China – Page 6 – Financial Treason & Crime

Mark Sweney, 12 April 2021

Shares in Alibaba surged on Monday after the e-commerce company said that a record $2.8bn (£2bn) fine handed down by Chinese regulators marked the end of an investigation into anti-competitive practices at the company.

Top executives at the company, founded by the billionaire Jack Ma, told investors that while Chinese regulators continued a wider investigation into the sprawling conglomerates in the country’s tech industry, they believed the multibillion dollar fine announced at the weekend marked the end of the focus on Alibaba. The company is listed in Hong Kong and its shares climbed as much as 9% on the management’s comments. Continue reading “Article: Alibaba shares jump after record $2.8bn anti-monopoly fine”

04/12/2021

Article: The Illegal Wildlife Trade and the Banking Sector in China

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The Illegal Wildlife Trade and the Banking Sector in China

TRAFFIC, 12 April 2021

Cambridge, UK – 14 April 2021: Chinese banks must take action to prevent illegal wildlife traffickers from exploiting their networks to launder money says TRAFFIC. The non-governmental organisation, which works globally on trade in wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity conservation and sustainable development, is today releasing resources that indicate how Chinese banks are at risk of greater scrutiny and pressure from governments and institutional investors if they fail to act on the illegal trade of wildlife. Continue reading “Article: The Illegal Wildlife Trade and the Banking Sector in China”

04/12/2021

Article: US cautions China-backed Port City could turn into money-laundering haven

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US cautions China-backed Port City could turn into money-laundering haven

The Island Online, 12 April 2021

(ANI) US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, Alaina Teplitz on Saturday warned Sri Lanka of unintended consequences of ‘nefarious actors’ who may try to misuse a China-backed Colombo Port City’s easy business rules as a permissive money laundering haven amid concerns of tax leaks.

Sri Lanka has unveiled draft legislation for a Colombo Port City Commission which allows for sweeping tax breaks, tax-free salaries and to be an offshore financial centre. Continue reading “Article: US cautions China-backed Port City could turn into money-laundering haven”

04/12/202104/13/2021

Article: Yellen Plans to Spare China From Currency Manipulator Label

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Yellen Plans to Spare China From Currency Manipulator Label

Saleha Mohsin, 12 April 2021

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will decline to name China as a currency manipulator in her first semiannual foreign-exchange report, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that allows the U.S. to sidestep a fresh clash with Beijing.

The report, which is not yet finalized, is due on Thursday, although it is unclear when the department will release it. During the Trump era, the Treasury Department was accused of politicizing the report after it abruptly designated China a manipulator in mid-2019 outside its usual release schedule, only to lift the label five months later to win concessions in a trade deal. Continue reading “Article: Yellen Plans to Spare China From Currency Manipulator Label”

04/11/2021

Article: Being ‘tough on China’ can’t mean harming our own interests

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Being ‘tough on China’ can’t mean harming our own interests

DANIEL L DAVIS, 11 April 2021

Being “tough on China” is politically popular in Washington these days, and Biden has come out of the gate swinging against Beijing. But “being tough” isn’t a policy and reflexively applying it to China doesn’t serve U.S. interests. A logical and realistic approach to Beijing, however, can.

Obama’s “pivot to Asia” in 2011 opened a new chapter in Sino-American relations and turned an always challenging relationship even more tense. From the beginning of his administration, Trump characterized China in starkly adversarial terms, calculating domestic political advantage in starting a trade war. In the early months of the Biden term, it appears the new president has chosen to accelerate this deterioration in relations. Continue reading “Article: Being ‘tough on China’ can’t mean harming our own interests”

04/10/2021

Article: China Hits Alibaba With Huge $2.78 Billion Fine For Market Abuse: Report

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China Hits Alibaba With Huge $2.78 Billion Fine For Market Abuse: Report

Agence France-Presse, 10 April 2021

Shanghai, China: Chinese regulators have hit e-commerce giant Alibaba with a massive 18.2 billion yuan ($2.78 billion) fine over practices deemed to be an abuse of the company’s dominant market position, state-run media reported on Saturday.

