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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

China has started more large military exercises around Taiwan, confirming fears that Beijing would ratchet up tensions days after a National Day address by Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te.

The People’s Liberation Army said on Monday that it had sent ground, naval, air and missile forces to practise “combat readiness patrols, blockade of key ports and areas, assault on maritime and ground targets and seizure of comprehensive superiority”.

The drill “also serves as a stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces”, the PLA Eastern Theater Command said in a statement.

The PLA exercises come after a speech last Thursday by Lai — whom Beijing has denounced as a “dangerous separatist” — in which he asserted Taiwan’s sovereignty but also appealed to China to work with him for peace.

He also highlighted the 1911 uprising that overthrew Chinese imperial rule as part of Taiwan’s history, in an overture to those Taiwanese who embrace a Chinese identity.

Aides of Lai described his speech as a gesture of goodwill towards Beijing, while foreign observers viewed it as restrained and moderate.

“There were times Beijing reciprocated Taipei’s restraint. This could have been one of them. But they’re choosing a different path,” Rush Doshi, who worked on China in US President Joe Biden’s National Security Council until earlier this year, posted on X on Monday.

Later on Monday, Lai’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, is to speak at a conference in Prague as part of a week-long trip to Europe, which Beijing has also publicly opposed.

The PLA called its drills “Joint Sword 2024 B”, framing them as a sequel to manoeuvres organised three days after Lai’s inauguration in May.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and threatens to annex it by force if Taipei refuses to submit under its control indefinitely. Beijing regularly uses military manoeuvres, and propaganda about them, to try to intimidate the Taiwanese public and put a strain on Taiwan’s armed forces.

Taiwanese and foreign security officials and military experts have said many of the PLA’s moves are exercises that it would be conducting anyway.

The PLA has sharply stepped up manoeuvres near Taiwanese waters and airspace since Lai took office.

Last week, senior Taiwanese officials said the PLA had kept an unusually high number of ships out at sea, suggesting it would peg the final big manoeuvre of the exercise season to Lai’s National Day address.

“The fact that they called the drill after the inauguration in May ‘Joint Sword 2024 A’ also meant that they needed to hold another one called ‘Joint Sword 2024 B’,” said one Taiwanese official.

The US had warned Beijing against responding to Lai’s speech with manoeuvres. “There is no justification for a routine annual celebration to be used as a pretext for military exercises,” a senior US official said last week.

Taiwan’s defence ministry called China’s move “irrational and provocative behaviour” and said it had dispatched forces to respond.

The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning sailed through the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines at the weekend, according to Taiwan’s defence ministry, suggesting it would participate in the drill east of Taiwan.

Taiwanese officials said a group of ships from China’s coastguard, which helps assert China’s expansive territorial claims and is part of the military command chain, was also operating in waters off its east coast.

China’s exercises in May had included a coastguard component for the first time, but Monday’s involvement appeared larger.

The China Coast Guard said four formations of ships were conducting “law enforcement inspections” and “cruising and keeping control” in waters surrounding Taiwan.

“This is a practical operation under the One China Principle to administer and control Taiwan Island according to the law,” it said.

China’s coastguard also started “comprehensive law enforcement inspections” in the coastal waters of Matsu and Dongyin, Taiwan-controlled islands just off the Chinese coast, which it said would include boarding and inspection of vessels as well as controlling the waters and driving unauthorised ships away.

In most past drills that China framed as responses to events in Taiwan, the PLA introduced some new operational patterns which it then continued to use.

Taiwanese and western military officials have said this has eroded the fragile status quo between the two sides.

Pilita Clark makes several interesting observations about how personal names should be listed in professional communications (“The case for office pettiness”, Business Life, October 7). However, she overlooks some practices that are highly symptomatic of professional work today, especially in academia.

Research in academia often requires team effort. When an ensuing paper is published the routine is then usually to assign authorship to each of the participating individuals in an order reflecting their individual contributions. In the hard sciences teamwork typically reflects things like economies of scale in laboratory work or the scarcity of expensive equipment. In the social sciences and the humanities, the inducements to multiple authorship are much less apparent. Yet in these fields, the spectacle of published papers with authorship amounting to a dozen or more individuals is becoming increasingly common. It seems evident that something is simmering beyond the fact of ever-easier scholarly communication via the internet.

