China News

China plans to further strengthen its strategic transport network in sensitive border regions over the next five years to fortify and better project power along its remote frontiers amid rising geopolitical uncertainty. One project involves building a 394km (245-mile) highway linking the northern and southern sides of the rugged Tianshan Mountains in far-western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, according to the draft 15th five-year plan released last week. The route will run parallel to a...

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This year’s government work report delivered by Premier Li Qiang marks a shift from the perennial fixation with growth towards a greater emphasis on effective strategic development, especially social and people-centred outcomes. The “two sessions” have convened against the backdrop of Washington’s military adventure overseas. In contrast to that overextended empire, China will prevail in the competition with the United States by putting its own house in order. Some of the most consequential...

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China’s Ministry of Transport has summoned two maritime giants – Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) – for talks on “international shipping operations” amid legal disputes over the Panama Canal, a vital artery for global trade. No further details were provided in the one-sentence statement, which was posted on the ministry’s website on Tuesday. But in China, government summons often serve as a warning and, if ignored, could lead to further action. The move came as mounting...

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Scientists in China and Germany have identified four possible landing sites for China’s first crewed mission to the moon in an area that has also been of interest to Nasa. The Rimae Bode region on the lunar nearside is favoured for its diverse geological samples, including volcanic debris, for studying lunar volcanism and its relatively flat ground for safe astronaut access. “Rimae Bode lies in an easily accessible, low-latitude, nearside location with generally flat, traversable terrain,” they...

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Whenever South African officials meet their Chinese counterparts to talk trade, the issue of the imbalance in China’s favour is almost certainly raised. But a discrepancy in the data from the two sides makes it hard to assess the trade gap. The latest Chinese customs data suggests that South Africa actually holds a surplus – exporting more to the world’s second-largest economy than it receives in return. According to the numbers from Beijing, China recorded US$30.58 billion in imports from South...

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China’s export growth accelerated sharply in the first two months of this year, defying last year’s high base while experts pointed to the likelihood of strong momentum for the rest of the year. Exports jumped 21.8 per cent from a year earlier to US$656.58 billion in the combined figures for January and February released by customs authorities on Tuesday. This represented a significant acceleration from the 6.6 per cent growth recorded in December and the 5.5 per cent rise recorded for all of...

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China should bring in judges from overseas and expand arbitration pilot programmes to extend the international reach of its legal system, according to a former senior justice official. Xiong Xuanguo, who was vice-minister of justice from 2016 to 2023, said China’s legal system was not integrated with others around the world, making it difficult for the country to enforce its court judgments abroad. To tackle the problem, China should train its arbitrators to meet global standards and also hire...

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China will develop a new financial law and a dedicated financial stability law this year, as Beijing works to defuse risks and prevent new ones as part of its ambition to become a financial superpower. In its work report delivered on Monday, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the country’s top legislative body, said it would also amend existing laws, including the People’s Bank of China Law and the Banking Supervision and Management Law. The work report outlined a broad...

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On Friday 6 March, Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez appeared on the Empire Watch live stream, hosted by Ileana Chan, Sara Vivacqua and João Amorim. The wide-ranging conversation includes detailed discussion on the criminal US-Israeli war on Iran; how that war is reshaping the multipolar world order; China’s vision of peaceful coexistence; a … Continue reading While the US pursues war and hegemony, China pursues peace and progress

The post While the US pursues war and hegemony, China pursues peace and progress appeared first on Friends of Socialist China.

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Potential US innovation in recycling electronic waste, combined with refining and processing, will allow the US to leapfrog China in critical minerals, an official at the Department of Energy said on Monday amid Washington’s aggressive attempts to counter China’s dominance in the industry. Recycling metals, materials and magnets within the US is one of the fastest ways the country can impact the critical minerals supply chain, and entrepreneurs across the US are “pioneering” new techniques that...

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In his decades toiling as a health official in a coastal Chinese province, Alan Chen has rarely had to study a subject about which he knew so little. “Nd is Neodymium. It is needed for almost all modern EV motors. China dominates the refining of Nd oxide. Dy is Dysprosium. It is needed for magnets to operate at high temperatures and is also essential for EV motors.” This was the kind of content Chen pored over in a training course he attended at the Central Party School, the Communist Party’s...

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US President Donald Trump reiterated on Monday that his country’s objectives in Iran are nearly complete and suggested the conflict could be nearing an end, on the same day he discussed the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Speaking at a news conference in Florida, Trump claimed the US was “achieving major strides towards completing our military objective”, adding that “some people could say they’re pretty well complete”. Trump said they are committed to keeping safe passage through the...

