Chinese police have frozen about 10 billion yuan (US$1.48 billion) of assets across more than 380 peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders in an escalated investigation into illicit financing.
Codenamed “Fox Hunt,” the operation spanned 16 countries and regions, including Thailand and Cambodia, and led to the arrests of 62 suspects implicated in Chinese P2P frauds since June last year, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on Sunday.
It did not disclose more details, but said that police are still recouping losses.
While a lack of oversight contributed to a ballooning in P2P loans, the sector has come in for special scrutiny during a crackdown by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on financial risk.
Authorities are now dramatically shrinking the market, which spawned the nation’s biggest Ponzi scheme, protests in major cities and life-altering losses for thousands of savers.
At least 100 people have dropped out of contact or disappeared before the firms went bust, with some having fled overseas, the statement said.
The number of Chinese P2P lenders could drop by 70 percent this year to as few as 300, Shanghai-based Yingcan Group (盈燦集團) said in an estimate.
GAMES: China’s outward-facing state-run paper said that US attempts to keep advanced chips from China is causing tech companies to search for workarounds US curbs on China have created a game of “catch me if you can” with US chip giant Nvidia Corp and other companies, which affect the interests of both countries and would accelerate Chinese innovation, the Global Times newspaper said on Saturday. The chip industry newsletter SemiAnalysis reported earlier that Nvidia plans to release new artificial intelligence (AI) chips aimed at the Chinese market less than a month after the US tightened rules on selling high-end AI chips to China. “The several rounds between Nvidia and the US government are the story of a high-tech enterprise that does legitimate business but encounters
INTERNET ALTERNATIVE: The components manufacturer is investing in low-orbit satellites in a move to break away from an overreliance on undersea Internet cables The world’s biggest producer of iPhones is going to outer space. Two prototype low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites made by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), better known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), took off aboard a Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in southern California on Saturday. The launch of the LEO satellites marks a key moment for the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer as it diversifies into new sectors — a shift that is taking on greater urgency as some of its established businesses such as smartphones and laptops struggle. Hon Hai is aiming to demonstrate that
Microsoft Corp on Wednesday unveiled its first homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) chip and cloud-computing processor in an attempt to take more control of its technology and ramp up its offerings in the increasingly competitive market for AI computing. The company also announced new software that lets clients design their own AI assistants. The Maia 100 chip, announced at the company’s annual Ignite conference in Seattle, will provide Microsoft Azure cloud customers with a new way to develop and run AI programs that generate content. Microsoft is already testing the chip with its Bing and Office AI products, said Rani Borkar, a
Benny waddles up to eight-year-old Maya, performs a cheerful pirouette on his short hind legs and then nuzzles in for a cuddle. Already a little cranky from the long wait for her flight to Turkey with her family, Maya is instantly besotted with the four-year-old dachshund and her father, Michael Uth, a bit less harried. Berlin’s massively delayed, absurdly over-budget, far-too-small Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), which opened in 2020 to heaps of scorn, has had to get creative to try to win over weary passengers. A pilot program is dispatching three particularly good-natured pooches along with two human trainers as on-the-ground stress-relief ambassadors. At
RSS