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Chinese companies are populating factory floors with human-shaped robots, according to Shenzhen-based UBTech Robotics, which claims to have racked up orders worth more than 800 million yuan (US$113 million) for its Walker S2 model this year. The robot maker said on Monday that it secured an order worth 159 million yuan from a company in Zigong, in southwest China’s Sichuan province – its second-largest single order, following one for 250 million yuan in September. UBTech, which in 2023 became...

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A senior naval aviation officer appears to have been appointed the Chinese navy’s acting commander, highlighting the armed forces’ focus on joint operations. Vice-Admiral Cui Yuzhong, 61, was the highest ranking naval commanding officer at the commissioning of the Fujian aircraft carrier in the southern province of Hainan last week, according to footage aired by state broadcaster CCTV. Cui is the deputy commander of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy and appeared walking behind President Xi...

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China has unveiled new measures designed to channel private capital into traditionally state-funded infrastructure projects, as Beijing steps up efforts to reduce investment restrictions and bolster the private economy. The 13-point document released on Monday by China’s cabinet, the State Council, includes measures to encourage private investment in major projects in a range of sectors – from power generation to transport. Any project in areas including rail, nuclear power, hydropower, oil and...

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The first shipment of iron ore from Guinea’s US$20 billion Simandou mine will be flagged off with the project’s inauguration on Tuesday, a development that is set to reshape global supply and pricing once commercial exports reach full capacity. Most of the steelmaking resource extracted from Simandou – the world’s largest known undeveloped reserve of high-grade iron ore – is expected to go to China, given the heavy investments by Chinese firms in the project. However, as railway and port...

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China is making plans to bring home three astronauts whose return from the Tiangong space station was delayed after their vessel was hit by debris last week. Two people familiar with the crewed space programme said Shenzhou-22, originally built for the next crew rotation, was being prepared and stocked at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert. The China Manned Space Engineering (CMSE) office said on Tuesday “emergency plans and measures have been immediately activated in line...

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The dollar is regaining its crown as one of the world’s most appealing assets, defying talk of a “Sell America” trade that had raised troubling questions about the outlook for the global reserve currency. A simple strategy of borrowing in low-yielding currencies like the Japanese yen or the Swiss franc and putting your money in dollars looks set to beat the implied returns on markets such as European stocks and Chinese government bonds once the volatility of these assets is taken into account,...

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Taiwan’s military is facing a worsening manpower crisis as the numbers volunteering to serve continue to shrink. The trend has raised concerns that the shortfall could undermine combat readiness even as the government plans record levels of defence spending in response to US lobbying and the growing strength of mainland China’s military. According to a recent report by the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Centre, the overall personnel fill rate – the ratio between authorised and actual troop numbers –...

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A new reasoning model developed by a Chinese artificial intelligence start-up – with its performance exceeding OpenAI’s GPT-5 and Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 in a number of metrics – has fanned fresh debate about another DeepSeek moment and the trajectory of America’s AI supremacy. Beijing-based Moonshot AI, a start-up valued at US$3.3 billion and backed by Chinese tech giants like Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, has presented another David-vs-Goliath story after creating an...

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The decision to suspend new port fees on Chinese-built, owned, or operated vessels starting on Monday has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats, who say it undercuts US President Donald Trump’s claims of being tough on China. They are not alone in pushing back. While shippers see the move easing costs and boosting trade, labour unions are warning that it could weaken American maritime leverage, send the wrong signal to Beijing, and contradict the administration’s own rhetoric on holding China...

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Early in the morning in cities across China, groups of people gather in public squares, moving as one in slow, deliberate tai chi routines. Many are in their sixties or seventies – an age group that has long defined the rhythm of daily life in much of the country. While these dedicated practitioners have been a part of the national routine for decades, their ubiquity carries new connotations as the country undergoes a profound shift in population dynamics: China is growing old, fast. As of last...

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For US President Donald Trump to consent to South Korea building its own nuclear-powered submarines was unexpected – though a welcome decision for the many South Korean analysts who have long argued such vessels were urgently needed by the country’s navy. It will have a huge impact on the US alliance with South Korea and its neighbours, not least North Korea, which is apparently building its first nuclear ballistic missile submarine with Russian technical support: not just any nuclear-powered...

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China has reportedly declined, for the time being, to make a financial contribution to Brazil’s flagship rainforest protection mechanism, arguing that developed nations should take the lead in global climate financing. The position, reported by Brazil’s newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, frustrated hopes in Brasília that the world’s second-largest economy would become a major early backer of the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, or TFFF. Chinese negotiators told their Brazilian counterparts that...

