China News

An inherent “asymmetry” of power poses a challenge to resolving South China Sea disputes via the quiet diplomacy traditionally favoured by Southeast Asian nations, a leading Malaysian security expert has said. Chinese analysts said Beijing supported the “Asean way” too, so long as sovereignty claims were resolved bilaterally. They also warned against external interference and “power politics” standing in the way of consensus within the bloc. Ruhanas Harun, an international relations professor at...

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Global investors should shift their focus from Asia’s dominant AI hardware “titans” to a growing group of mid-cap “battleground” sectors that offer stronger growth potential amid intensifying competition, according to BofA Securities. In a report, analysts from the Bank of America investment banking arm mapped more than 330 Asian stocks across 22 subsectors in the artificial intelligence technology layer – representing market capitalisation of nearly US$6 trillion. The most compelling...

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Rising tensions in the Middle East despite the fragile ceasefire agreement in Gaza are continuing to fuel demands for arms in a region where China has emerged as a major supplier. As well as supplying drones and missiles, China is looking to expand its offering into advanced weapons systems, such as fighter jets, but is facing increasing competition from a near neighbour: South Korea. While both have opportunities to expand arms exports, analysts said South Korea was relatively better positioned...

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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday defended her government’s decision to impose new import tariffs, hours after the Senate approved legislation allowing duties of up to 50 per cent on more than 1,400 products from Asian countries. The measure, widely seen as aimed at curbing Chinese imports, comes as Mexico prepares for a review of its trade agreement with the United States and Canada next year. Sheinbaum described the move as part of her administration’s plan to strengthen domestic...

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The senior Democrat on a US congressional committee focused on China is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to fill the State Department’s vacant post for Arctic affairs, citing intensifying competition with Beijing and adding to growing pressure to address the vacancy. The Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Affairs leads US engagement with the eight-country Arctic Council and coordinates American interests related to safety and security, economic development and intergovernmental cooperation. The...

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With the end of the year approaching, the European Commission is rapidly ramping up its de-risking efforts through a flurry of broadsides against Chinese firms – even as the bloc’s most powerful member states appear to be moving in different directions on China. Foreign subsidy regulation probes were launched against online retailer Temu and Nuctech, a maker of airport scanning equipment, on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. E-commerce giant Temu saw its Dublin headquarters raided by...

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The Trump administration is possibly facing a “dilemma” as tensions between China and Japan intensify, one Chinese analyst has suggested, while another noted that any breakthrough in the diplomatic dispute still hinged on direct engagement between the two Asian neighbours. This week, the downward spiral in ties between China and Japan showed no signs of easing. Beijing issued another travel warning targeting Japan on Thursday – less than four weeks after its previous advisory – this time citing...

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1. US seeks ‘constructive’ reset with China as trade tensions ease: Greer US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer says the United States is striving for a more “constructive” relationship with China after this year’s trade war, even as disputes over minerals and AI chips persist.
2. US commission wants more Mandarin language courses to curb Beijing’s sway A...

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China’s massive aerial drone carrier the Jiu Tian has completed its first flight, adding to the potential swarming capacities of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The Jiu Tian, which is itself a large drone, took to the air for the first time in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, state news agency Xinhua said on Thursday. The report did not mention when this took place. Designed by the First Aircraft Institute of the state-owned aerospace giant Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC),...

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The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that its position on Taiwan remained unchanged after Japan’s finance minister claimed that the health body’s chief executive intended to strengthen ties with the island. On December 6, Japanese Minister of Finance Satsuki Katayama made a social media post in Japanese stating that during a visit to Tokyo, the WHO director general had “explicitly [stated] his intention to strengthen ties” with Taiwan. The post was made following a forum in Tokyo on...

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Beijing’s push to advance the domestic chip industry will remain unchanged regardless of whether it allows Chinese companies to buy Nvidia’s H200, analysts said. Days after US President Donald Trump announced Washington would permit Nvidia to ship the chips to approved Chinese customers – on the condition that 25 per cent be “paid” to the United States – Beijing has yet to publicly state whether it will approve purchases. So far, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued the only official...

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American tech giant Meta Platforms is reportedly using an open-source artificial intelligence model developed by Alibaba Group Holding to reinvigorate its faltering AI efforts in another likely win for Chinese AI. According to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday, Facebook owner Meta was using Alibaba’s Qwen model, along with other open-source models from Google and OpenAI, as part of the training process for a new model code-named Avocado, which was expected to be released in the spring. The report...

