China's property investment falls 12% y/y in January-July
Property sales by floor area fell 4.0% year-on-year, compared with a 3.5% drop in the first six months of the year.
New construction starts measured by floor area slumped 19.4%, after contracting 20% in the January-to-June period.
Funds raised by China's property developers in the first seven months of the year were down 7.5%, versus a 6.2% drop in the first half.
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Reuters
44 minutes ago
- Reuters
Air Canada flight attendants picket at airports; businesses seek government intervention
MONTREAL/TORONTO, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Air Canada ( opens new tab employees formed picket lines outside major Canadian airports and business leaders sought government intervention on Saturday, hours after unionized flight attendants walked off the job over a wage contract dispute. The strike, which started just before 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT), forced Canada's largest airline to cancel all of its 700 daily flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers who had to find alternative flights or stay put. The airline said in a statement on Saturday that it has started locking out thousands of flight attendants in response to the strike action. The carrier had offered a 38% increase in total compensation for flight attendants over four years, with a 25% raise in the first year, which the Canadian Union of Public Employees said was insufficient. CUPE, representing more than 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants, confirmed the work stoppage in a social media post. It is the first strike by Air Canada flight attendants since 1985. Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE, said in a press conference in Toronto that, as of Saturday morning, there were no bargaining sessions scheduled between the two sides, which have held on-and-off negotiations for months. "We are here because Air Canada forces us to work for free for hours and hours every day, and we are here because we are not going to accept it anymore," he said. Outside Toronto Pearson International Airport - the country's busiest - hundreds of cabin crew waved flags, banners and picket signs. Union officials called on members to assemble outside all of the country's major airports, including in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. Montreal-based Air Canada said the suspended flights included those operated by its budget arm, Air Canada Rouge. The stoppage would affect about 130,000 customers a day, the carrier said in a statement. Flights by Air Canada's regional affiliates - Air Canada Jazz and PAL Airlines - will operate as usual. The dispute between the union and the airline centers on wages. Attendants are currently paid only when their plane is moving. The union is seeking compensation for time spent on the ground between flights and when helping passengers board. The union has said Air Canada offered to compensate flight attendants for some work that is now unpaid but only at 50% of their hourly rate. A source close to the negotiations told Reuters the union is looking for parity on wages with Canadian leisure carrier Air Transat, where flight attendants approved a contract last year that provided for total compounded increases of 30% over five years, making them the highest paid in the industry in Canada. Air Canada did not confirm if such a proposal had been put forth by the union. "What we're asking for is not unreasonable. It is not a high demand. It is not that far off other competitors such as Air Transat. It is realistic and it is deserved," Lesosky from CUPE said. The impact of a strike will ripple far beyond Canada. Air Canada is the busiest foreign carrier servicing the U.S. by number of scheduled flights. While passengers have generally voiced support for the flight attendants on social media, Canadian businesses - already reeling from a trade dispute with the U.S. - have urged the federal government to impose binding arbitration on both sides, ending the strike. "The federal government has a responsibility to all Canadians to use its lawful authority to restore service today. The cost of inaction would be devastating," Goldy Hyder, president and CEO of the Business Council of Canada, said on Saturday. The Canada Labour Code gives Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu the right to ask the country's Industrial Relations Board to impose binding arbitration in the interests of protecting the economy. Air Canada has asked Prime Minister Mark Carney's minority Liberal government to act, but the union says it wants a negotiated solution, as binding arbitration would take pressure off the airline. Hajdu has repeatedly urged the two sides to return to the bargaining table. In a note to clients, analysts at financial services firm TD Cowen urged the carrier to "extend an olive branch to end the impasse," adding that investors are worried that any cost savings on labor would be outweighed by lost earnings in the airline's most important quarter.
