CHINESE
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FILE PHOTO: The logo of TikTok application is seen on a screen in this picture illustration taken February 21, 2019. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/Illustration/File Photo
April 17, 2019
By Aditya Kalra and Sankalp Phartiyal
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) – An Indian ban on downloading TikTok, one of the world’s most popular mobile applications, has heightened industry worries that technology companies could now face increased scrutiny and regulatory challenges in one of their most important markets.
TikTok, which allows users to create and share videos with special effects, has become a sensation in India, where it has been downloaded by nearly 300 million users so far, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower, out of more than 1 billion installs globally.
Its runaway popularity has attracted criticism from some politicians, however, in a largely conservative society that can have a low boiling point for even moderately racey content.
In the case of TikTok, 15-second dance clips and memes dominate the platform, although some videos do show youngsters, some scantily clad, lip-syncing and grooving to popular tunes. Local media have also reported several accidental deaths when users attempted to make videos with knives and guns.
The IT minister of Tamil Nadu state, M. Manikandan, said in February that “young girls and everybody is behaving very badly” on TikTok.
On Wednesday, TikTok vanished from Google and Apple’s app stores in India. The rare takedown of such a popular app came after the Madras High Court said the app encouraged pornography and asked the government to ban it. The federal IT ministry then issued a follow-up directive to Google and Apple.
Industry executives, technology lawyers and free-speech activists interviewed by Reuters on Wednesday said the ban was a major concern.
“It does unnerve me,” said a senior executive working for a social media company in New Delhi. “For the industry, it sets a worrying precedent in India.”
A TikTok spokesman said on Wednesday that it had faith in the judicial system and was “optimistic about an outcome that would be well received by” its millions of users in India. The state court will next hear the case on April 24.
Google told Reuters late on Tuesday it does not comment on individual apps but adheres to local laws. Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
CRITICAL MARKET
TikTok is not the first social media company to run into trouble in India.
Facebook and its messenger app WhatsApp, which count India as their biggest market, have been under pressure from authorities to better tackle fake news and monitor content on their platforms.
Global video streaming giant Netflix was dragged into a legal battle last year following a complaint that one of its fictional series insulted a former Indian prime minister.
But industry executives said the ruling against TikTok was particularly worrisome, given that it originated from a public interest complaint brought by an individual in Tamil Nadu – opening their digital content to judicial scrutiny that could potentially derail their India strategy overnight.
“It shows a level of uncertainty which is not great for investors, for private equity firms and for venture capital,” said Apar Gupta, executive director at advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation.
India is a critical market for social media and mobile digital content companies as the country is witnessing a sharp surge in use of smartphones. An estimated half-a-billion Indians now have access to the Internet.
Singapore-based Bigo, which has a live video streaming app, has also been expanding in India. TikTok’s owner Bytedance Technology Co, one of the world’s most valuable start-ups, also runs another social app named Helo, which allows users to share content in local languages.
Bytedance has more than 250 employees in India, with plans to expand further, one of its court filings showed. It had about two dozen India job openings listed on LinkedIn as of Wednesday.
SEXUAL PREDATORS
Such is the TikTok craze that a Reuters photographer recently saw more than a dozen youngsters shooting TikTok videos on their smartphones at a popular Mumbai promenade. While some danced as they lip-synced to songs, others used teddy bears as props.
The Tamil Nadu court, which ruled against TikTok, said inappropriate content was its dangerous aspect and that the app could expose children to sexual predators.
The ban does not apply to use of the TikTok app if it has already been downloaded.
The Chinese company unsuccessfully argued at the Supreme Court last week that a ban “amounts to curtailing of the (free speech) rights of the citizens of India”.
A “very minuscule” proportion of TikTok’s videos were considered inappropriate or obscene, the company said in its Supreme Court filing, adding that it was primarily an entertainment platform.
That argument cut no ice with the app’s critics, however.
Hindu nationalist group Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, which is close to India’s ruling party and had previously criticized the app’s content, on Wednesday welcomed the ban, saying TikTok was “against Indian culture and morality”.
It also struck a chord in some family living rooms in India.
