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China has expressed its firm opposition to and strong condemnation of the brazen US and Israeli aggression against Iran and the murder of the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei. In an immediate reaction, following the start of the aggression on February 28, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that China is highly concerned over the military … Continue reading China firmly opposes and strongly condemns killing of Iran’s supreme leader

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China has strongly condemned the killing of the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which has left Tehran in turmoil and the Middle East facing a major regional escalation. However, analysts believe that China’s position as Iran’s top oil buyer and trade partner will endure through any political upheaval. They also expect Beijing to adopt a pragmatic approach towards Iran’s next leadership, despite the potential threat to Chinese diplomatic and defence ambitions in the Middle East...

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For over a year, Europe has become the world’s geopolitical punching bag, taking economic roundhouses from the east and geopolitical uppercuts from the west without ever swinging back. From US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and covetous glances at Greenland to Beijing’s rare earth embargoes and lightning blockade of semiconductor shipments, Europe’s first response has been to freeze, not fight. But now, it may be ready to counterpunch. After a fresh Trump tariff threat emerged last week, a...

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Chinese smartphone maker Honor has unveiled a “robot phone” and its first humanoid assistant ahead of MWC Barcelona, alongside its latest foldable handset, in an aggressive bet on artificial intelligence-powered hardware to stand out in the fierce Android competition. Honor’s AI Robot Phone, which featured a motorised, three-axis gimbal arm, could track motion and interact with users through camera movement, the company said in a preview of the handset on Sunday in Barcelona. The camera arm and...

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I underestimated Japan’s determination to ruffle China’s feathers. In a November 2023 column, I argued that the apparently cordial meeting between President Xi Jinping and then US president Joe Biden in the US unsettled Japan, which wanted to attain its goal of becoming a “normal country” again. In a column last December, I said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s hardened position against China – exemplified by her November 7 speech saying China’s forceful takeover of Taiwan could pose an...

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A subsidiary of state-owned conglomerate China Resources (Holdings) has acquired a Hong Kong hotel and plans to convert it into student housing amid a wave of investments driven by rising demand after the city raised the cap on non-local students. CR Longdation signed an agreement to buy four-star hotel Hotel Cozi Oasis in Kwai Chung, a major industrial and residential area in the southwestern New Territories, for HK$953 million (US$122 million), said Colliers and Knight Frank, which advised on...

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Beijing is expected to intensify naval operations beyond Taiwan and the first island chain, military observers say, citing the possible commissioning of Type 055 “super destroyers” into the East Sea Fleet. Photographs circulating on social media in late January showed two Type 055 guided-missile destroyers moored at a naval base in Zhoushan, located on the East China Sea coast. They had also been assigned hull numbers, 109 and 110, signalling imminent commissioning into the PLA Navy. This...

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The United States has appointed a new official to oversee its policy on Tibet, a move analysts say signals Washington’s interest in playing up the issue while dealing with Beijing. The appointment is set against US President Donald Trump’s cuts to foreign aid and global advocacy, as well as a strategic detente with Beijing. On February 17, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Riley Barnes, the assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labour, would assume the role of US...

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For a book on performance appraisals, it contained some surprising language – especially given its author, President Xi Jinping. The volume, published by the Central Party Literature Press, coincided with the launch of an overhaul of the Communist Party’s promotion system that will continue in the run-up to next year’s leadership transition. Among the raft of speeches and instructions from Xi since November 2012 is a blunt warning to cadres about pursuing debt-laden white elephant...

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China’s major sportswear makers have shrugged off soft consumer spending and a warm winter, according to analysts. Retail sales in China’s sportswear sector picked up in the first two months of 2026 and beat expectations, helped by fresh policy support and Chinese New Year demand, analysts said. Separately, Chinese households also tuned into the Winter Olympics, where domestic sportswear giants Li Ning and Anta had high visibility. “We are turning more positive on the China sportswear industry...

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Chinese companies are primed to capitalise on a vast global wave of investment in clean energy infrastructure in the coming decades, as they are able to deploy solutions at a scale and cost that few can match, analysts said. With China already rolling out green technologies – from wind and solar power to electric cars and batteries – at a massive scale domestically, its firms have the resources and know-how that other countries need to reduce their reliance on coal-fired power plants and...

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The top executive of Wuliangye Yibin – China’s second-largest liquor producer – has come under investigation for suspected corruption. Zeng Congqin, 57, chairman and party secretary of the state-owned liquor giant, is suspected of serious violations of party discipline and law – a typical reference to corruption – the provincial anti-corruption body, Sichuan Discipline Inspection Commission, announced on Saturday night. Zeng is being investigated by authorities in Yibin, a major city in the...