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We are pleased to publish the English translation of an important article by Chinese scholars Wang Chen and Gong Wanting on the inter-relationship between the promotion of new quality productive forces and the realising of common prosperity in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. The authors note that ethnic regions must fully leverage the role of … Continue reading New quality productive forces empowering common prosperity in ethnic regions: a logical examination and practical direction

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Companies in southern China are feeling growing confidence in the state of US-China relations and are reinvesting cautiously in the country, according to a survey by a US business lobby group. The American Chamber of Commerce in South China (AmCham South China) – a mix of foreign and domestic firms – generally expects bilateral ties to stabilise in the year ahead, but is also adapting to geopolitical friction as China shifts from assembling Western goods to supplying industrial parts to emerging...

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has used his annual meeting with the Beijing press corps to set out a comprehensive overview regarding his country’s foreign policy and external relations. His March 8 press conference was held on the sidelines of China’s annual parliamentary ‘two sessions’ of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s … Continue reading Chinese Foreign Minister meets the press

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China should not follow SpaceX in launching artificial intelligence data centres into orbit, but instead focus on more practical near-term space-based computing, a senior researcher has said. Gao Wen, a computer scientist at Peking University and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said on Thursday that electricity demand was not a major bottleneck for AI data centres in China, meaning there was little reason to move them into space. In a Sina News interview during the annual “two...

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Against the backdrop of oil prices surging past US$100 per barrel for the first time since the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, China has its sights set on strengthening energy security by stabilising domestic crude production and strategic backups – exemplified by coal-to-oil and gas projects – for the next few years. The nation pledges to maintain annual crude production at 200 million tonnes, ensure a steady rise in natural gas output, and bolster technical readiness for coal-derived...

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Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) reported a 42 per cent jump in net profit last year to 72.2 billion yuan (US$10.4 billion) on strong battery sales and an expansion into new energy storage scenarios. The Chinese battery giant’s sales volume of lithium-ion batteries – a key component for electric vehicles (EVs) – reached 661 gigawatt hours (GWh), up 39 per cent from the previous year, according to a filing released on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Monday night. China’s EV industry...

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China will enact a law to combat cross-border corruption this year, according to the top legislature’s work report released on Monday – a move aimed at preventing corruption by companies overseas, which some experts said could shield them from foreign “long-arm jurisdiction”. The work report, submitted by the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee to the fourth session of the 14th NPC for deliberation, provided no details or specific timeline for the legislation. The law is expected...

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Some local governments in China have rushed to support the adoption of OpenClaw, the artificial intelligence agent sweeping the country, even as warnings about privacy and security risks linger in the background. In Shenzhen, China’s southern tech hub, the AI and robotics agency of Longgang district published a draft on Saturday proposing sweeping measures, including subsidies of up to 2 million yuan (US$290,000) for approved projects. The initiative came a day after nearly a thousand people...

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Over the past 12 months, a series of political and military crises has erupted in different parts of the world. Do they have anything in common? On the surface, the dramas in Iran, Panama, Venezuela and Greenland look separate, each with its own cast, excuse and headlines. What links them is not ideology, or the public language used to sell each move. It is the map. Iran sits beside the Strait of Hormuz, the choke point for Gulf energy flows. Panama sits astride one of the world’s trade...

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US President Donald Trump will not go to any cities beyond Beijing during his visit to China scheduled for late this month because of his tight schedule and security concerns, according to sources familiar with the matter. Several sources, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said United States “advance parties” arrived in China’s capital in “early March” and their preparations for the high-stakes summit had entered the “final stage”. The South China Morning Post has...

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China’s highest court says that while it handles AI-related cases with care it has allowed room for the country’s artificial intelligence industry to innovate and make mistakes, according to its annual report. Supreme People’s Court president Zhang Jun told the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislative body, on Monday that the court had “promoted the orderly development of artificial intelligence” last year. Delivering the supreme court’s work report, Zhang said China’s courts...

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The EU must decide whether the rules-based international order “is more a help or a hindrance to our credibility as a geopolitical actor”, the bloc’s top official said on Monday, in the strongest sign yet that it might break from decades of rigid adherence to global norms. In a speech to the European Union’s ambassadors, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used her most forceful rhetoric to date to call time on the old system, urging the diplomats to quickly update their thinking...

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Beijing hailed as a success the sentencing and execution of leaders of a Myanmar crime syndicate, vowing to punish all who harm the rights of Chinese citizens overseas. During a plenary meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) on Monday, Zhang Jun, president of the Supreme People’s Court, said in a report that Chinese courts closed 41,000 criminal cases related to telecoms and online fraud last year, up 1.2 per cent from 2024. “Sixteen principal criminals of the ‘four families’ crime...

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