its trading routes and citizens overseas.
Last month, Beijing unveiled a target of 7.5 percent rise in defense spending for this year, a slower rate than last year but still outpacing its economic growth target.
Tuesday’s parade in the waters off the eastern city of Qingdao will feature 32 vessels and 39 aircraft, some of which will not have been unveiled before, as well as warships from 13 foreign countries including India, Australia and Vietnam.
Speaking at a reception in Qingdao, navy chief Shen Jinlong said China was looking to promote trust and cooperation this week in its interactions with foreign navies and delegations.
“China’s navy is willing to, together with other navies, tackle maritime security challenges and maintain maritime peace, tranquillity and good order, stay committed to maritime security and development and actively provide more public goods for world maritime security,” Shen, who is close to Xi, said.
“The PLA navy is willing to be your close, friendly and equal partner for mutual support, development and win-win cooperation and remain united and act resolutely with all of you to safeguard world peace and stability,” he added.
“Let us contribute more to an ocean of lasting peace common security and prosperity, an ocean that is open and inclusive.”
Military officers accompanying reporters in Qingdao have been at pains to point out China has no hostile intent with the naval parade and it is not a show of force but a sign of a genuine desire for global maritime cooperation.
China has not said which new equipment it may reveal, but state media has run several glowing reports in recent days about a second and as-yet unnamed aircraft carrier, domestically built and undergoing sea trials.
The Liaoning, its first carrier, was bought second-hand from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted in China.
While Chinese navy ships have participated in international anti-piracy patrols off Somalia’s coast since late 2008, its ships’ last naval battles were with the Vietnamese in the South China Sea, in 1974 and 1988, though these were relatively minor skirmishes.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory groundbreaking ceremony in Shanghai, China January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
April 22, 2019
(Reuters) – Tesla Inc will focus on its autonomous driving system when it hosts its investor day on Monday.
Elon Musk, the electric vehicle company’s chief executive officer, has touted the company’s self-driving capabilities over the years, highlighting its semi-autonomous Autopilot system.
Tesla began offering a feature described as “Full Self-Driving Capability” in 2016. The company instructs drivers to keep their hands on the wheel when those systems are engaged, sparking some criticism of terms used.
The company’s investor day starts at 2 p.m. ET.
Following are the comments made by Musk and Tesla related to the topic in the past few years:
2019
April 15 – Musk says that buying a car that can’t upgrade to full self-driving is like “buying a horse instead of a car in 2019.”
April 11 – Tesla says that Autopilot, the company’s advanced driver assistance system, is now standard on all vehicles.
April 3 – Tesla says it is making “significant progress” in development of its autonomous driving software and hardware, including the FSD (Full Self-Driving) computer, saying the computer is in production and will enable full-self driving through over-the-air software updates in future.
Feb. 28 – In response to a media question whether it is problematic that Musk uses the term “full self-driving,” Musk replies: “I think we’re very clear when you buy the car what is meant by full self-driving. It means it’s feature complete. Feature complete requiring supervision … There’s really three steps: feature complete of full self-driving but requiring supervision, feature complete but not requiring supervision, feature complete not requiring supervision and regulators agree.”
2018
Oct. 5 – Tesla introduces software version 9.0 with a number of features including ‘Navigate on Autopilot’ – intended to guide a car from a highway’s on-ramp to off-ramp, including suggesting lane changes, navigating highway interchanges and taking exits that would still require driver supervision [http://bit.ly/2IFfMMN]
June 11 – Musk tweets that Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system will get full self-driving features following a software upgrade in August
May 23 – Two U.S. consumer advocacy groups urge the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Tesla’s “deceptive and misleading” use of the name Autopilot for its assisted-driving technology
Feb. 2018 – Musk says Tesla can do a coast-to-coast autonomous drive in 3 months, 6 months at most
Oct. 19 – Musk says he expects that by the end of 2017 a Tesla would be able to drive in full autonomous mode from Los Angeles to New York “without the need for a single touch” on the wheel. [https://reut.rs/2Pk7RYI]
Oct. 2016 – Tesla begins to sell a “Full Self-Driving Capability” option in its vehicles for $3,000, on top of the $5,000 price for “Enhanced Autopilot.” Musk says full self-driving features will be rolled out in future via over-the-air updates when available. The option was removed in October 2018, then reinstated in February 2019.
Oct 2016 – Musk says all new Teslas built have the hardware required for full self-driving.
2015
Oct. 15 – Tesla launches an advanced driver assistance system called Autopilot, with Musk cautioning that drivers should keep their hand on the wheel. [https://reut.rs/2VS8gnB]
(Reporting by Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru and Alexandria Sage in San Francisco; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: People fish in front of an Orient Overseas Container Line container ship, at Kaohsiung Port, Taiwan August 7, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
April 22, 2019
By Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s export orders fell for the fifth straight month in March, and at a much sharper pace than expected, as the island’s manufacturers kept struggling with a drop in global tech demand.
