China News

From temple courtyards to trendy cafes, cats have long captivated hearts in China. Now, scientists have shed light on the pet’s origin in the country, suggesting its earliest presence dates back to the Tang dynasty (618-907), with its arrival via the Silk Road. A Tang dynasty provincial governor was recorded as the first person in Chinese history to name his dozens of cats. The avid cat lover also set aside a large area at home to play with them. Wu Zetian, China’s first and only woman emperor,...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, has moved to tighten controls on its artificial intelligence-powered smartphone after several of China’s most widely used apps restricted its voice-operated functions. The company said it had scaled back the capabilities of Doubao, the agentic AI that runs on the device. In a statement issued on Friday, ByteDance said it would prevent the Nubia M153 AI phone from claiming incentives that were intended for active human users. It was also disabling the assistant’s...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Western analysts often frame automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics as an existential threat to workers, with the risk of impending unemployment potentially triggering economic unrest. However, 74 per cent of all industrial robots deployed last year were in Asia, where they do not appear to be replacing workers but are instead redefining roles amid innovative modes for production and higher efficiency. As digital factories become ubiquitous, countries such as Vietnam and China are...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

A pale-grey, nearly one-metre-tall, four-legged robot drew crowds at Tokyo’s International Robot Exhibition, lowering itself down some steps before lifting its right foreleg as if to greet onlookers. It rolled around one of the exhibition halls on wheels, avoiding obstacles in its path. The quadruped, dubbed the D5, is the latest model unveiled on Wednesday by Chinese robot maker Pudu Robotics at IREX – a biennial industry showcase at Tokyo Big Sight from December 3 to 6. It is Pudu’s second...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Chinese medical experts have created an ultra-efficient stem cell approach to Parkinson’s disease, raising prospects for treatment for a condition for which there is no known cure. Parkinson’s disease is often referred to as a “movement disorder”. Its symptoms are caused by the brain failing to generate enough dopamine, due to the death or impairment of the neurons responsible for producing the chemical. While researchers around the world are exploring stem cell therapies to replenish lost...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

It is not unusual for Berlin to be cloaked in a blanket of grey on the brink of winter. What hangs over the city this year, however, feels heavier. This new shade of gloom cuts through conversations about everything. Germany’s coalition government is just six months old, but already some are wondering how long it can last. The economy is no larger now than it was five years ago and is being pummelled by a heady brew of structural problems and external threats. The German foreign minister warned...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Competing priorities and US economic interests are likely to challenge Washington in its goal of “deterring a conflict over Taiwan” through an overwhelming military advantage, according to experts. The strategic goal was laid out in the White House’s latest National Security Strategy report released on Friday. While the report said the western hemisphere and domestic security were Washington’s top concerns, it also noted that “Taiwan provides direct access to the second island chain and splits...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Nigel Slater, former pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge and a distinguished figure in chemical engineering and biopharmaceuticals, has officially embarked on a new chapter in China’s rapidly rising biomedical frontier. The veteran academic, who spent over three decades shaping science and innovation at Cambridge, has joined Zhejiang University in Hangzhou as part of a strategic move fuelled by both personal ambition and global scientific realignment. For Slater, the journey from...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Only a few years ago, the notion that Beyond Meat – the former poster child of the plant-based meat industry – would shut down its operations in China seemed unthinkable. At the height of the brand’s popularity, its label could be found adorning heavily promoted products at restaurants and grocery stores across major cities. Many observers speculated that the alternative meat company and others like it had found the next great success story in the country’s rapidly evolving consumer market. But...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Jing Quan, formerly the second-in-command at the Chinese embassy in Washington, arrived in Manila on Saturday to assume his post as Beijing’s top envoy to the Philippines, pledging to both defend national interests and stabilise bilateral ties. “As the ambassador, I will firmly safeguard China’s national interests and dignity, while also serving as a bridge to ensure China-Philippines relations stabilise rather than deteriorate, and that our peoples draw closer instead of drifting apart,” Jing...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

The American public still wants the United States to be “engaged and take the lead” in international affairs, with support increasing for military intervention if Taiwan were to be attacked, according to a new survey. This view contrasts with US President Donald Trump’s isolationist bent and pivot towards homeland security, something analysts say could “complicate” decision making in the event of a crisis in the Taiwan Strait. According to an annual survey published on Thursday by the Ronald...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Beijing’s omission of the term “denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula” from a new white paper suggested its “tacit acceptance” of North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while prioritising its strategic competition with Washington, analysts said. Last week, China released a white paper on the country’s arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, outlining its policies on national defence and nuclear policy and updating a previous paper from 2005. One notable shift in Beijing’s position on...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Jeff Rowe grinned with satisfaction when the dashboard of his John Deere combine harvester showed the yield of the first run on his family’s farm during this year’s harvest: 253 bushels per acre, equivalent to 13.8 tonnes of corn per hectare. The yield on the 100-acre Schubert parcel was the highest in many years, said Rowe, the CEO of Syngenta Group and the son of the owners of Rowe Farm, Dean and Carol. Located in the corn belt of Illinois state in the US Midwest, the farm used Syngenta’s...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

