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1 week ago | 
thestar.com.my | Ralph Jennings
China’s growth could drop by as much as one percentage point this year if soaring US import tariffs hold up, but its increasingly deep ties with Southeast Asia can help offset that loss, a regional economic surveillance body said on Tuesday. US import tariffs of 145 per cent on Chinese shipments will limit expansion of the world’s second-largest economy to a “quite optimistic” 4.8 per cent this year, said Hoe Ee Khor, chief economist with the Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO).
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3 weeks ago | 
thestar.com.my | Ralph Jennings
Just off a narrow highway in rural Malaysia, a vast cluster of buildings flanked by rows of solar panels towers above the surrounding palm plantations. The 275-acre (111-hectare) site, built by local conglomerate YTL Corporation, is filled with data centres to service an explosion in demand for processing power in the South-East Asian nation. Already a subscriber? Log in. Save 30% and win Bosch appliances! More Info Billed as RM9.73 for the 1st month then RM13.90 thereafters.
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3 weeks ago | 
thestar.com.my | Ralph Jennings
China and the United States accounted for 75 per cent of all venture capital investment in the robotics space over the past six years, allowing them to build a formidable lead in a crucial emerging industry, according to a study by the analytics firm GlobalData.
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1 month ago | 
thestar.com.my | Ralph Jennings |Mandy Zuo
When Orrawan Khansamree and her husband decided to visit Shanghai this month, the couple wanted to see one place above all – and it was not any of the city’s historic landmarks. “We’re visiting Disneyland,” said Khansamree, who is originally from Thailand. “It’s the biggest of its kind in the world.”For the couple, Shanghai offers an enticing combination of huge entertainment complexes and affordable hotels and restaurants.
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1 month ago | 
flipboard.com | Ralph Jennings
2 hours agoIndonesia Just Took a Giant Step Back in TimeAllowing the military back into public life will tarnish the nation’s credibility. On Thursday, the world’s third-largest democracy took a step back in time.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Ralph Jennings |Kandy Wong |Sylvia Ma
During his first term in office, US President Donald Trump decried the utility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, saying their value was based on “thin air”. But since his campaign for a second term – which put him back in the White House in January – he has taken on a decidedly different tone. Trump gathered CEOs and investors for a first-ever White House summit dedicated to digital assets on Friday, where he stated the country would be the “crypto capital of the world”.
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1 month ago | 
scmp.com | Ralph Jennings
A Chinese ratings firm has downgraded Thailand’s creditworthiness due to a series of damaging crime scandals denting the country’s appeal to tourists and the threat of US tariffs. The Beijing-based agency, China Chengxin International Credit Rating, said on Thursday that it had downgraded Thailand’s sovereign rating from A- to BBB+ after a string of high-profile “cross-border crime incidents”.
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2 months ago | 
scmp.com | Ralph Jennings
US President Donald Trump’s pledge to combat value-added taxes (VAT) levied on American exports has put China on the defensive, with retaliation expected as Beijing’s policymakers fret over the disruption such an act could mean for the global economic order. China faces action against its decades-old VAT system under Trump’s “Fair and Reciprocal Plan”, announced on Thursday to counter what the US president called “non-reciprocal trading arrangements” around the world.
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2 months ago | 
scmp.com | Ralph Jennings |Ralph Jennings
Tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea may be next on the agenda for US President Donald Trump as he looks to punish other nations with trade surpluses following a hike in Chinese duties, analysts said – though higher US tariffs on those countries could strengthen intra-Asian trade and help Chinese exporters. Trump would raise tariffs on the two East Asian countries to promote production in the United States and pressure both to increase their US investments, the observers said.
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2 months ago | 
scmp.com | Ralph Jennings
Dutch national Fercan Molenaar did not check any government advice before taking his first trip to China in August – and he is hardly alone. The 27-year-old instead consulted friends who were familiar with the country. On his two-day trip to the giant southern city of Guangzhou en route to South Korea, he found ups and downs that government advisories were unlikely to cover.
