China investigating its defence minister for alleged corruption

In as we speak’s e-newsletter:

• One other PLA corruption scandal

• BYD squeezes suppliers amid worth warfare

• An AI prediction from Infosys chair Nandan Nilekani

Good morning. We start with the newest corruption-related scandal to hit China’s army amid President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on graft.

Defence minister Dong Jun is below investigation as a part of a broader probe into corruption within the Folks’s Liberation Military, in keeping with present and former US officers acquainted with the state of affairs.

Dong was named to the place in December 2023 after his predecessor was fired for corruption. He’s the third consecutive serving or former defence minister to be investigated for alleged graft.

China’s overseas ministry spokesperson Mao Ning yesterday dismissed this report of Dong’s investigation as “catching wind and shadows”, suggesting that the claims had been unfounded.

The information comes per week after Dong attended an Asian defence assembly in Laos, the place he refused to satisfy US defence secretary Lloyd Austin. China’s defence ministry blamed the US for the rebuff, saying Washington was “solely accountable” as a result of it had just lately authorised a package deal of weapons for Taiwan.

Christopher Johnson, a former high CIA China analyst who now heads danger consultancy China Methods Group, mentioned the event raised issues about how Xi was choosing defence ministers.

With the investigation of Dong, mentioned Johnson, “Xi is left to marvel, what nook of the PLA shouldn’t be corrupt?” Read the full story. 

Right here’s what else we’re protecting tabs on as we speak:

• Financial information: Commerce statistics are due from Japan.

• Financial coverage: South Korea broadcasts its rate of interest resolution.

• US: Monetary markets are closed for Thanksgiving Day.

Premium subscribers can sign up here for Commerce Secrets and techniques, Alan Beattie’s must-read e-newsletter on the quickly altering nature of worldwide commerce and globalisation.

5 extra high tales

1. BYD, Tesla’s largest rival in China, has demanded its suppliers slash costs by 10 per cent, because the Chinese language auto market braces for a recent salvo in a cut-throat worth warfare. “In 2025, the EV market . . . will go right into a grand ultimate battle and a knockout match,” executive vice-president He Zhiqi wrote in an email, urging suppliers to mark down costs beginning subsequent yr.

2. A former senior Chinese language monetary regulator has mentioned high Beijing leaders set “psychological” targets for the nation’s inventory markets and foreign money change charge that aren’t based mostly on fundamentals. The feedback by Xiao Gang supply a rare insight into the often murky world of elite financial policymaking.

3. SoftBank is planning to up its stake in OpenAI by $1.5bn, which might make the Japanese group one of many largest investors in the $150bn company. The funding comes as chief government Masayoshi Son pursues an bold plan to place SoftBank as a pacesetter in AI.

• Extra AI information: Buyers in Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter are set to make a huge windfall from a surge within the valuation of his AI start-up, reaping rewards from being loyal backers of the billionaire’s enterprise empire.

4. France has advised it could not essentially detain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he entered the nation regardless of an excellent arrest warrant issued by the Worldwide Prison Courtroom over alleged warfare crimes in Gaza. Here’s the French statement, which got here a day after Paris helped the US dealer a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.

• Israel-Hizbollah ceasefire: The deal appeared to hold on its first day because the Israeli army warned displaced Lebanese civilians to not attempt to return to properties close to the border.

• US arms sale: President Joe Biden has provisionally authorised a $680mn weapons sale to Israel, a recent cargo of precision weapons that Netanyahu cited as one motive for backing the ceasefire with Hizbollah.

5. The EU has threatened to open a probe into TikTok over its alleged failure to stop the unfold of disinformation and unauthorised campaigning on the platform within the run-up to Romania’s election final week. Romania’s nationwide media watchdog lodged a criticism with Brussels after a far-right candidate who went viral on the Chinese platform unexpectedly topped the primary spherical of the presidential vote. 

Interview: Infosys chair Nandan Nilekani

Indian expertise grandee Nandan Nilekani expects firms around the globe will construct their very own AI fashions, a prediction that raises questions in regards to the income mannequin for start-ups which have invested in giant language fashions. The chair of IT services major Infosys told the FT he was “not so certain” firms would wish to shoulder the excessive prices and the potential “black field” of knowledge and copyright liabilities related to LLMs behind in style functions, akin to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

• ‘Adios Adani!’: The reversal of Kenya’s assist for the Indian group’s $1.85bn airport mission reveals how US bribery prices are threatening its ambitions in Africa.

• Chinese language economic system: Jianguang Shen, chief economist of JD Group, explains five things the market got wrong about China’s newest fiscal stimulus package deal.

• Clever banana? What’s crazier, asks Jonathan Guthrie: a crypto millionaire spending $6.2mn on a banana caught to a wall or regarding art as a sound investment?

Chart of the day

French sovereign bonds and shares fell yesterday as issues intensified amongst traders that a dispute over a belt-tightening draft price range might bring down the government.

Take a break from the information

In your marks. Get set. Glow? Main feminine athletes, together with Serena Williams, clarify why their beauty regimes have turn into core to game-day preparations.