Pfizer has asked a federal court to let it intervene in a high-profile case that has seen U.S. drug regulators try to slow-walk disclosure of data on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer says it supports disclosing the data but wants to ensure that information exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is not
Commentary When Icarus flew too close to the sun, he got burned, tumbled out of the sky, and fell into the ocean. China’s technology giants have certainly been flying high. The cohort of Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, and other platform companies have become household names, made their founders billionaires, run apps that Chinese people use on
China’s COVID-19 zero-tolerance approach has locked down one city after another, hence workers of the “world’s factory” are blocked at home and can’t get to work, trucks can’t ship non-pandemic-related goods, and ports can’t take care of ships. “Lockdowns in China are already causing disruptions [in global supply chain],” economists at Japanese financial holding company
Taiwan’s economy grew at the fastest pace in over a decade last year, driven by strong tech exports during the COVID-19 pandemic to feed the prevailing work-and-study-from-home trend. The full-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2021 surpassed the previous forecast of 6.1 percent up to 6.3 percent, fueled by a 4.9 percent year-on-year rise in the
Commentary Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, China has hardened its centrally directed approach to economics. Without siding with Xi, many Western media outlets and businesspeople have praised this centralized approach as superior to America’s seemingly chaotic market-oriented system. Some have even forecast the ultimate triumph of the Chinese model. But for all this praise, the seeming strengths
News Analysis While the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks in the developed world are preparing to curb high inflation by winding down pandemic stimulus and raising interest rates, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is attempting to stimulate China’s economy, as he fears public unrest. “Once economic and financial risks are mishandled, they can easily be transmitted into the social and political
Commentary The year 2021 is a turning point for China’s economy, from growth to decline. Though at the time of writing this* China’s official annual economic statistics for 2021 have not been published, the performance of its stock market in the year shows that 2021 is a downward turn of China’s economy. Comparing the Chinese stock markets’ performance with those of
Tennis star Novak Djokovic and his wife own an 80 percent share in a Danish biotech firm developing a treatment for COVID-19 that does not involve vaccination, the company’s boss said on Wednesday. The Serbian native 34, and his wife Jelena, 35, bought a majority stake in QuantBioRes back in June 2020, just months into the pandemic, the company’s chief
Dr. Anthony Fauci invested in the Chinese regime’s corporate “national champions,” large Chinese companies that advance Beijing’s interests and benefit from state policies, in a 2020 investment portfolio, according to recently disclosed financial records. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) obtained the records (pdf) and published them on Jan. 14, showing that Fauci had $10.4 million in investments, including
Fiscal mismanagement, exacerbated by the growing authoritarian tendencies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is quickly undoing economic and social progress and setting the stage for soaring poverty and social unrest throughout China, said experts at a Hudson Institute virtual event on Jan. 11. The virtual event, “Is China Headed for an Economic Crisis?”, featured Thomas Duesterberg,
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) closed off the final quarter of 2021 with record revenues, continuing the Taiwanese company’s period of grand profits as it struggles to keep pace with unprecedented demand for semiconductor devices. The manufacturer took in NT$438.18 billion ($15.8 billion) in revenue in the final quarter of 2021, constituting the sixth consecutive
News Analysis China’s top diplomat recently said Taiwan is a “wanderer” that will eventually “come home” to China. Such rhetoric by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials as well as increased Chinese military aircraft incursions near Taiwan in recent months have spiked a new wave of fears and media speculation that a Chinese invasion of the island may not
Customs agents working at the Port of Houston seized a shipment containing 50,000 fake Apple AirPods and 920 Nintendo video game consoles early last month for violating intellectual property rights (IPR), U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Thursday. The officers discovered the illegitimate products after inspecting a shipment of goods arriving from China into the United States and determined that they appeared
News analysis Chinese companies are transitioning to a different model to raise money by going public. When one of China’s concept stocks is delisted from the United States, it is then listed in Hong Kong or China. At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is working hard to present an image of economic
New Analysis After two major Chinese property developers—Evergrande and Kaisa—defaulted on their bond payments, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) reiterated its bid to rein in its debt-ridden property market. However, experts believe that the CCP intends to turn private enterprises into state-owned entities that bolster state control. The real estate sector was one of the concerned
General Motors (GM) plans on going beyond manufacturing a fleet of electric cars, according to an announcement Wednesday regarding electrification component sets, which are capable of converting most old gasoline-powered automobiles into new-age electric vehicles (EV). The technology will be used for EV conversion projects and GM expects to target a group of diverse commercial
Procter & Gamble issued a voluntary recall of more than 30 dry aerosol hair products on Dec. 17, after benzene, a chemical linked to cancer, was detected in them. The recall includes 32 products from brands such as Pantene, Herbal Essences, Aussie, and Waterless, which are produced and distributed nationwide in the United States. A full list of the
The U.S. economy tied for the highest level of inflation in 2021 among developed economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported. IMF data found that the United States and Iceland were at the top of the list of 35 nations for rising consumer prices. The organization noted that the inflation rate clocked in at 4.3 percent for both
Organizers of the World Economic Forum (WEF) said on Dec. 20 that the annual event in Davos, Switzerland, has been postponed until mid-2022 due to ongoing uncertainty over the spread of Omicron. The annual meeting, which was set to take place in late January 2022, has been deferred to early summer, according to Adrian Monck, WEF Managing Director of Public Engagement.
Global coal usage is on track to an all-time high, according to the International Energy Agency, underlining the significance of coal as the main source of energy for economies, emerging and advanced, despite pledges to cut down on fossil fuels. Primarily owing to economic recovery following the pandemic-related restrictions, global power generation from coal is
