China News

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...

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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,...

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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,...

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Tensions over the Taiwan Strait are likely to persist in 2026, but analysts expect Washington and Beijing to manage risks to ensure that reciprocal state visits planned for the new year are not derailed. Beijing launched massive live-fire drills around Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday, less than a fortnight after Washington announced its largest-ever arms sale to the self-ruled island. The People’s Liberation Army said the drills served as a warning to “independence forces” and against external...

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A group of about 200 prominent Japanese business leaders has reportedly postponed their annual visit to mainland China, the first such deferral in more than a decade, amid tensions between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. The postponement, first reported by Bloomberg and Kyodo, is widely seen by observers as a worrying sign of fraying corporate diplomacy – long regarded as a stabilising channel in the countries’ complicated relationship. It came amid Beijing’s intensified efforts to rally a united...

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China has warned that the rapid expansion of internet satellite constellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink presented “pronounced safety and security challenges”. Beijing’s representative cited several incidents – including near collisions between Starlink satellites and the Chinese space station in 2021, and a satellite that disintegrated in December – while speaking at an informal United Nations Security Council event initiated by Russia on Monday. They also pointed to the disregard of countries’...

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With less than a week to go until a presidential summit, China’s top diplomat has used talks with his South Korean counterpart to reassert Beijing’s stand on Taiwan and take aim at Tokyo. In a phone call with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Wednesday, China’s Wang Yi raised the spectre of Japan’s colonial past to get support for his country’s position on Taiwan. Wang accused “certain political forces in Japan” of trying to “reverse the course of history and whitewash [the country’s]...

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Judging by investor sentiment in the final quarter of last year, the spectacular rally in mainland Chinese and Hong Kong equities is over. The CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks declined 0.2 per cent while the MSCI China Index fell by over 7 per cent. The Hang Seng Index, meanwhile, lost 4.5 per cent. While most Wall Street banks remain bullish on Chinese stocks, some have turned more cautious. Morgan Stanley believes 2026 will be “a year of stabilization after 2025’s high...

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Beijing has condemned Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te’s New Year’s Day speech, in which he vowed to boost the island’s defences, as full of “lies, falsehoods, hostility and malice” and an attempt to “mislead the Taiwanese people and international public opinion”. Chen Binhua, spokesman for mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), said on Thursday that Lai’s speech “once again peddled the fallacy of ‘Taiwan independence’, incited cross-strait confrontation and reiterated the old tune...

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Chinese rocket maker LandSpace aims to raise 7.5 billion yuan (US$1 billion) from an initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai, after becoming the first home-grown aerospace firm to have its listing application accepted via a fast-tracked process. The Beijing-headquartered company, regarded as a challenger to Elon Musk-led SpaceX, said its listing aimed to “actively respond to national strategic plans and urgent market demands”, according to its prospectus. The Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE)...

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The US government ‍has granted an annual licence to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to import American chip manufacturing equipment to its fabrication facilities in Nanjing, capital of eastern China’s Jiangsu province, according to the company. The approval “ensures uninterrupted fab operations and product deliveries”, TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said in a statement on Thursday to Reuters. South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have also received similar...

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More Chinese travellers are pivoting from mass-market sightseeing to bespoke adventures to ring in the new year, fuelling a surge in demand for pet-friendly itineraries and winter excursions as service consumption defies a broader economic gloom. “Tailored travel is gaining traction,” online travel platform Fliggy said in a December 23 statement, citing a shift towards immersive “experiences that go beyond sightseeing”, favouring more memorable moments and personalisation. In particular,...

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President Xi Jinping has sent a new warning to Chinese cadres – “no one should harbour any illusions” that they can get away with corruption as there will be no let-up in the long-running anti-graft campaign. He told officials at a key political meeting in October there would be no place for the corrupt to hide, according to excerpts from his speech released on Wednesday. “[We must] maintain a high-pressure stance against corruption at all times, investigate and punish corruption cases according...

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Pictures have emerged in China that appear to show a truck-mounted electromagnetic catapult system for large drones on a cargo ship apparently converted for military use, triggering speculation on social media platforms. Some images circulating online since the weekend show three linked eight-wheeled low-loader trucks in a line with a large combat drone mounted on a shuttle-like fixture at the rear. The configuration appears to form a ground-based launch track with visible details suggesting an...

