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US bombers and stealth fighters took part in a joint military exercise with Japan on Wednesday while an American aircraft carrier arrived at a Japanese port on Thursday, in a show of force amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Tokyo. Japanese Self-Defence Forces (SDF) and the US military conducted the exercise “amid an increasingly severe security environment surrounding Japan”, Tokyo’s Ministry of Defence said on Thursday. “Through this exercise, we confirmed the strong commitment of...

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China has pledged to bolster its economy, primarily on the back of domestic demand, and build a robust domestic market to counter external challenges, after a high-level meeting setting the tone for next year’s economic policy. Following the central economic work conference – an annual gathering of the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party and the State Council, China’s cabinet – a readout by state news agency Xinhua said the country must “strengthen our own capabilities to cope with...

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An exhibition based on the works of the celebrated Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has been postponed as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate. Studio Ghibli, the Oscar-winning anime studio which Miyazaki co-founded, announced the decision on Tuesday without giving a reason. “We apologise to the audience who have been looking forward to this event, and sincerely thank you for your understanding and support,” the statement said....

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China has urged the Dutch government to push the Netherlands arm of semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia to send personnel to China, Beijing’s commerce ministry said during a press conference on Thursday. The Dutch embassy in China has been asked to urge The Hague’s Ministry of Economic Affairs to “implement the consensus reached in consultations” and encourage the Nijmegen-headquartered company to dispatch its representatives to China “as soon as possible”, ministry spokesman He Yadong...

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A prominent Chinese economist said the country can sustain annual economic growth of 5 to 6 per cent over the next decade and stabilise relations with the United States by the middle of the century, as it seizes opportunities from the fourth industrial revolution. Justin Lin Yifu, dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University and a former chief economist at the World Bank, said China could achieve breakthroughs in US technology “choke points” within five years and raise...

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In the first three quarters of this year, China added 310 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, up 47.7 per cent year on year and accounting for 84.4 per cent of all new power installations in the country, according to the National Energy Administration. This progress is more than climate leadership or capacity building; it involves a holistic reconstruction of the energy system. China is replacing the 20th-century fossil fuel order with a 21st-century “electro-industrial order” where power...

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US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation of Washington-Beijing ties as “G2” carries a “deeply problematic” meaning that sidelines United States’ allies and partners in the region, a US lawmaker has stated in a letter. Democratic Party House Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, a ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, sent the letter to Hegseth on Monday, expressing “profound concern” about the US defence chief’s use of the term G2 in describing the...

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With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter. Chinese biotech companies are expected to make major international advances over the next decade, industry leaders said, but cautioned that weak patent...

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China’s recent breakthroughs in fracking technology have the potential to usher in a new shale revolution that could solidify the country’s energy security and reshape the international oil order. That would see China join the United States, whose shale boom earlier this century enabled it to become the largest crude oil producer in the world. This fundamentally altered the international oil market, with significant impact on oil exporters, particularly members of the Organisation of the...

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Reincarnation must follow Chinese laws and be endorsed by Beijing, Tibetan Buddhist leader Panchen Lama has said in an apparent reference to the succession of the Dalai Lama. Speaking at an official symposium in Shigatse on Monday, the Panchen Lama – the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism after only the Dalai Lama – stated that reincarnated “living Buddhas” must be identified within China and approved by the central government. This must be done “without any interference or control from...

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Chinese artificial intelligence pioneer SenseTime is betting that its roots in computer vision will help it lead the next phase of AI, as the industry shifts towards multimodal systems and embodied intelligence in the physical world, according to co-founder and chief scientist Lin Dahua. In an interview with the Post on Wednesday, Lin said the company’s long-standing expertise in vision-based AI put it in a strong position to become a leader in embodied intelligence, robotics and AI agents...

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A bipartisan commission focused on the rule of law and human rights in China is recommending that the US Congress scale up immersion programmes for Mandarin and other languages spoken on the mainland in American high schools and universities. The recommendation, made as part of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s (CECC) annual report, comes as Washington has scaled back funding for cultural exchange programmes since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration. It...

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The Simandou mountain range in southeastern Guinea, once a dense forest where exploration teams relied on GPS and helicopters to navigate, has yielded vast reserves of its sought-after high-grade iron ore after decades of delay. Workers struggled to define the layout of the thick forest before clearing the trees and brush at the site set for the Simandou Iron Ore project, “as it was nothing but darkness”, according to Chris Aitchison, the managing director for Rio Tinto’s Simfer joint...