“From small kids to old ladies, it is spoiling the minds of everyone,” said S. Nithyajothi, a homemaker from the southern city of Madurai. “I strictly ask anyone coming to my house to not talk about TikTok, it is addictive and it is unnecessary.”
(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Sankalp Phartiyal; Additional reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan and Danish Siddique; Editing by Martin Howell and Alex Richardson)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Huawei CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei walks inside Huawei’s headquarters in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, in this October 16, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Bobby Yip
April 17, 2019
BERLIN (Reuters) – China’s Huawei offered Berlin a “no-spy agreement” to address security concerns over the Chinese company’s involvement in building Germany’s next-generation 5G mobile infrastructure, a German magazine said on Wednesday.
“Last month, we talked to the German Interior Ministry and said that we were ready to sign a no-spy agreement with the German government and to promise that Huawei will not install any backdoors in the networks,” Wirtschaftswoche quoted Huawei Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei as saying.
He called on the Chinese government to sign a similar no-spy-agreement and to adhere to European Union data protection laws.
Germany last month set tougher criteria for vendors supplying network equipment, stopping short of singling out Huawei for special treatment and instead saying the same rules should apply to all vendors.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Tassilo Hummel)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A container ship is shown at port in Long Beach, California, U.S. July 16, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake
April 17, 2019
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. trade deficit fell to an eight-month low in February as exports to China surged, helping to eclipse a rebound in overall imports, which could boost economic growth estimates for the first quarter.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday the trade deficit dropped 3.4 percent to $49.4 billion, the lowest level since June 2018. January’s trade gap was unrevised at $51.1 billion.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade shortfall would widen to $53.5 billion in February. The goods trade deficit declined 1.7 percent to $72.0 billion, also the lowest level since last June.
The trade data have been volatile in recent months amid big swings between exports and imports because of the United States’ conflicts with trading partners, including China.
Washington last year imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods imported from China, with Beijing retaliating with duties on $110 billion worth of American products. U.S. President Donald Trump has delayed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and talks to end the trade impasse continue.
The politically sensitive goods trade deficit with China – a focus of Trump’s “America First” agenda – decreased 28.2 percent to $24.8 billion in February as imports from the world’s No. 2 economy tumbled 20.2 percent. Exports to China jumped 18.2 percent in February.
When adjusted for inflation, the overall goods trade deficit fell $1.8 billion to $81.8 billion in February. The average goods trade deficit for January and February is below the fourth-quarter average. This suggests that trade could provide a boost to gross domestic product in the first quarter after being neutral in the October-December period.
Growth estimates for the January-March quarter are in a 1.5 percent to 2.3 percent annualized range, largely reflecting an accumulation of inventories amid slowing domestic demand. The economy grew at a 2.2 percent rate in the fourth quarter, slowing from the July-September period’s brisk 3.4 percent pace.
The trade deficit in February was pushed down by a 1.1 percent jump in exports to $209.7 billion. Exports of services were the highest on record.
Goods exports increased 1.5 percent to $139.5 billion in February. The surge in goods exports is a hopeful sign for global economic growth, which has showed signs of slowing in recent months.
Exports of motor vehicles and parts increased by $0.6 billion in February. Shipments of civilian aircraft soared by $2.2 billion in February. But commercial aircraft exports are likely to decline in the months ahead following Boeing’s decision to suspend deliveries of its troubled 737 MAX aircraft.
The MAX planes have been grounded indefinitely following two deadly crashes.
In February, imports rose 0.2 percent to $259.1 billion. Consumer goods imports increased by $1.6 billion in February, led by a $2.1 billion rise in imports of cellphones and other household goods. Imports of industrial supplies and materials fell by $1.2 billion.
Crude oil imports fell to 173.7 million barrels, the lowest since March 1992, from 223.1 million barrels in January. An increase in domestic production has seen the United States become less dependent on foreign oil. Imported oil prices averaged $46.89 per barrel in February, up from $42.59 in January.
(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani Editing by Paul Simao)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: New cars are seen at a parking lot in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China, January 16, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer
April 17, 2019
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s car market will return to growth in the second half of this year due to government support although the days of high single or double-digit growth are over and consolidation is likely, senior automotive executives said on Tuesday.