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Chinese scientists have developed a flexible and safe organic lithium-ion battery that could be suitable for use in wearable electronics and in extreme conditions. The breakthrough stems from an innovative organic cathode material that enables efficient and stable performance across an extreme temperature range, from far below freezing to as hot as 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit). Conventional lithium-ion batteries typically use inorganic minerals such as lithium cobalt oxide or...

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Hong Kong-listed mainland Chinese pharmaceutical companies are on track to deliver full-year profits, as surging drug sales and lucrative out-licensing deals with global partners start to pay off after years of research and development outlay. “Despite domestic challenges, particularly drug pricing pressure, the earnings performance of innovative drugs should still fare well in China in 2025,” said Tony Ren, head of Asia Healthcare Research at Macquarie Capital. Innovent Biologics, the first...

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Ahead of China’s annual legislative meetings – typically a window into Beijing’s top-level policy agenda – this is the third 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. In China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, a sprawling laboratory for Beijing’s “common prosperity” campaign to reduce income inequality, statistics suggest success: between 2021...

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A social media ban on a stand-up comic for joking about marriage has triggered an online backlash in China. Authorities said the Weibo account of Uygur stand-up comedian Xiao Pa was suspended as part of a cyberspace clean-up campaign during the Chinese New Year. Xiao Pa, whose real name is Paziliyaer Paerhati, was banned from posting online, a verified Weibo community manager posted on Friday. “Xiao Pa had posted information that stirred up gender conflicts and created anxiety over marriage and...

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In international relations, interactions between states are often understood through a transactional lens. A transactional approach treats diplomacy as a series of discrete deals, short-term and conditional exchanges governed by a strict calculus of quid pro quo. Its focus is immediate gain and measurable returns. The turbulence in transatlantic relations over the past year illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of such an approach. At the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, US...

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The United States was out in force in Cape Town this month, throwing down a direct challenge to China at Africa’s biggest mining conference, the Investing in African Mining Indaba. While Chinese firms showed their technological leadership with automation and green energy solutions, officials from the State Department, the Department of Energy and several US development agencies were among the record number of American diplomats and financiers at the event in South Africa. Analysts said the US...

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Taiwan’s procurement of three US arms packages has come under renewed scrutiny, with military experts now questioning their effectiveness in deterring Beijing. The debate has sharpened after opposition parties repeatedly blocked a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$40 billion) special defence budget in the legislature’s procedure committee last month. At the centre of the latest criticism are three US-approved systems for Taiwan: the Patriot PAC-3 missile defence system and its upgrades, the National...

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The Chilean government has turned down a request from a Chinese military hospital ship to treat Chilean residents on board the vessel. The decision reflects Santiago’s tilt towards Washington and US efforts to exert more influence in the western hemisphere, according to a Chinese academic. The Chilean Ministry of Health said on Friday that it had reviewed the Silk Road Ark’s request and decided not to grant it, citing a health code that restricts such services to professionals accredited ‌in the...

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China and South Korea have resolved a trade dispute over hot-rolled steel coils through a price-undertaking deal, mirroring the solution used in China’s electric vehicle (EV) stand-off with the European Union. Analysts say the deal, which will see exporters raise export prices to avoid anti‑dumping duties, could avert punitive tariffs and safeguard market access for Chinese exports. The China Iron and Steel Association said in a statement issued on Thursday night that it “welcomed and supported”...

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Donald Trump called on the Iranian people to overthrow their government after the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran early on Saturday in what the US president described as “major combat operations”. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally … obliterated. We are going to annihilate their navy. We’re going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilise the region or the world and attack...

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Chinese researchers have released the world’s first open-source text-to-speech (TTS) model that unifies more than 20 Arabic dialects in an AI framework, a move poised to expand China’s technological influence in the Middle East, according to analysts. Led by Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s X-LANCE Lab – one of China’s top audiovisual and language processing research entities – the model is named Habibi, meaning “my dear” in Arabic. In presenting their findings, the research team spearheaded by...

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Chinese scientists have used a cutting-edge gene-editing tool to correct a DNA mutation responsible for cognitive and behavioural problems – a move that could eventually lead to the development of new autism therapies. In lab tests, mice that had been engineered to have the mutation showed a striking change in their behaviour, such as the way they interacted with other mice, after being given an injection to introduce the edited genes. The Shanghai-based research team is looking for ways to...

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Until last year, Fidelity International’s most significant cornerstone commitments on the Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) market dated back to 2021, when Chinese short-video platform Kuaishou Technology raised US$5.4 billion and healthcare firm Medlive Technology completed a US$543.4 million listing. Then for the next four years, the asset manager went quiet. Late last year it returned to Chinese assets in force. It backed gold miner Zijin Gold International’s US$3.2 billion listing in...

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