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When Zeng Jinghan accepted an offer to lead the Confucius Institute at Lancaster University in England in 2018, he already had a plan to write a book. “I thought it would be very interesting if I could write about something that I know a lot about and participate in it personally, like Richard Crossman’s The Diary of a Cabinet Minister,” Zeng said, referring to the British politician’s memoirs published half a century ago. The job did not offer higher pay, and he was still an international...

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In a bid to overhaul their economic relationship, China and South Korea are reviving long-stalled trade talks, with an eye on moving beyond factory floors to target the lucrative services sector as geopolitical shifts redraw the region’s alliances. The thaw follows a December 12 agreement between Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao and South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan to accelerate negotiations on the second phase of their free-trade agreement (FTA). The push aims...

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George Yeo is a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He started his career in the military before entering politics in 1988. During his 23 years with the Singaporean government, Yeo held ministerial portfolios ranging from arts to health, trade and – for seven years – foreign affairs. After he left politics, Yeo was vice-chairman of Kerry Group in Hong Kong from 2012 to 2021 and chairman and executive director of its logistics arm from...

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Donald Trump’s move labelling fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction” is unlikely to disrupt Sino-US relations, but it expands Washington’s China policy toolbox and could inject uncertainty in ties over the long term, according to analysts. On Monday, the American president signed an executive order designating illicit fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, as a weapon of mass destruction, calling the drug “closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic”. Without naming names, the order highlighted...

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Chinese workers are returning to Africa in their thousands, reversing a decade-long decline and signalling a renewed focus on strategic mega-projects across the continent. In 2024, there were 90,793 Chinese workers on contracted projects and labour services on the continent, an increase of about 4 per cent over the 87,078 recorded the previous year, according to data from the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. The upturn marks...

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China’s state broadcaster has given a rare glimpse of PLA war gaming, with footage of a simulated encounter between Chinese and French multi-role fighters. The tabletop exercise pitted Chinese J-16 fighters against French Rafales, a model reportedly bested by Chinese-made J-10C jets in a conflict between India and Pakistan earlier this year. The CCTV report on Friday said this year was the first year that the entire People’s Liberation Army and People’s Armed Police Force were promoting pilot...

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China is often described today as having “overcapacity” in manufacturing. Its dominance in solar panels, batteries and wind equipment, for example, has left many observers baffled. How did a country once dismissed as undeveloped become, within a generation, so technologically developed that its success now unsettles global markets? Part of the answer lies in how we frame China’s development. What is often described as excess capacity is better understood as the outcome of an energy-centred...

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Vaccine expert Hu Haitao, who studied under Drew Weissman, the Nobel laureate and pioneer of mRNA biology, has given up his tenured position at a US research institute and returned to China – a decision that required little explanation in 2025, he said. Even just one year ago, people close to him would have thought it “unbelievable” that he might give up an academic career established over nearly two decades in the United States, Hu told the South China Morning Post. But academic prospects in...

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China’s top court has ruled that if an employer fires an employee for sexual harassment it should not have to pay compensation to the dismissed worker – a move lawyers said would make it easier for victims to take action. The ruling was among five cases highlighted by the Supreme People’s Court on Tuesday as examples of “promoting core socialist values” in family relations, the workplace and transport. According to a document released by the court, a man surnamed Wu in the southern province of...

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Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest stories about China’s soft power this year. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. Labubu, soft power of a stealthy ‘ugly-cute’ sort, takes on America The Chinese-made dolls, a playful global megahit, give Beijing an opportunity to make inroads into deep US distrust.
2. ‘Huge shift’: why learning Mandarin is losing its appeal in the West Available figures suggest enthusiasm for learning Mandarin abroad is waning after...

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Beijing and New Delhi have taken another step towards normalising economic ties after a five-year rift, as China moves to introduce a simplified visa process for Indian nationals that could help it tap India’s fast-growing travel market. The Chinese embassy in New Delhi said earlier this month that Indian citizens would be able to apply for visas online from December 22, sparing them time-consuming initial in-person visits to the embassy or other consular offices in the country. The move follows...

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Stand-alone flagship stores with distinctive architectural facades, long prevalent in global metropolises like Tokyo, Seoul and New York, are gradually gaining traction in China, as the country’s retail landscape undergoes a broader shift from enclosed malls towards open-air and street-facing formats. More luxury brands are setting up such flagships in places like Beijing’s Taikoo Li Sanlitun North, a trendy open-air commercial block developed and operated by Hong Kong’s Swire...

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Chinese archaeologists unearthing the ruins of the earliest known settlement in the Yangtze River Delta say water management may have been the origin of ancient “cities” in the area. Researchers began large-scale excavations of the Doushan site in Wuxi in the eastern province of Jiangsu in July last year, dating the city to about 6,000 years ago. Previously, the oldest urban site in the delta area was the Liangzhu culture site near Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, dating back about 5,300...

