Latest news with #Deng
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Deng Ziqi rejects Hummingbird Music's ultimatum to remove remastered songs
Singer-songwriter Deng Ziqi has issued a public response to a legal ultimatum from her former label, Hummingbird Music , regarding recently released remastered versions of her earlier work. The company issued a statement on June 18, asserting that it holds the rights to the original recordings and associated intellectual property, and demanded that Deng remove the re-recorded songs within 48 hours. Also read: AI Strikes the Heartstrings of the Music Industry: Embracing a New Era, Where Innovation, Customization an Hummingbird Music claims ownership of the recording producer's rights as well as the copyrights to the lyrics and music of the original tracks. The company stated that 'GEM has infringed on the rights of reproduction and adaptation, as well as the information network rights.' It further requested that all major platforms immediately remove the disputed songs and warned that legal action would be taken if the content is not removed. Live Events Hummingbird Music alleges copyright infringement over Deng Ziqi's remastered works Deng Ziqi, also known as GEM, recently revealed she had not received royalties from Hummingbird Music for a period of six years. Following a legal dispute that has since concluded, she announced plans to re-record her older songs. According to her, this would allow her to regain control of her creative works and monetize them legally. Deng Ziqi cites legal grounds and unpaid royalties in response to former label's claims Deng Ziqi has responded to a 48-hour takedown demand from Hummingbird Music, her former label, over newly remastered songs . The company claims copyright infringement, but Deng asserts legal grounds for re-recording the tracks. She says she will not remove the songs and questions unpaid royalties from her former contract Deng Ziqi rejects Hummingbird Music's ultimatum to remove remastered songs Responding to Hummingbird Music's statement, Deng said she would not comply with the takedown demand. 'After talking with my legal team, we all smiled helplessly. In fact, I don't know what else I need to respond to? Because the legal basis for my re-recording this time is already very sufficient,' she said. 'This re-recording is strictly based on the legal license of our country, and I also paid the remuneration according to the law.' Deng also stated that the public broadcasting rights of her works have been managed by the CASH Association since she was 14 years old, before her contract with Hummingbird Music. She argued that the remastered versions are legally distributable worldwide. Also read: If you can't sink the ship, buy it!: Major record labels court AI music startups like Suno and Udio amidst 'So I will not remove the songs,' she added. 'On the contrary… can Hummingbird Music first settle all my legal royalties from October 2018 to 6 years and 8 months? And I haven't received the legal labor fees for about 6 months before the termination of my contract in 2019. Can you settle it for me first? Sorry, thank you.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Platinum draws fresh interest from China's jewelers as gold prices test buyers' wallets
Chinese jewelers are increasing platinum imports due to declining gold jewelry sales. Gold prices hit record highs, deterring Chinese buyers despite their cultural attachment to gold. Platinum's lower price makes it an appealing investment, but gold still dominates. Chinese jewelers are snapping up platinum as they seek to bounce back from a slump in gold jewelry sales, an industry group said. Surging gold prices, which hit a record high above $3,500 an ounce in April, have deterred even buyers from China, who have a cultural attachment to the yellow metal. In the first quarter of the year, gold jewelry sales in China tanked nearly 27% from a year ago to 134.5 tons, according to the China Gold Association. Meanwhile, gold bar and coin consumption surged nearly 30%, showing that investor demand for haven assets remains strong. "Jewelry fabricators and distributors are trying to save themselves because gold jewelry sales are falling off a cliff. They need to find a new metal for jewelry so that they can survive," Weibin Deng, the regional head for Asia Pacific at the World Platinum Investment Council, told Business Insider. China imported 11.5 metric tons of platinum in April, its highest monthly intake in a year. That demand has helped push global platinum prices up around 40% year-to-date, with spot prices near $1,265 per ounce. Spot gold prices have also surged, up roughly 30% over the same period. The price of platinum is still about one-third of gold, making the white precious metal a compelling proposition for Chinese consumers. In China, jewelry is generally priced by weight rather than on a per-piece basis, said Deng. "It cannot be too expensive, otherwise people wouldn't buy it," he said of the price-sensitive Chinese market. Goldman Sachs analysts wrote on Tuesday that platinum's blistering rally lacks fundamental support. They said the metal's