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
The tiny Pacific nation evading China's grip
Avenida de Hudi-Laran is one of the busiest roads in Dili, the capital of East Timor. On any given day, motorbikes, cramped minibuses and yellow taxis speed past restaurants, spas and furniture supply stores. But instead of the usual Portuguese or Tetum – the country's two official languages – many of the establishments boast Chinese names. The expansion of Chinese-owned businesses has grown to such an extent that most people refer to Hudi-Laran, meaning 'banana complex', as 'China-Laran' now. It's a sign of Beijing's increasing investment in the small country, but its level of influence appears to have its limits. At a time when more and more Asian countries are falling into debilitating debt traps that grant China sweeping leverage, East Timor is resisting – for now. It is one of the world's youngest countries, having gained independence in 2002 after hundreds of years as a Portuguese colony and more than two decades under Indonesian occupation. The nation, located around 430 miles north-west of Australia, makes up the eastern half of the island of Timor, sharing the land with Indonesia. Its strategic position in the contested Indo-Pacific and nearby shipping lanes make the country ripe for Chinese influence. 'We do not view China as a threat, least of all as an enemy,' José Ramos-Horta, East Timor's president, told The Telegraph, insisting his country remains neutral in the battle for control of the Pacific. East Timor sits crucially near the Second Island Chain, a series of islands stretching from Japan through Guam – a US territory with a key military base – to Indonesia's eastern islands. Although further from China than the First Island Chain, which includes Taiwan and the Philippines, the second chain is widely viewed as an emerging battleground of influence. Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, said in April that the US would be boosting investment in the outlying chain of islands. East Timor is also situated near the Ombai-Wetar Strait, a deep-water passage that's critical for movement between the Indian and Pacific oceans. Given its placement, China has attempted to increase its military presence on the island, proposing the construction of a radar facility in 2007, which it claimed would only be used to detect illegal fishing. However, a leaked US diplomatic cable revealed that the site would've allowed China to collect intelligence on American and Taiwanese military activity in the South China Sea, where Beijing has expanded its presence in recent years. The government in Dili rejected the proposal. East Timor relies mostly on security agreements with its neighbours: Australia and Indonesia. While open to participating in joint military drills with China, Mr Ramos-Horta said there was only so much East Timor could offer a country such as China when it comes to defence. 'It's a bit like an elephant inviting a mosquito for joint military exercises. The Chinese will take cruise missiles, we will take slingshots,' he said. The bulk of East Timor's relationship with China is economic, but it has opted for a different route to many other countries. Chinese aid has funded East Timor's presidential palace, foreign ministry and military headquarters, and Chinese state-owned companies built and currently control the national power grid and its major port. The country upgraded its ties with China in 2023 to a comprehensive strategic partnership, which opened the door to 'unlimited' economic cooperation, one expert told The Telegraph. Despite Beijing's economic involvement in such infrastructure projects prompting concern, East Timor has avoided the 'debt trap' that has destabilised so many others. China has a history of lending billions to vulnerable governments that struggle to repay the loans and eventually fall under its thumb. Such has happened in Sri Lanka, which owed China nearly $25 billion (£19.5 billion) before it defaulted and fell into its worst financial crisis in decades. But while Chinese firms have built key infrastructure in East Timor, the projects have been through private tenders. The south-east Asian country has never taken a loan from China, meaning its influence there 'remains limited', according to Loro Horta, East Timor's ambassador to China. In 2012, it came close to accepting a $50 million loan from China to upgrade its drainage system, but Dili rejected the proposal because it gave Beijing disproportionate control over which company would carry out the project. Instead, East Timor took out grants from partners such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, where there are fewer strings attached. The nation also follows a 'friends to all' policy, under which it receives foreign aid and investment from a wide range of partners – including Australia and the US – so it isn't entirely dependent on any one actor. China's grip looms Part of East Timor's ability to resist China's pull stems from its oil and gas revenue, but experts have said this could soon change. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the region by GDP per capita, it earns close to half a billion dollars in petroleum revenue annually, which funds nearly 90 per cent of its state budget. However, its main oil fields are predicted to be fully depleted within the next decade, meaning the country could be left bankrupt, according to Damien Kingsbury, a professor emeritus at Deakin University in Australia. The government is optimistic that more oil will be uncovered before it's too late, but others are worried that the impending economic crisis could push East Timor down the slippery slope towards greater dependency on China. 'Small countries such as East Timor risk having large investors and donors such as China swamp their local economy and thus lose a capacity to make independent economic decisions,' said Prof Kingsbury. 'China could end up having an outsized influence in policy making.' This has happened to countries in the Pacific before. The Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nauru have all switched recognition from Taiwan to China in the past decade after developing closer ties with Beijing. The Solomon Islands, historically one of the poorest countries in the Pacific, signed a security agreement with China in 2022, opening the door for Beijing to establish a military base in the region. However, East Timor's 'friends to all' policy could help it to avoid falling into a similar entanglement. 'I have no particular grounds for concern. China has a positive relationship with East Timor – it's significant but not one of the top donors by any means,' said Michael Leach, a professor at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology. 'The Timorese leadership have always been careful to balance their relationships in sensitive ways,' he added. East Timor's bloody past The fact that East Timor has remained relatively unscathed when it comes to China is also a result of its recent bloody history. Indonesian forces occupied the country between 1975 and 1999, and killed around 200,000 people – of a population of only around 600,000. They tortured and slaughtered civilians and resistance forces, in what many scholars have labelled a genocide. 'Indonesia killed a lot of people, a lot of people suffered, and a lot of people sacrificed tremendously in order for it to be a sovereign nation and so they value that sovereignty,' said Charlie Scheiner, a long-time researcher at La'o Hamutuk, one of East Timor's oldest and largest human rights NGOs. No one understands this better than the president and prime minister, who both led the struggle. Mr Leach explained that Xanana Gusmão, the prime minister, spent years fighting and was later imprisoned 'in pursuit of the dream of self-determination and independence', which 'informs a lot of his outlook today on maintaining Timorese independence'. For Mr Ramos-Horta, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, his experience travelling the world and courting diplomatic support made him 'no stranger to the sort of traps that small countries can fall into with foreign policy if they're not careful', according to Mr Leach. Experts agree that East Timor's relationship with China is likely to expand – especially economically – but it will probably not reach a point where there would be a risk to its sovereignty or independence. 'Timor will always be a democracy. We can never be a dictatorship because we are so disorganised and undisciplined – it's impossible to have one country dominate Timor,' insisted Mr Loro. 'Many have tried. They usually fail,' he added jokingly.
