Chinese leader Xi Jinping is under heightened pressure to better secure his country’s interests in volatile regions around the world after a bomb attack by Pakistan separatists last month claimed the lives of two Chinese engineers.

With total Chinese investments estimated at US$62bn, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor is the largest cluster of projects under Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative but a spike of violence by the Balochistan Liberation Army is putting that commitment at risk and fuelling debate over Beijing’s failure to get to grips with the problem.

While Chinese investors are protected by a mix of Pakistan government and Chinese private security, the latter is hindered by Pakistan’s ban on armed guard services by foreign security contractors and Beijing’s tight grip on military and policing functions, even overseas. 

“I think this is the tipping point where Beijing is demanding something more from Islamabad in terms of a Chinese role in providing security,” said Alessandro Arduino, an expert on BRI security and private security contractors.  

“The evolution in Pakistan will also be a litmus test for Chinese private security companies around the world, and how Beijing wants to secure its citizens and assets worldwide.”

Islamabad has allocated big and growing forces to guarding China’s massive investments. Two special security divisions with more than 15,000 personnel in total and a naval unit stationed at Gwadar port protect CPEC projects and Chinese workers throughout Pakistan. Provinces have also provided special police units. Part of the cost of this protection is covered by China’s defence ministry, according to two people familiar with the situation. But it has not produced the security China is hoping for.

“We don’t trust that more Pakistani soldiers will keep us safe . . . we would prefer it was Chinese,” said one Chinese businessman, who works on a project in the province of Punjab but has been in the country for almost a decade. “Many Chinese want to leave, there’s not as much opportunity and the security is bad.”

Those concerns were further underscored when a Pakistani security guard shot and injured two Chinese workers in Karachi last week.

Beijing is not content with local security either. “The central government issued an internal directive to ‘let Chinese take care of the security of Chinese’,” said Zhou Chao, a Chinese executive who managed security services for the Lahore Metro Orange Line project after China Railway Group and Chinese arms exporter Norinco won the tender in 2015. 

Chinese private security companies have typically followed state-owned enterprises to guard their construction and resource projects abroad. Some observers expected them to grow into the equivalent of US military contractor Blackwater or Russian mercenaries Wagner Group, but Chinese experts say they are held back by a lack of support from Beijing and complex regulation. 

Pakistan bans foreign security contractors from providing armed guard services. “As a solution, we would station Chinese security officers at the project company, two at a time, and hire 400 to 500 local guards,” said Zhou, who worked for China Cityguard at the time but has since moved to China Soldier Security Group.

Other executives said they relied on Chinese security engineers to develop a security plan, handle incidents, conduct background and document checks, gather intelligence and hire local guards for armed patrols. 

The October blast, the latest in a string of attacks, has fuelled discontent with the current security set-up. “Our government has been discussing with Pakistan whether they can allow Chinese security companies in but have been explicitly rebuffed several times,” said a Chinese executive.

In a joint statement with Pakistan during Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit on October 15, China “stressed the urgent need to adopt targeted security measures in Pakistan to jointly create a safe environment for co-operation between the two countries”. Last week, Chinese ambassador Jiang Zaidong called it “unacceptable” that Chinese citizens had been attacked twice within six months. He warned that security had become a “constraint to CPEC”.

While overall Chinese finance and investment engagement under the BRI increased last year, according to the commerce ministry, it dropped 74 per cent in Pakistan. Frontier Services Group, the security contractor backed by Blackwater founder Erik Prince, said in its 2023 annual report that due to the instability in Pakistan, the Chinese government had encouraged employees of Chinese companies in Pakistan to return home. This has led to delays and abortion of projects.  

“The government is failing to comprehensively solve this security problem. [Our] risk consultants in Pakistan warned us about certain things, which later really happened, and I don’t know why our government could not prevent those,” said an executive at a large Chinese security company.

A big hurdle is the belief of the Chinese Communist party — which came to power through armed revolt — that it must retain a strict monopoly on military and policing functions. Beijing keeps tight restrictions on private security companies at home including a ban on carrying arms. Although existing legislation does not explicitly cover the contractors’ overseas expansion, it has hampered them.