issues include price-sensitive Chinese demand, slowing auto demand, and the expectation that there will be no significant decline in supply. The analysts attributed strong gains in the platinum market to speculative demand and high gold prices, which are keeping investors away from trading in the yellow metal. "This hesitancy likely stems from investors believing they missed the initial rally," wrote the Goldman analysts, referring to the blistering gold rally earlier. "Instead, interest has shifted to other precious metals as investors seek catch-up opportunities," they wrote. The WPIC is stepping up marketing and public education to position platinum as a precious metal that has investment value and room to run, Deng said. Deng said the council is also working with Chinese jewelers to be more efficient in terms of fabrication and market operations to lower prices for consumers Deng said it's more expensive to work on platinum than gold as it requires more energy to melt the white metal. But reducing production costs is key to making platinum jewelry more accessible to consumers, he added. Another challenge: The gold market is far more liquid. It's easier for consumers to sell or trade in gold jewelry with a small discount. WPIC is partnering with jewelers in China to develop similar resale channels for platinum pieces. Platinum isn't just for jewelry. It's used in everything from car parts to electronics. That broad demand helps support its value. But according to Deng, it's platinum's visibility in jewelry that plays a crucial role in how consumers perceive it as a precious metal. "Gold and silver have long been seen as currencies and stores of value around the world. To make the platinum jewelry market sustainable, consumers need to view platinum the same way — as a store of value," he said. Deng acknowledged that gold is likely to remain the ultimate store of value in the eyes of the consumer, but even a small demand switch from gold to platinum would be significant. The BofA analysts wrote last week that even a 1% switch in gold to platinum jewelry could help double the white metal's supply deficit to 1.6 million ounces, which would help support prices. Read the original article on Business Insider
The Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Rare earths China's game changer
THE official statements from the United States and China that emerged from their trade talks in London recently were notable for the absence of direct mention to the rare earths issue which appears increasingly the subject of most concern to the Trump administration in what is turning out to be a protracted negotiation process. It was left to President Donald Trump to articulate this in his social media platform where he provided his assessment of the two-day marathon discussions designed, in the words of the US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to put 'meat on the bones' of the agreement reached in Geneva to ease bilateral retaliatory tariffs that had reached triple-digit levels. Immediately following the end of the London meeting, Trump proclaimed on Truth Social in a message that was aimed perhaps more at the Chinese leadership than at his American audience: Our deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me. Full magnets, and any necessary rare earths, will be supplied, up front, by China. Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to ... relationship is excellent! Thank you for your attention to this matter! In the first negotiation meeting, the two sides had agreed to drastically roll back tariffs on each other's goods for an initial 90-day period. There was optimism that this could provide at least a truce to the tariff war begun by Trump. However, sentiment soured quickly over two sticking points: the US ramping up further measures to block China's access to semiconductor technology; and China's retaliation by tightening control over rare earths minerals. Rare earths are the one card which China holds that may well prove to be decisive in not only determining the outcome of the negotiations over the wide range of trade and other economic issues being discussed between the two countries. It may also provide the most strategic and important tool for China to protect its position in the geopolitical rivalry between the two nations as well as with other nations that are allied with the US anti-China drive. It was (China's former paramount leader) Deng Xiaoping who famously recognised the importance of rare earths to China, stating in 1992 during a visit to Baotou, one of China's largest rare earth mines, that 'the Middle East has oil, China has rare earths.' This statement underscored his vision for China's strategic advantage and future economic and technological development. Deng's perspective on rare earths has since been reinforced by every Chinese leader after him, and especially by President Xi Jinping today. This perspective arises from the following considerations: Strategic resource: Deng viewed rare earths as a critical resource akin to oil through its strategic significance for national development and global influence. Economic leverage: He recognised