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Telegraph
China plots robotaxi invasion of Britain
The Chinese robotaxis are coming. After taking over the streets of Beijing, self-driving vehicles are now poised to pour on to Britain's roads as soon as next year. Leading the charge is Baidu, a tech giant known as ' China's Google '. In a direct challenge to Elon Musk's Tesla, which has already started testing its full self-driving technology in the UK, Baidu has vowed to roll out thousands of cars across Europe. To do so, Baidu has partnered its Apollo Go taxi business with Lyft – one of Uber's main rivals – which plans to launch a self-driving taxi service in the UK in 2026. The Beijing-based tech giant has set its sights on Britain after being effectively locked out of America, where Chinese driverless software is to be banned from 2027. As a result, the expected flood of Chinese robotaxis risks putting Britain on a fresh collision course with the White House, although the potential for a geopolitical spat has far from halted interest from the Far East. In China, robotaxis are no longer a high-tech novelty. Companies including Baidu, WeRide, AutoX and all now offer self-driving shuttles that ferry passengers around without a driver. Encouraged by their success at home, they are targeting expansion in Europe. which is valued at $5bn (£3.7bn), has said it will begin trialling its service in Luxembourg, while WeRide has tested driverless buses in France and Spain. The start-ups, both of which are based in Guangzhou, have joined their Chinese peers in racing to tighten their grip on the global robotaxi market as adoption stutters across America. After making initial headway in the self-driving market, momentum among Silicon Valley giants has since tailed off. Uber notably abandoned its first effort to build an autonomous taxi in 2020 after a fatal crash, while Musk's long-standing promise to unleash an army of self-driving Teslas has so far been limited to Texas. Cruise, one of the most established robotaxi ventures, was shut down last year by its parent company GM, after an accident involving a woman who was dragged under the car's wheels. China's industry, on the other hand, appears to have moved up a gear. 'China's top players are pushing hard into overseas markets, potentially gaining a foothold before US rivals can fully scale', says Murtuza Ali, a technology analyst at Counterpoint Research. While Waymo, the US market leader, is offering paid robotaxi rides in Phoenix, Arizona; San Francisco and Los Angeles in California; and in Austin, Texas, China is already operating robotaxis across 30 Chinese cities. Baidu's service is also live in 15 cities, while dozens more companies are launching pilot programmes. Stan Boland, former chief executive of UK autonomous driving business Five AI, says: 'There is a propensity in China to take more risks in terms of automated driving. 'There has been a much higher level of caution here in Europe when it comes to regulatory approvals.' In the UK, new rules brought in under Labour mean self-driving taxi and bus pilots could be live on UK roads from 2026. The first is expected to be Uber's trial with Wayve, a UK AI business that has raised more than $1bn. US-based Lyft is also preparing to test driverless cars across the UK following its deal with Baidu. Next up could be WeRide, which recently held talks with the UK's South China trade envoy, Trevor Lewis, about introducing autonomous vehicles in the UK. A WeRide spokesman says: 'The UK is set to be an important part of WeRide's international growth. WeRide looks forward to potential collaborations that support the UK's smart mobility ecosystem.' Concerns about expansion However, the rapid expansion of China's self-driving car industry will no doubt raise scrutiny regarding its safety record. Just last week, a vehicle operated by Baidu in the city of Chongqing fell into a roadside construction pit, flipping the vehicle on to its side. A woman escaped from the car unharmed. Elsewhere, a car developed by tech giant Xiaomi was also involved in a crash in March that killed three people. The vehicle smashed into a cement pole at 97mph while operating in a driver-assist mode, rather than driving entirely independently. The crash prompted Chinese officials to crack down on marketing claims about self-driving capabilities from the country's carmakers. As well as safety fears, the influx of Chinese robotaxis is also expected to trigger geopolitical scrutiny. The US department of commerce warned in January that China's self-driving cars left 'opportunities for data exfiltration and unauthorised vehicle manipulation ', backing up its decision to ban the technology. Similar concerns are now emerging in Britain. China hawks fear the arrival of self-driving vehicles from the Far East will create risks akin to Huawei, the telecoms company barred from UK networks over national security concerns. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader, warned China's vehicles 'will further enhance the control they have on the UK', adding they would be 'filled with internet of things' technology – sensors that can be used for surveillance. Luke de Pulford, director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, adds: 'Unless the UK wakes up soon, it will find itself having to foot a huge bill for removing high-risk equipment, like they had to over Huawei.' Yet despite such concerns, it appears that China's robotaxi experiment in Britain is only picking up pace.
