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Chinese scientists have made a long-lasting, eco-friendly battery using organic electrodes and an electrolyte safe enough to be used as tofu brine. The team’s water-based battery is non-toxic and can be discarded without posing an ecological risk, unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries which require hazardous waste processing. Water-based batteries eliminate the flammability risk of conventional batteries and can be cheaper to produce, offering a safer alternative for applications like...

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The following article is based on a presentation given by Friends of Socialist China co-editor Carlos Martinez at the Latin America Adelante Conference in London on 7 February 2026. The presentation was part of a session on ‘Latin America, the New Cold War and the Rising Global South’, which was also addressed by Sophie Bold … Continue reading The US is pursuing a global Monroe Doctrine

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For overseas researchers, policymakers, businesses and casual users alike, access to China’s public information is quietly shrinking as a growing number of official websites go dark outside the country, a new study has found. The contraction is far from marginal. A number of Chinese government websites were inaccessible from outside the country, the findings showed, indicating the emergence of a “reverse Great Firewall”. This suggests a deliberate effort by Beijing to prevent foreign data mining...

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In a consequential decision with billions of dollars on the line, the US Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower-court ruling, striking down US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, paving the way for massive refunds of well over US$100 billion already paid by trade partners and the likelihood of a tumultuous adjustment. The 6-3 decision in the nine-justice conservative majority of the Supreme Court is the most significant legal setback yet for the administration that has broadly accepted Trump’s...

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As US President Donald Trump prepares for a possible visit to China in April, analysts say that one issue is likely to “cast a shadow” over his looming negotiations with Beijing: America’s need to maintain access to supplies of gallium and other strategic resources. With China’s suspension of a ban on exports of gallium and several other metals to the US set to expire in November, the Trump administration’s immediate goal in any trade talks would be to avoid escalating tensions over critical...

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Highlighting Chinese “coercion”, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s first speech in parliament since her party’s landslide victory indicated that managing Tokyo’s relationship with Washington would be a priority, according to analysts. Takaichi on Friday said Beijing’s growing “coercion” was driving the island nation to be “strong and prosperous” and that “Japan faces its most severe and complex security environment since World War II”. “China is intensifying its attempts to unilaterally...

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They are young, intensely competitive, and unapologetic about 80-hour work weeks. Welcome to the United States’ new generation of tech founders. Gen Z’s start-up class is reframing “millennial hustle culture” by shifting from side gigs and personal branding to a more rigid office grind, while looking to China for inspiration. It’s for this reason that US artificial intelligence start-ups are openly embracing 996, the controversial 9am to 9pm, six-day-a-week schedule popularised by Chinese tech...

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The Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) opened on February 19 in Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). That day, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) sent a message of greetings to the congress, noting that the WPK is the strong leadership core of … Continue reading CPC greets 9th congress of Workers’ Party of Korea

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will visit China from Wednesday, shortly after the Lunar New Year holiday, according to the chancellor’s spokesman. “This date was proposed by the Chinese side,” spokesman Sebastian Hille said on Friday. “We consider this offer to come right at the beginning of the year to be a good omen.” Merz will leave Berlin on Tuesday for his first official China visit since he took office in May. He is expected to be welcomed in Beijing on Wednesday by Premier Li Qiang...

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China has defended the World Trade Organization’s non-discrimination principle after the United States and the European Union recently proposed reforms that could weaken it – though analysts say the rule would likely remain despite deepening divisions within the global trading system. Beijing called for “most-favoured nation treatment” to remain the “bedrock” of the WTO, in a new position paper on reforming the international body. The rule mandates that any trade advantage granted to one country...

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If 2026 were a chess match, critical minerals would be the opening gambit, and both China and the United States are going all out. On January 28, China’s Zijin Mining announced a US$4 billion takeover of Allied Gold’s three African mines. On February 3, Swiss mining giant Glencore entered talks to sell a 40 per cent stake in its Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) copper and cobalt operations to the US-backed Orion Critical Mineral Consortium. Between the two announcements, US Secretary of State...

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US and Chinese fighter jets have engaged in a rare stand-off over the Yellow Sea, according to media reports in South Korea. This comes at a time when the United States has been trying to shift the focus of its troops stationed in the country away from North Korea to concentrate more on China. The incident on Wednesday involved around 10 US F-16s, which took off from Osan Air Base around 65km (40 miles) south of Seoul and flew west over the Yellow Sea as part of a training operation, according...

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As American figure skater Ilia Malinin launched into a quad – a jump with four airborne revolutions – at this month’s Winter Olympics, millions of television viewers witnessed something brand new: a replay of the jump separated into frames that appeared to orbit the athlete. It was just one of many new perspectives offered to viewers thanks to the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, where the technology is not only enhancing broadcasts but also helping...