According to Cheng Xizhong, a South Asia expert at Chinese think-tank Charhar Institute and former diplomat and defence attaché who also advises Chinese private security contractors, the Chinese embassy in Islamabad has a police counsellor telling security companies in Pakistan what should and should not be done.

“Some people see Chinese security contractors who go abroad as proxies for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,” said a security company executive. “But unlike international military contractors that thrive on government contracts . . . we don’t get any . . . support.”

The latest uptick in casualties could add to pressure on Beijing to update legislation regulating private security companies. Amendments are expected to include clearer reference to overseas operations and be guided by an international code of conduct for the industry, according to scholars consulted on the draft amendments.

“A large portion of our overseas investment flows into” countries that it deems high risk, said the founder of one Chinese private security contractor. “So it really is high time that our government empower us to expand there.”

Additional reporting by Tina Hu and Wenjie Ding in Beijing

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President-elect Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he would nominate Fox News host Pete Hegseth to be his secretary of defence and former Texas congressman John Ratcliffe to be director of the CIA, as he tapped hardliners and loyalists to his national security and foreign policy teams.

Hegseth, a 44-year-old army veteran who has no government experience, is an unconventional choice to lead one of the country’s largest employers, which includes almost 3mn military and civilian employees.

“Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — our military will be great again, and America will never back down,” Trump said in a statement.

The president-elect had a fraught relationship with civilian and military leaders at the Pentagon during his first term in office, churning through five secretaries of defence in four years. The selection of Hegseth suggests he will have a close ally who will be willing to enact his policy pronouncements and decisions.

Ratcliffe, who was director of national intelligence in the final year of Trump’s first term, is another staunch ally who, while in Congress, was a sharp critic of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for truth and honesty with the American public,” Trump said. “He will be a fearless fighter for the constitutional rights of all Americans, while ensuring the highest levels of national security, and peace through strength.”

Critics of Ratcliffe’s tenure as director of National Intelligence said he used the post to carry out Trump’s political agenda, including declassifying intelligence to use for political purposes, excluding Democratic lawmakers from briefings, accusing opponents of leaks and making public assertions that contradicted intelligence assessments.

If Ratcliffe is confirmed, he will be the first person to be have held the roles of CIA director and director of national intelligence.

The appointments were among a series announced by Trump’s transition team on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Trump said he would nominate former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel and that his longtime friend, donor and fellow real estate mogul Steve Witkoff to be his special envoy for the Middle East. He also nominated South Dakota governor Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary, with a mandate to stem immigration across the US southern border.

Trump on Monday picked a number of other loyalists with hardline views who will shape US foreign policy decisions in his new administration. They include Florida congressman Mike Waltz as national security adviser and New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik as ambassador to the UN. Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, is widely expected to become secretary of state.

Trump’s Middle East appointments are a sign that the US will take an even friendlier approach than Joe Biden’s administration towards the Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, potentially allowing it to continue its military campaigns against Hamas and Hizbollah.

During the presidential campaign, Trump was able to win over a larger share of Arab-American voters than he did in 2020 because of their anger at Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, vowing to deliver peace to the region.

But is not clear that a closer US relationship with Netanyahu will help end the conflicts in the Middle East. Huckabee, whose daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the current Arkansas governor — spent years working to bolster support for Israel among evangelical Christians in the US and was praised by Trump on Tuesday.

“Mike has been a great public servant, Governor, and Leader in Faith for many years. He loves Israel, and the people of Israel, and likewise, the people of Israel love him. Mike will work tirelessly to bring about Peace in the Middle East!” Trump said. 

Witkoff — who called Netanyahu’s address to Congress earlier this year “epic” and “deeply moving” — is co-chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, along with former US senator and Intercontinental Exchange executive Kelly Loeffler.

Witkoff has known Trump for decades. He spoke at the Republican National Convention touting the former president’s “compassion” and was on the golf course with him during the second assassination attempt on him in September.

The two men’s sons are also friends: Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump, Alex Witkoff and Zach Witkoff promoted a cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, on X a couple of months ago. Zach had his wedding at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2022.

Alex Witkoff, who is co-chief executive of family real estate firm Witkoff Group with his father Steve, told the Financial Times last week that his identity as a Jewish person was a reason for his support of Trump.

