China News

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. China has lent more to US than any other country since 2000, report finds China’s lending since the turn of the century has been “vastly” larger than previously understood, with loans and grants increasingly going to developed countries including the United States – the largest recipient – according to a new report by an American university research...

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China’s aerospace manufacturers have become a growing presence at overseas air shows as the country seeks to expand its arms sales abroad, bolstered by technological advances in the defence and aviation industries. More than 1,500 companies took part in this year’s Dubai Airshow, the largest air show in the Middle East, including around 80 Chinese companies, such as China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (Catic). Catic is the international arms sales subsidiary and the global...

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My recent visit to Mianyang, the second-largest city in Sichuan province, revealed a place little known despite being just a 90-minute drive from Chengdu. Its unique distinction lies in its high concentration of scientists – a legacy of its role as a central hub during the “Third Front Construction” from 1964 to 1978. This was a critical period when China relocated strategic industries inland to build a self-reliant economy against a backdrop of external threats. This era formed the second of...

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Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Friday the country had been “consistent” over Taiwan but insisted she wanted better relations with Beijing. Beijing has insisted she must retract her recent comments that Japanese troops might intervene in a conflict over the island because it could be a “survival-threatening situation”. But when asked if she would do so, she did not answer directly but said Tokyo would “make a comprehensive judgment based on all available information regarding a...

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Beijing’s recent fury directed towards Japan is hammering home a point on Taiwan to the wider world, especially the United States and its allies, analysts in mainland China have suggested. Earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said a conflict in the Taiwan Strait might be a “survival-threatening situation” that would justify military intervention. The comments appeared to challenge Japan’s policy of strategic ambiguity about how it would respond to any crisis – something...

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Computer science graduate Alain Saas is hoping a fourth time is the charm to make his China dream come true. As a young man growing up in the small town of Selestat in eastern France, the distant Asian country seemed magical. But the dream has been elusive and trying to land a job in China has been anything but enchanting. Over the past 15 years, Saas, who is now in his forties, has tried three times to find a suitable tech job in China. The attempts have been unsuccessful due to reasons ranging...

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Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao called for China and the United States to make joint efforts to manage uncertainties and expand cooperation on trade during a meeting with the US ambassador to China, David Perdue, in Beijing on Thursday. The two countries should maintain a “correct understanding” of the fact that China and the US must find ways to coexist and that win-win outcomes could be achieved, Wang said, according to a statement released by the commerce ministry after the...

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The Chinese and Russian militaries have pledged to deepen cooperation in sensitive areas including missile defence, following high-level talks in Moscow involving China’s top general. General Zhang Youxia, the first-ranking vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, met with his Russian counterpart Andrei Belousov on Thursday, according to China’s defence ministry announcement. The visit – Zhang’s first in two years – signalled a continued strengthening of defence ties between the two...

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A buyer bearing the same name as veteran investor Xu Liusheng is the latest owner of a luxury home in Hong Kong after acquiring a HK$342 million (US$43.9 million) unit in the affluent Southern district, with the transaction adding to a growing list of prime assets being snapped up following years of falling prices. The buyer shares the name of the owner of Shenzhen Kaifu Investment, who is known for acquiring shares in public companies in mainland China. Shenzhen Kaifu was recently deregistered,...

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Leaders from the world’s wealthiest and largest economies will gather in Johannesburg for the Group of 20 summit this weekend, as geopolitical friction threatens to derail the event. There are tensions over Washington’s unprecedented total boycott of the summit, and a diplomatic rift between Beijing and Tokyo is also likely to loom large after China ruled out a one-on-one leaders’ meeting with Japan. Beijing declined a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit – which runs from Saturday to...

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Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group and OpenAI on Friday announced an agreement to design and build artificial intelligence data centre hardware, the latest in a string of infrastructure deals for the US creator of ChatGPT. Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, has seen profits soar after shifting its focus from low-margin iPhone assembly to AI servers that are now in huge demand, as firms plough hundreds of billions of dollars into the technology. Optimism over AI has...

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China is preparing for an unprecedented wave of new university graduates next summer – a record 12.7 million outgoing students – intensifying pressure on an already strained job market and a slowing economy. The 2026 cohort will be about 4 per cent larger than the 12.22 million graduates in 2025 – an additional 480,000 young people competing for jobs, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE). It announced the figures on Thursday, as it launched new campaigns to ensure sufficient...

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Chinese scientists and engineers are shrinking one of the most complex and expensive technologies in modern chipmaking down to desktop size and using it to manufacture 14-nanometre chips. While 14-nm chips no longer represent the cutting edge – commercial foundries have already pushed into the 3-nm realm – they remain a sweet spot for performance, cost and efficiency, powering everything from industrial automation to electric vehicles and smart wearables. At the UltrafastX academic conference in...

