China News

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1. Beijing blasts Japan’s ‘extremely dangerous’ missile deployment near Taiwan Beijing has blasted Japan’s missile deployment on an island only 110km (68 miles) away from Taiwan as “extremely dangerous”, saying it stokes regional tensions and military confrontation amid deteriorating ties between the two Asian powers.
2. As US-China rivalry redefines economic...

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As China rapidly ages, the senior-care sector is poised to become a significant source of job creation. Yet, enthusiasm among the nation’s young workforce remains lukewarm. The care-services industry, including care for elderly residents, is projected to generate millions of jobs and become a driver of household consumption in the years to come, as national demographics shift towards an older population, according to He Dan, director of the China Population and Development Research Centre under...

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A highly anticipated animated crossover between a Chinese mythological hero and American pop culture icons will debut early next month, marking a significant collaborative release as bilateral tensions continue to ease. Many see My Ne Zha and Transformers – a 52-episode co-production between China’s CCTV Animation and US toy giant Hasbro – as the latest sign of stabilising relations amid soft-power diplomacy. The series features the popular boy deity joining forces with the Autobots in a rare...

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Amid the climate crisis, China’s quiet leadership in the fight for a sustainable future offers a reason for optimism, particularly for the Global South. After two weeks of contentious negotiations, Cop30 in Brazil concluded with an uneasy deal that sidestepped any mention of fossil fuels, exposing deep divisions and mounting frustrations. Indeed, even as Cop30 convened, the world was already suffering “summit fatigue”. After decades of lofty declarations and limited follow-through, many question...

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As a political dispute between Beijing and Tokyo continues to inflame relations, Chinese media reports indicate some domestic airlines have cancelled flights on 12 of their routes to Japan – including paths to popular tourism destinations Kyoto and Osaka – with analysts predicting cancellations to rise within the week. As of Monday morning, flights on these routes had been put on hold, according to a report from financial news outlet Yicai that cited Chinese aviation data platform DAST. Domestic...

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Taiwan’s main opposition party Kuomintang (KMT) has launched a drive to change the law so that people born on the Chinese mainland and who are married to Taiwanese citizens can hold public office. The move – almost certain to clear the opposition-controlled legislature – has triggered an intense debate over the island’s security and identity. At the centre is a KMT proposal to amend both the Nationality Act and the Act Governing Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland...

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The chief scientist of China’s top naval institute has been suspended as a foreign academician to the Russian Academy of Engineering after he became the subject of a police probe over alleged academic misconduct. On Friday, the Chinese headquarters of the Russian Academy of Engineering said it had taken note of the case against Guo Wei, and was verifying information regarding his election as a foreign academician earlier this year, according to its statement posted on WeChat. The academy then...

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Beijing has blasted Japan’s missile deployment on an island only 110km (68 miles) away from Taiwan as “extremely dangerous”, saying it stokes regional tensions and military confrontation amid deteriorating ties between the two Asian powers. But Shinjiro Koizumi, Tokyo’s defence minister, believed the deployment at Yonaguni Island would “reduce the likelihood of any armed attack on Japan itself”, a Japanese defence ministry read-out stated on Sunday. During an inspection visit on Yonaguni on...

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A Chinese drone maker has secured 1,600 orders for industrial models at the recently concluded Dubai Airshow – marking the largest ever single-order deal for the country’s manufacturers at the biennial event, as its companies target emerging markets. The deal, secured by Shenzhen-based United Aircraft, covered industrial drones used for low-altitude logistics, medical deliveries and agricultural applications in the United Arab Emirates and other markets, local outlet SZnews.com reported. The...

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The renowned European electronic music festival, Tomorrowland, made its China debut in Shanghai on Saturday. Held for the first time indoors, the electronic dance music (EDM) festival drew thousands of ravers to the Hero Dome. Many say the EDM genre has become mainstream in China’s music scene.

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The escalating tensions between China and Japan have highlighted what some observers see as a deeper problem – the lack of stable communication channels. The row started earlier this month when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said a conflict in the Taiwan Strait might be a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan that would justify a military deployment. Beijing’s retaliation came swiftly, including warnings against travel to Japan and blocks on seafood imports and film releases. Tokyo has...

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By December 1, Russia is likely to approve and present its long-term road map for developing its rare earth sector, following President Vladimir Putin’s directive to the cabinet on November 4. On the surface, this is a domestic industrial policy story about catching up in the hi-tech arena. However, this view misses the woods for the trees. This road map is a sophisticated geostrategic manoeuvre, a single stone aimed at three strategic birds: reclaiming autonomy over strategic resources,...

