Jake Maxwell Watts

What to watch for today

Fujian Guizhentang Pharmaceutical, a Chinese bear-bile harvester, pulled its IPO this week under pressure from animal rights activists. But it’s not alone: 269 companies have done the same—including 16 banks—and the reason is likely connected to a recent clampdown on fraud.

This year marks the 24th anniversary of the Tiananman Square massacre, or “counter-revolutionary riot,” as it is referred to by the Communist Party. Unknown hundreds died as protesters demanding liberalization were met with extreme force, and each year Chinese activists try to dodge police and censors to commemorate the event.

What to watch for today

Vietnam’s government is very unhappy with China over disputed territory in the South China Sea. More than 100 Vietnamese protesters echoed their government’s displeasure on Sunday, staging a demonstration and carrying signs saying, “Shame on you China bully.”

China’s workplace safety has improved significantly in the last few years, but it’s still got a long way to go, judging by a poultry slaughterhouse fire on Monday that killed at least 93 people near Dehui in northeastern Jilin province.

China’s latest manufacturing data paints a very mixed picture about the health of its economy. Both domestic and external demand are weak, and although state-owned enterprises are hanging in there, crucial small- and medium-sized companies are struggling to find customers.

What to watch for today

Despite a new batch of promising data out of Japan on Friday, deflation—a key part of the destructive economic spiral that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to reverse—stubbornly persisted. Core consumer prices fell 0.4% in April from a year earlier, for a sixth straight month of declines, showing that Abenomics may be an unprecedented boost to the stock market, but it’s no magic wand.

Ye Haiyan, the feminist activist known as “Hooligan Sparrow,” has made waves before, but nothing that has caught fire on Chinese social media like her recent campaign. After a school principal and government official were caught with six underage pupils in a hotel room earlier this month, she posted a picture of herself on Sina Weibo holding a sign that said: ““School principal: Get a room with me [if you need to]. Let go of the students!”

A few stray wheat plants discovered in Oregon have turned out to be a genetically-modified strain that was developed by Monsanto in the 1990s, but was never approved for human consumption. The renegade plants could imperil billions of dollars worth of US wheat exports—but what exactly happened, and what does it mean?

What to watch for today

Chinese tourists don’t have the greatest reputation abroad, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to get robbed. Unfortunately a fondness for carrying cash and buying luxury items has made Chinese travelers prime targets for French thieves. As a Guangzhou-based tour operator put it to the South China Morning Post: “a busload of Chinese tourists is like a van carrying gold bullion.”

The Philippine economy grew by 7.8% in the first three months of 2013, surpassing every single analyst estimate and putting it just above China as one of Asia’s fastest growing economies. The torrid growth, the best in nearly three years, is especially impressive given that exports declined 6.2% as electronics shipments collapsed.

If you’ve read anything about Chinese pork in the last year, it probably hasn’t been good. Fears of porcine pandemics and a river full of dead pig carcasses have dominated headlines in recent months, so when news broke yesterday that China’s Shuanghui International plans to buy US pork producer Smithfield Foods, critics immediately expressed concern that unsafe Chinese meat might be exported to the US.

A protest at a Cambodia factory making Nike clothing ended on Monday with at least 23 worker injuries, including a miscarriage, after riot police moved in. Around two thirds of the factory’s 5,000 workers had been on strike, asking for $14 in additional pay to assist with transport and healthcare, on top of their monthly wage of $74.

Thailand’s central bank voted unanimously to cut its 2.75% base rate by a quarter of  a percentage point on Wednesday in an attempt to stem a sharp rise in the baht. While its economic situation is unique, Thailand is joining other Asian countries in setting a currency-devaluing precedent that may leave other emerging economies with little choice but to follow suit.

Japan’s SoftBank has cleared its biggest regulatory hurdle in its $20.1 billion bid for Sprint Nextel with a tentative agreement to give the US government oversight over its technology suppliers—especially those from China—and veto power over a seat on Sprint’s board.

Last week was not a good time to be a fish in Yunnan. Just a few days apart, the southern Chinese province suffered two mass die-offs—around 100 tons of fish on a Nanpan River reservoir and a massive 1,200 tons on the Sinan River.

Bangkok has beaten London to the number one spot as 2013’s most popular tourist destination, and it’s not just because of Thailand’s reputation for spicy food and Buddhist temples: It’s the shopping.

Like an attention-seeking toddler who threw his toys out of the pram and now wants them back, North Korea said on Tuesday that South Korean businessmen could return to the Kaesong industrial complex.

Taiwanese electronics giant Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, has had a good run assembling iPhones, but it was always precarious: Apple paid the firm a measly $8 per phone and the company always struggled with labor issues, from suicides to a shortage of low-priced workers. Now that iPhone volumes have dipped and Apple is sending more business to Pegatron, an even lower-priced electronics assembly firm, it’s blindingly obvious that Foxconn needs to diversify.

China’s president has laid down a stark warning to government officials: if you sanction a project that damages the environment, you’ll be held responsible. For life.

Running China’s main sovereign wealth fund is a powerful job that a series of powerful leaders and executives don’t seem to want.