China News

As the Year of the Snake ends, more than 9 billion passenger journeys will unfold during China’s Spring Festival travel period, the greatest annual human migration on Earth. For some, these are the only few weeks in the year when families are together. For many, this is a period when they can find temporary relief from loneliness – from the striving and adjusting, even if not yet assimilating, in the cities where they work, far from their hometowns. The lucky ones, who can make ends meet and are...

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

At the Middle East’s largest defence exhibition, a Chinese state-owned shipbuilding giant is showcasing a new surface-to-subsurface delivery vehicle designed for frogman operations in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) has displayed a small model of the vehicle, named SDV-01, during the World Defence Show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Running from Sunday to Thursday, the show features a substantial Chinese presence, including its naval weapons, which in...

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

A growing debate in France over raising tariffs on China heated up on Monday, with a senior minister calling for a targeted approach even as a government planning agency proposed a blanket 30 per cent duty on all Chinese imports entering the European Union. Finance Minister Roland Lescure said China’s large trade surplus with Europe was “unsustainable”, but insisted there was no “one-size-fits-all answer” on tariffs and that Paris would need to continue engaging with Beijing to make...

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

Chinese authorities say their investigation of a high-profile scandal in one of the country’s leading state-run museums has revealed there was systemic mismanagement and alleged corruption decades ago that allowed national treasures to be funnelled into the private art market. The scandal unfolded in late December when Nanjing Museum in eastern Jiangsu province was alleged to have secretly sold donated paintings after the artworks were mishandled by a former director. The controversy centres on...

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

More than a month after China’s central bank upgraded the digital yuan from a cash equivalent to “digital deposit money” – allowing it to accrue interest like a bank deposit – many residents and merchants in Beijing have yet to notice a major difference. While signs accepting digital yuan – also known as e-CNY – have long been commonplace in department stores and supermarkets, multiple sales staff said the dedicated point-of-sale machines had sat idle for months, if not years. At most wet...

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

Chinese onshore investors raised their investments in Hong Kong-listed drug makers through the cross-border trading link over the past week, as a wave of out-licensing deals between Chinese pharmaceutical firms and global partners rolls on. The Hang Seng Southbound Connect Hong Kong Innovative Drug Index, which tracks around 40 of the largest Hong Kong-listed Chinese drug manufacturers, biotech researchers and AI-driven drug developers by market capitalisation, rose about 9 per cent between...

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

Cambodia continues to work with China, the US and Britain on the case of Chen Zhi, the billionaire businessman accused of masterminding a vast network that scammed billions from victims around the world, according to a government minister in Phnom Penh. “We are collaborating with the US, China and also the UK,” said Chhay Sinarith, a senior minister who is also in charge of the country’s Committee for Combating Technology Crimes, in an interview with the South China Morning Post on Monday. Chen,...

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

Stock exchanges in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing – the three major bourses in mainland China – announced a package of measures on Monday to fast-track fundraising for cutting-edge firms amid the country’s self-reliance push in tech. The three operators said they would shorten waiting periods for listed technology firms filing for refinancing or post-initial-public-offering (IPO) fundraising activities, cutting the refinancing interval to as little as six months, according to state news agency...

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

China’s first home-grown large cruise ship has now handled 1 million passengers since its commercial debut two years ago, a sign of progress as Beijing strives to boost household spending on services and cultivate new growth drivers. The operator of the Adora Magic City announced the news via its website on Sunday, saying it aimed to propel the growth of China’s cruise economy and establish a “Chinese benchmark” for the global cruise industry. Construction of the company’s second domestically...

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

As the Lunar New Year holiday approaches, the Chinese government has summoned Meituan, Alibaba Group Holding, Didi Chuxing, SF Express and other logistics firms to ensure the welfare of the tens of millions of gig workers who keep the country running during the rush. The “employment administrative guidance” session, held recently by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, in coordination with six other government agencies, called on 16 major Chinese platform and logistics operators...

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

Taiwan has conducted a series of shallow-water submerged tests of its indigenous submarine prototype over the past two weeks, marking a key step towards potential navy delivery as early as June. The Hai Kun, or Narwhal, is part of the island’s Indigenous Defence Submarine programme, a project widely seen as central to its efforts to boost asymmetric naval capabilities amid increasing military pressure from Beijing. Surface navigation tests began last year, with undersea trials and weapons...

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

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's landslide election victory has dimmed hopes that ties between Tokyo and Beijing will significantly improve in the near term, analysts and businesspeople said, though some expect tensions to stabilise over time. Her ruling coalition secured the win on Sunday, strengthening the hand of a leader who infuriated Beijing by outlining how Tokyo might respond to a mainland attack on Taiwan. Enterprises caught in the middle of the dispute would have to tread...

