🌍 Morgan Stanley moves talent out of mainland China

Hi there Intriguer. It’s… International Moon Day. The UN General Assembly made it official back in 2021, to mark the anniversary of the first moon landing. Fun fact: Canada didn’t vote in favour. Is that because Canada hates the moon? Possibly. Or… it’s because there wasn’t even a ballot (like most UN resolutions, this one was adopted by consensus).

Today’s briefing is a 5 min read:

• 🇨🇳 Morgan Stanley pulls 200 staff out of mainland China.

• 🇮🇳 India’s opposition parties are banding together.

• ➕ Plus: Wildfires rage across Greece, how the papers are covering more protests in Kenya, and US-China climate negotiations fall short.

¿Hablas español? ¡Check out our weekly edition in Spanish!

1. 🇨🇳 China: Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made a surprise visit to Beijing yesterday (Wednesday) and met the defence minister. Kissinger (now 100) made a secret trip to China in July 1971 that paved the way for normalised US-China relations.

2. 🇫🇷 France: An American economist has withdrawn from her appointment as EU Chief Competition Economist after facing criticism from French President Macron. The French leader objected to the EU seeking to hire a non-EU citizen.

3. 🇹🇭 Thailand: Pita Limjaroenrat, the reformist leader whose party won Thailand’s election in May, has been disqualified from parliament for owning shares in a long-defunct media company. Hours later, Thailand’s establishment-dominated parliament voted 394-312 against his bid to serve as prime minister.

4. 🇵🇦 Panama: Former President Ricardo Martinelli has been sentenced to ten years in prison on corruption charges. Martinelli won his party’s presidential primary last month but, if the verdict is upheld, he’ll be barred from running in next year’s election.

5. 🇿🇦 South Africa: The Kremlin has announced that Russian President Putin will join the upcoming BRICS Summit in Johannesburg via video link. South Africa is bound by an International Criminal Court warrant to detain Putin if he enters the country.

🇨🇳 China | Geo-economics

Morgan Stanley is pulling talent out of China

As the ol’ saying goes: never put all your tech experts in one country.

Morgan Stanley has reportedly pulled more than 200 tech developers out of mainland China. The decision has impacted around a third of the bank’s China tech experts, who’ve mostly relocated to Hong Kong and Singapore.

Why’s this happening?

Revisions to Beijing’s anti-espionage law came into effect on 1 July:

• ⛔ they regulate the transfer of sensitive info out of China, so…

• 🕵️ anything authorities deem relevant to China’s “national security and interests” can now effectively be treated like a state secret.

The techies left behind are now building stand-alone China infrastructure for Morgan Stanley (reportedly at vast cost), to comply with the new rules.

Morgan Stanley isn’t the first multinational reassessing its China operations in response to tighter national security laws:

• Mintz’s Beijing office was shut and five local staff arrested in March

• Bain’s Shanghai office was raided and staff questioned in April, and

• Capvision offices across the country were raided in May on allegations they paid officials to leak secrets for offshore clients.

Intrigue's take: Whatever Beijing gains in national security here, it risks losing in international investment and business confidence. And given its latest GDP numbers, that’s no longer such an easy trade-off.

Also worth noting:

• Beijing released its expanded counter-espionage law for public comment in December, before China's top legislative body rubber-stamped it in April.

• Responding to criticism, China’s foreign ministry said “every country has the right to safeguard national security through domestic legislation” and “as long as one abides by laws and regulations, there is no need to worry”.

📰 How newspapers covered…

Opposition protests in Kenya

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🇮🇳 India | Politics

Indian opposition mega-alliance to take on Modi

Leaders from 26 opposition parties have agreed to form the ‘INDIA’ alliance to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi at India’s 2024 elections.

The name ‘INDIA’ stands for “Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance” (full marks for acronym excellence ✔️).

Just 15 parties agreed to unite at a previous meeting last month, so the idea of a unified opposition seems to be picking up steam.

But that doesn’t mean the job will be easy. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holds 301 out of 542 seats in India’s lower house (more than double the seats held by the ‘INDIA’ parties). Plus, leading opposition figure Rahul Gandhi might be barred from running.

Intrigue’s take: A united opposition clearly makes for a tougher opponent, but these kinds of mega-alliances don’t always get the job done:

• 🇮🇱 Israel’s anti-Bibi alliance dissolved a year after winning power, and

• 🇹🇷 Turkey’s anti-Erdogan alliance stumbled at the election.

So ‘INDIA’ might do well to learn from those experiences: if the only thing uniting your unity coalition is opposition, you might be in opposition a while longer.

Also worth noting:

• The 26 ‘INDIA’ parties signed a joint declaration, pledging to “safeguard the idea of India as enshrined in the Constitution”, which they say is being “methodically and menacingly undermined” by the BJP.

• Narendra Modi is considered the world’s most popular leader, with 77% of Indians approving of his leadership.

• Responding to ‘INDIA’, Modi dismissed the coalition parties as dynasties: “for them, their family is first, and the nation is nothing.”

➕ Extra Intrigue

What we’re reading about wild weather and climate negotiations.

• Kerry’s effort to secure climate deal with China falls short

• As water shortages intensify Iran’s heat wave, authorities shift blame

• Inside the push to greenwash the COP28 climate summit

• South Florida gets slammed by an ocean heat wave

🗳️ Poll time!

📸 Photo of the day

Wildfires are spreading across eastern Greece, forcing thousands to flee their homes and summer residences. The dry weather conditions are being exacerbated by a series of consecutive heatwaves hitting southern Europe.

Yesterday’s poll: On the eve of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, who do you think is the greatest female athlete of all time?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🎾 Serena Williams (52%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⚽ Marta Vieira da Silva (3%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏃‍♀️ Jackie Joyner-Kersee (6%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤸‍♀️ Nadia Comăneci (10%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏀 Lisa Leslie (0.3%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⛷️ Sara Takanashi (1%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🤸 Simone Biles (16%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🏓 Ding Ning (1%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Someone else (write in!) (10%)

Your two cents:

• ✍️ P.M: “Billie Jean King …. The first great female athlete in the modern era.”

• ✍️ R.B: “Lots of absolutely amazing women out there. It's very tough to choose a GOAT.”

• 🎾 D.S: “Serena, no question, stamina, strength, grace, longevity, and a record that will stand the test of time – a very long time.”

• Honourable mentions: Babe Zaharias, Mia Hamm, Tia Claire Toomey, and Katie Ledecky.