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China’s military and a tech firm have released high-resolution satellite imagery showing the US military build-up around Iran, amid reports that Washington may strike Tehran as soon as this weekend. Images posted on social media on Thursday by Chinese commercial satellite analysis company MizarVision show the latest American deployments at bases in Qatar, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The images from Jordan show 18 F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters and six EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft...

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I would like to explore some rather interesting data buried deep in the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Economic and Social Trends 2026 report: an estimated 15.3 per cent of jobs worldwide depended on foreign demand in 2024. In other words, they depend on international trade. The ILO report, based on data from 80 economies that account for 85 per cent of global employment, says this amounts to 465 million jobs. Of these, 278 million are in Asia and the Pacific and 96 million are in...

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China has joined Russia in congratulating North Korea on the conclave of its ruling party, hailing economic achievements under the leadership of Kim Jong-un and pledging to work with Pyongyang to promote regional peace. According to Xinhua, the Central Committee of China’s Communist Party sent a congratulatory letter on Thursday, asserting that the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea had in recent years helped develop the North Korean economy and improve the lives of its people. China’s state news...

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As German Chancellor Friedrich Merz prepares for his high-stakes visit to Beijing from February 24 to February 27, he faces a new reality – China has become less reliant on Germany. While China is once again Germany’s top trading partner, the relationship has become distorted by a record €89 billion (US$105.6 billion) trade deficit. China’s economic slowdown has cut demand for German exports while the German appetite for Chinese goods grows. SCMP Plus subscribers enjoy early access to selected...

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Chinese demand for overseas schooling, holidays and medical treatment has contributed to a persistent deficit in the country’s services trade, but signs of a tentative counter-current are emerging as a growing stream of foreign patients heads to China. The change – modest in scale but symbolically significant – comes as China, long the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, seeks to build strength in exporting high-value services. While patients in the United States or Europe may wait months to...

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Driven by Chinese demand, Zimbabwe produced a record 352.7 million kilograms of tobacco – valued at about US$1.2 billion – in last year’s marketing season. This represents a major turnaround for an industry that, if not for Chinese investment, would have nearly collapsed two decades ago, although it remains a crop of concern for health campaigners. As Zimbabwe’s largest agricultural export and a primary foreign currency earner, tobacco dominates its trade with Beijing. Last year, China imported...

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In the cutthroat world of Chinese civil service exams, the most dangerous opponent is not necessarily the person in the next seat: it is the “ghost” candidate designed to scare you away before you even show up. A bizarre case of inflating applicant numbers to deter potential candidates has become a national talking point, as tougher job prospects raise interest in civil service examinations on the mainland. First reported by state media in December, the case involved the illegal purchase of...

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The US State Department will subsidise companies to roll out cheap smartphones running American software in the Indo-Pacific region, part of its “Pax Silica” initiative that seeks to shore up the resilience of the US artificial intelligence supply chain and win the AI race with China. The US has launched the Edge AI Package, which provides up to US$200 million of funding for mobile network operators and smartphone vendors to deploy “low-cost, high-performance” handsets in some partner nations in...

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Working closely with like-minded countries remains the most effective strategy to counter an increasingly powerful China – in marked contrast to the policies of US President Donald Trump – said a former senior US official, while admitting that the Joe Biden administration made some key mistakes that undercut its own effectiveness. “Given the size and the immensity of the China challenge, the only way that the United States is going to be effective to meet that challenge is if we work with other...

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In a landmark achievement, Chinese scientists have directly observed and manipulated prethermalisation – a critical transitional state in quantum systems – using the 78-qubit “Chuang-tzu 2.0” superconducting processor. This allows researchers to “tune” the speed of quantum decoherence, providing a vital tool for managing complex quantum environments. If a quantum system is disturbed, it naturally returns to a balanced state. The energy and information within it spreads out until they are evenly...

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The global order has outgrown itself. The 2026 Munich Security Report describes this moment as a period of “wrecking-ball politics”, in which the post-war order constructed in 1945 is “under destruction”. However, that order was designed for a world shaped by bipolar rivalry and later sustained by American predominance. Today’s global system looks very different: economically diffuse, environmentally constrained and politically fragmented but deeply interconnected by both trade and...

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Lunar New Year wasn’t always on LuLu Grant’s radar. Adopted at two from Fuzhou, China and raised in the US state of Washington, Grant decided to cut her birth country out of her life at a young age. Decades later, she would celebrate Spring Festival alongside her birth family with a complex array of feelings about her two worlds. “People think that finding your birth family is so joyous, and part of it is, but it’s also very sad and very difficult,” she said, adding that “it’s not how I wish it...

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