China News

China’s biopharmaceutical sector is said to have entered an “innovation 2.0” phase as it moves to a commercialisation mindset that could see it sideline global competitors and outpace the US – despite restrictive trade policies. In recent years, innovative drug development in the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical market has rapidly approached – and in some cases surpassed – that of the United States, the world’s biggest market. Growing concerns over China’s biotech capabilities have led the...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

US President Donald Trump is meeting US Ambassador to China David Perdue at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Friday, rounding off a day of diplomacy that began with a call with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The engagements come at a delicate moment for the administration as it seeks to align its “America first” regional approach amid a deepening diplomatic rift between Tokyo and Beijing over Taiwan, and following Washington’s recent approval of its largest-ever arms sale to the...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

When Arthur Sze translates classical Tang dynasty poetry into English, he writes Chinese characters by hand, slowing himself to the pace of brush strokes and gaps. This deliberate resistance to speed is central to the craft of the US’ 25th poet laureate, and to his belief that poetry must be treated with care if it is to cross borders with depth intact. Sze only translates poems he loves, noting that he’s done just 75 translations over a five-decade-long career. “I don’t work on assignment. I...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

The Chinese public’s favourability towards the United States saw a “notable” rebound in 2025 to reach a three-year high, according to a new study by Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy (CISS). The annual Chinese Outlook on International Security survey, released on Wednesday, also found that the share of respondents holding a positive view of Sino-US relations increased by a “substantial” margin over the last year. Despite this warming sentiment, domestic support...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

One of the most resonant words in the United States today is “affordability”. From rent and utilities to groceries and medical bills, prices seem to keep climbing. The term has helped Democrats win a string of local elections. It has also become a favourite target of US President Donald Trump. At a rally in Pennsylvania last month, the US president dismissed talk of affordability as a Democratic “hoax”. That stance came months after Trump revived the threat of sweeping tariffs, declared...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

As a diplomatic row sees Japanese company executives put visits to China on hold, Beijing is preparing to roll out the red carpet for South Korean business leaders accompanying President Lee Jae-myung on a state visit starting Sunday. The contrasting receptions highlight how geopolitics is reshaping corporate ties in East Asia. Analysts expect continued friction between Beijing and Tokyo in 2026 to accelerate Japanese efforts to de-risk from the Chinese market. Conversely, Beijing’s warming...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

President Lee Jae-myung of South Korea will seek Beijing’s support on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and press to lift an unofficial cultural content ban when he travels to China for a state visit next week, according to Seoul. Lee’s four-day trip from Sunday will make him the first sitting South Korean president to visit China since 2019. Lee will first travel to Beijing, where he is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday afternoon, their second summit in two months. They...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

China’s top party journal has called for a stronger package of policies implemented in one go – rather than through “piecemeal-style steps” – to stabilise the country’s struggling property sector, as the market remains vital to the domestic economy and consumer demand. The article published by Qiushi, the Communist Party’s leading theoretical journal, said policymakers should take concrete steps to stabilise the property market, urging them to implement measures that are “aligned with market...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

SpaceX has announced it will reconfigure its Starlink internet satellite constellation by lowering the orbit of more than 4,400 satellites throughout 2026, shortly after Beijing said the project posed “safety and security challenges”. The move aims to relocate the satellites to orbital regions less crowded by space debris and other planned satellite constellations, reducing the risk of collisions and allowing satellites to deorbit faster. It comes after an unnamed representative from Beijing...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

A video released by the People’s Liberation Army during a military drill this week has sparked debate about whether Taiwan failed to detect a J-20 stealth fighter and how close the aircraft might have come to a key military airport on the island. The video was released by the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command on Tuesday – the second day of the “Justice Mission 2025” joint military exercises around Taiwan. The footage shows a PLA J-20 flying near an unidentified landscape that some observers say...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Beijing will continue to push for peaceful reunification with Taiwan with the “utmost sincerity”, according to a new year’s message from a senior official delivered days after the People’s Liberation Army concluded large-scale drills around the island. Mainland China had strengthened its capacity to safeguard peace and security over the past year and would take more forceful action to oppose separatism and external interference this year, Song Tao, the head of Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office,...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

China’s box office revenue jumped nearly 22 per cent in 2025, driven by a record-breaking domestic animated hit that helped the market rebound from a soft patch. Total ticket sales reached 51.8 billion yuan (US$7.4 billion), the second-highest level in five years, according to data released by the China Film Administration on Thursday. While surpassing 2024’s haul, last year’s total trailed the 54.92 billion yuan recorded in 2023. Local films continued to dominate the world’s second-largest...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

