China News

Chinese scientists have reported a milestone in space laser communications, sustaining a high-speed, hours-long laser link with a satellite more than 40,000km (25,000 miles) above the Earth. The capability is seen as critical to future deep-space networks. According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Optics and Electronics, which led the project, researchers used a 1.8-metre (6-foot) aperture telescope in Yunnan province to lock onto a geostationary satellite within four...

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The European Union unveiled a sweeping raft of policies on Wednesday aimed at kick-starting its sluggish industry and protecting its critical infrastructure. A common thread through each is that the screws will be turned ever tighter on Chinese firms in Europe. Combined, the proposals reveal anxiety over the bloc’s ability to compete with cut-price and increasingly high-quality Chinese products, the heightened security fears connected to Chinese investments, and a new-found urgency to do...

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China will focus on economic resilience as lawmakers gather in Beijing for the country’s annual legislative session – just days before US President Donald Trump touches down in the Chinese capital. Lou Qinjian, spokesman for the National People’s Congress, outlined the NPC’s agenda on Wednesday, taking the opportunity to also stress that China will not compromise on core principles in dealing with the United States. The NPC will run for eight days from Thursday, and during the gathering, China’s...

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China and Iran may be strategic partners but, as was the case with America’s special operation in Venezuela in January, China has offered no security support to Iran over the US and Israeli attacks. The decision was based on a consideration of Beijing’s own interests, its ties with the US and other countries, and to minimise military and financial risks to China, according to analysts. Since the large-scale attacks against Iran began over the weekend, Beijing has limited its response to...

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As missiles fly throughout the Middle East, China is walking a diplomatic tightrope between strategic partner Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council states, with whom it has deep economic ties. All six GCC members have been struck as Tehran has widened its retaliation for US and Israeli attacks that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and senior officials. Its strikes have also expanded beyond United States’ assets to include landmark buildings and airports, causing death and...

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Song Ping, a veteran Chinese revolutionary who lived through five generations of Communist Party leaders, has died at the age of 108. He died at 3.36pm in Beijing on Wednesday, state news agency Xinhua reported, describing him as a loyal communist fighter, and an outstanding state and party leader. Song’s career began in the 1930s before the founding of the People’s Republic including a spell as political secretary to the future premier Zhou Enlai. Song held many important positions during the...

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As the world watches in horror at death raining from the skies in the Middle East, millions of Chinese are glued to the television watching a turbulent drama that unfolded in their own country, albeit some eleven centuries ago. Swords into Ploughshares, a historical TV drama set during the chaotic Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, has emerged as an unexpected smash hit coming into China’s festive season. Yet it is more than just a television phenomenon. In some ways, it sheds light on the...

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The founder and chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) said his company plans to ramp up the use of artificial intelligence in research and take Chinese battery technology and standards further overseas, as the battery giant maps the next phase of growth. The world’s largest maker of electric vehicle (EV) batteries would step up research and development (R&D) spending and apply more AI methods to strengthen its technological edge, said billionaire Robin Zeng Yuqun at a briefing...

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Rising energy costs driven by Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions may provide some relief to China’s years-long struggle with weak prices, but analysts warn that a spike in oil prices could spark a scenario in which stagnant economic growth collides with rising inflation, hindering the nation’s economic recovery. “Rising oil prices [could] lead to stagflation, which helps increase the inflation rate but also leads to a decline in economic growth and an increase in unemployment,” said Su Jian,...

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Beijing has built military capacity and strengthened political resolve but needs to project a more credible deterrence as it steps up unification with Taiwan over the next five years, according to a mainland Chinese policy adviser. Li Yihu, dean of the Taiwan Research Institute at Peking University, said the reunification process would enter an “accelerated phase” in the next five years and the mainland needed to do more to communicate an understanding of what he said was the inevitability of...

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The pace and size of outlicensing deals between Chinese drug makers and global partners have accelerated this year, highlighted by two agreements announced this week, each worth more than US$1 billion. The string of deals shows how China is becoming a sought-after source of drug candidates for multinational pharmaceutical companies, which are increasingly looking for long-term partnerships rather than one-off arrangements, analysts said. The latest deals, Sino Biopharmaceutical’s agreement with...

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Chinese and US trade officials will meet in Paris at the end of next week, laying the groundwork for President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit to Beijing. Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will lead discussions on trade and investment deals, the South China Morning Post reported, citing unidentified sources. Trump is due to arrive in Beijing on March 31, for a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Tariffs, investments, soybeans and rare earths will all be...