One of the curious aspects of personnel evaluation in many universities is that individuals whose names appear on a multiple-authored paper are accredited with full (not fractional) authorship, whatever their position in the author list and irrespective of overall contribution. This peculiar accounting practice is a godsend to faculty where the scramble for job security and upward mobility is ever-present. Equally, it offers enticing inducements to game the system. The lead author pays little or no penalty by admitting colleagues to at least an occasional share in authorship; conversely, the colleagues are apt to return the compliment in subsequent publications.

Sounds a bit like Pareto optimality where everyone is better off and no one is worse off.

The result is the increasingly exorbitant padding of academic CVs and an academic circus where some individuals appear to be possessed of the superhuman capacity to publish scores of peer-reviewed papers in short order. I recall a record of one individual who claimed to have published 11 articles in a single month!

These issues might all be “petty”, but for what it’s worth, they reveal a degree of opportunism and cynicism lurking within the uneasy camaraderie of academic cliques. They are more widely symptomatic of professional workplaces as sites of cynical careerism and finagling.

Allen J Scott
Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, US

Regarding the piece “Competition grows for the Executive MBA” (FT.com, September 8), there really isn’t competition for a university MBA degree; there are merely some alternatives for some people and some organisations, but with those alternatives come trade-offs.

If cost is one of them, or the primary consideration, then the EMBA is probably not being assessed under the right criteria, or over the right “periodicity”. That is, the purpose and expected rate of return for the EMBA, must be assessed like venture capital, rather than a bond: the degree’s value realised more in spikes or cycles, related to how entrepreneurs make unexpected discoveries or business deals, rather than like a risk-free bond in stable, mature markets. The EMBA degree is a bet, not a surety. Despite being generally interpreted as a “trade” degree, it contains important research components where students have developed entirely new competitive business concepts, or created advanced financial models in risk management and pricing, for example.

There are otherwise some interesting reasons why the executive MBA format appears to be increasingly seen as favourable. Among them is how it assembles a varied cohort of experienced individuals. As the University of Chicago admitted after it started the first US executive MBA programme in 1943, it was seen as a way to train the faculty by exposing them to difficult industrial problems brought into the classroom by experienced EMBA candidates.

In this way, the expansion of knowledge by such executive-faculty collaboration approximates an ideal that is difficult or impossible to duplicate in other MBA formats, or in company-sponsored internal training modules. This also reflects an explicit, pragmatic educational philosophy. Harvard historian Carl Joachim Friedrich put it this way: “A philosophy of experience is a philosophy of the problem.”

But there is more: the EMBA may also provide a model for other graduate programmes such as law, which have become generally insular and relatively stagnant, due in part to faculty isolation from more experienced students.

This criticism may be relevant to medicine as well: in both cases there is an arguable overemphasis on passive information and theoretical modelling, as compensation for an inability to realise a new knowledge dynamic that is dependent on more experienced candidates.

Matthew G Andersson
Founder and Former CEO, Indigo Airlines;
MBA, University of Chicago (Executive Programme), Chicago, IL, US

Cheap natural gas is spurring Chinese truckers to switch to rigs powered by the fuel, damping the country’s appetite for oil and contributing to a “catastrophic” sales drop for the China unit of one of the world’s largest truckmakers.

While the country’s rapid adoption of electric cars has been in the spotlight, significant change has also been taking place in China’s freight industry.

Analysts said the swift rise of natural gas-powered trucks, particularly heavy-duty vehicles of 14 tonnes and above, had helped thrust China past peak diesel demand and moved it closer to reaching peak oil.

The trend has hit Germany’s Daimler Truck, which has focused on perfecting diesel engines and building electric and hydrogen-based engines for the future.

“Diesel demand peaked earlier than we expected,” said Sun Yang, a liquefied natural gas analyst at OilChem, who estimates this happened as early as 2018. “The speed at which LNG has replaced diesel in heavy-duty trucks has been very fast.”

China’s diesel use is forecast to fall 4 per cent this year and will continue to slowly decline in the coming years, said analysts at investment bank CICC in September. Dong Dandan, an energy analyst at China Securities brokerage, estimated the country’s LNG truck fleet would displace about 9.2mn tonnes of diesel consumption in 2024, equivalent to 4 per cent of last year’s demand.