their potential to drive economic growth and provide China with significant leverage in international trade and negotiations due to their indispensability in advanced technologies. Technological advancement: Deng saw rare earths as crucial for developing high-tech industries, which were central to his plans for modernising China. Since his time, these elements have been developed to become vital components in a vast array of modern technologies, from electronics (smartphones, computers) and clean energy (wind turbines, electric vehicles) to defence systems (missiles, precision-guided munitions). Reserves: China possesses a significant portion of the world's rare earth reserves. Deng's vision was to fully exploit this natural endowment to achieve a leading position in the global rare earth industry – not just in mining but also in processing and manufacturing finished products. Since then, this investment has paid off with Chinese producers having a significant cost advantage and a near-monopoly on global rare earth processing capacity. For now, although China currently controls only 60% of global mining production, it has a 90% share of processing. This includes the crucial step of separating rare earths from other minerals. Furthermore, China has near-total control over the supply of heavy rare earths vital for high-performance magnets and other advanced technologies. These strategic considerations are increasingly being bolstered by export and licensing controls. Recent restrictions target heavy rare earths (e.g. dysprosium, terbium) critical for defence and green tech, and have been framed by China as balancing environmental security and economic needs. In fact, China is following the example of the US which, since 2019 beginning with the bans on Huawei and ZTE, has implemented a comprehensive and escalating series of controls and bans on Chinese technology and businesses. These measures under the guise of national security concerns have targeted key businesses and sectors and are aimed at impeding China's technological and economic advancement, particularly in areas deemed to have potential military and strategic economic advantage. Before the tariff war, the Chinese response to the US and allies weaponising of trade for strategic goals can be assessed to be slow and ultra cautious for fear of disrupting the country's economic relations with its major export markets. Thus China has pointed out that its management and utilisation of exports strictly adhere to international trade rules and market principles and reflect the country's commitment to a responsible approach in global affairs. China has also been at pains to emphasise that it upholds the concept of open cooperation and mutual benefit and that its geopolitical strategy is aligned with the principles of peace, development, cooperation and mutual benefit, so as to build a shared future for mankind. Now that the gloves have come off with the launch of the tariff war and other forms of economic sanctions and barriers against it, it is not surprising to see China leverage its dominant position in the rare earth industry for it to be an even more formidable geopolitical tool to be deployed against the US and its allies. There is a truism that quantity has a quality of its own in any war. With rare earths, China has both quantity and quality. But it is exercising patience and restraint in exercising it.
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Platinum draws fresh interest from China's jewelers as gold prices test buyers' wallets
Chinese jewelers are snapping up platinum as they seek to bounce back from a slump in gold jewelry sales, an industry group said. Surging gold prices, which hit a record high above $3,500 an ounce in April, have deterred even buyers from China, who have a cultural attachment to the yellow metal. In the first quarter of the year, gold jewelry sales in China tanked nearly 27% from a year ago to 134.5 tons, according to the China Gold Association. Meanwhile, gold bar and coin consumption surged nearly 30%, showing that investor demand for haven assets remains strong. "Jewelry fabricators and distributors are trying to save themselves because gold jewelry sales are falling off a cliff. They need to find a new metal for jewelry so that they can survive," Weibin Deng, the regional head for Asia Pacific at the World Platinum Investment Council, told Business Insider. China imported 11.5 metric tons of platinum in April, its highest monthly intake in a year. That demand has helped push global platinum prices up around 40% year-to-date, with spot prices near $1,265 per ounce. Spot gold prices have also surged, up roughly 30% over the same period. The price of platinum is still about one-third of gold, making the white precious metal a compelling proposition for Chinese consumers. In China, jewelry is generally priced by weight rather than on a per-piece basis, said Deng. "It cannot be too expensive, otherwise people wouldn't buy it," he said of the price-sensitive Chinese market. Goldman Sachs analysts wrote on Tuesday that platinum's blistering rally lacks fundamental support. They said the metal's issues