Microsoft joint venture Wicresoft halts projects in China, lays off thousands of workers
Microsoft joint venture Wicresoft has put a halt to its China projects with the US technology giant, laying off around two thousand employees in the process, according to local media reports and some affected workers.
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Employees at the
Shanghai office of Wicresoft – a Bellevue, Washington-based business consulting venture founded by Microsoft and its Shanghai partners in 2002 – on Monday received emails that said their work related to the US company 'will be terminated'.
According to the email, the decision to stop work on those projects was made because of 'geopolitical shifts and changes in the global business environment'.
With expertise in information technology and telecommunications services as well as talent acquisition, Wicresoft provides advisory, solutions and operational support to various major brands.
A Wicresoft employee, Vincent Gao, confirmed the email's authenticity. Gao, who joined the company in 2020, said Microsoft-related projects account for most of the firm's business. He said Wicresoft has set Tuesday as their last working day.
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Phone calls made to Wicresoft went unanswered.
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Asia Times
2 days ago
- Asia Times
The woman quietly leading a BRICS bank revolution
Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is nearing the end of her first term as head of the New Development Bank (NDB), also known as the BRICS Bank, which is set to conclude in July. She has been re-elected for another two-year term, while Brazil will take over the BRICS presidency later this year. Appointed in early 2023, Rousseff's presidency of the Shanghai-based NDB has been groundbreaking in many respects. She was not only the first woman to lead the NDB but also the first former head of state to hold the position. As one of the bank's original architects – she helped found the NDB in 2014 during her presidency of Brazil – Rousseff viewed the institution as a tool to challenge Western dominance in development finance. She initially expressed a desire to boost investment in environmental projects and to circumvent the 'geopolitical impact of Western retaliations against Russia.' In addition, she made clear that NDB financing would come 'without imposing conditionalities' on borrower nations, a direct contrast to traditional Western-led institutions. The idea was that developing countries should have access to funds without the political or austerity strings often attached by the likes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or World Bank. Rousseff has made local currency lending central to her agenda, aiming for 30% of NDB loans in members' own currencies by 2026, reducing dependence on the US dollar and sidestepping the risks of Western sanctions in the process. By late 2023, Rousseff touted a pipeline of 76 new projects worth US$18.2 billion for 2023-24, on top of the 98 projects worth $33 billion the NDB had reportedly already financed. Her tenure kicked off with a symbolic visit from Brazil's President Lula in Shanghai in April 2023, where Lula attended her inauguration ceremony. At the ceremony, Lula praised the NDB as a partnership of emerging nations 'very different from traditional banks dominated by developed countries,' and expressed high hopes that it could help create a world with less poverty and inequality under Rousseff's watch. Her presence at the G20, alongside leaders of the world's largest economies, signaled the NDB's growing profile on the global stage. Earlier in 2024, Rousseff had even traveled to Russia to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, where de-dollarization and alternative financial architectures were key themes. Rousseff has not shied away from using her political stature to give the NDB a seat at tables traditionally dominated by Western-led institutions. She has signaled to members and prospective members alike that the NDB under her leadership is open for business. Brazil was a key testing case for the NDB's rising emergency finance efforts. In May 2024, following devastating storms and floods in southern Brazil, she announced that the NDB would extend an aid package of $1.1 billion to rebuild infrastructure in Rio Grande do Sul state. The funding, coordinated in partnership with Brazilian public banks, was earmarked for everything from small business recovery to new roads, bridges and sanitation systems in the disaster-hit areas. Such a rapid mobilization of over a billion US dollars was unprecedented for the NDB in response to a member's natural disaster. Under her leadership, the NDB has aligned closely with China's priorities, reflecting the NDB's utility as a tool for China to use international institutions to achieve revisionist goals. During Rousseff's first weeks in Shanghai, Brazil and China reached an agreement to set up a clearinghouse to conduct trade in Chinese yuan and Brazilian reals, thereby reducing their dollar dependence. In May 2025, the People's Bank of China and Brazil's Central Bank signed a renewed local-currency swap agreement worth 190 billion yuan, about $27.7 billion, valid for five years and extendable. In 2024 and so far in 2025, China-Brazil trade has increased by about 10% year to year, with Rousseff being instrumental in China-Brazil dealings. Lula's government has treated the NDB as an extension of its strategic partnership with China, a venue through which Chinese capital can more safely flow into Brazilian projects under multilateral cover. By steering the bank to focus on local-currency lending and alternative payment systems, Rousseff indirectly aided Moscow's goal of a financial safety net outside of the US's reach. However, Russian