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John Lam, UBS’ head of China property research and a long-time contrarian, is retreating from his earlier bullish calls and joining his Wall Street peers in predicting that the country’s four-year real estate downturn is far from over. Lam said he expected home prices to fall for at least another two years before a recovery in mainland China’s beleaguered residential property market could take hold. One reason was that potential buyers were increasingly opting to rent properties while prices...

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Wingtech Technology, the Chinese owner of Nexperia, said it had received no meaningful reply after reaching out to the Dutch chipmaker’s headquarters for talks. “It is deeply regrettable and puzzling that, despite our utmost sincerity, the Dutch side of Nexperia has not made any substantive response to our proposal for communication,” Wingtech said on Sunday. The Shanghai-listed company did not disclose the details of its outreach efforts, but urged Nexperia’s headquarters to present “a...

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang has urged Germany to stand by a rational and pragmatic China policy and focus on common interests in his meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who plans a state visit next year. “We hope the German side will adhere to a rational and pragmatic China policy, rule out interference and pressure, focus on shared interests and consolidate the foundation for cooperation,” Li told Merz on Sunday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg, South...

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The race to develop artificial intelligence has pushed governments and technology giants to build new electricity plants and upgrade their decades-old grid networks, creating significant opportunities for Chinese power equipment companies, according to analysts. Chinese firms have been benefiting from the spillover of a US order boom, which was driven by US President Donald Trump’s push for tech leaders like Meta and SoftBank to invest in AI infrastructure. “The US buys products from Japan and...

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More than two years after launching its economic security strategy and with the world swept up in economic warfare, the European Union still cannot decide what economic security means. Despite this, under the strain of US tariffs and Chinese export controls, the bloc is preparing to unveil a new “economic security doctrine” in early December, which will provide bureaucrats with a dashboard of all the weapons at its disposal and the levers to pull – even as progress on its 2023 strategy appears...

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China’s top defence university is piloting a scheme that allows PhD students to graduate with a product or design instead of a thesis in an effort to solve “bottleneck” engineering problems amid the tech race with the United States. Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) – dubbed one of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defence” because of its contributions to defence research and technology – is exploring new approaches to fostering engineers. These include removing traditional academic papers as a...

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Nicholas Lardy is a non-resident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, both Washington-based think tanks. He has studied the Chinese economy extensively, publishing several books on its growth and development since the late 1970s. His most recent, 2019’s The State Strikes Back, posits a rollback of Beijing’s economic reforms via renewed government intervention into the market. This interview first appeared in SCMP...

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The G20 summit in Johannesburg delivered major wins for African countries on debt, climate and critical minerals processing, but the progress was undercut by an unprecedented US boycott. The United States will host the event next year when it takes over the rotating Group of 20 presidency. But when the summit ended on Sunday, there was no US leader present for the ceremonial handover. With the US a no-show, China and its allies drove the consensus on a Global South agenda that has dominated G20...

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The diplomatic crisis between Tokyo and Beijing is the result of a years-long fundamental shift to the right in Japan – and part of a “long-term struggle” that China must prepare for, according to analysts. The assessment comes as relations between the two countries nosedive, prompted by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s suggestion earlier this month that a hypothetical conflict in the Taiwan Strait would trigger a military response from Tokyo. For Beijing, the comments ventured into a...

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Chinese scientists have reduced the production time of dielectric energy storage capacitor components to just one second, enabling scalable, temperature-stable storage for hybrid electric vehicles, radar systems and high-power lasers. Unlike other methods that can take from three minutes to an hour depending on the product quality, the team’s flash annealing technique heats and cools at a rate of 1,000 degrees Celsius per second, allowing for rapid synthesis of crystal films on a silicon wafer...

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Politburo member Wang Yi has become the most senior Chinese official to wade into the war of words over the new Japanese prime minister’s comments on the Taiwan Strait, saying her remarks “crossed a red line”. Wang, who is China’s foreign minister, said China must “resolutely respond” to the comments to safeguard the country’s sovereignty and defend its post-war achievements. “It is shocking that Japan’s current leader has publicly sent the wrong signal of attempting military intervention in the...

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The potential cancer-fighting effects of the antioxidant quercetin – found in a variety of foods including onions, apples and durian – are partly dependent on the presence of microbes in our gut, a Chinese research team has found. Quercetin has shown promise in preventing tumour metastasis and growth in various studies, though the exact mechanism behind how the compound may inhibit cancer growth remains elusive. Through experiments in mice, the team from Shandong University found that a...

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang has taken Beijing’s push for multilateralism to the Group of 20 summit in South Africa, calling for solidarity and free trade at an event boycotted by the world’s biggest economy. Addressing the gathering of leaders in Johannesburg on Saturday, Li pointed to challenges faced by various international institutions. “We have to advance with time and take the lead to uphold multilateralism” in the face of difficulties of governance, he said, according to state news agency...

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