Tiktok owner Bytedance sees revenue surge to £4.4bn, according to sources June 17, 2020 Bytedance, the Chinese company behind social media platform Tiktok, has seen a surge in first-quarter revenue to 40bn yuan (£4.4bn), according to two people familiar with the matter. The revenue boost marks a 130 per cent year-on-year increase, according to Reuters, citing two sources with knowledge on the matter who declined to be identified. Bytedance [...]
China-India border dispute: 20 Indian soldiers dead June 16, 2020 Twenty Indian soldiers have lost their lives in a “violent physical confrontation” with the Chinese army over a disputed border in the western Himalayas. For weeks, the two superpowers have faced off in the border area, but yesterday’s clash marked the first major violence between the neighbours since 1967. The world’s two most populous countries [...]
Beijing shuts all schools as second wave fears escalate June 16, 2020 Beijing has shut all schools in a sharp escalation of containment measures, as fears that new coronavirus outbreaks could develop into a second wave accelerate. The Chinese capital has suspended on-campus classes for all primary school, middle school and high school students in a bit to stem the rapid spread of new cases, state news [...]
US firms to be allowed to work with Huawei on 5G standards June 16, 2020 The US is to amend a ruling which prohibited companies from working with Chinese tech giant Huawei on setting standards for upcoming 5G networks. The new ruling, signed by the US Commerce Department and other agencies, is set to be published on the Federal Register as soon as today. “The United States will not cede [...]
AI Is Revolutionising Health Care June 16, 2020 The market value of AI in the health care industry is predicted to reach $6.6 billion by 2021. Artificial intelligence is increasingly growing in popularity throughout various industries. Most of us associate AI with things like robots, Alexa and self-driving cars. But AI is a lot more than that. AI experts see it as a revolutionary technology [...]
Beijing tightens controls amid ‘extremely severe’ second wave fears June 16, 2020 The Chinese capital of Beijing has put neighbourhoods under lockdown and upped testing in a bid to stop clusters of new coronavirus infection developing into a second wave. Parts of Beijing were fenced off last night, with security checkpoints set up to prevent people from leaving the city as more than 100 new cases were [...]
German economy to contract more sharply in second quarter than first, warns ministry June 15, 2020 The German economy will contract more in the second quarter than in the first, the country’s economic ministry said, warning that the recovery in the second half of 2020 would be sluggish. Europe’s largest economy went into lockdown in March, with many shops closing and factories halting production in a bid to limit the spread [...]
Chinese industrial production picks up but consumers remain cautious June 15, 2020 Chinese industrial production rose for a second straight month in May as factories began to recover from the coronavirus hit, but the weaker-than-expected gain suggested that the country’s recovery remained fragile. Data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics also showed sustained contraction in retail sales and investment, showing the continued pressure Covid-19 is placing [...]
Asian stocks, oil prices fall as second wave fears grow June 15, 2020 Asian stocks stumbled on Monday and oil prices slipped as fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections in Beijing sent investors scurrying for safe-havens. Meanwhile, underwhelming data from China further weighed on investor sentiment. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3 per cent with Australian shares off 0.1% and South [...]
HSBC’s head of public affairs leads pro-China lobbying push June 14, 2020 A pro-China business group is urging FTSE100 companies to lobby the UK government to act more pro-Beijing as relations between the two countries begin to flounder. The China-Britain Business Council (CBBC) – whose members include HSBC, BP and Standard Chartered – has spoken to a number of high-profile companies, that have connections to China, to back [...]