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The US central bank announced on Wednesday it would slash the benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, though this year’s third cut has long been criticised by President Donald Trump as too late and too little. The cut decision made by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the monetary-policy organ affiliated to the Federal Reserve, was broadly in line with market expectations, but fell short of Trump’s demand of a larger cut. The benchmark interest rate after the...

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The United States is striving for a more “constructive” relationship with China after this year’s trade war and will continue to pursue a “managed” bilateral trade relationship, its chief trade envoy said, despite concerns lingering over China’s grip on critical minerals and pushback over the White House’s recent approval of H200 AI chip sales. The comments by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer came after Beijing and Washington fought fiercely throughout the year for the tariff war. The...

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Beijing and Washington will continue to circle each other warily in 2026 even as China’s leadership struggles to balance economic growth against its control fixation, according to a report on next year’s outlook for China released Wednesday by the Asia Society. “As we look towards 2026, the story is not one of rises or triumph. It’s not black or white,” said Lizzi Lee, a fellow at the Society’s Centre for China Analysis and one of the report’s co-authors. “It is a story of transitions,...

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China has promised no-strings-attached aid to Latin American and Caribbean countries as it positions itself as a key voice of the Global South and seeks to expand its influence in a region also actively courted by the United States. In an updated policy framework for deeper economic cooperation with the region, Beijing highlighted what it described as a “significant shift in the international balance of power”, with the Global South gaining greater influence. The strategy paper, the third of its...

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China’s flagship sovereign wealth fund has revealed that it opened a representative office in London shortly after Donald Trump’s victory in last year’s US presidential election, a move made amid increased scrutiny of Chinese investments in the United States. The London office was officially registered in December 2024, with the mission of “advancing the company’s overseas investment business” and “promoting cross-border investment cooperation”, China Investment Corporation (CIC) said in its...

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China and the US are “peer powers” in Asia, as Beijing closes the gap in the region with Washington and records the highest diplomatic influence score among countries measured, according to an Australian think tank’s latest annual gauge. The 2025 edition of the Sydney-based Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index showed that the United States remains the most powerful nation in the region but its comprehensive power score fell to 80.5 out of 100 – the lowest since its rankings began in...

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A former Nasa administrator has warned that America’s plan to return astronauts to the moon is technically unworkable, urging a much simpler approach – similar to China’s – as the only realistic way to stay ahead. Mike Griffin, a 76-year-old aerospace engineer who led Nasa during the George W. Bush administration, told Congress that the Artemis programme “cannot work” because it relies on an overly complex design and many unproven technologies. Under the current plan, the Artemis III mission...

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Chinese supercomputer maker Sugon and chip designer Hygon Information Technology have called off a planned mega-merger that had been under discussion for months, in a surprise move that could complicate the country’s tech self-sufficiency efforts in the semiconductor and high-performance computing sectors. The two Shanghai-listed companies late on Tuesday said they cancelled merger talks because “the market environment has changed significantly since the initial planning stages of this...

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1. China reveals radio clip heard before mid-air stand-off with Japan fighter jets China on Tuesday released more details about Saturday’s mid-air stand-off between Chinese and Japanese fighter jets, as the two sides traded barbs over the radar lock-on incident amid rising tensions.
2. How China pulled off a critical mineral tech revolution in just 10...

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Alibaba Group Holding named its cloud unit’s technology officer Zhou Jingren, who also leads its artificial intelligence lab Tongyi and the development of its Qwen AI models, as a new member of the group in charge of steering the business empire, according to people briefed about the decision. Alibaba has not updated the information on its official website. The Alibaba Partnership had 17 members before the addition, including co-founders Jack Ma and Joe Tsai as permanent ones. Alibaba did not...

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French President Emmanuel Macron’s three-day visit to China last week signals a recalibration in how China and Europe engage at a moment when technological competition, trade disputes, climate imperatives and geopolitical fragmentation threaten global stability. Macron met enthusiastic students at Sichuan University; French first lady Brigitte Macron visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. The trip fostered economic collaboration between the two countries and deliberately...

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A joint patrol by Chinese and Russian nuclear-capable bombers near Japanese airspace is a serious national security concern, the country’s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi has said. In a social media post on Tuesday, Koizumi wrote that two Russian Tu-95 bombers had rendezvoused with two Chinese H-6 bombers over the East China Sea. These aircraft then conducted a joint flight around Japan from the airspace between Okinawa’s main island and Miyako Island in the Ryukyu chain to the waters off...

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