FirstFT: China disowns envoy’s remarks

Good morning. Today we begin in Beijing the place China’s authorities has disowned feedback made by its ambassador to France, who sparked outcry in Europe on the weekend.

Lu Shaye infuriated European capitals on Sunday when he questioned the authorized standing of former Soviet states and Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. In response, China’s overseas ministry yesterday contradicted Lu’s feedback, saying that “China respects the sovereign status of the republics after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.”

Later on Monday, the Chinese embassy in Paris posted a press release on-line saying that Lu’s “remarks on the Ukraine issue were not a statement of policy but an expression of personal views”.

Analysts urged the Chinese overseas ministry’s response represented a repudiation of the remarks from Lu, who has constructed a popularity as one of many “wolf warrior” diplomats recognized for his or her combative fashion.

China’s efforts to minimize the ambassador’s claims haven’t happy the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, who stated they might summon senior Chinese diplomats right this moment to protest in opposition to Lu’s remarks.

Here’s what else I’m maintaining tabs on right this moment:

• South Korea GDP: Flash figures for the primary quarter are set to be launched.

• Anzac Day: Markets can be closed in Australia and New Zealand because the nations honour members of the navy.

• Earnings: We’re within the thick of US earnings season. Companies reporting outcomes embody Alphabet, General Electric, General Motors, Halliburton, McDonald’s, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Verizon Communications, Visa and extra.

Five extra prime tales

1. The EU and Japan have pushed again in opposition to a US proposal for G7 international locations to ban almost all exports to Russia, in keeping with paperwork seen by the Financial Times. The disagreement over the measure underscores the dearth of extra choices out there to G7 leaders as they search to extend the financial punishment for Vladimir Putin’s regime.

2. Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News, simply days after the tv community agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit over accusations it aired false theories about US election fraud. The departure was sudden and Carlson, who’s among the many most-watched personalities on US tv, ended his final broadcast with no indication that it could be his closing one.

3. Adani Ports introduced it would purchase again as much as $650mn in bonds, as Indian tycoon Gautam Adani’s conglomerate fights to show it has ample money available following a brief vendor assault. Although the Adani group has strenuously denied Hindenburg’s allegations that it manipulated its stock value and engaged in fraudulent accounting, it has pledged to slim its ballooning debt pile and gradual its fast growth.

4. Credit Suisse has revealed for the primary time the dimensions at which depositors rushed to withdraw their money from the Swiss financial institution earlier than it was compelled to merge with rival UBS final month. The financial institution stated it suffered SFr61.2bn ($68.6bn) of outflows within the first quarter as purchasers fled, exposing the dimensions of the duty for UBS after taking up its Swiss rival.

5. Australia has unveiled the most important strategic shift in its navy posture because the second world struggle to adapt to China’s navy build-up within the area. The nation’s defence spending overview warned of “major power strategic competition” within the Indo-Pacific and that the nation’s defence posture was “no longer fit for purpose”. Read extra on the deliberate overhaul.

The Big Read

The weeks since Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10 have introduced an uncomfortable realisation — the issues that provoked the most important financial institution run in historical past had been neither a freak incidence nor an unforeseeable emergency. Ahead of the primary official postmortem on its failure, nearly everybody agrees that the disaster had been hiding in plain sight.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

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India is prone to have formally overtaken China because the world’s most populous nation this month, the UN stated yesterday. The precise timing of the long-awaited crossover has been the supply of a lot hypothesis, with officers blaming an absence of correct statistics.

Take a break from the information

Flowing 240km from clear mountain ranges and farming land earlier than emptying into Port Phillip Bay within the coronary heart of Melbourne, the Yarra river was lengthy uncared for earlier than being cleaned up and newly appreciated this century. Wander into the town’s previous earlier than venturing into verdant terrain that takes in the whole lot from kangaroos and kayaking by way of cake retailers on these two routes.

Additional contributions by Gordon Smith and Tee Zhuo