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Japan’s export of lethal weapons sent an “extremely dangerous signal” indicating expanded military capabilities, Chinese observers and media said on Thursday as relations between the two countries continued to nosedive. The assessment followed Japanese media reports on Wednesday that Japan had exported domestically produced Patriot surface-to-air missile interceptors to the United States. The US would use the missiles to replenish its own stockpile as it provided military support to Ukraine in...

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Tesla’s reported plan to stop using Chinese-made components in US-built cars aligns with a “significant strategy” in national industrial policy, with some American giants seeking to “completely de-risk” supply chains amid an increasingly tense geopolitical climate, an automotive executive said. Curt Hopkins, CEO of automotive investment platform MCQ Markets in Miami, said Tesla appeared to be “developing a completely dual strategy, where in the US they’re going to de-China, diversify and make...

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When it deemed remarks on Taiwan by Japan’s new prime minister as provocative, China did not just issue a diplomatic rebuke to Tokyo; it deployed an economic arsenal, and what began as a bilateral spat has since spiralled into a full-blown crisis. China last week warned its citizens to avoid travel to Japan, with major Chinese airlines offering full refunds for flights there. On Wednesday, Beijing said it would suspend Japanese seafood imports. It is not the first time China has wielded its...

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China has launched a campaign to preserve historical sites on the disputed Woody Island, or Yongxing Island in Chinese, as Beijing looks to cement its territorial claims in the South China Sea. A team of conservation scientists and technicians from the Hainan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology spent six days reinforcing a monument that marked China’s takeover of the Paracel Islands, known as the Xisha Islands in China, after World War II, according to the government of the...

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Washington should tighten its export controls by adding inspection staff and plugging loopholes to slow Beijing’s chipmaking advances and curb evasion efforts with support from allies such as the Netherlands and Japan, US lawmakers and experts said on Thursday. Such actions should be deployed, including empowering the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to close trade loopholes and also targeting China’s national champion firms in the semiconductor sector as well as their US subsidiaries,...

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Washington needs to accelerate arms sales to Taiwan and help establish a regional contingency stockpile for its defence, the US Senate heard on Thursday. Such steps would help implement provisions in a landmark 2022 law – the Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act (TERA) – that have not yet been fully realised, as well as boost morale on the self-governed island, witnesses said at a hearing hosted by the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Despite last week’s approval of a sale of aircraft...

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For years, many foreign companies treated China as a vast consumer base or a low-cost manufacturing hub. Now that paradigm is shifting dramatically. China is not just where multinationals scale production or sell at volume; it is increasingly where they make strategic decisions, engage in serious research and development and innovate in ways that will have a global impact. For example, take Toyota’s R&D centre in Changshu, Jiangsu province. Led by local engineers, it has helped develop electric...

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China’s lending since the turn of the century has been “vastly” larger than previously understood, with loans and grants increasingly going to developed countries including the United States – the largest recipient – according to a new report by an American university research team. Of the US$2.2 trillion disbursed by China’s “official sector” between 2000 and 2023, nearly US$202 billion went to projects in the US, the AidData research lab at Virginia-based university William & Mary found. “Our...

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit China at the end of January, Sky News reported on Thursday, in what would be the first visit to the country by a British leader in seven years. Starmer’s Labour government has made improved relations with Beijing a priority as it seeks foreign investment to make good on its election pledge to upgrade infrastructure and grow Britain’s economy. But the relationship has been bumpy with both countries trading accusations of spying. The prime minister’s...

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The chief scientist at a university that plays a major role in developing China’s navy has been detained as part of an investigation into alleged academic misconduct and misuse of state research funds, according to local media reports. Jiangsu University of Science and Technology confirmed on Tuesday that Guo Wei’s case was under investigation and said his academic contract had been terminated over the accusations. The university was founded in 1953 in response to Mao Zedong’s call for the...

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Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. China tells Japan to ‘behave’ properly as it dismisses call for talks China has urged Tokyo to “behave with restraint” after it called for talks amid the diplomatic freeze over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments about Taiwan.
2. Chinese rare earth magnet exports to US hit 9-month high as trade war resolves China’s shipments of rare earth permanent...

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Chinese President Xi Jinping has paid tribute to late reformist leader Hu Yaobang by urging today’s Communist Party cadres to follow in his footsteps to tackle the country’s tough issues. At the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday, Xi said that opening up and reform were the “magical instruments” of China’s modernisation but the party still had to “crack the hard nuts” to counter challenges and to improve governance. He issued the call at a symposium to mark the 110th anniversary of...

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