World

BEIJING :China's central government has issued a series on opinions aimed at better cracking down on monopolies, unfair competition, and user data issues in China's sprawling internet platform economy. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) published a policy document on its website that called for the revision of legislation relating to monopolies and data security in data-driven online platforms, as well as stronger supervision over areas such as advertising and tax reporting. "Platform operators must not use data, technology, market, or capital advantages to restrict the independent operation of other platforms and applications," read one of nineteen opinions included in the document, which was jointly written with several other central government ministries and regulat...

U.S. President Joe Biden plans to make several stops during a visit to Asia this spring, which will be his first to the region as president and include a summit in Japan with three key regional allies, a senior administration official said. The official brushed off questions about whether the Ukraine crisis could distract the administration’s attention from Asia, saying: “We continue prioritizing our Indo-Pacific focus and will have more to come.” The official, speaking on condition of anonymity on Wednesday, declined to give details of the other stops in the region, which the Biden administration has declared a priority as it seeks to push back against China’s expanding power and influence. U.S. officials have said Biden has accepted an invitation to visit Japan in late spring to atten...

NEW DELHI: At the age of four, Arif Mohammad Khan put on skis for the first time, just a few kilometres from the Line of Control that divides the disputed, conflict-ridden region of Kashmir. It was to be the start of a difficult journey that will culminate in him being the only athlete from India, a country of nearly 1.4 billion people, when the Beijing Winter Olympics begin on Friday (Feb 4). Skiing is in the family. Arif's father runs a ski shop and tour company in Gulmarg in Indian-administered Kashmir, one of the world's highest ski resorts that offers the chance to ski deep, fresh powder. It is reachable only by helicopter, and the Himalayan views are breathtaking. But the Muslim-majority region has been split between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947, with the nuclear...

TOKYO : A surge in deposits caused by the government's huge cash payouts is straining some Japanese lenders, complicating the central bank's efforts to mitigate the side-effects of its negative interest rate policy. Industry leader MUFG Bank was charged negative rates last month on deposits parked with the Bank of Japan - the first time since the policy was adopted in 2016. It was an unintended consequence of a steady rise in deposits, as households and firms saved some of the payouts they received from the government to weather the pandemic's hit. The balance of deposits at major banks, including MUFG, hit 446 trillion yen ($3.87 trillion) as of January, up 14per cent from pre-pandemic levels in early 2020. Deposits could rise further as the government plans to spend another 2 trillio...

Thiel Capital and regional aviation providers Mesa Air Group are investing in Regent, a start-up building electric seagliders that can fly low over the water at a top speed of 180 miles per hour. Rather than taking off from a runway at an airport, Regent's 12-passenger seagliders motor out of a harbor on a hydrofoil and and can take off at a low speed due to their fixed-wing design. The company wants to make trips between coastal cities fast, safe and affordable with the smallest possible environmental footprint, said CEO and co-founder Billy Thalheimer. (The start-up's name is an acronym for Regional Electric Ground Effect Naval Transport.) Regent's seagliders should also be able to fly to islands and coastal hubs where airports are inadequate or nonexistent or when infrastructure has t...

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was able to tick many of the boxes on Japan’s wishlist during his virtual summit with U.S. President Joe Biden, but now the hard part begins. The prime minister will need to buckle down for a busy year to bring that wishlist to fruition, especially if COVID-19 continues to roil his best-laid plans. Kishida and Biden held an online summit Friday after the spread of the virus’s omicron variant made in-person talks impossible. The talks, initially scheduled for one hour, lasted for 80 minutes, with the two leaders discussing a range of issues and agreeing to “push back” against China’s assertive actions in the region, cooperate to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and to work closely to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine. “I had frank discus...

With U.S. and Chinese warships increasingly playing chicken and China transforming atolls and outcroppings into militarized artificial islands, the South China Sea presents a striking picture of Sino-American strategic competition. But China’s expansive assertion of offshore sovereignty is not only challenging others’ territorial rights and free navigation of international sea lanes. It also is threatening a central feature of the Southeast Asian ecosystem, and thus the region’s economic future. China has refused to submit its territorial claims to international review, even though six of the ten countries surrounding the South China Sea have claims to various rocks, shoals, reefs and resources within its 1.4 million square miles. China also has ignored the Permanent Court of Arbitration...

A "now hiring" sign is posted in the window of a restaurant in Los Angeles, California on January 28, 2022. Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images The sudden slam to the economy from the omicron Covid variant could show up in January's employment report as the first big loss of jobs since late 2020. Economists have wide-ranging expectations for the report, which is expected Friday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones call for a 150,000 gain in payrolls. However, many economists — like those at PNC, Jefferies, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Wilmington Trust — expect big losses. "There's no question this is omicron. It's a pandemic, and it's not without consequences," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. She noted the number of jobs lost could be especially hig...

Few parts of the world paid as high a cost during the Cold War as Southeast Asia. The superpower conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union divided the region into pro- and anti-communist camps, spawning five wars in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam over four decades. Today, U.S.-China competition is fueling a so-called “new cold war” with familiar structural characteristics. In fact, the Sino-American great-power confrontation is a continuation of an unfinished ideological struggle, this time pitting the U.S.-led and Western-based alliance system against a China-centric global network of client states, many of them with various shades of authoritarian governance. The Soviet Union lost the Cold War, but China is now giving the West a run for its money in the sequel. And Southeast A...

SURABAYA: Indonesia began testing a homegrown COVID-19 vaccine on humans on Wednesday (Feb 9) after getting the green light from the drug regulator as the country faces a rising wave of virus cases. Research on the "Merah Putih" (Red White) vaccine - named after the colours of the Indonesian national flag - is led by Airlangga University and Biotis Pharmaceutical Indonesia. The project has suffered delays since starting in 2020, but authorities are now hoping to authorise its use by the middle of 2022 if the trials are successful. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the drug, set to be rolled out in the latter stages of Indonesia's vaccination campaign, could be donated to other nations as a booster jab or as a vaccine for children aged three to six. "I have discussed this matter ...