China’s official media has called on disciplinary watchdogs to stop giving low-level officials insulting nicknames that imply they are not doing their jobs properly. The provincial publicity department of the eastern province of Zhejiang became the latest to weigh in on this issue. In a commentary posted on its official social media on Tuesday, it warned that this approach was likely to backfire. It criticised the use of labels such as “refrigerator” officials to describe those who “don’t speak...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Taiwan’s updated crisis and war survival guide has ignited fierce political debate, hailed by officials as a lifeline amid Beijing’s mounting military pressure but blasted by critics as costly propaganda prompting fear rather than readiness. Mass distribution of In Case of Crisis: Taiwan’s National Public Safety Guide – quickly dubbed the “little orange book” – began late last month, targeting 9.83 million households. The 29-page comic-style publication explains how to stockpile food and water,...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

During his Southeast Asia trip in October, US President Donald Trump sealed deals with Malaysia and Thailand on the same day – both aimed at securing and diversifying America’s supply chains for critical minerals and rare earths. Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim agreed to step up cooperation on building and expanding critical minerals supply chains, according to a White House statement. They also agreed to strengthen the security of critical minerals and rare earths supplies in...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

US President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy frames America’s allies not just as partners, but as instruments to preserve US primacy and counter China’s rise, analysts say. The strategy urges wealthy allies to increase defence spending, align more closely with Washington on measures such as export controls, and take greater responsibility for their regions, a shift that recasts long-standing alliances as tools in great-power competition. The 33-page document declares that the era...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

The White House released a national security blueprint on Friday, marking a sweeping assertion of US influence in the Americas. The framework pledges to prevent non-Western powers from expanding their foothold across the Western Hemisphere, a clear reference to China’s growing presence in the region. In US strategic parlance, the “Western Hemisphere” refers broadly to the Americas, a geopolitical space long regarded as a place Washington has sway over. This belief harks back to the Monroe...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

More than a week after US immigration authorities separated 6-year-old Yuanxin from his father during a routine check-in with ICE in New York, it has been confirmed that the child has been placed in the custody of the US Office of Refugee Resettlement. However, his location still remains unknown. The ORR, a federal agency within the US Department of Health and Human Services, is almost always the agency that takes custody of immigrant children classified as unaccompanied or separated minors...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Export controls may have been the economic weapon of choice in 2025, but the Dutch minister at the centre of the Nexperia crisis has admitted he was blindsided by Beijing when it blocked the company’s chips from leaving China. His concession raises fresh questions over how much planning went into the decision to reach for a Cold War-era law to intervene in the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker in September, a move that triggered a supply chain shock in the global automotive...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

With the technology race between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, intensifying even though a trade truce was reached in late October, analysts say the prospects of China achieving self-sufficiency in semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI) are positive, despite American efforts to maintain leads in those fields. “If any country can do it [achieve self-sufficiency in semiconductors], it’s China, owing to its vast resources and pool of engineering talent,”...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

Major Chinese airlines have extended their offer of full refunds for flights to Japan for another three months, as the heated diplomatic row between Beijing and Tokyo shows no signs of easing. On Friday, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines – the country’s largest state-owned carriers – along with several others, including Hainan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Spring Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, issued statements allowing free ticket refunds or itinerary changes for...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

The People’s Liberation Army has carried out an urban warfare drill, according to state media, in what appears to be a response to Taipei’s bid to fund improved “asymmetric capabilities”. In a report on Wednesday, state broadcaster CCTV aired footage of troops carrying out an operation to seize a built-up area in a war-torn city. The drill – involving reconnaissance, clearing and occupation – was part of a live-fire exercise conducted by a PLA Ground Force brigade that aimed to “test multiple...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

The United States and China are pursuing artificial intelligence in “different directions”, and the divergence is being reflected in the strategies that the governments and companies are adopting, according to the founder of one of the world’s largest technology investors. The US is focusing on supercomputing power and large models in the lofty pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI), while China was adopting a more practical approach, using AI to...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.

The ashes of microelectronics legend Chih-Tang Sah (Sa Zhitang), whose inventions underpin nearly all modern semiconductor chips, have been transported from the US to his ancestral province of Fujian in southeastern China for burial. Sah and his collaborator Frank Wanlass’ proposal of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistors laid the foundation for the development of low-power integrated circuits and the modern semiconductor industry. By 2011, around 99 per cent of...

From China - South China Morning Post via This RSS Feed.