entities themselves have not received new NDB loans since the Ukraine war began. India and South Africa, for their part, benefited from the continuation of multi-billion-dollar NDB funding for infrastructure, transportation and renewable energy projects but saw no obvious special boost under Rousseff compared to prior NDB leadership. If anything, some Indian analysts quietly fretted that the Rousseff-led bank became too closely aligned with China and Brazil's political understanding, potentially at India's expense, a reflection of India's wariness of overt anti-West posturing by BRICS. Perhaps the biggest new entrant on Rousseff's watch was Indonesia (also a G20 member), which, according to BRICS officials, was approved for NDB membership by early 2025. Rousseff has actively promoted this expansion, seeing it as part of her legacy of making the NDB 'a bank of the Global South' in substance. Still, Rousseff's appointment was polarizing from the start. Critics in Brazil's right-wing opposition accused Lula of provoking the US and aligning too closely with autocracies, while her 2016 impeachment and praise of China's governance model made her a controversial figure abroad. Externally, Rousseff had to manage the fallout from Russia's war in Ukraine, which forced the NDB to suspend Russian loans to maintain compliance with global markets. This geopolitical balancing act, along with rising interest rates, constrained the bank's ability to expand lending. Nonetheless, the NDB preserved its AA+ rating from S&P Global, even as Rousseff faced pressure to prove that an emerging-market-led bank could operate with high standards under global scrutiny. Rousseff was originally expected to step down in July 2025, with Russia set to nominate her successor as part of BRICS' rotating presidency system. But due to sanctions and geopolitical constraints, which could have potentially tanked the BRICS' prospects and more neutral image as a viable international bloc, Moscow backed her continuation. In March 2025, the NDB's Board of Governors unanimously reappointed Rousseff for a second term. Rousseff has redefined the NDB's presidency and helped elevate the bank as a key lever in China and the Global South's revisionist goals against Western financial dominance. Under her leadership, the NDB has deepened alignment with Beijing's broader strategy of building alternative global governance institutions, ones that reflect multipolarity and reduce dependence on the US-led financial institutions. Rousseff's enthusiastic support for de-dollarization, promotion of yuan- and real-denominated lending, and facilitation of Chinese-backed infrastructure in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, positioned the NDB as a complement to China's Belt and Road Initiative in a post-Pax Americana order. Looking ahead, Rousseff will likely stay focused on infrastructure, sustainability and social inclusion, though with perhaps sharper priorities. She reportedly plans to accelerate de-dollarization by expanding local currency lending, supporting tools like BRICS swap lines and digital payments. By any measure, these plans represent a seismic shift in development finance. Membership expansion is also likely, with countries like Saudi Arabia and Argentina in focus, along with deeper ties to regional banks like the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) and the African Development Bank. But her second term will also test her ability to manage global financial volatility and protect the bank's stability amid rising debt and geopolitical uncertainty. To date, and not without criticism, Rousseff has been instrumental in positioning the NDB as a challenger to Western financial hegemony, offering real competition and choice to countries in the Global South previously subjugated by an often oppressive world lending system. And with that helped to usher in a quiet but consequential revolution in the international order. Joseph Bouchard is a journalist and researcher from Québec covering security and geopolitics in Latin America. His articles have appeared in Reason, The Diplomat, The National Interest, Le Devoir and RealClearPolitics. He is an incoming PhD student in politics at the University of Virginia and SSHRC doctoral fellow on Latin American politics.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Caught in the chip war, Malaysia must rethink its US–China balancing act
Malaysia has landed in another tight spot – this time over claims Chinese engineers may have accessed high-end Nvidia chips on its soil to train artificial intelligence models, potentially breaching US export controls. Advertisement The timing could hardly be worse. Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz and Second Finance Minister Amir Hamzah Azizan were in Washington this week to negotiate down a steep 24 per cent 'reciprocal tariff' imposed by US President Donald Trump in April. Now, their efforts risk being overshadowed by fears in Washington that Malaysia is serving as a backchannel for Chinese firms to access restricted chips – fears that could harden American attitudes and demands. The report, first published by the Wall Street Journal, claimed that an unnamed Chinese firm had booked out Malaysian data centres equipped with Nvidia's most advanced chips. US policy restricts the sale or export of these chips to China and its military-linked entities, including via third countries. A banner showing Nvidia branding at the AI & Big Data Expo 2025 in London on February 5. Photo: Reuters While it is unclear whether any laws were broken, the perception alone could prove damaging. Analysts expect Washington may use the case as leverage to push Malaysia into stricter enforcement of US export controls, especially given the billions of dollars in investments by American tech firms in Malaysian plants and data centres.
