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China’s civil aviation authority has floated a regulatory change that would allow its home-grown passenger jet, the C919, to use narrow runways typically found in smaller airports, a move that could help the plane expand its presence at home and break into the Southeast Asian market. The Civil Aviation Administration of China announced on Friday that it had set “special conditions” for the C919 to use narrow runways based on the jet’s design features, releasing a draft proposal for a...

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Chinese artificial intelligence start-up StepFun has unveiled a lightweight AI model that it says punches above its weight, rivalling larger systems from domestic competitors including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI as competition intensifies in the country’s AI sector. The Shanghai-based AI lab said on Monday its latest Step 3.5 Flash model was designed to deliver advanced reasoning and agentic capabilities while maintaining efficiency. Despite its relatively modest size of about 196 billion...

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A veteran Chinese investigative journalist has been detained by police in Sichuan province after publishing an article critical of local officials, raising fresh concerns about the abuse of power. On Monday evening, police in Jinjiang district in the southwestern city of Chengdu issued a notice on social media stating that a person surnamed Liu, 50, and a person surnamed Wu, 34, had been “subjected to criminal coercive measures in accordance with the law” on suspicion of lodging “false...

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China’s economic locomotive Shanghai is aiming for a growth rate of around 5 per cent this year, after gradually rebounding since 2023 and reaching a better-than-expected 5.4 per cent growth last year. The megacity, whose economic size is comparable to that of Belgium with last year’s GDP totalling 5.67 trillion yuan (US$816.2 billion), is upgrading its role as a global financial, trade and shipping centre, Mayor Gong Zheng told the city’s annual plenary sessions on Tuesday. The government is...

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The sudden death of a top fund manager in Shanghai – the latest in a string of similar cases – has raised alarm in China’s financial sector, as worries grow over the health risks posed by the industry’s intense work culture. Shen Xianbing, a founding partner of the private fund Qilin Investment, died on Monday at the age of 40, the company announced the same day, without explaining the cause of his death. The former University of Science and Technology of China graduate had served as a founding...

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I pay far less attention to China’s growth numbers today. What matters more is where fiscal capacity is flowing. China has entered a phase where population ageing, security needs and industrial upgrading all draw on the same budget. This shift follows a structural adjustment in property. Income from land sales – once a pillar of local government finance – has fallen sharply and is unlikely to return. Balance sheets will have to be reset. The question is no longer how much stimulus Beijing can...

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The US defence secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term, Jim Mattis, repeatedly warned that China would revert to a Ming dynasty-style model, projecting its strong military, technological and economic influence globally. At the time, his views were widely questioned by mainstream academics as too aggressive. A decade ago, China still lagged far behind the United States. But Mattis underestimated China’s ambitions. On January 29, China announced the official launch of a national space...

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In a move to bolster the stability of the property market, Shanghai unveiled a plan to buy second-hand homes for use as public rental housing, with the move timed to coincide with the opening of the city’s annual “two sessions” meetings. With the official launch of a pilot programme on Monday, the city aims to meet rental demand from young residents including college students and new urban arrivals. The initiative will roll out first in the downtown districts of Pudong, Jing’an and Xuhui. Backed...

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Any decision by Australia to regain control of Darwin Port is likely to differ from Panama’s move to nullify a contract on its geostrategically vital canal, as fears of Chinese retaliation and a limited security consensus limit Canberra’s options, analysts said – though they warned the issue could still reopen strains in the bilateral relationship. Panama’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday against a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings, ending its rights to operate two ports on the...

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Leading brain development and gene regulation researcher Gao Zhonghua has joined a newly established university in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen after more than two decades working in the United States. Gao became a full-time research professor at the Shenzhen University of Advanced Technology (SUAT) last month, according to the university website. Officially approved in 2024, SUAT is a research-focused institution aimed at training talent for cutting-edge industries such as biomedicine...

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A sudden and catastrophic collapse at a major bridge construction site in China’s eastern Jiangsu province has left two workers dead, three others missing and a critical regional infrastructure project in disarray. At 5.46pm on Monday, a significant section of the under-construction Yuegang Bridge collapsed in Yancheng City’s Xiangshui County when the main span – measuring 95 metres (312 feet) – of the unfinished bridge suddenly gave way. Two people pulled from the wreckage with severe injuries...

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China’s chief builder of commercial aircraft will display its full product line – including the home-grown C919, the company’s marquee narrowbody airliner – at the Singapore Airshow as it seeks to widen its footprint in Southeast Asia. The Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) has “set up” a C919 at the twice-yearly expo, according to independent aviation analyst Li Hanming. The air show is set to begin on Tuesday and run for six days. A source close to the matter confirmed that the...

