China News

China’s trade with some South American nations is accelerating after the opening of Peru’s Chancay port, underscoring Beijing's push to secure resources and bolster industrial supply chains under the Belt and Road Initiative, analysts said. The surge in two-way trade builds on years of Chinese investment and comes as the United States seeks to roll back Beijing’s influence in the region under a strategy US President Donald Trump has called the “Donroe” doctrine – invoking a 19th-century policy...

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A senior US official on Thursday defended Washington’s new critical minerals push, telling the South China Morning Post that supply chain diversification is a national security measure, not an attempt to form an exclusive bloc as Beijing has claimed. Deputy State Department spokeswoman Mignon Houston, speaking a day after the launch of the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement, or Forge, described the US-led global coordination of strategic minerals as a “prudent step”. She sidestepped...

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‌Greek defence authorities have arrested a member ‍of the Greek defence forces accused of leaking “secret information” to “third parties”, the Greek National Defence General Staff (GEETHA) said ⁠on Thursday. Two months ago, Greece’s intelligence service received a tip-off from a Western national security agency that “highly sensitive” information was leaked to China by ‍a member of the country’s military, sources close ‍to the investigation added. The man, a member of the Greek Air Force in ‌the...

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been sounding out multiple Chinese solar suppliers in recent weeks, industry insiders and companies confirmed, as the world’s richest man advances his vision for space-based data centres powered by constant solar energy – drawing fresh attention to China’s solar supply chain. The discussions, which have not yet resulted in confirmed orders, triggered a rally in shares of several solar-related companies earlier this week, before sentiment cooled on Thursday. Analysts and...

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Following the successful conclusion of its 14th National Congress, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) has intensified its strategic coordination with its Chinese counterpart with an exchange of special envoys between the two parties. First, Liu Haixing, Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee (IDCPC), visited Vietnam as … Continue reading China and Vietnam exchange special envoys

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In an unusual diplomatic coincidence, Chinese President Xi Jinping held separate conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on February 4. Xi Jinping first met with President Putin by videoconference. The readout published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that President Xi extended sincere Spring Festival greetings to President Putin and … Continue reading Xi Jinping holds same day conversations with Presidents Putin and Trump

The post Xi Jinping holds same day conversations with Presidents Putin and Trump appeared first on Friends of Socialist China.

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he “would not be surprised” if China is already looking into ways to challenge the US’ pre-eminence in digital assets, given Hong Kong's efforts to develop the industry. When testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, Bessent said that there are “lots of rumours of Chinese digital assets” possibly being backed by something other than its currency yuan, such as gold, but that the US could not confirm such claims. “We don’t know that for...

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Chinese researchers have pushed the frontiers of quantum encryption, demonstrating a powerful new way to send secure information over more than 100km (62 miles) of optical fibre – without having to trust the equipment being used. A team led by Pan Jianwei at the University of Science and Technology of China used a pair of individual rubidium atoms, trapped in laser beams at two separate network nodes, as the foundation for their system, according to a paper published in Science this week. The...

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Two Chinese nationals suspected of trying to intercept satellite communications from ‌a base in an Airbnb rental property in southwestern France have been placed ‍under formal investigation, the Paris public prosecutor’s office said on Thursday. Police were first alerted last week when locals noticed that a roughly two-metre (6.6-foot) wide satellite dish being installed at the property in Gironde, which coincided with an internet outage, the office ⁠said. The two Chinese nationals, and two...

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Panama’s decision to invalidate port contracts with a Hong Kong-based conglomerate is sending shock waves through global port investment, analysts warn, creating a destabilising precedent amid rising geopolitical fragmentation. Tensions are escalating in the Central American nation following a top court’s ruling that voided CK Hutchison Holdings’ port concession – a long-term agreement granting rights to operate a port – from the 1990s as “unconstitutional”. The local port authority later said...

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Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unprecedented back-to-back conversations with his US and Russian counterparts have shed new light on how the three powers are positioning themselves. The Chinese leader’s separate talks on Wednesday with US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin also reveal their attempts to stabilise ties as they prepare for in-person summits and grapple with mounting headwinds at home. However, analysts expressed mixed views on whether – and how – China could...

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China is charting a course for a major increase in domestic gold output over the next five years, while also advancing a new round of mineral-exploration breakthroughs, to bolster self-sufficiency amid a global shift away from the US dollar and heightened geopolitical tensions that underscore gold’s role as a financial haven. The proposal, outlined by the China Gold Association, aims to upgrade mining and smelting technologies during the country’s 15th five-year plan period (2026-2030) while...

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US President Donald Trump’s trip to Europe to speak at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss alpine town of Davos was possibly one he wished he had never made; such was its failure to impress. First, his plane had to turn back due to a technical problem. Second, he gave a typically hostile speech, but then he lived up to his nickname “Taco” (Trump always chickens out) over threats to invade Greenland that would have imperilled about a third of global trade. Third, he said disingenuously that if...