The switch to natural gas-powered trucks helps Beijing alleviate security concerns over imported oil. China imports about three-quarters of the resource it needs, primarily from Russia and Saudi Arabia, compared with 40 per cent for natural gas. The transition also contributes to government efforts to clean up polluted cities.

Chinese policymakers have spent the past two decades expanding domestic gasfields, as well as building pipeline networks, gas liquefaction plants and a robust network of natural gas fuelling stations.

Wang Peng, who manages a platform to buy and sell used trucks in Beijing, said diesel ones were a rare sight in western China. “They’ve been completely replaced by natural gas,” he said.

“This year, northern Chinese provinces have switched to buying natural gas heavy-duty trucks, there aren’t many diesel left,” he said. “The south is moving slower, because they don’t have as many stations to fill up.”

Natural gas trucks made up 42 per cent of China’s heavy-duty truck sales from January to August, compared with just 9 per cent in 2022, according to data from CV World, a Beijing-based commercial vehicle research provider.

Wayne Fung, a logistics expert at CMB International, said Chinese truck buyers were choosing LNG over diesel because it was cheaper, currently by 23 per cent. Chinese LNG prices have remained low due to the country’s large domestic gas production and growing volumes of pipelined gas from Russia, Turkmenistan and Myanmar.

China pays about $8 per million British thermal units for the pipelined gas, much less than for seaborne LNG imports, according to Financial Times estimates using government data.

Fung said that earlier this year the all-important “payback period” for buyers of LNG trucks to recover their investment was one year faster than for diesel, despite the roughly 25 per cent higher price tag.

Daimler’s China unit has downsized. A spokesperson said the company had taken the painful decision of letting go dozens of staff recently due to “continuous weak market demand”.

“The country is flooded with cheap natural gas from Russia,” Daimler Truck’s then-chief Martin Daum told Wall Street analysts in August. Sluggish truck sales and Daimler’s lack of a natural gas engine made it an “absolute catastrophic market”, he said.

This summer, the German company wrote off its 50 per cent stake in its Chinese joint venture with state-owned Foton Motor, which builds and sells heavy-duty trucks.

“Headquarters is far away — there is no demand for LNG engines in Europe,” said a person close to the company. “Developing one would cost millions and it’s hard to predict where the market is going.”

The growth of LNG trucking, along with the rise of electric cars, has sapped oil demand. Opec estimates that diesel accounts for a fifth to a quarter of China’s daily oil use and said demand for the fuel started falling in April.

In July, China’s diesel demand fell almost 6 per cent from a year earlier to 3.5mn barrels a day, Opec said, adding that “increasing penetration of LNG trucks and electric vehicles [were] likely to weigh on diesel and gasoline demand going forward”. It also said the country’s property crisis was weighing on demand.

Foreign experts are at odds with domestic analysts on whether China has passed peak diesel. The International Energy Agency forecast China’s diesel demand would plateau in 2025 and peak oil would occur in 2030.

But Chinese customs data shows actual crude oil imports from January to August by volume were down 3 per cent from a year earlier. Pipeline gas and LNG imports by volume rose 12 per cent per cent in the same period.

“In the past, I rarely saw an LNG truck come into my station,” said a fill-up attendant in Beijing. “There’s been an explosive increase since last year.”

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Sir Keir Starmer will on Monday ask Britain’s competition watchdog to soften its approach as he vows to “rip out bureaucracy” in order to make the UK a more attractive investment destination. 

The prime minister will tell executives gathered at its international investment summit that Labour’s landslide victory will “end chop and change” over policy and bring political stability that allows them to back new projects in the UK. 

He will unveil commitments from the private sector to invest more than £50bn into the economy — across AI, life sciences and infrastructure — according to people briefed on the plans. 

“We will rip out the bureaucracy that blocks investment and we will make sure that every regulator in this country takes growth as seriously as this room does,” Starmer will tell the event at London’s Guildhall. 

He will add: “We have a golden opportunity to use our mandate, to end chop and change, policy churn and sticking plasters that make it so hard for investors to assess the value of any proposition.”

The £50bn figure for investment pledges to be made on Monday includes £24bn of green investment unveiled last week, which included some projects that had already been announced. The sum also includes a £20bn investment from Australia’s Macquarie group that will include an electric car-charging network and offshore wind projects.