Asia Times
3 days ago
- Asia Times
Chinese state-owned airlines join price war in national mission
Chinese state-owned airlines have joined an intensifying price war, although unwillingly, amid challenges including local passengers' weakening spending power and rising market competition. Air China, Southern Airlines and Eastern Airlines have been facing huge losses for five years since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in early 2020. Although China canceled all epidemic rules in early 2023, the three firms still recorded net losses in the past two years. They carried more passengers last year than in 2023, but had to lower air ticket prices due to rising competition from budget airlines and China State Railway Group, the country's high-speed train operator. The price war is intensifying this year. Many Chinese airlines now offer domestic round-trip tickets at about 200 to 300 yuan (US$28 to US$42), as it is a low season before the summer holidays. Round-trip tickets to remote cities are 80- 90% off, while those to key cities like Beijing are 40-50% off. Budget airlines such as Spring Airlines and Juneyao Air are growing fast in this price war. a unit of the People's Daily, reported in late May that Chinese airlines have started offering significant discounts to customers. For example, a ticket for a round trip between Chengdu and Kunming costs only 222 yuan, and between Chengdu and Haikou, it costs 237 yuan. Kunming and Haikou are famous for their natural attractions. A Chongqing-based writer said air tickets departing from Chengdu are about 70% off on average from the high season. He said a Beijing-Sanya round trip ticket is only 230 yuan, down from 2,000 yuan during the Spring Festival in late January. He said the competition intensifies as Chinese airlines keep opening new routes this year. Citing Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) data, Xinhua reported in March that 38 airlines will open 640 new domestic flight routes this year, connecting key cities such as Chongqing, Changsha and Tianjin with tourism cities in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. The CAAC also allowed 193 local and foreign airlines to add 22,946 new international passenger and cargo flights per week in 2025, or 33% more than in the same period last year. These new routes cover 78 foreign countries, 57 along the Belt and Road. 'Do you think the three state-owned airlines don't want to make a profit?' a Shandong-based columnist called Xiao Song says in an article. 'They have their difficulties.' 'Despite losing money, some routes had to be launched for political reasons, such as those to Xinjiang and Tibet, and those to African and South American countries,' he said. He added that budget airlines and state-owned airlines operate their businesses differently. For example: Spring Airlines targets low-cost tourists who travel to remote cities, while state-owned airlines mainly compete in key cities. Juneyao Airlines offers one-day trips for businesspeople at prices lower than those of the high-speed railway. Budget airlines mainly use Airbus A320, which can fly up to 12 hours per day, compared with state-owned airlines' 10 hours. State-owned airlines deploy domestically some of their long-range Boeing 787 planes, which burn more fuel than narrow-body aircraft. State-owned airlines operate less efficiently than private firms. He said these are reasons why budget airlines can make a profit and pay their pilots 15,000 yuan per 90 flight hours, while state-owned airlines lose money and can only offer their pilots 10,000 yuan. He said state-owned airlines now realize these problems and try to provide more low-cost packages. In 2024, the top seven Chinese airlines, including state-owned and private ones, recorded combined revenues of 587 billion yuan, up 13.6%. Spring Airlines was the most profitable, with a net profit of 2.27 billion yuan. In fact, Air China, Eastern Airlines, and Southern Airlines successfully narrowed their net or before-tax losses last year from 2023. The number of passengers carried was 155 million (+23.8%) for Air China, 141 million (+21.6%) for Eastern Airlines, and 165 million (+16%) for Southern Airlines. According to the CAAC, the total number of flight passengers grew 5.8% to 246.8 million in the first four months of 2025 compared with last year. Currently, the central government does not intend to stop the price war or reduce competition in the airline industry. 'The decline in air ticket prices is good news for the tourism market as it can effectively boost the number of tourists and create growth for related industries such as hotels, catering, transportation and retail,' a Yunnan-based writer says in an article. She thinks the trend will also help diversify the tourism market, as new and small tourism sites can emerge. However, Hsieh Chin-ho, a Taiwanese commentator, said the falling prices of air tickets and hotels will worsen China's deflationary problem, which was caused by the burst of the country's property bubbles several years ago. Hsieh said China's consumer price index (CPI) decreased by 0.1% year-on-year in May, and its producer price index (PPI) dropped by 3.3% year-on-year, showing weak domestic consumption. He said a vicious cycle created by weakening consumption and falling property prices could further drag down the Chinese economy – resulting in a lost decade of slow or negative GDP growth, such as was experienced by Japan from the 1990s to the 2010s. Read: China's fast-growing high-speed railway network faces reality
