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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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China’s third most senior official and top legislator pledged “sincere” friendship with New Zealand and called for tighter economic links between the two countries during a four-day trip to the Pacific nation. Zhao Leji, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), wrapped up his trip to New Zealand on Saturday, the first in two decades by the head of China’s top legislative body. The trip included a meeting with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in...

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Each winter for the past three years, Claire Zhou, a teenager from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, has counted down the days until she can fly to northern China and pull on a new ski suit and boots. The better she skis, the more frequently she upgrades her gear, reshaping her family’s holiday budget and pulling them deeper into China’s fast-growing winter sports consumption chain. The country’s winter sports boom, sparked by the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and fuelled by supportive...

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Key scientists behind China’s latest stealth fighter and aircraft carrier have been promoted to one of the country’s top scientific academies in recognition of their contributions to advances in military technology. The honours also highlight the global lead Chinese military technology has taken in a number of areas. Wang Yongqing, the chief designer and expert of the J-35A stealth fighter; Huang Weina, the lead designer of the WS-19 engine for the J-35 series; and Lu Junyong, a key researcher...

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India earlier this month inaugurated a high-altitude airbase near its disputed border with China, prompting analysts to suggest the development capped long-term efforts to upgrade infrastructure there rather than posing a threat to Beijing. According to reports from multiple media outlets, the base, named Mudh-Nyoma Air Force Station, is perched at a height of about 13,700 feet (4,176 metres) and only 30km (19 miles) from the Line of Actual Control, the de facto boundary separating the two...

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For homeowners in mainland China, selling a property has become so difficult that some are turning to xuanxue, a neo-Taoist philosophy that has morphed into internet slang for any superstitious ritual meant to enhance luck, from feng shui tweaks to cyber talismans. Praying in temples, buying ‘quick-sale’ talismans, or simply writing the word “sold” on a piece of red paper are just a few examples. When a homeowner in Shanghai recently claimed on social media that she found a buyer after praying...

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China has loosened its civil service medical rules so that sufferers from three chronic diseases will no longer be barred, a move hailed by campaigners and legal groups as a landmark in the fight against unfair employment practices. The updated rules were issued on November 14 by the General Office of the Central Committee’s Organisation Department, which oversees the recruitment process, and the National Health Commission. Amid a tough job market in China, many qualified candidates for civil...

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When Russian forces rolled into Ukraine in early 2022, one of the first moves by Kyiv was sending a post to Elon Musk on X: Ukraine needs satellite internet. Within days, thousands of Starlink terminals arrived, restoring command and control across the battlefield despite Russia’s best efforts to black out communications. Moscow initially tried to jam the signals – and reportedly had some success. But when SpaceX quietly updated its software and reconfigured the constellation, many Russian...

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Marilyn-Joy Cerny has challenged the US government thousands of times during her 35-year career as a trade lawyer, enjoying an enviable record of recovering tariff money for importers whom Washington wrongfully charged. But the sheer scale of potential refunds – known technically as protests – should the Supreme Court rule against US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies in the coming weeks, potentially amounting to US$100 billion or more, has given even her pause. “I have filed so many...

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The G20 summit in Johannesburg opened on Saturday with a firm call from the host nation to safeguard the group’s credibility and role, despite the shadow cast by the first-ever US boycott in the forum’s history. South Africa has, however, secured crucial diplomatic backing from China for the assembly of the world’s wealthiest and leading emerging economies. Members should “not allow anything to diminish the value, stature and impact of the first African G20”, South African President Cyril...

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A tiny piece of debris triggered the most serious mishap at China’s Tiangong space station since it became operational three years ago. Earlier this month, a crack discovered on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft’s window forced three Chinese astronauts to remain on board Tiangong for nine extra days and eventually borrow their newly arrived colleagues’ ship to return to Earth. The event underscores the growing threat posed by Earth’s ever-expanding cloud of orbital junk – a scare that could push China,...

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China and the United States have held their second round of maritime security talks this year to help manage risks between their militaries, according to the Chinese navy. The talks, held in Hawaii from Tuesday to Thursday, were “candid and constructive,” the PLA Navy said in a statement on Saturday. It said both sides exchanged views on the security situation, discussing cases of air and sea encounters and measures to improve operational safety. The meeting marked the latest effort by the...

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People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s flagship mouthpiece, has published yet another sharply worded attack on the Japanese leader’s comments on Taiwan, warning that Sanae Takaichi was leading her country to its “demise”. The commentary on Saturday – written under the “Zhong Sheng” pen name often used to voice Beijing’s position on global affairs – is the fourth signed commentary on the issue in the newspaper in nine days, an unusually high rate that reflects the weight of Beijing’s criticism of...

