FirstFT: China disowns envoy’s remarks

Good morning. Today we start in Beijing where China’s government has disowned comments made by its ambassador to France, who sparked outcry in Europe at the weekend.

Lu Shaye infuriated European capitals on Sunday when he questioned the legal status of former Soviet states and Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. In response, China’s foreign ministry yesterday contradicted Lu’s comments, saying that “China respects the sovereign status of the republics after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.”

Later on Monday, the Chinese embassy in Paris posted a statement online saying that Lu’s “remarks on the Ukraine issue were not a statement of policy but an expression of personal views”.

Analysts suggested the Chinese foreign ministry’s response represented a repudiation of the remarks from Lu, who has built a reputation as one of the “wolf warrior” diplomats known for their combative style.

China’s efforts to play down the ambassador’s claims have not satisfied the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, who said they would summon senior Chinese diplomats today to protest against Lu’s remarks.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• South Korea GDP: Flash figures for the first quarter are set to be released.

• Anzac Day: Markets will be closed in Australia and New Zealand as the nations honour members of the military.

• Earnings: We’re in the thick of US earnings season. Companies reporting results include Alphabet, General Electric, General Motors, Halliburton, McDonald’s, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Verizon Communications, Visa and more.

Five more top stories

1. The EU and Japan have pushed back against a US proposal for G7 countries to ban nearly all exports to Russia, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. The disagreement over the measure underscores the lack of additional options available to G7 leaders as they seek to increase the economic punishment for Vladimir Putin’s regime.

2. Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News, just days after the television network agreed to settle a defamation lawsuit over accusations it aired false theories about US election fraud. The departure was sudden and Carlson, who is among the most-watched personalities on US television, ended his last broadcast with no indication that it would be his final one.

3. Adani Ports announced it will buy back up to $650mn in bonds, as Indian tycoon Gautam Adani’s conglomerate fights to prove it has ample cash on hand following a short seller attack. Although the Adani group has strenuously denied Hindenburg’s allegations that it manipulated its stock price and engaged in fraudulent accounting, it has pledged to slim its ballooning debt pile and slow its rapid expansion.

4. Credit Suisse has revealed for the first time the scale at which depositors rushed to withdraw their money from the Swiss bank before it was forced to merge with rival UBS last month. The bank said it suffered SFr61.2bn ($68.6bn) of outflows in the first quarter as clients fled, exposing the scale of the task for UBS after taking over its Swiss rival.

5. Australia has unveiled the biggest strategic shift in its military posture since the second world war to adapt to China’s military build-up in the region. The country’s defence spending review warned of “major power strategic competition” in the Indo-Pacific and that the country’s defence posture was “no longer fit for purpose”. Read more on the planned overhaul.

The Big Read

The weeks since Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on March 10 have brought an uncomfortable realisation — the problems that provoked the biggest bank run in history were neither a freak occurrence nor an unforeseeable emergency. Ahead of the first official postmortem on its failure, almost everyone agrees that the crisis had been hiding in plain sight.

We’re also reading . . . 

Chart of the day

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India is likely to have officially overtaken China as the world’s most populous country this month, the UN said yesterday. The exact timing of the long-awaited crossover has been the source of much speculation, with officials blaming a lack of accurate statistics.

Take a break from the news

Flowing 240km from clean mountain ranges and farming land before emptying into Port Phillip Bay in the heart of Melbourne, the Yarra river was long neglected before being cleaned up and newly appreciated this century. Wander into the city’s past before venturing into verdant terrain that takes in everything from kangaroos and kayaking via cake shops on these two routes.

Additional contributions by Gordon Smith and Tee Zhuo