Xinhua news agency said the State Administration for Market Regulation had assessed the fine after concluding an investigation into Alibaba that began in December. Continue reading “Article: China Hits Alibaba With Huge $2.78 Billion Fine For Market Abuse: Report”

04/10/2021

Article: U.S. Spy Agencies Warn of Threats From Digital Currency to AI

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U.S. Spy Agencies Warn of Threats From Digital Currency to AI

Joen Coronel, 10 April 2021

The U.S. intelligence community predicts an increasingly leaderless and unstable world in the coming decades as trends such as artificial intelligence, digital currencies and climate change reshape the global arena, according to the National Intelligence Council.

The coming decades will be characterized by a mismatch between global challenges and “the ability of institutions and system to respond,” according to “Global Trends 2040: A More Contested World.” The result will be “greater contestation at every level” — especially between the U.S. and China. Continue reading “Article: U.S. Spy Agencies Warn of Threats From Digital Currency to AI”

04/10/2021

Article: Can the US compete?

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Can the US compete?

Rod Kapunan, 10 April 2021

Many are speculating whether the US has the budget to sustain the cost for the long-delayed rehabilitation of America’s infrastructure. It was announced it will cost the Biden administration a whopping $2 trillion to undertake the repairs of the country’s mostly aging infrastructure.

As observed, the US economy is saddled with great contradictions. It is deeply mired in debt that it cannot just do all things at the same time. Some say the problem is for the US economy to undergo some kind of economic metamorphoses, similar to what China did to overcome the obstacle inherent in the US system.

One must remember that the greatest enemy of the US is the contradiction from within its own system. The US is hampered in what Marx says “internal contradictions” – that the interest of the various pressure groups could stymie most of its objectives. Continue reading “Article: Can the US compete?”

04/09/202104/12/2021

Article: Financial Tyranny: Footing The Tax Bill For The Government’s Fiscal Insanity

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Financial Tyranny: Footing The Tax Bill For The Government’s Fiscal Insanity

TYLER DURDEN, 09 April 2021

“We are now speeding down the road of wasteful spending and debt, and unless we can escape we will be smashed in inflation.”- Herbert Hoover

We’re not living the American dream. We’re living a financial nightmare.. Continue reading “Article: Financial Tyranny: Footing The Tax Bill For The Government’s Fiscal Insanity”

04/09/202104/09/2021

Article: Hong Kong stock exchange to extend circuit breakers to futures products to temper wild gyrations in equities and derivatives

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Hong Kong stock exchange to extend circuit breakers to futures products to temper wild gyrations in equities and derivatives

Yahoo Finance, 09 April 2021

The move will add to similar controls put in place since August 2016, first on extreme gyrations in equities and a year later on derivative products. They followed a series of events that provoked regulatory probes into market misconduct such as price manipulation and pump-and-dump scandals.

“The volatility control mechanism (VCM) has worked as intended without any negative feedback from the market,” said Tom Chan Pak-lam, chairman of Hong Kong Institute of Securities Dealers, the local brokerage industry body. “In many cases, sharp and sudden price movements were smoothed out as the cooling-off periods allowed participants to react while trading continued.”

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04/09/202104/09/2021

Article: Bitcoin Shows Us That Not All Volatilities Are Created Equal

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Bitcoin Shows Us That Not All Volatilities Are Created Equal

Enrique Dans, 09 April 2021

For many people, the main obstacle to using cryptocurrencies is that they are volatile; their value fluctuates sharply across time depending on, apparently, many different factors. To put the issue in context, the original paper on bitcoin was published in late 2008 and the first transaction in early 2009: since then, its value in dollars or euros has risen by more than 15,000%.

