China

The USA's Federal Reserve Board is planning to fine and issue prohibition orders against two former Managing Directors of J. P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited. It follows on from the Board's fining of the bank in November 2016. The offence? Excuse us while we choke on our own laughter: giving jobs to the boys. But they did it in China. On Wall Street, it's standard operating procedure, as it is across a wide range of industries in the USA. There are several matters of grave concern to Banks regulated by the Federal Reserve Board, both domestic and foreign.

There is now no doubt that a man killed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport's budget terminal KLIA2 was murdered and there is, equally, no doubt that he was KIM Jong-Nam, the half brother of North Korean "Supreme Leader" KIM Jong-Un. As we reported in a daily news round-up on 20170216, if NoKo authorities were behind the attack, choosing Malaysia as its venue was a poor decision. Then again, it would have been equally poor if the attack had taken part in Macau, a region of China, where the victim lived. As evidence mounts, both Malaysia and China have begun actions against North Korea, which now has almost no significant support from any significant country.

It all started as a bit of propaganda. Young Chinese who were not in settled relationships were fed up with being marked out as being a bit "odd." So they announced "Singles' Day" (a day for singles) to celebrate the fact that millions of Chinese are, well, single. Retailers, in the mid-year doldrums after all the various festivals have finished and with several months to go to Chinese New Year, got behind the idea with special offers and promotions. Within a couple of years, aided by the fact that the target audience is tech-savvy, it's turned into the world's biggest shopping day, dwarfing even the famed "Black Friday" in the USA.

Transit Explore Bus, a Chinese company, has presented a model of a fascinating concept in mass transit. They call it the "straddling bus" but it runs on a guide-rail system built into high-kerbs to prevent cars blocking its way. And it travels over vehicles of up to 2 metres high, which includes the vast majority of light delivery vehicles.

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati have appointed CHEN Wei Heng as partner in its Shanghai corporate and securities practice and co-head of the China practice.