“In Trump, you had a fierce, ardent supporter of the Jewish people,” he said. 

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Underperforming NHS hospitals will be publicly shamed in league tables and failing health bosses will be sacked, UK health secretary Wes Streeting will warn in a speech to sector leaders on Wednesday.

Addressing the NHS Providers conference, Streeting will tell health chiefs there will be “no more rewards for failure” as the government launches a “no holds barred” review of performance in England.

The ratings of how individual trusts manage hospitals across the country will be set out in league tables for the first time, he will say at the event in Liverpool.

Under the plans, NHS trusts will be ranked and judged by the quality of the services offered to patients, financial management and senior leadership.

Managers who continue to underperform will be fired and health experts will be deployed to support struggling trusts, the minister will say. Those with the best ratings will be rewarded with greater spending powers.

“There’ll be no more turning a blind eye to failure. We will drive the health service to improve, so patients get more out of it for what taxpayers put in,” Streeting will say.

“Our health service must attract top talent, be far more transparent to the public who pay for it, and run as efficiently as global businesses.”

The speech follows scrutiny of the government’s decision to pour more money into the struggling health system before setting out a clear package of reform.

In last month’s Budget, chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a £22.6bn rise in the day-to-day budget for the NHS over two years, and a £3.1bn increase in capital spending. A 10-year plan for the NHS will be published in the spring.

On Wednesday, Streeting will insist that the cash injection demonstrated how the Labour administration “prioritises the NHS” and is willing to provide the investment needed to “rebuild the health service”.

But he will also tell NHS leaders that the money must accompany reform to ensure “every penny of extra investment is well spent and cuts waiting times for patients”.

The government has vowed to achieve health targets that have not been met for close to a decade. These include that patients should wait no longer than 18 weeks to start non-urgent hospital treatment or four hours in A&E by the end of the parliament.

Streeting will also announce that NHS managers who fail to make progress on improving their trust’s performance will be ineligible for pay increases.

The crackdown comes after a 142-page review of the NHS by Lord Ara Darzi, published in September, found the only criteria by which the pay of trust chief executives is set is “the turnover of the organisation”.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS England chief executive, responded to Streeting’s announcement that it was “critical that responsibility comes with the necessary support and development”.

She added: “The extensive package of reforms, developed together with government, will empower all leaders working in the NHS and it will give them the tools they need to provide the best possible services for our patients.”

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves will on Thursday call for an overhaul of the UK system for consumer redress in the financial services sector, as lenders brace for a potential multibillion pound bill for alleged mis-selling of car finance.

Reeves wants to modernise the operation of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to give consumers and businesses more clarity about the compensation landscape in future, according to allies of the chancellor.

She will use her Mansion House speech on Thursday to promise stability as she attempts to reassure her City of London audience that she has a clear economic growth strategy following her £40bn tax-raising Budget.

The role of the FOS in major City compensation cases has been under scrutiny in the Treasury for months, but Reeves’ allies said the need for reform had been brought into stark relief by recent turmoil in the car finance sector.

The FOS has taken a consumer-friendly stance on complaints over alleged mis-selling of car finance that has put the Financial Conduct Authority, the chief UK financial regulator, on the back foot, and threatened to leave banks exposed to compensation claims worth billions of pounds.

“The FOS has an important role to play in protecting consumers but there is a case for modernising it and giving consumers and firms more clarity,” said one person briefed on Reeves’ thinking.

Two rulings by the FOS at the start of this year upholding consumer claims against banks have forced the FCA to step in and pause such compensation cases while it investigates the issue of commissions paid to car dealerships by finance companies and decides how to respond.

Lawyers at “magic circle” firm Clifford Chance said in a note last month that “the ramifications of the position FOS has taken . . . could be significant”. 

Barclays is challenging one of the decisions by the FOS from earlier this year in a judicial review.

But lawyers said the bank was likely to lose after the Court of Appeal said last month it was unlawful for car dealers to receive any commissions from finance providers unless they were fully disclosed and accepted by consumers, in a ruling that went further than the FOS.

The stance of the FOS in siding with consumers on car finance has echoes of its role in the payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal, which ended up costing banks about £50bn in redress.

In the three months to April, the FOS said it received 15,925 complaints about car finance, almost five times more than during the same period last year.