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China has boosted its armour steel production speed by 30 per cent with continuous investment in tech upgrades, while a major American steelmaker that provided military-grade steel for tanks, ships and mine-resistant vehicles ceased operation for financial reasons. Chinese military supplier Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group said it had solved key technical challenges to allow large-scale production of high-performance armour steel, which has been deployed for manufacturing tanks and armoured...

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China has pulled far ahead in the race to build humanoid robots, issuing five times as many related patents as the United States over the past five years, Morgan Stanley said in its latest Robot Almanac. In “Robot Almanac, Volume 3: Humanoids & Industrial Robots”, released on Tuesday as part of a six-volume series, Morgan Stanley said China recorded 7,705 humanoid patents over the past five years, compared with 1,561 in the US. Japan ranked next with 1,102, followed by the World Intellectual...

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A recently leaked Pentagon report has projected heavy US losses should it intervene in a Taiwan conflict, highlighting Washington’s growing anxiety over Beijing’s rapidly improving capabilities, according to defence experts. In a classified assessment known as the Overmatch brief, the Pentagon has catalogued the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to destroy American fighter planes, large ships and satellites and identified the US military’s supply chain choke points, according to a December 8...

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It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In the fifth part of a series looking back at the events of 2025, we examine how Trump’s strained relationship with farmers in America’s rural heartland may impact the 2026 midterm elections. As a bruising 2025 draws to a close for America’s Democratic Party, the caucus is spotlighting mounting challenges facing farmers in the country’s rural heartland. In a series of mini-documentaries released late this year, the lush green...

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Taiwan’s proposed missile shield known as T-Dome has “critical vulnerabilities and flaws” and would be unreliable against an attack by the People’s Liberation Army, according to a mainland Chinese military magazine. The air defence system – inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome and America’s proposed Golden Dome – was unveiled in October. Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te said T-Dome would guard against “hostile threats” and aimed to intercept aircraft, drones and missiles before they could strike...

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Two of China’s aircraft carriers, including its biggest and best, have docked at the same naval base near the Yellow Sea, raising suggestions that another dual-carrier exercise is on the horizon. Satellite images circulating on Chinese social media this week show the Fujian, which was officially commissioned last month, docked at a naval base in Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province. In one of the images purportedly taken on Thursday, the Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier, docked...

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China has objected to India’s efforts to celebrate a 17th-century Dalai Lama well known for his love of poetry, seeing it as an attempt to challenge Beijing’s territorial claims in the region and its control over Tibetan Buddhism, according to experts. India hosted an international symposium on the 6th Dalai Lama in Tawang, his birthplace, from December 3 to 6. Pema Khandu, the chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, inaugurated the event, which was attended by local officials and scholars of...

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Powerful, targeted jamming caused a temporary blackout of satellite navigation systems, including GPS and BeiDou, in a major Chinese city on Wednesday, an industry association said on Friday. The disruption affected users in Nanjing, a city of nearly 10 million people and capital of the eastern province of Jiangsu, between 4pm and 10pm on Wednesday. Car navigation, food delivery, ride-hailing, and drone control apps relying on satellite positioning experienced a “systemic anomaly” during the...

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After drones were flown in China at heights above 8,000 metres (26,247 feet) – approaching that of Mount Everest – the authorities are moving to crack down on illegal flights that threaten the safety of commercial aviation. The controversy highlights the regulatory dilemma China faces as it pushes to develop a low-altitude economy while ensuring aviation safety. Industry insiders say that with technological progress and upgraded oversight, China may eventually allow drones to fly as high as...

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An obsession with “security” can create increasing insecurity. This paradox is being amply demonstrated as advanced nations, including the United States and Japan, take or contemplate joint action aimed at bolstering economic security but which could erode global economic growth and prosperity – or even result in physical conflict. How might such threats crystallise? Strengthening security, whether economic or military, suggests increased defence spending to, for example, secure sea lanes and...

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Beijing-based ByteDance has raised pay and sweetened incentives as the TikTok owner steps up efforts to retain and attract talent globally, as it makes progress on settling the future of its US business. In an internal letter released to all staff on Friday and seen by the Post, the social media giant said it would lift both the upper and lower limits of compensation packages for staff across all ranks. For its full-year 2025 performance cycle – with reviews starting on January 15, 2026 –...

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For more than half a century, pandas have helped serve as ambassadors for China around the world, but their time in Japan appears to be drawing to a close with the last two bears in the country set to return next month. Hopes of receiving new ones soon appear dim given the current tensions between the two countries. Tokyo’s metropolitan government has reportedly been in talks with China about receiving new pandas, but there is no sign of agreement in the wake of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae...

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