After two US Navy aircraft crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other in October, analysts said there were lessons for the Chinese navy as it rapidly expands aircraft carrier operations. They said the People’s Liberation Army could learn from its rival’s strengths in search and rescue response, but also its weaknesses in maintenance and training. The US Navy said the aircraft – an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and an F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet – went down in separate...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

As an undergraduate student of anthropology long ago, I remember studying the phenomenon of “compartmentalism” as a hallmark of primitive cultures or societies – their capacity to hold contradictory beliefs without inner conflict or even appearing to notice the contradictions. We well-educated rationalists in the rich West were supposed to be above this kind of schizophrenic inconsistency, seen as a symptom of a defective imagination or the shallowness of the masses. Think of street hawkers in...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

As China grapples with persistent deflationary pressure, scholars from one of the country’s top universities have urged the government to take more forceful action to prevent the economy from becoming trapped in a Japan-style downward spiral. Beijing should adopt a binding inflation target and make reviving price growth a top priority, they argued, pointing to Japan’s “lost decades” as a cautionary tale of how deflation can become deeply entrenched if left unchecked. “Japan’s experience has...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

The computer, at its core, is an input-output device: it receives instructions, executes programmes, performs calculations automatically and produces results. By this fundamental definition, China’s ancient ti hua ji, or figured loom – dating back more than two millennia to the Western Han dynasty – may well be recognised as the world’s earliest computer, according to the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). Unearthed in 2012 from a tomb dated around 150BC in Chengdu, this...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. China builds a record-breaking hypergravity machine to compress space and time China is set to break its own record in hypergravity research with a colossal new centrifuge that can spin multi-tonne samples at unmatched intensities. 2....

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

China needs to adapt to a more competitive global environment driven by market power, technological innovation and institutional leverage, according to analysts at a leading Beijing-based think tank. These pillars were more critical than conventional military dominance or strengthening territorial control in the great power rivalry, particularly as Beijing sought to project itself as a stabiliser in an increasingly fractured international order, the analysts added. In an article this week, Fu...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

An aerial video released by Beijing during this week’s military exercise and featuring the Taipei 101 landmark in Taiwan has ignited a debate on how close PLA drones came to the heart of Taipei. The black-and-white drone footage, released by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command on Monday, shows an ascending passenger plane flying past Taipei 101, the city’s tallest skyscraper. A still image showing a panoramic view of the tower and surrounding landscape, including the...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

The US State Department on Thursday urged Beijing to end intimidating military moves in the area around Taiwan that it said creates needless anxiety and stress. Washington’s New Year’s Day message followed a two-day live-fire exercise that Beijing wrapped up on Tuesday, dubbed Justice Mission 2025, that played out on a more extensive scale than its predecessors. “China’s military activities and rhetoric towards Taiwan and others in the region increase tensions unnecessarily,” said Tommy Pigott,...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. As Trump upends US foreign policy, analysts see fresh openings for China Trump was expected to continue applying a wrecking ball to long-standing US national security architecture, threatening global stability and jolting long-time allies, with China a major beneficiary, analysts and former...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. Mexico stands by its decision for 50% tariffs on Chinese goods Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard in December defended Mexico’s decision to impose new tariffs on imports from China and other Asian countries, describing the move as a necessary step to protect hundreds of thousands of domestic...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering global relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. EU fears China’s role in Russia’s war on Ukraine is deepening European officials were parsing evidence of an increase in battlefield weapons being shipped from China to Russia as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine prepared to drag into its fifth year, adding to the well-documented flow of goods with...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Wang Nan, a hardware trader in China’s eastern city of Yiwu, expected her business to feel some pain when the US-China trade war escalated in April. “Last year, we still had many American clients, but the tariffs changed everything,” she said. Yet, Wang’s firm not only survived a rollercoaster year – which at one point saw US tariffs soar to triple-digit levels – it has emerged even stronger. An aggressive push to find new buyers in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa paid off. In the end,...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Beneath the “China threat” thesis, often heard in Western policy circles, is the assumption that China will become expansionist as it grows more powerful. But history gives us little reason to treat that as inevitable. At moments of peak strength, China has not consistently converted power into the kind of overseas colonialism, expansionism or conquest that marked the ascent of Western great powers. There are three often-cited reasons to suggest China’s rise might lead to expansionism. First,...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.