Planes, chips and espionage
Could you soon be flying a Chinese-made airliner?
China’s apparent progress in semiconductors has sparked widespread concern, even as the United States and its allies block access to the latest chips and chipmaking technologies. Beijing, however, can only catch up with companies that are a certain number of years ahead – and, given the nature of science, that could always be the case. Tim Culpan says the biggest threat to the West in terms of corporate profits and employment comes from Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China (Comac). It recently sold 100 of its C919 jets — the equivalent of Boeing Co.’s 737 and the Airbus SE A320Neo — to China Eastern Airlines Corp. Although this is an internal transaction, Tim notes that the sales do not benefit Boeing and Airbus – based in the US and Europe respectively. An increase in Comac’s sales in China – and perhaps abroad – would disrupt the duopoly’s financial results and global market share.
To make the C919, China has aggressively lured suppliers like General Electric Co. and Bombardier Inc. to share know-how. Did espionage also contribute to aerospace progress? We can’t know yet, but as Tim says: “As part of an effort uncovered by the FBI in 2017, Chinese intelligence agents led a project to steal engine technology from GE Aviation, while another case involved a Chinese national and an Air Force contractor who helped steal engine technology from GE Aviation. People’s Liberation Army obtains more than 630,000 files related to Boeing’s C-17 cargo plane.
Regardless, China itself is becoming sensitive about Western spies. I’ve written about its long history of grievances over technology theft across millennia. Recently, he has taken a more suspicious look at businessmen who come to do business. As Karishma Vaswani writes: “Part of the concern comes from an update to China’s anti-espionage law earlier this year. The revision broadened the range of activities that would be considered “acts of espionage” for foreigners, thereby broadening the scope under which authorities can consider you a spy. This has spooked the overseas business community, with many wondering whether the risks of investing in the country outweigh the potential rewards.”
Yet, she says, most Western companies in China still believe it is worth continuing operations – despite pressure from Beijing and Washington. Maintaining contacts is essential. “Even the worst relationships, no matter how strained, can be saved through communication. »
Private Equity, keep your greedy paws away from my cat!
I have avoided getting a dog or cat because I know how difficult it is to lose one. Friends often get teary-eyed when they talk about the great joy and pain of owning a pet. “Own” is the wrong word. They are family members. Temperamental, perhaps – like your sister. Annoying, sometimes – like your brother. Adorable, especially – like your nieces. And be loved? Always. In recent years, caring for your cat or dog has become increasingly expensive as private equity firms “bundle in” independent veterinarians, just as they have bundled nursing homes. Chris Bryant says these “serial buyers” are seeing dollar signs in the pet care industry because “the proportion of households owning pets is much higher than it was years ago.” is ten years old” because people stayed home during the pandemic.
Chris looks at the pros and cons of being acquired by PE. It’s not all bad: “Large groups are better able to finance modern clinical equipment and enter into more difficult negotiations with pharmaceutical companies. By centralizing financial, IT and administrative activities, veterinarians and nurses should have more time to care for animals. However, because ownership is opaque, veterinarians can offer their clients services provided by other branches of the same company. Does all this contribute to rising costs? In Britain, the cost of caring for a sick animal has increased by 50% since 2015.
The nursing home industry has yet to demonstrate greater humanity and efficiency after the advent of physical education to deal with our aging parents. As we have “humanized” our pets, what should we expect from the funds that profit from their care?
“On more than 6 billion occasions in just one month, the ringing of cash registers in India has been replaced by audio confirmations on a digital soundboard. Add to that cases of people paying each other rather than merchants, and the world’s most populous country recorded more than 10 billion cashless transactions in August. Everything was online, instantaneous… and cost nothing. At least, most of them didn’t. … The Unified Payments Interface, a common protocol allowing people to send and receive money in accounts at different banks, remains free for regular use. —Andy Mukherjee in “Indian banks earn $64 billion from freebie.” »
“The asset management industry has a serious gender problem. The number of women managing funds has virtually stagnated in recent years. One way to start solving this problem is for large investors to demand that more diverse teams manage their money. The share of women overseeing funds has increased by less than two percentage points since 2016, when Citywire – with a database of around 18,000 active managers – began publishing on gender in the industry. — Andreea Papuc in “Why the Fund Industry Needs Its Own 30% Club.”
Democrats are not innocent in the McCarthy mess. —Michael R. Bloomberg
The moral arguments for not engaging with Musk’s X. — Dave Lee
Death becomes the price of peace. -Bobby Ghosh
Why is Dublin like a technological brother? -Lionel Laurent
The worrying inverted yield curve. — John Others
Ukraine’s clear and present danger: will funding stop? — Marks Hal
City Walk: Shibuya Pub Crawl
This week, my Tokyo-based colleague Gearoid Reidy wrote about a topic close to his heart: beer. Japan is bucking international trends by cutting taxes on drinks – and that’s a good thing. The aim is to encourage the country’s brewers to focus on high-quality beers, rather than the low-cost substitutes that once dominated the market. Here’s Gearoid as he continues his hashigo-zake (see translation below):
Wednesday evening, after a date ended early, I wandered the streets of Shibuya with unexpected weather (and a sort of thirst) on my hands, thinking about the discounted beers I’d been talking about. About 15 years ago, on my meager salary at a game developer in Osaka, my drink of choice was Clear Asahi, a beer-like substitute that uses fermented barley. If you held your nose, it tasted almost like the real thing. Almost.
The weather was lucky for me. There were barely any craft beer bars when I moved to Tokyo 13 years ago, but I found myself struck by choice paralysis as I headed toward the Hyakkendana Gate, which separates the shopping areas Shibuya’s respectable establishments on the seedier side.
But even Hyakkendana, meaning “Hundred Stores,” is quickly gentrifying. To my left was Stand Umineko SiB100, a recently opened, standing-room-only establishment that serves 15 taps of its own Osaka-brewed beer. I walked a little further to Mikkeller Tokyo, the first of Copenhagen’s famous craft brewery outlets in the capital (there are now three), located next to a love hotel. There is ample evidence of the area’s sordid sites: Shibuya Dotonbori Gekijo, 50, one of Tokyo’s few remaining strip theaters; and a number of “girl bars,” where you pay discount prices for discount hostesses to delight in conversation and keep your glass full.
But as money flows into Shibuya, lesser establishments sit side by side with oyster stands and high-end yakiniku barbecues. It’s not just Shibuya. Bars serving domestic and imported beers have mushroomed in Ura-hara, the backstreets of Harajuku fashion mecca, where a true craft beer hashigo-zake – as locals call a pub crawl – is now possible. Across town, in Kanda, a den of workers in full control, is home to half a dozen such places, alongside curry restaurants and ramen stands. Indeed, almost every train station in central Tokyo has at least one craft bar, many of which are scattered throughout the suburbs.
Shibuya, however, remains my favorite destination. I quickly had a craft beer at Mikkeller, which was too crowded for my liking, and left for somewhere a little more off the beaten path and upscale. There the owner spins the vinyl while you drink.
Thank you for going all the way. Here’s a little reward.
Notes: Please send travel tips, shortcuts and comments to Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net.
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Howard Chua-Eoan is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion covering culture and business. He was previously international editor of Bloomberg Opinion and former news director of Time magazine.
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