China News

One of China’s largest mining companies has taken control of three gold mines in Brazil in a deal worth about US$1 billion, as gold prices hit historic highs amid rising economic and geopolitical uncertainty in the United States and a global flight to safe assets. CMOC said on Tuesday it assumed operational control on January 23 after Brazilian regulators approved the transfer of the Aurizona mine in Maranhao, the Riacho dos Machados mine in Minas Gerais and the Complexo Bahia, which includes...

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China may have led a Stone Age technological race as early as 160,000 years ago, by crafting sophisticated stone tools for cutting, piercing and sawing, according to a new study. An international team of scientists said the discovery of hafted tools – the earliest evidence for composite tools in eastern Asia – had reshaped the understanding of human evolution in the region. They said the find showed that hominins in China were much more inventive and adaptable than previously thought,...

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A team of researchers in China has claimed that a recent near-miss between a Chinese satellite and one of SpaceX’s Starlink devices was behind the US company’s decision to move more than 4,000 of its satellites into lower orbit. The two satellites passed within about 200 metres (656 feet) of each other on December 10, shortly after a launch from northwestern China, according to a social media post last month by Michael Nicolls, SpaceX’s vice-president of engineering. Three weeks later, in...

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After a bruising 2025 that pushed him to the brink of bankruptcy, Arkansas soybean farmer Randall Shelby starts the new year worried that US farmers could once again be caught in the crossfire as tensions between Washington and Beijing threaten to escalate anew. This comes as US President Donald Trump addresses farmers on Tuesday in Iowa, the United States’ second-largest soybean producer, to try to convince them that he has their best interests at heart in advance of the November midterm...

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Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun urged closer strategic coordination between Beijing and Moscow and bolstering joint capacity to respond to risks and challenges in a video call with his Russian counterpart on Tuesday. Dong told Andrei Belousov that Beijing was willing to “enrich the substance of cooperation, improve communication and exchange mechanisms, jointly enhance the ability to respond to various risks and challenges and work hand in hand to inject positive energy into global security...

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Chinese households have accelerated deleveraging – cutting debt relative to gross domestic product – at the fastest pace in years, a shift that could weigh on the consumer spending that Beijing needs to sustain growth in the world’s second-largest economy. The household debt-to-GDP ratio fell by 2 percentage points, from 61.4 per cent in 2024 to 59.4 per cent at the end of 2025, according to data released on Monday by the National Institution for Finance and Development (NIFD), a Beijing-based...

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At Davos this year, a familiar but sobering warning echoed through the slopes: the global order is fracturing into closed loops. In Western capitals, “de-risking” remains the dominant keyword, framing the global economy as a series of strategic high walls. Yet, beyond these barriers, a more tangible crisis is unfolding across the Global South. The infrastructure deficit continues to widen, estimated at a staggering US$1.7 trillion annually for Asia alone. This is a crisis of global governance....

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Mainland China could become one of the first markets in the world to approve a drug fully designed by artificial intelligence, as advances in AI and human genetics combine to create a “seismic shift” in drug development, according to executives of pharmaceutical giants. “We will see in 2026 that we move from AI-assisted discovery to fully AI-designed compounds, perhaps entering the pipeline,” said Marc Horn, president of Merck China, at the Asian Financial Forum on Tuesday in Hong Kong. “We...

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The United States’ top diplomat in China has expressed optimism about US-China ties during a closed-door speech in Hong Kong where he said risks in the relationship have been controlled effectively and a Boeing deal is being negotiated, sources said. Sources who attended the speech by David Perdue, Washington’s ambassador to China, said his message at Tuesday’s Goldman Sachs Global Macro Conference Asia Pacific 2026 was “comforting and reassuring” to hundreds of global business and finance...

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China is tightening approvals for intercity railways and urban metro projects – long-standing pillars of fixed-asset investment – as policymakers pay closer attention to debt risks while shifting the growth model towards consumption. The move comes as President Xi Jinping has specifically flagged operational strains at some high-speed rail stations and subway lines – a sign that the old growth driver may be further curtailed in the coming years. According to an online statement on Sunday by the...

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Alibaba Group Holding and Moonshot AI have unveiled their latest flagship artificial intelligence models, narrowing the gap with US industry leaders OpenAI and Google DeepMind. The new models from two of China’s leading AI developers mark the first major Chinese model releases of this year, as industry observers continue to closely monitor the gap between the US and China in developing cutting-edge foundational models. Alibaba Cloud announced its biggest-ever model, Qwen3-Max-Thinking, on...

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is preparing to visit Beijing, following in the footsteps of other world leaders seeking to boost trade and investment ties with China without sparking reprisals from US President Donald Trump. Starmer will be in China from Thursday to Saturday, according to a Chinese government statement. He will also make a brief stop in Tokyo, a UK government spokesman said. The first official trip to China by a UK prime minister since 2018 reflects the huge opportunities...

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US allies are shifting their focus to Beijing as Donald Trump doubles down on his tariff threats. After fresh US warnings, the year has started with a diplomatic rush to Beijing as European, Asian, and North American leaders seek stability through bilateral engagement with China. South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung kicked off the diplomatic pivot in early January. As the first South Korean president to visit China since 2019, his trip cemented a thaw in relations. Irish Taoiseach Micheál...