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US bombers and stealth fighters took part in a joint military exercise with Japan on Wednesday while an American aircraft carrier arrived at a Japanese port on Thursday, in a show of force amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Tokyo. Japanese Self-Defence Forces (SDF) and the US military conducted the exercise “amid an increasingly severe security environment surrounding Japan”, Tokyo’s Ministry of Defence said on Thursday. “Through this exercise, we confirmed the strong commitment of...

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China has pledged to bolster its economy, primarily on the back of domestic demand, and build a robust domestic market to counter external challenges, after a high-level meeting setting the tone for next year’s economic policy. Following the central economic work conference – an annual gathering of the Central Committee of the ruling Communist Party and the State Council, China’s cabinet – a readout by state news agency Xinhua said the country must “strengthen our own capabilities to cope with...

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An exhibition based on the works of the celebrated Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has been postponed as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate. Studio Ghibli, the Oscar-winning anime studio which Miyazaki co-founded, announced the decision on Tuesday without giving a reason. “We apologise to the audience who have been looking forward to this event, and sincerely thank you for your understanding and support,” the statement said....

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China has urged the Dutch government to push the Netherlands arm of semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia to send personnel to China, Beijing’s commerce ministry said during a press conference on Thursday. The Dutch embassy in China has been asked to urge The Hague’s Ministry of Economic Affairs to “implement the consensus reached in consultations” and encourage the Nijmegen-headquartered company to dispatch its representatives to China “as soon as possible”, ministry spokesman He Yadong...

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A prominent Chinese economist said the country can sustain annual economic growth of 5 to 6 per cent over the next decade and stabilise relations with the United States by the middle of the century, as it seizes opportunities from the fourth industrial revolution. Justin Lin Yifu, dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University and a former chief economist at the World Bank, said China could achieve breakthroughs in US technology “choke points” within five years and raise...

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In the first three quarters of this year, China added 310 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, up 47.7 per cent year on year and accounting for 84.4 per cent of all new power installations in the country, according to the National Energy Administration. This progress is more than climate leadership or capacity building; it involves a holistic reconstruction of the energy system. China is replacing the 20th-century fossil fuel order with a 21st-century “electro-industrial order” where power...

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US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s designation of Washington-Beijing ties as “G2” carries a “deeply problematic” meaning that sidelines United States’ allies and partners in the region, a US lawmaker has stated in a letter. Democratic Party House Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, a ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, sent the letter to Hegseth on Monday, expressing “profound concern” about the US defence chief’s use of the term G2 in describing the...

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With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter. Chinese biotech companies are expected to make major international advances over the next decade, industry leaders said, but cautioned that weak patent...

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China’s recent breakthroughs in fracking technology have the potential to usher in a new shale revolution that could solidify the country’s energy security and reshape the international oil order. That would see China join the United States, whose shale boom earlier this century enabled it to become the largest crude oil producer in the world. This fundamentally altered the international oil market, with significant impact on oil exporters, particularly members of the Organisation of the...

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Reincarnation must follow Chinese laws and be endorsed by Beijing, Tibetan Buddhist leader Panchen Lama has said in an apparent reference to the succession of the Dalai Lama. Speaking at an official symposium in Shigatse on Monday, the Panchen Lama – the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism after only the Dalai Lama – stated that reincarnated “living Buddhas” must be identified within China and approved by the central government. This must be done “without any interference or control from...

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Chinese artificial intelligence pioneer SenseTime is betting that its roots in computer vision will help it lead the next phase of AI, as the industry shifts towards multimodal systems and embodied intelligence in the physical world, according to co-founder and chief scientist Lin Dahua. In an interview with the Post on Wednesday, Lin said the company’s long-standing expertise in vision-based AI put it in a strong position to become a leader in embodied intelligence, robotics and AI agents...

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A bipartisan commission focused on the rule of law and human rights in China is recommending that the US Congress scale up immersion programmes for Mandarin and other languages spoken on the mainland in American high schools and universities. The recommendation, made as part of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s (CECC) annual report, comes as Washington has scaled back funding for cultural exchange programmes since the start of US President Donald Trump’s second administration. It...

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The Simandou mountain range in southeastern Guinea, once a dense forest where exploration teams relied on GPS and helicopters to navigate, has yielded vast reserves of its sought-after high-grade iron ore after decades of delay. Workers struggled to define the layout of the thick forest before clearing the trees and brush at the site set for the Simandou Iron Ore project, “as it was nothing but darkness”, according to Chris Aitchison, the managing director for Rio Tinto’s Simfer joint...

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