In contrast, over the same period of time, the parity between the dollar and the euro, has varied by a few percentage points up or down. No surprise therefore that bitcoin is seen as highly volatile and unsuitable for transactions, and at best, a store of value, subject to the systemic risk that arises every time the authorities or a government make decisions that could affect it. China talks of banning bitcoin mining and its price falls. Elon Musk uses part of Tesla’s reserves to buy bitcoin? Bitcoin rises.

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04/08/202104/08/2021

Article: ‘Pro-Crypto’ Peter Thiel Warns Bitcoin “Could Be A Chinese Financial Weapon Against The US”

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‘Pro-Crypto’ Peter Thiel Warns Bitcoin “Could Be A Chinese Financial Weapon Against The US”

TYLER DURDEN, 08 April 2021

Cryptocurrencies are typically open-source, meaning that anyone with technical ability can contribute. On top of that, anyone disgruntled with a given cryptocurrency’s trajectory can “fork” it, creating a new coin (as we have seen in both bitcoin and ethereum). Cryptocurrencies are also famously designed to be extralegal – beyond the reach of the government – although of course the SEC and the IRS hope to quash that notion.

Meanwhile, artificial intelligence relies on the trend that came before it, big data, and big data is gathered by big entities. Historically, communist regimes like the Soviet Union and Maoist China sought to create highly centralized command economies, noted Thiel. A sufficiently powerful AI could realize the bureaucrat’s dream of accurately predicting peasant farmers’ potato yields months in advance from thousands of miles away.

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04/07/202104/10/2021

Article: Peter Thiel Calls Bitcoin ‘a Chinese Financial Weapon’ at Virtual Roundtable

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Peter Thiel Calls Bitcoin ‘a Chinese Financial Weapon’ at Virtual Roundtable

Max Chafkin, 07 April 2021

Peter Thiel is “pro-crypto” and “pro-Bitcoin maximalist,” but he also thinks the cryptocurrency may be undermining America.

Thiel, the venture capitalist and conservative political donor, urged the U.S. government to consider tighter regulations on cryptocurrencies in an appearance on Tuesday. The statements seemed to represent a change of heart for Thiel, who is a major investor in virtual currency ventures as well as in cryptocurriences themselves. Continue reading “Article: Peter Thiel Calls Bitcoin ‘a Chinese Financial Weapon’ at Virtual Roundtable”

04/07/202104/08/2021

Article: JPMorgan’s Dimon Admits “Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong” In America… And China Knows It

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JPMorgan’s Dimon Admits “Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong” In America… And China Knows It

TYLER DURDEN, 07 April 2021

As his bank tries to offload big blocks of Manhattan real estate, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon proclaimed in his latest annual letter to shareholders, published Wednesday morning, that the economic expansion in the US could run through 2023, which would justify lofty equity valuations which recently pushed the S&P 500 north of 4K.

And the CEO who once called for the US to raise taxes on the rich and adopt more explicitly socialist policies to expand access to higher education, housing and child care, praised the federal government’s response to the economic crisis caused by the COVID pandemic. Consumers who are now flush with savings will help drive an economic boom, Dimon wrote in his 34K-word missive.

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04/01/2021

Article: Hong Kong Hit by Dozens of Trading Halts After Earnings Deadline

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Hong Kong Hit by Dozens of Trading Halts After Earnings Deadline

Bloomberg News, 01 April 2021

Trading in more than 50 Hong Kong-listed companies was suspended on Thursday, after a number of firms failed to report earnings ahead of the March 31 deadline.

GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. and China Huarong Asset Management Co. were among the firms that announced a trading halt. GCL-Poly said additional time is required to complete its audit procedures while Huarong said it will delay delivering its earnings as it seeks to complete a transaction. While it’s not uncommon for some companies in Hong Kong to have to suspend trading on April 1, the number this year compares with at least 9 last year and 25 in 2019. Continue reading “Article: Hong Kong Hit by Dozens of Trading Halts After Earnings Deadline”