Airport chaos + more things

4 minutes estimated reading time

Airport chaos

Emirates statement on operations at London Heathrow – Emirates lays into London Heathrow’s airport chaos. The airport chaos has been labelled ‘airmageddon’, due to the restriction in numbers of passengers who can fly in and out of Heathrow in a given day of just 100,000 people. That’s 25,000 people a day lower than last year. While there is similar restrictions at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and a complete failure of their baggage system.

Signage

China

China’s Collapsing Global ImageChina’s image abroad has declined significantly in the past four years, a sharp revearsal from the relative popularity it enjoyed in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe from the 1990s to the late 2010s. While previous Chinese regimes stressed humble non-intervention on the global stage, distributed generous infrastructure funding via the Belt and Road Initiative, and conducted massive soft power outreach programs through media and academia, many of these strategies have been reversed or rendered ineffective.  As Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia Joshua Kurlantzick notes, “[there] are multiple reasons for China’s deteriorating global public image. China’s overall rising authoritarianism at home, its cover-up of the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and its brutal repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang have hurt its perception among many foreign publics. China’s continued zero-COVID strategy has cut it off from much of the world, undermined people-to-people relations with other states, and cast some doubt on the Chinese model of development—even among some Chinese citizens.” – worthwhile contrasting with the following research, which implies a negative but more complex and nuanced situation – China seen as better than EU in completing African projects, survey finds | South China Morning PostPoll of more than 1,000 policymakers on the continent puts priority on physical infrastructure, speedy results and non-interference in internal political affairs. European Union charts higher on quality of products or services delivered; good working conditions; creating jobs for Africans; upholding environmental standards

Ethics

Chinese vaping giant flouting UK advertising rules on selling to children | E-cigarettes | The Guardian – the internet facilitates lawless commerce. Not terribly surprised that this happened. And it adds to the drumbeat of news that should foreshadow a crackdown on TikTok

Finance

HSBC installs Communist party committee in Chinese investment bank | Financial Times – I don’t think that it would be beyond the realm of possibility seeing HSBC China and Hong Kong breaking off ARM China style under the auspices of Ping An and the Chinese government. Ping An is actually a cross holding: HSBC is the largest shareholder in Ping An and vice versa. The question is can they take the bulk of the HSBC Asia businesses with them like Singapore et al as well? This could happen based on company structure and western shareholders would be left with the equivalent of an empty husk

Value stocks are ready for their moment | Financial Times 

Why Xi Jinping changed tack in his crackdown on Didi | Financial Times – one does have to wonder if this was more about graft and the lack of the Xi faction benefiting from Didi as anything else?

Ideas

France, Farmers, and the Failing ‘Extreme Center’ – interesting read and perspective

Innovation

USICA enters the wilderness – Protocol – failure of US technology legislation

Japan

Virtual YouTuber finds a way to shake hands with real-world fans, give them high-fives in Japan | SoraNews24– really interesting exercise in user experience design mixing the real and virtual

Luxury

Fashion Obscura: Hussein Chalayan’s Outsider Fashion – The V&A held an exhibition of his work several years ago (I think 2009) that was amazing

Hussein Chalayan design

Manolo Blahnik wins 22-year legal fight over China trademark | Financial Times – which means that they lost out on the golden age of China’s luxury sales. Expect things to get a lot leaner as Xi Jingping gets in for another term and tries to move the party towards the controlling force in all markets.

Media

Arnell: Is HBO Max’s retreat from Europe the start of a trend? – The Media Leader

Security

Hong Kong Law Reform Commission proposes 5 new offences to rein in cybercrime, with tougher penalties of up to life imprisonment | South China Morning PostWill this proposed ordinance be available as a charge, with the prosecution claiming the criminal intent is an offence involving national security?” he asked. “Could all social media become a target? Given the wide criminalisation of speech in the context of national security and sedition charges is there a risk a charge under this ordinance will be added?” Davis said he was also worried the proposed amendment would be used to reverse the outcome of an earlier decision by the Court of Appeal in 2019 which limits the reach of an ordinance that prohibits “access to a computer with criminal or dishonest intent” to cover a person using their own tech devices.

Wireless

Ooredoo to sell Myanmar operations – report – Telecompaper – nine years ago I was helping Telenor launch in the Myanmar market and Ooredoo was launching at the same time. Interest penetration in Myanmar was about 2% at the time.