It added more than 90 per cent of these were brought by claims management companies, which shot to prominence by pursuing PPI complaints for thousands of consumers in return for a cut of any compensation.

Nikhil Rathi, head of the FCA, said earlier this year the UK redress system “stands out in Europe due to its combination of complexity and the scale of claims management activity”, and endorsed a review.

Meanwhile Reeves will use her Mansion House speech to urge the technology and telecom sectors to do more to combat online payment fraud, after claims by the financial services industry that they are enabling such activity.

Almost 80 per cent of so-called push payment fraud — when someone is tricked into sending money to a fraudster posing as a genuine payee — starts online, of which 60 per cent is estimated to begin on social media, according to trade body UK Finance.

Banks and payment companies have since October been liable to reimburse claims of push payment fraud worth up to £85,000.

Reeves will demand that companies including Meta, TikTok, BT and EE update ministers about progress on fraud prevention before March, with the veiled threat of further action if they fail to act.

Asked whether Reeves would be prepared to go further, a Treasury official said: “The ball will be back in our court if demonstrable progress has not been made.” 

However, Reeves will fall short of committing to specific measures that would give social media companies a financial incentive to prevent fraud by making them shoulder some of the cost of reimbursing fraud victims.

Separately Reeves will outline major pension reforms, including the consolidation of the £391bn of assets in 86 separate local council retirement schemes, to create a series of “Canadian-style” megafunds that would be encouraged to invest in the UK.

The chancellor has ruled out — at least for now — forcing pension funds to invest in UK assets such as equities and infrastructure, a move which would have provoked an outcry from the sector.

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This article is the latest part of the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign

Two million women in the UK do not think they will ever be able to afford to retire, according to a landmark study — but pension providers hope greater digital engagement will boost the prospects for future generations.

Now in its 20th year, the Scottish Widows’ Women & Retirement Report found that women still face significantly worse retirement outcomes than men, even though the gender pensions gap is gradually reducing.

The detailed study of over 5,000 UK adults found that 42 per cent of women — and 35 per cent of men — currently face poverty in retirement. Nearly one in seven women said they would need to continue working past the state pension age of 66 to top up their retirement income.

The impact of the motherhood penalty and the cost of childcare on women’s lifetime earnings remained “the most significant barrier”, said Jackie Leiper, managing director at Scottish Widows. In response, the pensions giant is using an array of digital tools to turn younger female customers on to the benefits of starting pension saving early.

“TikTok is where a lot of young people — and young women especially — are getting their financial information,” she said. “Women are really engaged and are keen to learn more about pensions.”

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Scottish Widows launched its own pensions hub on TikTok in September, and video content on pensions and retirement has so far generated more than half a million clicks to its website.

It has combined this with educational content about pensions on its app, which is now used by more than one in 10 of its 4.5mn workplace pension customers. Open Banking technology allows customers to create their own “digital pensions dashboard” on the company’s app, by linking other pension and Isa accounts from other providers. As well as transferring in former workplace pensions, customers can also adjust their level of savings and are prompted to check their state pension forecast.

Almost two-thirds of female respondents said they had done little or no research about how much they needed to save, but Leiper said these initiatives helped people of all ages to engage with pension saving and think about their “tomorrow money” and retirement goals in the round.

The wider pensions world is also embracing social media to boost people’s pension awareness. Social media megastar Gemma Collins recently fronted the “Pay Your Pension Some Attention” campaign funded by the Association of British Insurers and the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association.

One YouTube ad features Collins in what appears to be a commercial for anti-ageing face cream, before she delivers the killer line: “Sorry hun, but there’s a more important pot to think about — your pension.”

Data from TikTok shows there was a 300 per cent increase in use of the hashtag #retirementplanning in the first quarter of 2024, compared with a year previously. Video content tagged under this banner has received more than 10mn views this year.

Looking back over the past 20 years, Leiper said there had been a “generational shift” in pensions saving following the introduction of automatic enrolment into workplace pensions in 2012, but warned: “On it’s own, it won’t fix this problem.”

