A group of Coca-Cola shareholders are warning that the company’s recent diversity policy would actually require contracted law firms to violate anti-discrimination laws. In a letter dated June 11, the American Civil Rights Project (ACRP) noted that on Jan. 28, the general counsel of Coca-Cola demanded law firms seeking to keep the company as a client must commit
News Analysis To see the impact China’s fickle market can do to a company’s value, look no further than Tesla. On April 20, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s media and regulators began a series of public rebukes against the California-based electric carmaker. The criticisms were broad, ranging from Tesla’s car safety, to data gathering practices, as
After increasing in value for months, cryptocurrencies, led by Bitcoin, have recently depreciated across the board. Chinese state media admitted that it’s directly related to two recent moves by Beijing financial authorities. The first major action was on May 18, when National Internet Finance Association of China, China Banking Association, and Payment & Clearing Association jointly
News Analysis The Binance Coin recently dropped out of the top three in cryptocurrency market ranking as Binance, the world’s largest crypto asset trading platform, is being investigated by U.S. and German authorities. As of May 25, the Binance Coin (BNB) ranked fourth in market value at $50.8 billion, dropping from $90.5 billion, its market value on May 17 when it
South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Joe Biden held talks at the White House on the 21st and issued the “U.S.-ROK Leaders’ Joint Statement.” The two sides reached consensus on a number of issues including the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and economic investment. The countries agreed to cooperate
News Analysis The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been pushing its digital currency project in recent years. The CCP’s central bank has been conducting research on digital currencies since 2014. In August 2019, a report by the CCP’s mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency said that the Central Bank’s Digital Currency Research Institute, established in 2017, had so
Chinese companies are facing mounting pressure to repay their dollar debts, as more than $100 billion in Chinese corporate dollar bonds are due to mature this year—the largest wave of maturities in history. China’s wave of dollar maturities will reach $118 billion, according to Refinitiv, a global financial market data provider. Japanese investment bank Nomura
News Analysis China is looking to put a dent in the global commodities boom of 2021. The price of China’s industrial commodities fell last week after Beijing announced new measures to curb runaway material prices that are beginning to fan fears of inflation. A rebound in the world’s biggest economies following the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak
A renowned Chinese equity fund manager revealed details of a listed company manipulating its stock price, and said half of the Chinese listed companies are involved in similar violations. On May 16, the Chinese regime announced it was investigating the issue. “In recent years, lawbreakers have used shareholding, capital, information, and technological advantages to conspire
News Analysis Businesses seeking financing may soon face a flurry of requirements that will, in effect, determine whether they are “woke” enough to be approved by financial institutions for loans or investment. While the requirements are presented as goodwill toward the downtrodden and the environment, they are underpinned by an ideology with totalitarian tendencies, according
Commentary For many years, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has acquiesced to digital currency operations in China. But in 2018, it began to restrict Bitcoin transactions while still secretly encouraging Bitcoin mining. However, now that large amounts of funds are fleeing the country through virtual currencies, Chinese authorities seem determined to crack down on it. Cryptocurrencies represented by Bitcoin have
Commentary The Chinese regime fined Alibaba $2.8 billion in April under anti-monopoly law, highlighting the regime’s comprehensive review of Chinese internet companies. However, Tencent was only fined $310,000 despite its comparable monopolistic influence in China. For a mega-corporation like Tencent, a fine of this size is equivalent to pennies. The CCP’s biggest grievance with Alibaba is its very large share of
China’s telecom Huawei has been hit by four rounds of U.S. sanctions in less than two years. After nearly eight months of chip shortages, Huawei’s smartphone business has been battered, forcing it to expand into “crossover” businesses, such as smart pig farming, mining, and car sales. On May 4, Bonjour Holdings Limited, one of Hong Kong’s leading
Commentary The Chinese government fined Alibaba $2.8 billion under the anti-monopoly law, highlighting the Chinese government’s comprehensive review of mainland Internet companies. However, Tencent, another monopolistic Internet company in mainland China, was only fined $311,610, mere pennies for a mega-corporation like Tencent. The CCP’s biggest grievance with Alibaba is that it has grabbed a very big
News Analysis Tesla has recently repaid in full the $614 million loan for the construction of its Gigafactory 3, a super factory located in Shanghai. After the news broke out, the rumor that Tesla may be preparing to leave the Chinese market spread fast on social media. The construction of the Shanghai plant began at
Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua has registered as a foreign agent under U.S. law, more than two years after the Justice Department (DOJ) reportedly ordered it to do so. Xinhua’s U.S. division was registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) on May 5, according (pdf) to the department’s online FARA database. This makes Xinhua
Commentary The continuing global semiconductor shortage has highlighted the United States’ dependence on a fragile global supply chain of chip manufacturing that’s concentrated in Asia. Amid this environment, China’s increasingly combative stance against Taiwan—along with its massive domestic investment into chipmaking—is a key risk to the security of America’s chip supply. The worsening global computer
News Analysis On May 4, Robin Zeng Yuqun, a new immigrant from mainland China, replaced Li Ka-shing as the richest man in Hong Kong when his net worth soared along with the company’s stock prices. In the context of Beijing’s “patriots ruling Hong Kong,” his new status attracted additional attention. In Forbes’ real-time billionaires list,
On April 22, senators Elizabeth Warren, Tina Smith, and Marco Rubio reintroduced two pieces of legislation that would reduce reliance on foreign nations, especially China, to supply ingredients needed to make various drugs. The Communist regime’s control of pharmaceutical resources in the manufacturing chain is mounting and is putting the free world at risk. This,
Chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) recently announced its plan to add new production lines in its existing plant in Nanjing, China. However, an expert in China’s telecom industry penned an article to express his opposition, claiming that China may not obtain the technology it desires from TSMC, and Chinese companies will face more
