China News

China’s Ministry of Commerce says it will conduct a review and investigation into Meta’s acquisition of Manus regarding export controls and technology exports, confirming an earlier report by the Post. The Post reported that Chinese authorities were considering whether to step in over Meta Platforms’ acquisition of Manus – an artificial intelligence agent developer with Chinese roots – amid concerns the deal could breach technology export controls and encourage more start-ups to relocate...

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The US takeover of Venezuela has placed billions of dollars in Chinese oil-for-loan debts at risk, analysts say, though they expect Venezuelan crude to continue flowing to China as the new government seeks immediate revenue. The abduction of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro by US forces has left Beijing’s outstanding exposure in the South American nation – estimated at about US$10 billion, according to the research lab AidData – in a state of limbo. An optimistic scenario would involve a...

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The United States’ decapitation operation against Venezuela will reinforce North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, an aspiration that will continue to draw China’s “tacit tolerance”, according to analysts. After the US military abducted Nicolas Maduro during an attack on Venezuela on Saturday, Pyongyang criticised Washington’s actions as “wildly” violating the sovereignty of Caracas. It was one of a slew of countries that issued swift criticism of the US move. In a statement on Sunday, the North Korean...

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China has vowed to achieve “safe and reliable supply” in key artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by 2027 as the global race for frontier technologies and applications heats up. A plan published on Wednesday by eight government agencies, led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, listed the main areas of work to reach the goal, including promoting the deep application of three to five general-purpose large AI models in the manufacturing sector. “By 2027, China’s key core...

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China has developed smart power grid technology that cuts blackout recovery time to a 10th of a second, according to state media, which said the innovation was expected to play a bigger role in ensuring the safe and stable distribution of electricity worldwide. The grid protection technology enables power grid faults to be isolated and restored within a hundred-millisecond window, compared with the hours otherwise required, according to a Science and Technology Daily report on Tuesday. It also...

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Cambodia has extradited to China a billionaire businessman accused of operating a transnational crime network, engaging in cryptocurrency fraud, human trafficking and money laundering. At the request of Chinese authorities, Cambodia arrested three Chinese nationals – including Chen Zhi, the founder of Prince Group – and transferred them to China on Tuesday, Cambodia China Times reported on Wednesday night. The Cambodian Ministry of Interior said in a statement that law enforcement from both...

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China’s access to Japan’s coveted industrial-use goods – especially a critical chipmaking ingredient – may face hurdles if Tokyo imposes export restrictions in the event of a prolonged political dispute, though trade is holding steady for now, analysts and a trade organisation said. Beijing’s response to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s November 7 remarks about Taiwan has prompted some analysts to ask what cards Tokyo might play should the relationship deteriorate further. Beijing’s...

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For China’s leadership, the most urgent lesson of modern military power comes not from a foreign manual but from its own history books. Its catastrophic defeat by Japan in 1895, born of internal corruption, forms the invisible backdrop to every Chinese showcase of modern hardware. The recent live-fire drill around Taiwan code-named Justice Mission 2025 – a forceful display of Beijing’s resolve to achieve reunification and deter any challenge to its core interests – was no exception. To Beijing,...

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Chinese drug makers’ licensing deals more than doubled in 2025 from a year earlier to a record high, propelled by dozens of multibillion-dollar agreements between Hong Kong and mainland China-listed firms and global pharmaceutical giants. Last year, 157 out-licensing deals worth US$135.7 billion were signed, compared with 94 transactions worth US$51.9 billion in 2024, state media reported, citing data released by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), China’s drugs regulator, last...

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Offshore bondholders of distressed developer China Vanke could face near-total losses in a worst-case scenario, according to Barclays, underscoring the deepening risks in mainland China’s property sector. In a base-case scenario, bondholders may recover just 10.1 per cent of what they were owed, roughly half what already deeply distressed market prices suggested, the British bank said in a report. However, in a worst-case scenario, assuming lower proceeds from onshore assets and netting out...