The predictions from executives including the head of Mitsubishi Motors on the first day of the Shanghai Autoshow point to a vehicle market that is heading for more balanced growth, especially if the trade war with the U.S. is resolved.
Automotive sales in China contracted for the first time last year since the 1990s as a slowing economy and the trade friction between Beijing and Washington affected consumer sentiment.
Recent moves by the Chinese government to cut taxes, carmakers’ plans for new model launches as well as the hopes that the U.S.-China trade spat will soon be resolved could start to turn things around, the executives said.
“We predict there will be negative growth in the first half this year, even double digit,” said Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd’s (GAC) general manager Feng Xingya.
“But due to government subsidies, carmakers’ discounts and better macroeconomic conditions, sales will turn to positive in the second half,” he said.
The decline in Chinese automotive sales has already started to slow. They fell by 5.2 percent in March, the smallest decline since August 2018.
“It’s only natural for the China market to transition to slower growth,” Mitsubishi Motors’ Chief Executive Osamu Masuko told Reuters in an interview, saying that the market was showing some “level of maturity.”
“Going forward the market still has more growth left in it, but it will likely grow moderately. Growth of 5-6 percent a year on a consistent basis might not be that easy to achieve.”
UNEVEN GROWTH
The opening day of the autoshow was marked by launches of new sports utility vehicles from carmakers such as General Motors Co and Daimler, aimed at rejuvenating customer interest with fresh designs in the fast-growing market segment.
Some firms were more optimistic with luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce Motor Cars saying that it would likely achieve double digit sales-growth in China again this year, although below 2018 levels.
But others predicted that more pressure is to come as Beijing institutes tough rules to transform the industry which could kick off a round of consolidation or prompt some to leave the Chinese market.
“That’s more likely to happen to small, non state-owned players who really don’t have a whole lot to offer,” said GM’s China President Matt Tsien, adding that it could extend to some foreign players.
The government has this year tightened the screw on makers’ ability to add manufacturing capacity and is instituting electric car production quotas for automakers to combat pollution.
“But I don’t believe the number is going to be significant, Tsien said. “Because at the end of the day this is still one of the most attractive markets in the world. And everybody wants to be here.”
(Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu, Yilei Sun, Joseph White, Aditi Shah and Edward Taylor; Writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Aaron Sheldrick)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A sign on the Qualcomm campus is seen in San Diego, California, U.S. November 6, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake
April 17, 2019
(Reuters) – Qualcomm Inc’s surprise settlement of a prolonged legal fight with Apple Inc paves the way for the chipmaker to resolve a similar dispute with China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, ahead of the launch of 5G phones, several analysts said.
Shares of Qualcomm, which closed up 23 percent on Tuesday, rose another 10 percent in premarket trade on Wednesday after it signed a six-year patent license deal with Apple.
If Wednesday’s gains hold, Qualcomm would tack on more than $20 billion in market value since announcing the settlement.
The two companies had been at odds over patents and royalties over modems. While Qualcomm did not close the terms of the deal, analysts estimated that Apple withheld $5 billion, or about $2 per share, under its previous royalty payment agreement.
Qualcomm and Huawei are also fighting over the same issues.
Huawei stopped royalty payments in April 2017 and Qualcomm said in January it has signed an interim agreement with the Chinese company and is in talks for a final resolution.
“We now expect an imminent settlement with Huawei which has also been withholding royalty payments, which we estimate will add another $0.50-$0.75 of EPS,” Cowen and Company analysts said.
Three brokerages raised their ratings on Qualcomm’s stock and at least eight brokerages boosted their price targets. Fourteen out of 25 brokerages rated the stock “buy” or higher and the rest “hold”, according to Refinitiv data.
A settlement with Apple and Huawei will not only bring in more royalty payments and reduce legal costs, it will help Qualcomm to focus more in rolling out its 5G modems, several analysts said.
The Qualcomm settlement means Apple will rely on the chipmaker for most if not all of its 5G modems in iPhones starting in 2020, with Qualcomm likely the leading to only supplier for the next several years, Canaccord Genuity analysts said.
