BEIJING -- China is instructing local authorities to "buy Chinese" products under procurement guidelines covering such high-tech items as X-ray machines and weather instruments as it pushes foreign suppliers to shift to local production, Nikkei has learned.

The local content rules, issued as part of auditing policies in May by China's finance and industry ministries, apply to 315 items in 41 categories. These are grouped into four quota levels between 25% and 100%, though whether this is

OSAKA -- Panasonic will offer rice cookers and microwave ovens that let users add functions via the internet later, in response to customer feedback revealing that many of the features packed into such products go unused.

Customers who buy the new rice cookers choose three modes from a lineup of 25 -- including brown rice and rice for freezer storage -- and install them using smartphones. Just like with smartphone apps, users can swap functions based on family composition and lifestyle.

"Even if there are multiple modes, customers actually

Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff writer and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He is the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize for international reporting.

TOKYO -- China's crackdown on the tech industry has now spread to tutoring schools and online games, with state media labeling the industries as the "enemy" of the people.

The harsh language used to attack the country's fast-

ISTANBUL -- A Turkish study of more than 30 million vaccinated citizens indicated that the highest level of protection was seen in people who received three doses of inactive vaccines, rather than in those who received two doses of inactive vaccines and one booster shot of an mRNA vaccine, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Wednesday.

While the minister avoided specifying brand names, he was referring to the vaccines now available in Turkey: the Chinese inactive vaccine CoronaVac by Sinovac Biotech and the mRNA offering developed by Pfizer and

William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades."

Lee Jae-yong does not, as far as I know, wear a cape. Nor does he have superpowers or futuristic gadgets. Yet to hear Seoul officials tell it, the Samsung heir is some amalgam of Tony Stark, Thor, Doctor Strange... choose your favorite Marvel-ous hero.

South Korea's Justice Ministry did not phrase Lee'

PARIS -- Japanese sake is having a moment in wine-loving France, as sommeliers and vintners expand their horizons in response to changing culinary trends.

The fifth annual Kura Master sake competition took place in Paris last month, drawing 960 entries, 136 more than in 2020, even with the coronavirus pandemic still looming over the event. Kura Master is shaping up to be among the most influential sake contests outside Japan, after the sake division of the International Wine Challenge in the U.

ISLAMABAD -- Al-Qaida militants and allied transnational groups are aiding the Taliban's rapid advance in Afghanistan, ratcheting up the pressure on the Kabul government.

Under a U.S.-Taliban deal reached in February last year in Doha, all international coalition forces were to leave Afghanistan by this May in exchange for security guarantees from the Taliban, including cutting ties with al-Qaida and its allies, and pledging not to harbor foreign terrorists.

But even as the U.S. and allied forces have almost

MUMBAI -- Indian digital payment startup Paytm plans to offer a slew of new products in an effort to more than double revenues to $1 billion and tap the country's booming financial services market.

Paytm, whose parent One97 Communications is heading for a $2.2 billion initial public offering, wants to expand into lending, mutual funds, insurance and gold sales, sources with knowledge of the matter said. The company wants to boost revenues to $1 billion over the next two to three years,

James Crabtree is executive director of IISS-Asia in Singapore. He is author of "The Billionaire Raj."

As it seeks to compete with China, can the United States reclaim its once-dominant position as Asia's trade architect? Having pulled out of one major regional deal and shown scant inclination to lead the creation of others, the answer until recently appeared to be a clear "no."

Reports that the U.S. is preparing to propose a new Asian digital trade agreement suggests this conclusion may