Orders in March dropped 9 percent from a year earlier to $38.59 billion, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed on Monday.
For January-March, export orders slid 8.4 percent, the biggest annual drop for a first quarter since 2009 when they tumbled 30 percent, the ministry said.
March orders fell at almost twice the 5.45 percent forecast in a Reuters poll, though the pace was less than February’s 10.9 percent, the sharpest fall in nearly three years.
Taiwan’s hi-tech factories are major suppliers for global tech heavyweights such as Apple Inc and Qualcomm, and the continued drop in orders suggests global electronic could remain soft for some time.
The ministry said the March shrinkage was also due to declining machinery orders due to business caution in China as the U.S-Sino trade dispute continues.
However, launches of smartphone models and demand for new technology such as artificial intelligence and 5G could support a rebound of orders for electronics in coming months, it said.
The faster 5G networks are coming on line in the United States, China, South Korea and other places this year, but probably will not be widespread until 2020. The telecommunications industry is expected to spend $275 billion over seven years in the United States alone, according to Accenture estimates.
Carl Liu, an analyst at KGI Securities, said Taiwan export orders “are unlikely to return to growth until in June, thanks to re-stocking of electronics ahead of the peak season in the third quarter”.
CAUTION ON OUTLOOK
The ministry said it expects April export orders to decline 6.7-9.2 percent, and that it could be July before orders rebound.
“We remain cautious about orders in the first half and expect a year-on-year decline for the second quarter,” ministry official Lin Lee-jen said.
The slowing tech demand has taken a toll on Taiwan’s supply chain manufacturers. Chipmaker TSMC last week posted its steepest quarterly profit drop in more than seven years partly due to sluggish smartphone sales.
But the company gave an upbeat forecast for the coming months, betting on rising chip demand thanks to a rollout of 5G mobile network.
In March, weak export demand was seen from all Taiwan’s major markets.
Orders from the United States fell 9.7 percent on-year, on top of February’s 5.5 percent decline.
Those from China dropped 13.7 percent, compared with a fall of 14.3 percent the previous month, while orders from Europe slipped 2.4 percent. Japan orders declined 5.8 percent.
Taiwan’s government in February trimmed its 2019 economic growth forecast to 2.27 percent, citing growing uncertainties over global growth.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Taipei newsroom; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Gas flares from an oil production platform at the Soroush oil fields in the Persian Gulf, south of the capital Tehran, July 25, 2005. REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi
April 22, 2019
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India hopes the U.S. will allow its allies to continue to buy some Iranian oil instead of halting the purchases altogether from May, a source familiar with U.S.-India talks said on Monday.
The United States is expected to announce on Monday that buyers of Iranian oil need to end imports soon or face sanctions, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters, triggering a 3 percent jump in crude prices to their highest for 2019 so far.
“They (the U.S. administration) have to take care of their allies, strategic partners. Under sanctions from the beginning, there was talk of a gradual reduction and not going to zero on one stroke,” said the source, who did not wish to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
India, Iran’s biggest oil client after China, has almost halved its Iran oil purchase since November. That was when Washington granted significant reduction exceptions (SREs) from sanctions to countries, including India.
“Under SREs we hope they will give us relaxation and allow us to buy some Iranian oil,” the source added.
Indian refiners have not yet placed orders to lift Iranian oil in May, pending clarity on whether Washington will extend the sanctions waiver.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Edited by Martin Howell)
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FILE PHOTO: A man checks phone at Lujiazui financial district in Pudong, Shanghai, China March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song
April 22, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – China should fine-tune monetary policy in a pre-emptive way ,based on economic growth and price changes, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Monday, citing a top-level meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping.
Monetary policy should be kept neither too tight, nor too loose, Xinhua quoted the meeting as saying, adding that China will step up fiscal policy and strengthen macro counter-cyclical adjustments, a phrase that usually refers to efforts to reduce pressure on the slowing economy.
(Reporting by Beijing Monitoring Desk; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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FILE PHOTO: Employees work on a mobile phone production line at Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China March 25, 2019. Picture taken March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
April 22, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – Guangdong, China’s top province by economic output, maintained a growth rate of 6.6 percent in the first quarter thanks to improving industrial production and infrastructure spending, the 21st Century Business Herald reported, citing local officials.
That came in a notch above the Guangdong provincial government’s target of 6.0 percent to 6.5 percent this year and unchanged from growth in the fourth quarter of last year.
Export-oriented Guangdong, whose gross domestic product of about $1.4 trillion is equivalent to that of Australia, has been battling intense pressure from a nine-month long trade war between the United States and China, with many businesses in the region shifting production out of China as factory orders dried up.
Exports have yet to show any sustainable improvement, up just 1.8 percent in the first three months, according to the Herald. That was slightly faster than the 1.2 percent growth in 2018 but still pointed to sluggish global demand.
To keep foreign customers, Chinese manufacturers have been giving discounts and scaling back workforces, among other measures.