Officials and industry are concerned that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has stopped or slowed deals, denting Britain’s reputation overseas, and making the government appear “anti-tech”. 

The boss of Activision accused Britain of being “closed for business” after Microsoft’s takeover of the gaming group was initially blocked, while an investigation into Amazon and artificial intelligence company Anthropic earlier this year that was ultimately dropped was viewed poorly internationally. 

The previous Conservative government last year set the CMA a remit to “support investment, innovation and growth by promoting competitive markets”, but Downing Street said the plans were never put into action. 

Starmer will set out more details on the new CMA priorities and direction in an industrial strategy green paper on Monday. Ministers will hold a private session with handpicked executives at the summit to discuss the contents, according to people briefed on the plans.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, will also host a meeting of entrepreneurs at Number 11 Downing Street on Tuesday.

Several businesses whose CEOs are travelling to the UK for the summit had expressed disappointment that plans for a dedicated “industrial strategy” session in the agenda were downgraded. 

The FT reported last week that a handful of CEOs were wavering in the past week about attendance, with organisers criticised for disorganisation. 

The government was briefly thrown into disarray on Friday after a report that port operator DP World could delay a £1bn investment pledge after a senior minister lambasted its subsidiary P&O. Over the weekend, the company said the investment is still planned, and that the company’s chair Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem will attend the event. Both were previously reported by the FT. 

Around 200 private sector executives — including Goldman Sachs and BlackRock chiefs David Solomon and Larry Fink — are expected to attend the summit. The event kicked off with a Sunday evening reception at Lancaster House and will include a day of meetings and panels at London’s Guildhall on Monday before an evening event at St Paul’s Cathedral. King Charles will also attend the evening event.

Starmer is determined to prevent overzealous regulators from stifling a pro-growth agenda that he says is essential to grow the UK’s economy. 

The FT reported last month that the chancellor will issue a formal edict to the Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator, around the time of her October 30 Budget, saying it needs to prove that it is acting to promote the expansion of the UK financial services sector.

Officials say the FCA is a “constant source of frustration” to ministers, who rail over the complexity of the regulator’s 10,000-page rule book and some of its decisions.

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A man carrying illegal firearms, ammunition and fake passports was arrested near a Donald Trump rally in California on Saturday night in what a local sheriff described as a potential third assassination attempt on the former president.

Law enforcement officers from Riverside County Sheriff’s Department stopped a 49-year-old man from Las Vegas who was driving a black SUV at a security checkpoint close to Trump’s rally in Coachella Valley. 

The man was taken into custody after he was found to be illegally carrying a shotgun, a loaded handgun with a high-capacity magazine, ammunition, and multiple fake passports and licences, the sheriff’s office said.

“If you’re asking me right now, we probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt,” said Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, in a press briefing on Sunday evening.

Bianco said the suspect, who was charged with firearms offences before being released, was believed to be a member of the anti-government group Sovereign Citizens. Members maintain that the nation’s laws do not apply to them, Bianco said.

In a statement, the sheriff’s office said the incident did “not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event”.

Although law enforcement initially named the man as Vem Miller, officials said the man was carrying multiple passports and driving licences bearing different names in his vehicle.

Bianco said Miller’s vehicle was unregistered and carried a “homemade” licence plate. He had driven through a first security perimeter at the rally after claiming he was a reporter, before being arrested at a second. Bianco added that the sheriff’s office was in contact with the Secret Service and the FBI.

The arrest follows two assassination attempts on Trump which have sparked concern that America’s highly polarised election could trigger political violence. It comes as both Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris enter the final weeks of the race, which is all but tied in the polls.

Trump was grazed on the ear by a bullet in July while speaking at an election rally in western Pennsylvania. After ducking behind the podium, the former president stood up, pumped his fist and shouted “Fight, fight, fight” before he was rushed to hospital. Those words have become a potent campaign slogan.

Last month, the Secret Service opened fire on an armed man hiding in the bushes surrounding Trump International Golf Club as the president played, around 300 to 500 yards away. Law enforcement officials found an AK-47-style rifle with a scope in the foliage, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera.

Earlier this month, Trump’s aides asked for security measures to be stepped up, including military aircraft, special armoured vehicles usually reserved for sitting presidents, decoy aircraft and flight restrictions over his residences.