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Chinese President Xi Jinping said that major powers must set an example as the world faced “multiple risks and challenges”, during a meeting with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Beijing on Tuesday. “Major powers in particular must take the lead in promoting equality, rule of law, cooperation and integrity,” Xi said, according to state broadcaster CCTV. “China and Europe are partners, not rivals, with cooperation outweighing competition and consensus greater than differences,” he...

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Baidu has merged two of its consumer app businesses into a new artificial intelligence-focused unit, stepping up its push into China’s fast-evolving and fiercely contested market for consumer AI applications. The company combined its online document-sharing business Wenku and consumer-oriented cloud storage operation Wangpan to form the Personal Super Intelligence Business Group (PSIG), according to a source familiar with the matter. The move marks one of Baidu’s largest reorganisations in the...

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Hangzhou’s space industry got off to a flying start in 2026. On January 7, China’s leading private rocket firm Space Epoch broke ground on a medium-to-large liquid rocket assembly, testing and reuse facility in Hangzhou’s Qiantang district. Basing this in the port city allows the rockets to be transported by sea to launch areas in the East China Sea and recovered the same way. Logistics alone do not explain the decision. Space Epoch is plugging into an industrial ecosystem Hangzhou has been...

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Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen-3 became the world’s first general-purpose artificial intelligence model to be uploaded and operated in orbit, marking a milestone in China’s bid to lead the nascent space-based computing sector. Chinese aerospace start-up Adaspace Technology successfully deployed Qwen-3 to a space computing centre in orbit where it executed multiple inference tasks in November, according to company executive vice-president Wang Yabo, who spoke at a conference on Monday, as reported by the...

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China is approaching the United States in terms of overall world power including economic mettle, a former European Commission leader and Portuguese prime minister said this week. The United States remains the “most important global power” but China is getting closer, said Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, the European Commission president from 2004 to 2014, pointing to US technology and finance among other aspects of its prominence. “China comes every time closer, from my point of view,” Durao Barroso...

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Japan’s alliance with the United States would collapse if Tokyo turned a blind eye as US forces are attacked in joint operations in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Monday. “If something serious happens there, we would have to go to rescue the Japanese and American citizens in Taiwan. In that situation, there may be cases where Japan and the US take joint action,” Takaichi said in her latest elaboration of her country’s potential military involvement in case of a Taiwan...

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Special thanks to:

Siglen Elevator, HQ in Foshan, Guangdong

Hassan Ablajan, Global Sales Director
Tacheng, Xinjiang

Jessie Ye, Marketing Director
Foshan, Guangdong

Tina A
Translator for Uyghur / Mandarin / English

Closing scene, Zhuhai Opera House, Guangdong

Resources and links:

Lift & elevator market is on the rise in China
https://seoagencychina.com/lift-elevator-market-is-on-the-rise-in-china/

China: The world’s largest elevator and escalator markets
https://seoagencychina.com/lift-elevator-market-is-on-the-rise-in-china/

Elevator and Escalator Market Report 2026
https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/elevator-and-escalator-global-market-report

Production locations in Guangdong: Which kind of products are being made where?
https://www.guangzhousourcing.com/blog/procurement-services-2/production-locations-in-guangdong-which-kind-of-products-are-being-made-where-10

A Look Inside Shenzhen's High-Tech Empire
https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/07/14/a-look-inside-shenzhens-high-tech-empire/

The Impact of Consolidation and Globalization on the U.S. Market
https://elevatorworld.com/article/the-impact-of-consolidation-and-globalization-on-the-u-s-market/

China leads expansion of industrial robot installations
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202502/1328647.shtml

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In an era of ruptured global order, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s much-anticipated visit to China, scheduled for later this week, marks the culmination of London’s “re-engagement” strategy with Beijing, prioritising trade and growth amid escalating geopolitical risks, according to observers. Beijing said on Friday that Starmer would visit from January 29 to 31. A Downing Street spokesman confirmed the dates on Monday, telling reporters “he will depart for his travel to China and Japan on...

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In the science and tech race, China is steadily advancing while America is retreating. That’s the conclusion of multiple Western studies. US President Donald Trump’s own policies have greatly contributed to this trajectory. Several salient features in this race for supremacy have been identified: China’s highly focused state support of science and tech, America’s federal defunding of them, and a nation of engineers and science graduates versus a nation of lawyers. “China is an engineering state...

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An outbreak of the highly fatal Nipah virus in India’s eastern state of West Bengal has sparked widespread attention and public concern in China ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday when millions will travel. While the virus has infected at least five people in West Bengal, including one in critical condition, Chinese health experts say it is difficult to transmit and less likely to cause an outbreak in China. With a fatality rate of up to 75 per cent and no effective treatment or vaccines...

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China should build on its “most important” strategic assets of domestic stability and progress to navigate US President Donald Trump’s shattering of global norms, a Washington watcher at a Chinese think tank says. Ni Feng, a researcher and former director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of American Studies, said the Trump administration’s “disruptive” overhaul of US diplomacy was sending the international system into a “more volatile and uncertain” phase. This could leave...

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China’s premier manufacturing hub is recalibrating its economic ambitions, with policymakers in the industrial heartland of Guangdong setting a cautious growth target for 2026, signalling a strategic shift amid intensifying external pressures and internal regional imbalances. The southern province, bordering Hong Kong, expects its gross domestic product to grow between 4.5 and 5 per cent this year, its governor, Meng Fanli, said on Monday while delivering the annual government work report at the...

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