Intel Corp, which was supplying modem chips to Apple for its latest iPhones, said late on Tuesday that it was exiting the phone modem business.
(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Newly manufactured cars are seen at the automobile terminal in the port of Dalian, Liaoning province, China July 9, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
April 17, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – China is considering plans to relax controls over the issuance of new car licenses in major cities to boost flagging auto sales, financial magazine Caixin reported on Wednesday, citing a draft document by the country’s state planner.
Caixin said China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) had issued a document containing the proposals on April 11, without saying how the magazine had obtained it. Copies of the document were widely circulated on Chinese social media on Wednesday.
According to the document, the NDRC is considering plans to increase the number of newly issued automobile licenses in big cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou by 50 percent this year, and double that next year, from current 2018 levels, Caixin said.
It also said local governments should not implement traffic restrictions and curbs on buying electric vehicles, and should remove relevant measures if already taken.
Efforts by Reuters to reach the NDRC for comment were unsuccessful outside business hours. Caixin said people close to NDRC’s policymaking department did not deny the authenticity of the document.
Beijing has been trying to boost consumption of goods ranging from eco-friendly appliances to big-ticket items such as cars to fire up growth, as the world’s second-largest economy is expected to slow further in 2019.
Auto sales in China, the world’s largest car market, contracted for the first time last year since the 1990s but executives told Reuters this week that they expect the market to return to growth this year thanks to government support.
Official data showed earlier on Wednesday China’s economy grew at a steady 6.4 percent pace in the first quarter, defying expectations for a further slowdown, as industrial production jumped sharply and consumer demand showed signs of improvement.
(Reporting by Lusha Zhang and Brenda Goh; Editing by Dale Hudson)
Source: OANN
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China April 1, 2019. Kenzaburo Fukuhara/KYODONEWS/Pool via REUTERS
April 17, 2019
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping offered praise on Wednesday for what he called the achievements of the southwestern city of Chongqing, one of the country’s most important cities, hit by two major graft scandals in recent years.
Chongqing has been ground zero for Xi’s war against graft, with two of its former Communist Party chiefs, both once seen as contenders for China’s top offices, jailed for corruption.
On a visit to the city, Xi “gave affirmation to the achievements Chongqing has made in its work”, the official Chongqing Daily said, after he heard a report from party and government officials.
Xi said he hoped that the city could ensure party instructions are fully implemented and continue to create a “pure and honest political ecology”, the paper added.
“Cultivate a team of high-quality cadres who are loyal and clean,” it paraphrased Xi as saying. “Maintain high pressure on punishing corruption and consolidate the overwhelming victory in the anti-corruption struggle.”
Last year, a court sentenced former Chongqing party boss Sun Zhengcai to life in prison for corruption.
Before being jailed, Sun had been abruptly removed from his post, and replaced by Chen Miner, who is close to Xi.
Another former Chongqing party boss, Bo Xilai, was jailed in 2013 for bribery, corruption and abuse of power in a dramatic scandal kicked off by his wife’s murder of a British businessman.
The Chongqing Daily report said Chen attended the meeting in Chongqing with Xi, but did not say if Xi had directly talked about the cases of Sun or Bo.
Xi has presided over a sweeping corruption crackdown since coming to power in 2012, vowing to target both “tigers” and “flies”, a reference to elite officials and ordinary bureaucrats.
The campaign has led to the jailing or punishment of thousands of officials and brought down dozens of senior party and military officials.
Beyond issues of bribery and use of public money to funds lavish lifestyles, the anti-corruption effort has taken aim at those who express doubt in public about party policies or are found lacking in political loyalty.