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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. US-China rivalry will adapt, spread into other areas: Pascal Lamy “Bumpy” US-China relations will persist for decades as the rivalry shifts from trade to the weaponisation of strategic sectors and supply chains, according to a former head of the World Trade Organization.
2. Silkpunk creator Ken Liu takes on AI, modernity and what it means to be American The...

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Now that the Chinese navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, has entered service there could be a change in the power balance in the western Pacific, the South China Sea and even the Indian Ocean, according to experts. The Fujian – China’s third aircraft carrier – was commissioned last Wednesday in Sanya, Hainan province, in a grand ceremony overseen by President Xi Jinping, state media reported on Friday. It is the first Chinese warship equipped with an electromagnetic catapult...

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Beijing has tightened controls over fentanyl precursors destined for countries in North America following the recent summit in South Korea between the US and Chinese presidents. The Ministry of Commerce announced on Monday that China would make adjustments to the catalogue of drug-related precursor chemicals and require licences for the export of certain chemicals to the United States, Canada and Mexico. Specifically, exports of 13 chemicals to the three countries now require a permit, according...

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Chinese companies signed a record US$83.5 billion in import deals at the China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, reinforcing the importance of mainland consumers as growth drivers for global businesses and the world economy less than two weeks after the US and China reached a trade truce. The total – the fifth straight record high for the annual six-day event, which concluded on Monday – represented a 4.4 per cent increase from a year earlier, according to the organiser, the CIIE...

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Australia and Japan could serve as “core” members of potential US-led pre-emptive sanctions to deter Beijing from launching a military attack on Taiwan if Washington considers the threat imminent, according to an influential American think tank. Researchers from the Rand Corporation said that if the United States expected war to break out across the Taiwan Strait “within an ensuing three to six months”, it was possible Washington would put in place economic restraints “preemptively in a...

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British politics is once again allowing domestic drama to override strategic thinking. The latest hysteria surrounding alleged Chinese spying and Beijing’s plans for a new embassy in London illustrates how Britain’s foreign policy risks being driven less by sober calculation than by political theatre. The consequences could be severe: Britain is edging towards repeating the mistakes of Brexit, trading its long-term national interests for short-term populist gain. In the United States, the...

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Beijing has criticised Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for “seriously damaging bilateral ties and challenging post-war international order” over her remarks last week that Japan could deploy its military in the event of a contingency involving Taiwan. Takaichi on Friday told the Japanese parliament that a Taiwan contingency involving the use of military force could be interpreted as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, which could allow Tokyo to engage in military action...

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Lin Wenbin, one of the founders and leading lights in the cutting edge field of metal-organic frameworks (MOF) – an area of chemistry recognised this year with a Nobel Prize – has left the United States for China. The internationally renowned molecular materials chemist and chemical biologist confirmed on Friday that he had retired early from the University of Chicago and joined Westlake University in Hangzhou, eastern China. Westlake University said earlier that Lin was now a full-time chair...

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China has suspended retaliatory port fees on US-linked vessels for one year, following Washington’s pause of similar charges under its “Section 301” investigation targeting the Chinese maritime sector. After months of uncertainty over the rival port fees, which took effect on October 14, the shipping industry can finally breathe a sigh of relief as both sides formally confirmed the pause. In line with the outcomes of the US-China trade talks in Kuala Lumpur, the Ministry of Transport said the...

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China’s “in-orbit factory” has taken shape following a technological breakthrough in the form of an inflatable, reconfigurable space module, as it joins the United States and other countries to build large-scale industrial production lines in orbit. According to the developers, components of this smart morphing framework can be compactly folded during launch and inflated and unfolded once in orbit to form a vast, stable operational habitat, each a building block to create a manufacturing plant...

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Battered by declining production and the departure of Western partners, Chad’s oil industry is betting its future on Beijing. In a high-stakes diplomatic pivot, the landlocked central African country has aimed to double its current output of 150,000 barrels per day, relying on China and allies like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to revive its energy sector. Leading the massive effort is the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which according to Chadian officials, is set to expand its...

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“Bumpy” US-China relations will persist for decades as the rivalry shifts from trade to the weaponisation of strategic sectors and supply chains, according to a former head of the World Trade Organization. Bilateral ties will experience “ups and downs, and to and fro, and left and right”, said Pascal Lamy, former WTO director general, during a media event at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai. “Their geostrategic competition… will not abate,” he said. “If you have both...

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A giant, floating, mythical fish puppet at the National Games’ opening ceremony on Sunday captured the hearts of the live audience and those watching on television, in a show that also featured performances by Hong Kong pop stars, the lighting of the game’s cauldron and more. Spectators of the ceremony, which kick-started the 13-day quadrennial event at the Guangdong Olympic Sports Centre, rushed to the social media platform RedNote to share close-up clips of the luminous, colourful puppet...

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