include price-sensitive Chinese demand, slowing auto demand, and the expectation that there will be no significant decline in supply. The analysts attributed strong gains in the platinum market to speculative demand and high gold prices, which are keeping investors away from trading in the yellow metal. "This hesitancy likely stems from investors believing they missed the initial rally," wrote the Goldman analysts, referring to the blistering gold rally earlier. "Instead, interest has shifted to other precious metals as investors seek catch-up opportunities," they wrote. How the World Platinum Council plans to boost demand The WPIC is stepping up marketing and public education to position platinum as a precious metal that has investment value and room to run, Deng said. Deng said the council is also working with Chinese jewelers to be more efficient in terms of fabrication and market operations to lower prices for consumers Deng said it's more expensive to work on platinum than gold as it requires more energy to melt the white metal. But reducing production costs is key to making platinum jewelry more accessible to consumers, he added. Another challenge: The gold market is far more liquid. It's easier for consumers to sell or trade in gold jewelry with a small discount. WPIC is partnering with jewelers in China to develop similar resale channels for platinum pieces. Platinum isn't just for jewelry. It's used in everything from car parts to electronics. That broad demand helps support its value. But according to Deng, it's platinum's visibility in jewelry that plays a crucial role in how consumers perceive it as a precious metal. "Gold and silver have long been seen as currencies and stores of value around the world. To make the platinum jewelry market sustainable, consumers need to view platinum the same way — as a store of value," he said. Deng acknowledged that gold is likely to remain the ultimate store of value in the eyes of the consumer, but even a small demand switch from gold to platinum would be significant. The BofA analysts wrote last week that even a 1% switch in gold to platinum jewelry could help double the white metal's supply deficit to 1.6 million ounces, which would help support prices.
Time of India
31-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
US visa curbs on Chinese students may backfire on the administration's decision
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads One night in 1978, President Jimmy Carter got a phone call at 3 a.m. from a top adviser who was visiting China "Deng Xiaoping insisted I call you now, to see if you would permit 5,000 Chinese students to come to American universities," said the official, Frank Press."Tell him to send 100,000," Carter Christmas time that year, the first group of 52 Chinese students had arrived in the United States , just ahead of the formal establishment of US-China diplomatic relations on New Year's Day. A month later, Deng, then China's top leader, made a historic visit to America during which he watched John Denver sing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and was photographed wearing a cowboy almost hard to believe how little contact there had been between the United States and modern China before that. Sinologist John K. Fairbank wrote in 1971: "Since 1950 Washington has officially sent more men to the moon than it has to China." The visits by Deng, and more important, by those first Chinese students, began a new chapter that would fundamentally change China -- and the world. The United States gained access to a vast market and talent pool, while China found a model and a partner for transforming its that chapter has closed, after the Trump administration announced that it would begin "aggressively" revoking the visas of Chinese students the millions of Chinese who have studied in the United States, myself included, it is a sobering and disheartening development. It marks a turning point that America, long a beacon of openness and opportunity, would start shutting its doors to Chinese who aspire for a good education and a future in a society that values freedom and human curbing people-to-people exchanges, President Donald Trump is taking a decisive step toward decoupling from China. To treat Chinese students and professionals in science and technology broadly not as contributors, but as potential security risks, reflects a foreign policy driven more by insecurity and retreat than by the self-assurance of a global to the new policy in China, reflected in the US Embassy 's social media accounts, was mixed. Some commenters thanked the United States for "sending China's brightest minds back." Others drew historical parallels, comparing the Trump administration's isolationist turn to China's Ming and Qing dynasties -- once global powers that declined after turning inward and were ultimately defeated in foreign invasions. One commenter remarked that the policy's narrow-mindedness would "make America small again."The shift also comes at a time when many young Chinese, disillusioned by political repression and economic stagnation under Xi Jinping's leadership, are trying to flee the country