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Despite China-EU trade frictions, Paris and other European cities remain the top destinations for Chinese travellers, with growing China-France trade and visa-free entry spurring companies like Air France-KLM to explore new opportunities. The Franco-Dutch airline group reported strong inbound demand from Europe in 2025, driven by China’s visa-free policy for travellers from more than 30 European nations, covering both business and leisure segments. In the first three quarters, the company posted...

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Chinese artificial intelligence unicorn Moonshot AI has raised US$500 million in its recent Series C funding round, according to a report, as start-up rivals MiniMax Group and Zhipu AI gear up for their initial public offerings (IPOs). Moonshot AI, developer of the highly lauded Kimi AI models, saw IDG Capital lay out US$150 million to lead the latest financing round, with existing stakeholders Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings also participating, Chinese technology news outlet LatePost...

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Few developments over the past quarter century have been as consequential or widely debated as China’s ascent to global prominence as the vanguard of a rising Global South. To understand this change, we must look not only at outcomes but at the underlying drivers that made them possible. China’s development over the last 25 years did not occur by accident. It was not the result of any single policy. Rather, it was the cumulative product of farsighted design and vision as well as an evolving...

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China has built and launched a super-powered artificial intelligence (AI) system designed to tap directly into its national supercomputing network and conduct high-level scientific research on its own. The scheme was launched on December 23, a month after US President Donald Trump unveiled the Genesis Mission – an “AI Manhattan Project” aimed at securing US technological dominance. While the US plan is bound by tight timelines, requiring proof of progress within 270 days, China has already...

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More young Chinese consumers are opting for bed-and-breakfast stays at private villas to ring in the New Year, drawn to the larger space, set-up options and enhanced privacy offered by these properties, leading to a fresh round of competition for hoteliers. That has prompted B&B operators to step up efforts in creating distinct ritualistic experiences – such as group countdown events, fireworks displays and complimentary bottles of wine – to attract more guests while standing out in a crowded...

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China is expected to solidify its position as a hi-tech manufacturing powerhouse over the next decade as it edges closer to “innovation and excellence” alongside the United States, Germany and Japan, according to new reports issued by Chinese institutions. The documents, published on Tuesday, stated that China had achieved its “strategic goal” of becoming the world’s fourth-most-advanced “manufacturing power” in 2024, adding that the sector would play a central role in “real” economic...

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Paul Cheung was recently named president of the Committee of 100, a non-profit organisation of influential Chinese-Americans that promotes bilateral exchanges between China and the United States on all fronts. In this Open Questions interview, Cheung talks about the role of C100 in addressing anti-Asian hate in the US and bridging the gap between the two biggest economic powers in their ever-growing rivalry. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here. What’s your strategy as...

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The latest People’s Liberation Army drills around Taiwan may have been testing how to wear down the island’s air defences using rockets that are “cheap enough to be used in large quantities”, military observers said. On Tuesday, the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command wrapped up a two-day live-fire exercise named Justice Mission 2025. The exercise surrounded large parts of the island and came less than a fortnight after the United States approved a US$11.1 billion weapons package for Taiwan – the...

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China is kicking off 2026 with a three-year import quota for beef shipments from major trading partners, in a move aimed at protecting its struggling domestic industry over the coming years. Effective Thursday, a 55 per cent tariff will be levied on over-quota beef from countries including Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Uruguay, New Zealand and the United States, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Wednesday. “The objective of these safeguard measures on imported beef is to help the domestic...

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President Xi Jinping issued a rallying cry for the country to double down on efforts to boost economic growth and technological advancement in the new year during his annual televised New Year’s speech on Wednesday. The call came as Beijing faces complicated geopolitical challenges while pushing for economic transition at home, with the coming years seen as critical to consolidating its position in its rivalry with Washington. He also mentioned Taiwan, describing the island’s reunification with...

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Dutch chipmaker Nexperia and its Chinese parent, Wingtech Technology, are set for another showdown in early 2026, as the legal battle over control of the semiconductor firm intensifies. The two sides will face off before the Dutch Enterprise Chamber on January 14, a court representative told the Post on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The hearing aims to determine whether there were valid reasons to doubt the sound management of Nexperia before the chamber’s ruling in early October,...

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