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Lithuania “jumped in front of the train and lost” on its decision over Taipei’s de facto embassy, the country’s prime minister said, as Vilnius became the latest European capital to seek to recalibrate ties with Beijing. In an interview with the Baltic News Service on Tuesday, Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene said Vilnius made a mistake in allowing the opening of a Taiwanese representative office in the capital in 2021. The move enraged Beijing, which saw the use of “Taiwanese” – rather...

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Talks between the US and Chinese presidents on Taiwan and arms sales have fanned fears on the island that it is slipping down the ladder of Washington’s strategic priorities in an era of great-power bargaining. The concern compounded unease raised by the release last month of the US’ National Defence Strategy, which made no mention of Taiwan. In a phone call on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his American counterpart Donald Trump that Taiwan was the “most important” question in...

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At the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xian, Shaanxi province, sits an unremarkable-looking device called the TPG1000Cs. It could become Starlink’s worst nightmare. The TPG1000Cs is the world’s first compact driver for a high-power microwave (HPM) weapon, capable of delivering an extraordinary 20 gigawatts of power for up to one full minute. Measuring just four metres long (13 feet) and weighing only five tonnes, it is compact enough to be mounted on trucks, warships, aircraft or...

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EU industry chief Stephane Sejourne was in Washington on Wednesday, with a mandate from the bloc’s 27 member states to work towards a memorandum on critical minerals with the United States. With the sides keen to reduce their reliance on China, dramatically weaponised during last year’s US-China trade war, the French commissioner secured a “commitment” to work towards a memorandum within 30 days, to identify joint mining, refining, processing and recycling projects. In a joint statement that...

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Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Iran in wide-ranging calls with both Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, as the US president steps up pressure on the Islamic Republic following the bloody quashing of anti-government protests. The US president said on social media that the “excellent” phone call with Xi covered topics including Iran, the Chinese purchase of US oil and gas, and Taiwan. Earlier, Xi and Putin “checked their approaches” on Iran, Venezuela and Cuba among other...

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Clean energy technologies – led by solar power and electric vehicles – drove more than one-third of China’s economic growth last year and over 90 per cent of the rise in investment, according to a new study. China’s clean energy industries generated a record 15.4 trillion yuan (US$2.1 trillion) in economic output in 2025, equivalent to 11.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found. If they were a country, the Chinese...

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China’s top medical watchdog has ordered a nationwide review of the country’s mental institutes following media reports that multiple hospitals in central China had locked up patients – including people who were not suffering from mental illnesses – as part of an insurance scam. The National Healthcare Security Administration said on Wednesday that its provincial bureaus should hold talks with directors of all mental institutes in their area by Sunday. They were also told to ensure that thorough...

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Luuk van Middelaar is the director of the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics, a think tank he co-founded in 2022. A political theorist and historian by trade, he has written several books and was in the cabinet of the first European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy. Van Middelaar is widely read and cited across Europe for his analysis of the EU’s political evolution, with his books translated into many languages and awarded major European literary prizes. He writes regularly for leading...

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Beijing’s new hybrid-powered unmanned transport aircraft has completed its maiden flight, a development one analyst said could be a military “game changer” in the Taiwan Strait by helping supply elite frontline troops. On Tuesday, state broadcaster CCTV described the CH YH-1000S as “the world’s first hybrid-powered unmanned transport aircraft” and said it had completed its maiden flight on Sunday at an airport in the southwestern city of Chongqing. “[The drone] carried a high-powered hybrid...

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Brazil has ended a temporary tariff exemption that allowed electric and hybrid vehicles assembled using imported parts from China to enter the country at sharply reduced costs, closing a measure that fuelled months of confrontation between the government, Chinese carmaker BYD and Brazil’s established automotive industry. The exemption expired on January 31 and was not renewed, the South China Morning Post confirmed with multiple sources on Wednesday. Companies like BYD and Great Wall Motors will...

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China has criticised the European Commission’s anti-subsidy probe into Chinese wind turbine maker Goldwind Science & Technology as “targeted” and “discriminatory”, warning that such measures would undermine Chinese companies’ confidence in the European market and disrupt the bloc’s green transition. “The European side’s related investigations have generalised the concept of ‘foreign subsidies’ and have many problems, such as insufficient evidence for opening cases and a lack of procedural...

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Turkey remains committed to becoming a full member of the Brics bloc, positioning itself as a bridge between Asia and Europe despite widening transatlantic rifts, according to the new Turkish ambassador to China. Ankara, meanwhile, would continue to work with Beijing to deepen trade ties, promote high-level visits, expand cultural and academic exchanges and build political trust through dialogue on security, counterterrorism and other sensitive issues, the envoy told the South China Morning...

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