to seek freedom and opportunities."Xi is pushing many of the best and the brightest to leave China," said Thomas E. Kellogg, executive director of Georgetown's Center for Asian Law and a leading scholar of legal reform in China. "The US should be taking advantage of this historic brain drain, not shutting the door to many talented Chinese young people."The number of Chinese students in the United States dropped to about 277,000 in the 2023-24 academic year, a 25% decline from its peak four years earlier, according to government data. Students from China remained the second-largest group of international students, after those from India. In fact, applications for post-graduation temporary employment permits rose by 12% in 2023-24 over the prior year, signaling more interest in working in the United States despite the new visa policy will leave many of these students with little choice but to leave, or at the least reconsider their future in the United States.I interviewed a doctoral candidate in computer science at a top US university, a young man from China who first dreamed of studying in America at 17, when he began to question Chinese government propaganda. He arrived eight years ago and never seriously considering returning. But now, facing the threat of visa revocation, he said he is no longer sure if he can -- or even wants to -- stay."America doesn't feel worth it anymore," he said, asking me not to identify him for fear of retribution from Washington. The immigration process is fraught with anxiety, he said, and the returns no longer seem to justify the stress. He said he was exploring work visa options in Canada, Australia and Western Europe, even though he has a job offer from a big tech company on the West Coast of the United States."The pay might be lower," he said, "but those countries offer more personal freedom."His experience is in stark contrast to that of Dong Jielin, who was among the first Chinese students to come to the United States after the Cultural Revolution. When she arrived at Carnegie Mellon University in 1982 on a U.S. scholarship, she knew little about the country beyond what the Chinese state media had portrayed: a capitalist society in perpetual crisis and a people living in didn't take long for her perception to shift. "The moment I walked into a supermarket, I could see that life here was far from miserable," she told me in an interview. Encounters with Americans quickly dispelled other myths as well. "They were not vicious or hostile," she said. "They were warm and kind."Dong went on to earn a doctoral degree in physics, build a career in finance and technology, become a U.S. citizen and raise a US government has good reasons to worry about national security risks from China, including espionage and intellectual property theft. The FBI calls the Chinese government the most prolific sponsor of talent recruitment programs that aim to transfer scientific and technological breakthroughs to also makes sense to block people with ties to China's military industrial it's something else entirely to deny visas to 18-year-old students simply because they are Chinese and hope to pursue a STEM degree in the United officials often say they aim to distinguish between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people. That distinction was emphasized during Trump's first term. It's largely absent policy now targets anyone with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. But the party has nearly 100 million members, about 1 in 7 Chinese. And most children in China grow up as members of the Young Pioneers and Communist Youth League, school-based party organizations. It's just the way of life in a country ruled by a Leninist one commenter put it on the US Embassy's WeChat account, "How could any Chinese not be associated with the Party?"The policy is also very likely to found that Chinese undergraduates at US universities were more predisposed to favor liberal democracy than their peers in China. However, they said, exposure to xenophobic, anti-Chinese comments by Americans significantly decreased their belief that political reforms are desirable for China. Those who experienced discrimination were more likely to reject democratic values in favor of autocratic who have studied abroad also face growing suspicion at home. The government and some employers believe that exposure to Western values makes their fellow Chinese politically Mingzhu, chair of the appliance giant Gree Electric, said recently that her company will never hire a graduate from a foreign university. "There are spies among them," she the Chinese internet, some people compared her to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who announced the visa Jielin, the former student who was among the first to come to the United States, said the experience had a profound impact on her life, giving her the opportunity to explore the frontiers of science and is understandable, she said, that the government is raising screening standards for student visas. "But I believe the vast majority of those who stay in the US will, over time, become loyal American citizens," she said, just like herself.