China has rebuffed criticism that the campaign is as much about settling political scores as about stamping out criminal acts.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Source: OANN
White people are oppressing PoCs because they write a lot of books which “physically” take up too much “space” in our nation’s libraries and “promote and proliferate whiteness with their very existence,” according to academic librarian Sofia Leung of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Library Journal shared this article from Leung to their more than 200,000 Twitter followers on Tuesday:
Library collections continue to promote and proliferate whiteness with their very existence and the fact that they are physically taking up space in our libraries. Via @sofiayleung https://t.co/iKEk0462Mh pic.twitter.com/ov8hZ5Zt2J
— Library Journal (@LibraryJournal) April 16, 2019
Leung writes in her piece:
In 2017 (yea this goes way back), for a white AF conference, I shared an AirBnB with Vani Natarajan, an amazing librarian of color whose thinking continues to push me and who I respect and admire so much (she was able to convince her library to send their student workers to the Joint Council of Librarians of Color conference – she’s a real one), and we had some really interesting discussions where I learned a lot. One of the mind-blowing things she shared was this idea of how our library collections, because they are written mostly by straight white men, are a physical manifestation of white men ideas taking up all the space in our library stacks. Pause here and think about this.
Truly profound.
Leung continues:
Let me now try to connect all these dots in a coherent way. As others have written (Fobazi Ettarh, Todd Honma, Gina Schlessman-Tarango, etc.), libraries and librarians have a long history of keeping People of Color out. They continue to do so, which you can read more about here and from the others I mentioned above. Legal and societal standards revolve around whiteness and libraries are no different.
If you look at any United States library’s collection, especially those in higher education institutions, most of the collections (books, journals, archival papers, other media, etc.) are written by white dudes writing about white ideas, white things, or ideas, people, and things they stole from POC and then claimed as white property with all of the “rights to use and enjoyment of” that Harris describes in her article. When most of our collections filled with this so-called “knowledge,” it continues to validate only white voices and perspectives and erases the voices of people of color. Collections are representations of what librarians (or faculty) deem to be authoritative knowledge and as we know, this field and educational institutions, historically, and currently, have been sites of whiteness.
According to Leung, white people’s very existence is holding POC’s down.
Library collections continue to promote and proliferate whiteness with their very existence and the fact that they are physically taking up space in our libraries. They are paid for using money that was usually ill-gotten and at the cost of black and brown lives via the prison industrial complex, the spoils of war, etc. Libraries filled with mostly white collections indicates that we don’t care about what POC think, we don’t care to hear from POC themselves, we don’t consider POC to be scholars, we don’t think POC are as valuable, knowledgeable, or as important as white people. To return to the Harris quote from above, library collections and spaces have historically kept out Black, Indigenous, People of Color as they were meant to do and continue to do. One only has to look at the most recent incident at the library of my alma mater, Barnard College, where several security guards tried to kick out a Black Columbia student for being Black.
Leung writes in her bio: “I’m a second generation Chinese American and native New Yorker currently living in the Boston area.”
I wonder, are Chinese libraries being filled with Chinese books by Chinese authors evidence of racist hate and “Chinese supremacism”?
That’s the standard here, is it not? Or does this only apply to white people?
Incidentally, the case at Barnard College which Leung had been tweeting about incessantly on Twitter before locking her account, was not actually a story of security guards trying to “kick out a Black Columbia student for being Black.”
They stopped him because he refused to show his ID while entering Barnard’s main gates, as all students are required to do after 11 p.m.
From The Columbia Spectator:
Barnard Public Safety officers pinned Alexander McNab, CC ’19, against a counter after he declined to show his Columbia ID inside the Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning on Thursday night.
According to McNab, who is black, officers first began to follow him into the Milstein Center when he declined to show his Columbia ID at Barnard’s main gates despite entering after 11 p.m., when students are required to show their IDs to Public Safety in order to enter campus. In an interview with Spectator, McNab said he was aware of the rule mandating students show their IDs, but expressed his frustration with what he cited as inconsistent enforcement of the rule, as he had noticed that white students were often not asked.
Here’s video showing him fighting with security guards who eventually let him go after he showed them his ID:
Leung retweeted multiple posts calling for these security guards to be fired and also shared a post quoting a small group of protesters chanting: “No justice, no peace, fuck these racist police!”
Source: InfoWars
FILE PHOTO: JD.com founder Richard Liu attends a Reuters interview in Hong Kong, China June 9, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip
April 17, 2019
By Cate Cadell
BEIJING (Reuters) – The personal life of JD.com chief Richard Liu returned to the spotlight of China’s social media on Wednesday, drawing 360 million views to briefly become the top trending item on the Twitter-like Weibo, after a civil lawsuit accused him of rape.