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China’s military has eased stringent physical requirements for pilots, based on the improved cockpits of the People’s Liberation Army’s newest warplanes. Changes to height, weight and limb length requirements are among several revisions made to the physical selection criteria for pilots, military mouthpiece PLA Daily reported on Monday. The report did not include the full revised set of criteria but said the changes had taken into account factors such as aircraft upgrades, advances in medical...

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Chinese investment is still being actively welcomed in Ireland, the head of a major business organisation said, even as the wider European Union adopts a more cautious attitude and Dublin walks a tightrope to maintain ties with both the US and China amid a wide-ranging rivalry between the world’s two largest economies. “We’re firmly open for business within the EU rules, that is an unambiguous position,” Mary Rose Burke, CEO of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, told the Post in an interview last...

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China’s ambassador to the United Nations has doubled down on his criticism of Japan, calling Japanese leader Sanae Takaichi’s earlier comments on Taiwan “highly dangerous” and damaging to the post-war international order. According to state broadcaster CCTV, Fu Cong said in a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Friday that Japan was “unrepentant” for the “blatantly provocative” remarks of its prime minister. He said Takaichi’s comments marked the first time a Japanese leader had...

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Taiwan’s military plans to allocate more than NT$1 billion (US$32 million) for drone technology integration as the island scales up its uncrewed platforms and bolsters asymmetric warfare capabilities amid growing pressure from Beijing. According to a budget document recently submitted to Taiwan’s legislature, the Armaments Bureau will spend more than NT$1.01 billion from 2026 to 2028 on a “forward-looking multi-integration development project” for uncrewed platforms, with NT$507 million to be...

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For Gu Chuan and his wife, relocating from China to Japan appeared to be a logical choice. Last year, when China’s economy slowed and optimism about job prospects dimmed, the Beijing-based tech worker did not want his family to put all its eggs in one basket. The couple considered several options. Hong Kong was ruled out as too far from home, and so was the United States because of its slew of disputes with Beijing. They finally decided that Gu’s wife would go to Japan to study for an MBA and he...

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The steep rise in memory chip prices is expected to continue on the back of heightened demand from the artificial intelligence industry, while average consumers are likely to pay more for a new smartphone, according to analysts. Memory chip prices were forecast to increase 30 per cent in the fourth quarter this year and a further 20 per cent in 2026, following a 50 per cent surge year to date, Counterpoint Research said in a report on Thursday. The higher cost reflects the rapid shift in...

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Former president Mauricio Macri warned on Friday that Argentina could weaken its export base if it distances itself from China, sharpening his public split with President Javier Milei. Macri argued that China remains central to Argentina’s sales of soy, beef and other raw materials, goods the US already produces in abundance. “China is more complementary than the United States for Argentina. I do not think it is good to interrupt that process,” he said. A long-time Milei ally, Macri was...

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Over the Hexi Corridor, a ribbon of fertile land on the edge of the Gobi Desert blessed by the Yellow River in western China, a gleaming forest of wind turbines and solar farms stretches to the horizon. This is Gansu, China’s renewables frontier, a major source of wind and solar energy. And yet, just beyond the dunes, another giant stirs. At the Changle Power Plant, turbines roar to life as another 1-gigawatt coal unit comes online – six reactors now pulsing with the energy that could meet the...

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In 2004, Joshua Cooper Ramo, now co-CEO of Kissinger Associates, coined the term “Beijing Consensus” as an alternative to the Washington Consensus, the neoliberal framework of economic policies devised in the 1980s by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and US Treasury. China had just joined the World Trade Organization and, within the country, there was considerable scepticism that a Beijing Consensus existed. Come 2007, and as the global financial crisis broke out – first with the US...

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The first test for a much-celebrated US–China trade truce is looming. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent hopes to finalise a rare earth deal by next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, but experts say a breakthrough is unlikely as the two sides maintain sharply different narratives of what was discussed and agreed on key issues. From rare earths to soybeans, three weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart, Donald Trump, were photographed smiling and shaking hands after a...

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China’s Jinglei-1 (JL-1) missile could pose a nuclear threat to Alaska – and potentially the rest of the United States – though it still has significant limitations, according to a Chinese military magazine. The JL-1, which made its debut at China’s Victory Day parade in September alongside other strategic missiles, is a nuclear-capable air-launched ballistic missile. It can be carried by the Chinese air force’s H-6N strategic bombers and is believed to be the final jigsaw piece needed to...

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Innovent Biologics will join the Hang Seng Index next month in the latest quarterly review as the compiler of the city’s stock benchmark presses ahead with its plan to increase the number of constituents to 100. The biotech firm, based in eastern Jiangsu province, has become the only new constituent of the blue-chip indicator, one month after it signed an US$11.4 billion outsourcing deal with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceuticals to co-develop and commercialise three specific investigational cancer...

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