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China’s rocky trade relationship with the United States was on full display this month as US President Donald Trump threatened to impose additional tariffs on Chinese imports. Separately, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent denounced China’s move to expand curbs on rare earth exports, calling it “a sign of how weak their economy is”. He also described Li Chenggang, one of China’s trade negotiators, as “pretty unhinged and very aggressive”. Trade ties between the rival powers remain fraught, even...

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China and the United States are locked in a contest for technological supremacy. While it’s impossible to predict the ultimate winner and loser, this year’s Nobel Prize winners in economics may serve as a useful guide to where the two rivals are heading. The US is currently still ahead when it comes to science and technology. But when it comes to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education, China has a clear edge, which is likely to grow even larger in the coming...

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A new Chinese stealth flying-wing drone, possibly a next-generation bomber, has been spotted flying for the first time. A video of the large stealth “cranked kite” drone, unofficially dubbed the GJ-X, has circulated on Chinese social media since October 19. It appeared to be the same aircraft – or one with a very similar design – captured in satellite imagery taken in August at China’s Malan airbase in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, according to a report by The War Zone earlier this week. The...

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Li Thet, executive director of Hong Kong-listed FSM Holdings, resigned after US authorities linked him to an alleged Cambodian cyber-scam operation. The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Li for alleged criminal involvement with what it called the Prince Group transnational criminal organisation (TCO), which it and UK authorities said was involved in online scams, human trafficking and money laundering. Prince Holding Group, led by a Chinese-born...

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China’s urban youth unemployment rate edged lower last month but remained at a concerning level amid ongoing struggles for many young people to find work in a challenging and crowded job market. The jobless rate for the 16-to-24 age group, excluding students, dipped to 17.7 per cent in September from 18.9 per cent in August, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. The August figure had hit the highest level since the data set was adjusted in 2023, following...

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The recent return to China of cancer researcher and professor Wang Qianben marks the reunion of a family of high-achieving Chinese scientists and the culmination of a decades-long journey for Wang Qi, a renowned traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) researcher in Beijing. In the 1970s, Wang Qi bestowed upon his newborn sons names laden with ambition – Wang Qianfei (“to fly forward”) and Wang Qianben (“to run forward”). Now, both have returned home from the United States as distinguished scientists...

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Apple’s effort to reinvent the iPad by adding a giant foldable screen has hit development hurdles, potentially delaying the planned launch. The Cupertino, California-based company has been working on the device – projected to cost around US$3,000 – for several years and had most recently aimed for a 2028 release. But engineering challenges tied to weight, features and display technology have pushed its potential debut to 2029 or later, according to people familiar with the matter. Apple is...

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1. ‘Potassium railway’: China’s hidden card in the trade war For over a decade, China has invested heavily to build a dual-purpose passenger and freight railway through the thick rainforest between Kunming and Vientiane, the capital of Laos. This railway has become a critical conduit for China to secure potassium...

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China has positioned itself as a responsible major collaborative force in AI development and governance, contrasting with a recently released survey finding that most Americans view US leadership in the field as crucial. Beijing arrived at its assessment this week as China hosted a workshop on AI capacity building, the third of its kind in two years. The week-long event in Shanghai attracted participants from more than 20 countries. Details of the discussions were not disclosed. “Artificial...

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As China’s leadership meets this week to chart a policy course for the 15th five-year plan – China’s development blueprint for the rest of the decade – events that unfolded more than 70 years ago are echoing again. The growing external challenges of today have similarities to those the country faced in the 1950s – export controls, restricted access to technology and a complex security environment. Amid elevated US-China tensions, Beijing is facing another moment of reckoning at a crossroads...

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China has installed a new floating barrier at Scarborough Shoal, according to satellite imagery, as tensions rise between Beijing and Manila over the disputed atoll in the South China Sea. The barrier was seen blocking the entrance to the lagoon at the shoal in the image obtained by Satellogic, a geospatial company headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay. “New satellite imagery shows an illegal floating barrier installed by the People’s Republic of China at the mouth of Scarborough Shoal,” Luke...

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Beijing is inviting guests from Taiwan to a key commemoration of Japan’s surrender of sovereignty over the island 80 years ago, despite warnings from Taipei against attendance. The Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) in Beijing announced on Wednesday that guests from the island would be invited to attend the “Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of the Restoration of Taiwan”, which falls on Saturday. But the actual commemoration may not take place on that exact date, according to past practice. Visits...

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1. China eyes currency swap with Japan and South Korea amid trade tensions: source China is in talks with Japan and South Korea – both US allies – about a possible trilateral currency swap to bolster the region’s financial safety net and deepen economic cooperation amid US President Donald Trump’s trade war, according to a source familiar with the issue. 2....