Women are over-represented in lower-paid, part time jobs, so many lose out on pension saving as they earn less than the £10,000 earnings trigger for automatic enrolment

Women are over-represented in lower-paid, part time jobs, so many lose out on pension saving as they earn less than the £10,000 earnings trigger for automatic enrolment. Scottish Widows is campaigning for this to be reduced and mandatory contributions raised from the current 8 per cent to 12 per cent, though Leiper accepts that next April’s jump in employer national insurance contributions would push back the timeframes. “We hope that the government’s pension review will create a road map for this, even if changes are not made immediately,” she said.

Leiper added that many of the 2mn women unable to afford to retire were likely to be divorcees, noting how pensions are often overlooked in divorce settlements.

“Because pension assets are held in individual names, they are often a hidden thing,” she said, believing many women simply might not know the value of their husband’s pot.

She said the “annuity conundrum” was another future problem: “Currently, three-quarters of all annuities are put in single names, even if the person is married,” adding that the higher monthly income on single policies was the likely reason why. “Women left widowed might assume they are going to get their husband’s pension — but many do not.”

At the current rate of progression, it will take another 20 years to close the gender pensions gap.

This is what Scottish Widows independent financial adviser workplace senior manager Susan Hope told Money Marketing while discussing its latest women & retirement report 2024.

However, the report does outline that the gender pensions gap will close in 20 years, only if the government implements further policies encouraging further women to save into a pension.

These policies include:

• Getting more women saving into a pension and qualifying for the full State Pension;
• Increasing the confidence women have to invest and manage their finance;
• A shift in approach to joint financial planning so that women do not lose out when annuities are purchased or in the event of divorce.

The report did highlight that “good progress in reducing the gender pensions gap over the last 20 years” has been made.

The gender pensions gap has reduced from 52% to 33% since 2008 for those aged 50-64, but women currently nearing retirement are still likely to have pension pots which are a third smaller than men.

Scottish Widows also predicts that at the current rate, two million women in the UK feel like they will never be able to retire.

In order to make further positive changes, Hope believes collaboration is needed between regulation, the industry and employers.

Hope said this issue does not only impact women, “it affects everyone as everyone has women in their life”.

In regards to auto-enrolment, Hope said it has been “great” but 43% of women do not feel confident enough to manage their own pension.

Additionally, issues remain that predominantly impact women. If a single mother works two jobs part time and earns under £10,000 per job she will not be eligible for auto-enrolment and miss out on a pension.

“So working mums can be hit.”

Scottish Widows head of pensions policy Pete Glancy said: “Within the pensions system, reforms to auto-enrolment could allow those working part-time, or juggling multiple jobs to benefit from pension contributions, including contributions from their employer where they themselves are unable to save at that point in time.”

The report also looks at women’s attitude towards investment for the first time in the reports 20-year history. It showed only 38% of women invest outside of pensions, compared to 55% of men.

This gap is exacerbated for young women as 34% of women aged 18-24 invest, compared to 64% of men aged 18-24.

Women are less likely to feel that investing is for people like them, and they are less likely to feel sufficiently supported to learn more about investing.

Still, more women aged 18-24 would consider investing if they had the right advice and resources. The most common cited barrier to investing was understanding potential risks and rewards better (36%) and access to official financial advice (31%).

Hope does feel the gap is “within our reach to close it” but we need to take a “holistic” approach towards pensions.

Hope added: “The pensions gender pay gap belongs in the past, let us be the generation that makes it history.”

Glancy added that the government has announced a Pensions Review, where Scottish Widows believes Phase 2 of that review will have the gender pensions gap “within its scope”.

“This is the opportunity for all stakeholders who genuinely believe in gender pensions equality to contribute to that review, making the case for the reforms that will make a difference.”

My Pension Expert policy director Lily Megson said: “Yet again, we’re faced with damning evidence that British women are drawing the short straw when it comes to their pension planning.

“Targeted support from the government is therefore a must. Taking action through policy that boosts financial education, encourages active pension engagement, widens access to auto-enrolment and closes the gender pay gap is a vital step in empowering women to achieve the retirement they deserve.”

In order to obtain these results, Scottish Widows commissioned YouGov to survey 5,102 adults aged 18+.

YouGov also conducted a second survey to better understand investment behaviours and shifts in attitudes, with 3,650 adults aged 18+.