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Singapore and China share “common interests” in safeguarding international order amid profound changes in the global landscape and uncertainties from trade wars, according to the city state’s top envoy to Beijing. The world has faced increased challenges, with huge pressure on multilateralism, free trade, and openness since the beginning of last year, Peter Tan Hai Chuan, Singapore’s ambassador to China, warned at an event at Renmin University in Beijing on Tuesday. “But Singapore and China have...

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For years, debates about US-China competition have defaulted to the obvious categories: ships, chips, tariffs and security pacts. Soft power was often treated as America’s home turf, the domain of Hollywood, top universities, global brands and a political ideal that still attracts even when it disappoints. That assumption is getting riskier. The world has entered a new emotional weather pattern: fatigue. It’s a structural condition shaped by overlapping shocks: pandemic after-effects, inflation...

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China’s sovereign debt is emerging as a strategic alternative to US Treasuries as global investors look for geopolitical hedges, though greater market liquidity and deeper yuan internationalisation are still needed to cement its status as a global safe haven, an economist at a Chinese government think tank has said. “[These bonds] circumvent the restrictions of the non-convertibility of the renminbi,” said Xu Qiyuan, deputy director of the American Studies Institute at the Chinese Academy of...

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With major Persian Gulf aviation hubs largely paralysed by airspace closures amid the escalating conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran, travellers have flocked to direct Asia-Europe routes, driving a sharp surge in airfares. This week, economy class on most direct one-way Beijing-Paris flights is fully booked, with a small number of economy seats – plus premium economy and business class seats – remaining. Economy seats on an Air China flight on Sunday are already booked out, with a one-way...

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Chinese researchers said they have developed a drone with wings made from bamboo, making it 20 per cent lighter and considerably cheaper than a carbon fibre device, according to state news agency Xinhua. The bamboo-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which completed its maiden flight in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin last month, costs about a quarter of the price of carbon fibre cloth, it said. The savings meant that the overall structural costs of a drone made with the new material could...

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New Tsinghua University data this week reveals a nearly 20 per cent rise in graduates joining the manufacturing and energy sectors, signalling a major shift in career pursuits in China. The sharp rise seen in Tsinghua’s class of 2025 indicates a renewed interest in traditional industrial sectors among top-tier talent as well as the pull of national strategic priorities. As some of China’s brightest minds enter these fields, the country is poised to intensify its competitive challenge to Western...

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China and the United States will hold a new round of high-level trade talks in Paris at the end of next week, according to sources from both sides, as preparations press on for US President Donald Trump’s visit to China. Led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, the two delegations will meet in the French capital to discuss trade and investment deals – including on tariffs, investment, soybean and rare earth – that would be presented as deliverables...

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Public awareness of animal welfare on the Chinese mainland is at an all-time high. The country now has the world’s second-largest pet population, estimated at 430 million in 2024 and growing strongly. The cultural shift was on full display last year when the justice ministry solicited public feedback on its legislative plans. In a massive show of support, an online survey pushing for anti-cruelty legislation attracted over 4.2 million votes, with 96 per cent voting in favour. Yet despite rising...

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Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the eighth entry in a series examining the complex economic recalibration driving China’s growth philosophy and its wide-ranging implications for local governments, financial investors and private enterprises. Investors are watching Beijing’s annual “two sessions” this week for signs that the country will address drug pricing and shore up its drug payment system, as a new form of...

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Beijing should increase investment in early childhood education and lifelong learning as AI reshapes the world’s largest labour market, a prominent Chinese economist has said. The real policy test for China is whether it can shift decisively from investing in capital to investing in people, while policy and regulation must steer artificial intelligence (AI) towards empowering rather than replacing workers, according to Cai Fang, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences focusing...

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In the run-up to this year’s ‘two sessions’ – the annual meetings of China’s top legislature and political advisory body – high-level policymakers have stressed the need to defuse financial risks and root out political corruption, two of President Xi Jinping’s long-term priorities. As part of a series, Yuanyue Dang and William Zheng look at why the fight against graft is the new normal. As early as the start of President Xi Jinping’s second term in 2018, the Chinese leadership declared an...

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US President Donald Trump used a White House meeting with the German Chancellor on Tuesday to blast European allies, praise China, waffle on tariffs and argue that the attack he launched against Iran prevented a nuclear war. Attended by Vice-President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House, Trump told reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that his order to attack Iran even as negotiations were under way was justified. “If we didn’t do what...

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US and Chinese trade negotiators are slated to meet in mid-March, according to people familiar with the matter, signalling that a planned summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping is pushing ahead despite American strikes against Iran. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng are expected to convene in Paris at the end of next week to discuss business deals that could stem from the leaders’ meeting, said the people who...

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