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

China surpassed Argentina in January to become Brazil’s largest exporter of vehicles, solidifying Chinese brands’ dominance in the region’s biggest car market and undercutting a long-standing Argentine trade advantage within Mercosur. According to industry figures reported by Autoweb on Monday, Chinese vehicles sent to Brazil reached 16,800 units in January, versus 13,400 from Argentina. It underscores the erosion of Argentina’s decades-long grip on Brazil’s import market, after China first led...

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

The South China Sea continues to act as a lightning rod for competing claims among regional powers. In the first of a three-part series, Laura Zhou examines how a new conservation framework is being leveraged to advance territorial ambitions within these highly contested waters. Amid simmering tensions in the South China Sea, a likely new legal and diplomatic battlefield has emerged. Two decades in the making, the High Seas Treaty, also known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction...

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

Russian oil tankers are increasingly listing Singapore as their official destination, signalling ‌a shift in export flows from India to ‍China and growing concerns over Western sanctions, traders said and LSEG shipping data shows. LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) data shows tankers carrying about 1.4 million metric tons of ⁠Russian crude departed for Singapore in January, the highest monthly volume in recent years. Singapore does not import Russian oil amid sanction risks but its nearby waters...

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

Robot vacuum maker Dreame Technology promoted its products at the Super Bowl on Sunday night, becoming the latest Chinese brand after Temu to leverage the game’s influence to crack the North American market. Its 30-second commercial, aired across NBC’s local affiliate network, which exclusively broadcasts the game, showcased Dreame’s ecosystem, from robot vacuums and lawnmowers to a concept hypercar unveiled at the CES trade show in Las Vegas last month. The campaign follows budget shopping site...

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

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s landslide victory has raised concern in China that she may seek to change the country’s pacifist constitution. Beijing would regard any change to the constitution, which renounces the use of force to settle international disputes, as a threat to regional stability and is likely to react strongly to any changes. Takaichi has previously suggested she wanted to change Article 9 of the constitution, imposed after Japan’s defeat in World War II, which...

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

China should consider delaying US President Donald Trump’s visit to the country and inflict “harsh” punishments on Panama after it stripped a Hong Kong-based conglomerate of its control of the canal, a legal analyst has said. Tian Feilong, vice dean of the law school at Minzu University, also said Beijing should impose “institutional” punishments on US “proxies” in the Latin American country and impose secondary sanctions on relevant American parties. By “squeezing” China out of Latin America,...

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

An international organisation responsible for monitoring global nuclear testing has denied allegations by the United States that China has conducted secret nuclear tests. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), the global body tasked with detecting nuclear explosions, said its monitoring system “did not detect any event consistent with the characteristics of a nuclear weapon test explosion” at the time of the alleged Chinese test. Robert Floyd, the body’s executive...

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

With China explicitly banning onshore tokenisation of real-world assets (RWAs) while tightening scrutiny of related offshore activities, analysts say the clampdown is aimed at curbing financial fraud and disorderly capital outflows, while still preserving space for regulated innovation in markets such as Hong Kong. Tokenisation refers to the process of converting the rights to an RWA – including real estate, art, bonds and commodities like gold – into a digital token. Such tokens represent...

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

Chinese self-driving technology firm Pony AI has started mass production of a robotaxi co-developed with Toyota, taking an important step forward in commercialising autonomous cabs worldwide. The Guangzhou-based company said on Monday that 1,000 driverless cabs of this kind would roll off the production line this year, to be deployed in top-tier mainland Chinese cities. The cars will reinforce Pony AI’s plan to operate a total robotaxi fleet of more than 3,000 units in various mainland and...

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

China’s AI sector is bracing for a monumental week, with a flurry of new models – including a potent “stealth” contender – emerging as domestic tech giants prepare to unveil their flagship products. The race to release new models ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday underscores the intense global competition between frontier companies for users’ attention amid a rapid acceleration of AI progress at the start of 2026, following high-profile releases from US heavyweights Anthropic and OpenAI. On...

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

President Xi Jinping has toured a hi-tech park in Beijing to assess China’s progress in information technology innovation, underscoring the country’s intensifying focus on high-level development amid a global race to dominate future industries. Xi inspected the National Information Technology Application Innovation Park in Beijing’s Yizhuang area on the capital’s southern outskirts, where he met business leaders, including Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, state media reported. The visit highlighted China’s...

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

Luckin Coffee, mainland China’s largest coffee chain by store count, marked its milestone 30,000th outlet on Sunday in Shenzhen, with plans to boost global supply chain integration by sourcing premium beans from top producing regions worldwide. Headquartered in Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian province, Luckin’s store network spans more than 300 cities nationwide, and its international footprint is expanding fast, with operations in overseas markets like Singapore, Malaysia and the US. It...

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

In a sign of warming China-Canada ties, Beijing has reversed a Canadian citizen’s death sentence and ordered a new trial, calling the judicial ruling “independent”. The Supreme People’s Court, China’s highest judicial organ, on Friday overturned a death sentence against Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was detained in 2014 on suspicion of drug trafficking. Addressing the ruling during a press conference on Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian stated that judicial authorities...

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