Liu, who was briefly arrested after a University of Minnesota student accused him of rape last August, maintained his innocence throughout the investigation, which ended in December, with prosecutors declining to press charges.
The civil case brought by the student comes as the e-commerce giant faces a backlash over layoffs and its work culture after Liu railed against “slackers”, with his social media backing seeming to wane, in contrast to its support after his initial arrest and release.
“Now it’s coming to light how hard he’s working people and they’re trying to cut staff … Suddenly the sympathy can evaporate pretty quickly,” said Mark Natkin, a managing director at Beijing-based tech consultancy Marbridge Consulting.
Earlier, people had been more willing to commiserate when the business appeared to be going well and employees were being treated well, he added.
Liu’s accuser, identified in the civil lawsuit for the first time as Liu Jingyao, a Chinese student at the U.S. university, has sought undisclosed damages in a Minneapolis court from both Liu and JD.com.
In a statement on Tuesday, Liu’s attorney, Jill Brisbois, said, “Based on the Hennepin county attorney’s declination to charge a case against our client and our belief in his innocence, we feel strongly that this suit is without merit and will vigorously defend against it.”
She was referring to prosecutors who declined to charge Liu after last year’s investigation.
A lawyer for JD.com, Peter Walsh of Hogan Lovells, said it would defend the company against the claims, which he described as “meritless”.
On Wednesday, some of the highest-trending Weibo comments on the new case contrasted the accusations with Liu’s recent comments that the number of “slackers” in his firm had grown.
“How did he find the time to commit such bad crimes in Minnesota when he was working 996 hours?” said a Weibo user, whose posting received more than 1,200 likes.
The reference is to a practice in the Chinese tech industry of working 72-hour weeks, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on six days, which has figured in online debate and protests on some coding platforms.
A JD.com spokesman has declined to comment on layoffs but said the company was making adjustments as a normal part of business.
Another user joked that Liu himself was the company’s “least cost-effective” employee, with the arrest wiping out billions of dollars in shareholder value.
Shares of JD.com are still down 4.5 percent from the period before Liu was arrested. That is despite a slight rise this year following last year’s fall of about 16 percent, for a loss of more than $7 billion in value in the week after his arrest.
“At that time it felt obvious to me that the woman sought to make some money from the situation,” said Gao Wei, a student in the Chinese capital, whose posts defending Liu on messaging app WeChat after his initial arrest drew hundreds of likes.
“I think there is a better understanding of Liu’s character now because of the 996 … even though these are not directly related issues,” Gao, 22, told Reuters.
(Reporting by Cate Cadell; Additional Reporting by Beijing and Shanghai Newsrooms; Editing by Tony Munroe and Clarence Fernandez)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A general view shows the headquarters of Anbang Insurance Group in Beijing, China, February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
April 17, 2019
BEIJING/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s Anbang Insurance Group Co said it would reduce its registered capital by nearly one-third, the latest government-directed step of a massive restructuring of the debt-laden conglomerate to curb financial risks.
A state takeover work group, which has seized control of Anbang since February last year, has decided to trim the company’s registered capital to 41.5 billion yuan ($6.21 billion) from 61.9 billion yuan, pending approval from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, Anbang said in a statement released on Tuesday.
The capital reduction will not influence the company’s operations or cause any major impact on its solvency and financial situations, Anbang said.
The move is the latest step by Beijing to steadily clean up the aftermath of a harsh government crackdown on Anbang – once one of China’s most aggressive dealmakers overseas with a series of major acquisitions that have caught the attention of global regulators and investors.
Anbang’s former chairman, Wu Xiaohui, who masterminded the overseas deal spree including the purchase of New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, was sentenced in May 2018 to 18 years imprisonment for fraud and embezzlement. His appeal against the conviction was rejected by a Chinese court in August last year.
Creditors of the company may request Anbang to pay off its debts or provide repayment guarantees within 45 days after the announcement, the company added.
(Reporting by Cheng Leng in BEIJING and Shu Zhang in SINGAPORE; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
Source: OANN
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