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China’s commercial space sector has entered a new frontier. In January, a private Chinese aerospace company unveiled the test capsule of what is set to become the country’s first commercially developed crewed spacecraft, with plans for crewed flights by 2028 and bookings already taken from private space tourists. The project reflects a decisive shift in national policy, where commercial players are no longer peripheral participants but integral contributors to major space missions. This...

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Chinese open-source artificial intelligence models are being adopted by OpenClaw, the global hit AI agent, for their favourable balance of cost and performance, according to industry experts. OpenClaw, which has been a runaway success since its late 2025 launch, announced on Friday that it was offering Chinese start-up Moonshot AI’s latest Kimi K2.5 and Kimi Coding agent for free in its service, while adding support for MiniMax, another Chinese foundational AI developer. Analysts said Chinese...

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When the first cohort of elite foreign captains parachuted into Chinese airlines in the 2000s, their sky-high pay – sometimes reaching 1 million yuan a year – raised eyebrows among their Chinese counterparts. These hotshot aviators, with their international exposure and qualifications, enjoyed a stratospheric level of success in the burgeoning Chinese market. Facing a shortage of experienced pilots, Chinese carriers embraced them with open arms, granting generous benefits and speedy paths to...

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Central Asia’s water insecurity may seem a distant concern. But its rivers underpin Eurasian trade corridors, sustain global food markets and power regional energy systems. As water stress worsens, this is no longer just an environmental issue but a strategic threat across Eurasia – demanding urgent attention in Beijing, Brussels and beyond. Central Asia is warming twice as fast as the global average, accelerating glacier retreat in mountain ranges that act as natural reservoirs. As a result,...

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced backlash over his trip to China amid claims that the UK government has been “tricked” by Beijing. Conservative former security minister Tom Tugendhat raised the issue of Chinese sanctions on British parliamentarians after Starmer announced that “all restrictions” had been lifted on current members. Tugendhat, former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, Senior Deputy Speaker Nusrat Ghani and Conservative former minister Neil O’Brien were among those...

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China’s state-owned aluminium giant Chalco and Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto have agreed to buy a controlling stake in Brazil’s Companhia Brasileira de Aluminio (CBA) in a deal valued at US$886 million, marking one of the most significant foreign acquisitions in Brazil’s metals sector in recent years and reinforcing China’s growing footprint in the country’s strategic mineral assets. The transaction covers Brazilian conglomerate Grupo Votorantim’s 68.6 per cent stake in CBA and will be...

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We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering Latin America relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. US won’t rule out pressuring Venezuela to curb China, Russia ties In the wake of the abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3, the White House stopped short of denying reports that America had urged Venezuela to cut ties with US adversaries such as China, Russia and...

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Seeking to blunt China’s dominance over critical minerals that underpin hi-tech manufacturing, the administration of US President Donald Trump is rolling out a slate of measures this week aimed at reducing US reliance on Beijing. A White House official has confirmed to the South China Morning Post that Trump will be launching a US$12 billion public-private initiative to build a large commercial stockpile of critical minerals titled “Project Vault”. The project is being billed as a strategic...

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Defying a tight domestic job market, a record wave of overseas graduates is flooding back to China, eager to snatch up opportunities in its fast-growing tech and advanced manufacturing sectors. The influx, up 12 per cent in 2025 to an eight-year high, signals “determined confidence” among globally trained talent, according to findings by job-recruitment platform Zhaopin. And the robustness of this homecoming trend, at 2.25 times the 2018 level, points to a “sustained trend” in domestic...

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US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is unlikely to pose a credible challenge to the United Nations, analysts say. They also warn that legal ambiguity, as well as doubts over credibility and funding, make the initiative’s long-term viability uncertain. Beijing was likely to respond cautiously but might also see some advantages if Washington’s attention was diverted elsewhere, leading to China potentially taking on a more proactive role in some regional security matters, they said. The...

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Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings aims to replicate the success of WeChat Pay by splashing cash for its artificial intelligence app Yuanbao, but analysts are sceptical about whether subsidies can move the needle in the increasingly crowded market. Yuanbao’s 1 billion yuan (US$144 million) promotional campaign, which gives out cash through digital red packets to drive adoption, kicked off with a high-profile launch on Sunday, as many users woke up to find their WeChat groups flooded with...

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We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. Trump sells tariffs as farmers’ win in Iowa, but many aren’t buying it In January, US President Donald Trump said farmers were “going to be the biggest beneficiary” of his tariff policy, even if it was “going to take a little while to kick in”. But many remained anxious that they could once...

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