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Chinese state media has labelled the US a failed state, claiming it is “dying from within” as its global hegemony declines. The commentary published in Beijing Daily on Tuesday came as China’s policymakers prepared to outline long-term plans amid intensifying competition with Washington. Beijing on Monday began a key four-day conclave that will determine the country’s development over the next five years. The fourth plenum of the Communist Party’s Central Committee, which runs through Thursday,...

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Xiongan, China’s “city of the future” – a project years in the making, championed by President Xi Jinping – is slowly coming to life, as major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) begin relocating to the new metropolis in Hebei province. Sinochem Holdings and China Huaneng Group are among the latest to officially relocate their headquarters to Xiongan this month, each bringing about 1,000 employees, according to local authorities. They join other SOEs like Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Railway Company, which...

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Bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), which topped this year’s global rankings as the largest initial public offering (IPO) market, said the city continued to see strong momentum, as it vets hundreds of new listing applications. Bonnie Chan Yiting, CEO of HKEX, on Wednesday said at an event in Shanghai that Hong Kong has more than 300 companies in the listing pipeline, which would ensure another strong quarter for fundraising in the city. “International investors have been...

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Political purges, funding cuts and a growing hostility towards expertise have unsettled the US research community, evoking memories among Chinese-Americans of a dark chapter in Chinese history and prompting some to look to China for stability. The Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 to eliminate “bourgeois” influence and consolidate his power, plunged China into turmoil. Factories and schools were shut down while scholars were denounced and exiled for “re-education”. The upheaval...

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After repeated on-again, off-again signalling in recent weeks, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he has a “pretty long meeting scheduled” in South Korea with Chinese President Xi Jinping to ensure that “we can work out a lot of our questions and our doubts”. This followed comments by Trump on Tuesday that the meeting between himself and Xi might not take place. The mercurial US president has a history of teasing events for publicity and in order to extract last-minute concessions from...

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Speculation has grown that China’s latest Type 076 amphibious warship, which will serve as a drone carrier and is capable of launching fixed-wing fighters, has begun testing its advanced electromagnetic catapult. The Sichuan, which is currently being fitted out at Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai, was pictured on Chinese social media with its state-of-the-art launch system pointing towards the open waters of the Yangtze River, rather than facing inward towards the dock. The photo, claimed to...

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Washington should focus its industrial policy on strategic, cutting-edge technologies rather than trying to bring back manufacturing wholesale, particularly in areas where the US has little competitive advantage, said members of the former Joe Biden administration. This comes at a time when US policy circles are debating whether the nation should borrow some of China’s playbook as the bilateral competition intensifies and how far it should go as China’s state-led system makes a big bet on...

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The Chinese government’s recent announcement of more export controls on rare earth-related items marks a significant shift in global economic statecraft. The new measures, covering a spectrum of rare earth elements, other critical materials and relevant processing technologies, have been justified as measures to safeguard national security and fulfil non-proliferation obligations. The controls aim to deny the use of the materials in foreign military systems, linking China’s mines directly to the...

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China and the United States often find themselves sharply at odds on policy, but nowhere is the divide between the rival powers more striking than on climate change – as their leaders made clear at last month’s United Nations General Assembly in New York. Even as US President Donald Trump dismissed climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”, his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, used the moment to unveil Beijing’s latest strategies for addressing the issue. Xi said...

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Car sales in mainland China are likely to slide in 2026, breaking a six-year streak, if Beijing stops granting cash subsidies and tax incentives to buyers, according to a JPMorgan forecast that looms over the earnings outlook for the country’s 100-odd vehicle assemblers. “We expect retail [car] sales to see flat growth next year in a bullish scenario,” Nick Lai, head of auto research in Asia-Pacific at JPMorgan, said in an interview. “The market has more than a 50 per cent chance of seeing...

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With an eye to transforming Cambodia into a Southeast Asian travel and cargo hub, a new US$2.3 billion airport – developed by a venture affiliated with one of the country’s wealthiest men – was opened at a grand ceremony near Phnom Penh, where officials and business leaders praised the project for enhancing regional connectivity and deepening links with Hong Kong and mainland China. Techo International Airport (TIA), which has replaced the Cambodian capital’s previous facility, has been forecast...

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Huawei Technologies on Wednesday released to consumers in China the latest version of its proprietary operating system, HarmonyOS 6, that enables direct file transfers between Huawei and Apple devices for the first time. HarmonyOS 6, which was initially made available to developers in June, is expected to be found in more than 90 Huawei devices including the Mate 70 and Pura 80 smartphones, according to the company. The updated mobile operating system’s new function, which is similar to Apple’s...

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