In line with the national trend, Guangdong’s industrial production raced to a nine-month high in the first quarter, with output of new energy vehicles rising 252.1 percent from a year earlier.
Some analysts had attributed the jump to manufacturers building inventory to take advantage of Beijing’s announcement of value-added tax cuts that went into effect on April 1.
Production in telecommunication base stations in Guangdong surged 154 percent, likely due to the government’s push to launch 5G services across the region. Guangdong is targeting to build 7,300 5G towers by 2020.
Output in advanced manufacturing, accounting for over half of total industrial output, rose 6.9 percent in first quarter, while that in high-tech manufacturing surged 9.6 percent.
Infrastructure investment jumped 28.3 percent in the first quarter, up 17.2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the newspaper, as government fast-tracked railways and highways to boost growth.
(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Visitors attend the China Import and Export Fair, also known as Canton Fair, in the southern city of Guangzhou, China April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
April 22, 2019
By John Ruwitch
GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Manufacturers in China facing trade barriers are deploying an array of moves to try to keep foreign customers – giving discounts, tapping tax breaks, trimming workforces and, occasionally, shifting production overseas to skirt tariffs.
Tit-for-tat tariffs from the China-United States trade war have been costly for many. Adding to the strain on Chinese manufacturers have been European Union duties on Chinese products ranging from electric bikes to solar panels.
March brought some encouraging news for manufacturers. Industrial output rose at its fastest rate since mid-2014 and exports rebounded more than expected, while first-quarter growth was better than expected.
Still, some manufacturers who depend on U.S. sales are struggling. At the Canton Fair in southern China this past week, they put on a brave face, but feared they will need to take more measures to survive if Beijing and Washington fail to seal a trade deal.
Botou Golden Integrity Roll Forming Machine Co lost some U.S. customers when tariffs pushed up prices for its machines making light steel girders and bars for building frames, according to Hope Ha, a saleswoman.
It now offers an 8 percent discount as a sweetener.
“We have to give discounts because they pay high tariffs,” said Ha.
Ball bearing maker Cixi Fushi Machinery Co gave long-term customers a 3-5 percent discount, according to representative Jane Wang.
But that was not enough, so the company suspended a product line generating $30,000 monthly revenue, she said.
“We will wait for the agreement and then we will see again,” she said. Now, the focus is on its main market, the Middle East.
Some have been able to pass along increased costs.
UNAVOIDABLE PRICE HIKES
California-based ACOPower has increased prices about 10-15 percent on some of its made-in-China, solar-powered refrigerators, said founder Jeffrey Tang.
“We have no choice,” he said. “We must increase the price.”
Tang says his portable fridges cannot be made affordably in other countries. But if there’s no trade agreement, and tariffs rise, the equation could change.
“Maybe I’ll just ship all the components to Vietnam to do the assembly.”
Aufine Tyre rented and filled a warehouse last year in California in anticipation of anti-dumping duties, which were later imposed. In another move to circumvent tariffs, it will soon open a plant in Thailand to make tires.
Jane Liu, a sales manager, said Aufine plans to send 50 containers a month from Thailand, with 220-240 tires in each, and later expand.
Some companies at the fair cheered Beijing’s move to trim China’s value-added tax to 13 percent from 16 percent at the start of April, and its pledge of tax rebates for exports.
“Things like this give us some protection or else we would suffer losses,” said Wills Yuan, a salesman at Ningbo Yourlite Import & Export Co in Shenzhen, which produces LED lights.
Shenzhen Smarteye Digital Electronics Co, a maker of surveillance cameras, which are not on the U.S. tariff list, was able to drop prices because of the tax break, according to sales manager Simple Yu.
“We save a lot on costs, so we can sell at a low price,” he said.
EXCHANGE RATE CONCERN
But Smarteye has worries, including increasing rent and labor costs that led it to trim its workforce.
Yu said he’s also concerned about the trade war’s potential effect on the yuan-dollar exchange rate. “Before it was 6.9 per dollar, now it’s 6.7 per dollar. We worry that it will go to 6.5.”
Electric bike makers have reacted nimbly to European anti-dumping duties of between 18.8 and 79.3 percent imposed in January. Many have started assembling some bikes in Europe; Zhejiang Enze Vehicle Co does so in Poland and Finland.
“We take the battery, frame, and the other parts, package them up separately and send them over to be assembled by partners,” said sales rep Dylan Di.
Anhui Light Industries International Co, which makes products ranging from plastic protractors for math to movie theater popcorn cups, says it has lost more than 1 billion yuan $149.2 million) after U.S. President Donald Trump raised import taxes.
Still, company representative Han Geng is optimistic the trade war will get resolved.
“It’s not good for America, not good for China,” he said, expressing the view that Trump knows the trade war is hurting business and “he will end it”.
When that day comes, Han said, “we will sell to America again… We need to make money. Everybody loves money.”
($1 = 6.7024 Chinese yuan)
(Editing by Simon Webb and Richard Borsuk)
Source: OANN
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