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As the new year unfolds, China finds itself grappling with strategic pressures fuelled by two US treaty allies at its doorstep – Japan and South Korea. In the second of a two-part series, Seong Hyeon Choi looks at how competing pressures in the Korean peninsula may complicate China’s security calculus. Read the first part here. In 2025, there was a major shift in China’s security environment relating to the Korean peninsula, as the North grew more open in its push for nuclear weapons and the...

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At the recent South Korea-China summit, both sides agreed to improve dialogue, rebuild trust and promote regional peace and stability, marking a first step towards a normalisation of relations. While the Beijing meeting produced no concrete agreement for peace on the Korean peninsula, it reaffirmed the peninsula’s stability and peace as a common interest – paving the way for cooperation. The prolonged stalemate over North Korea’s nuclear programme is no longer just a diplomatic impasse. The...

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After years of competing head-to-head with China in electric vehicles, the United States is now widely seen as falling behind – a reality increasingly acknowledged even within Detroit. When asked about the topic recently on a podcast, US carmaker Ford’s own CEO said: “There’s no real competition from Tesla, GM or Ford with what we’ve seen from China. It is completely dominating the EV landscape globally and more outside China.” For much of the past decade, the global electric vehicle market was...

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The White House on Wednesday stopped short of denying reports that the United States has urged Venezuela to cut ties with adversaries such as China, Russia and Iran, instead emphasising Washington’s determination to maintain “American dominance” in the western hemisphere. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt cited frequent leaks coming out of classified briefings and stated she would “not confirm or deny or get into what the Secretary has said in classified settings to members of Congress.” However,...

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Donald Trump’s renewed threats to take over Greenland could pose a direct challenge to China’s ambitions in the Arctic, but some observers say it may also open the door to increased cooperation with Europe. Following the abduction of Venezuela’s former leader Nicolas Maduro, the White House swiftly turned its attention towards the self-governing Danish territory, adding that “of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal”. On Sunday, the US...

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China has denounced the United States for its “blatant interference” in Venezuela, accusing it of violating international law and infringing upon the country’s sovereignty following Donald Trump’s statement that America would take its oil. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning on Wednesday described America’s actions in the South American country as breaching international norms. “Venezuela is a sovereign state and has full permanent sovereignty over all its natural resources and...

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China’s state-backed lithography champion Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE) has reshuffled its business, divesting a manufacturing arm as it sharpens its focus on research in Beijing’s push for chip self-sufficiency. SMEE – widely seen as China’s best chance of closing the gap with Dutch lithography giant ASML – had transferred 100 per cent of its subsidiary Shanghai Weiyao Industrial to AMIES Technology, according to updates on corporate database Qichacha. The deal was priced at 228.5...

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As the period covered by China’s next five-year plan begins, the official newspaper of the country’s ruling Communist Party urged local governments to curb the herd behaviour that could fuel “involution” – the fierce competition that has driven down prices and undermined sustainable growth within several industries. “China has a vast territory, and the imbalances between regions and between urban and rural areas remain significant. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for high-quality...

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When Donald Trump alluded to the Group of Two before meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea in October, his choice of phrase was widely seen as Washington’s acceptance of Beijing as its peer. Diplomatic observers said the US leader’s terminology at the time was ill-suited for Beijing’s strategic calculus. And following America’s military operation in Venezuela, China would appear more likely to reject any talk of a G2, they added. Analysts also said Beijing would seize on the...

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China is expected to avoid direct confrontation with the United States following the assault on Venezuela, but analysts said Beijing might try to capitalise on the unease created among Latin American countries to deepen economic and diplomatic ties. Beijing had already been expanding its influence in the region through investments and trade, but these interests now face a direct challenge from Washington’s increasing assertiveness, with President Donald Trump saying the US is now “in charge” of...

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Ikea will close seven stores in mainland China, as the multinational furniture retailer grapples with the country’s weak property market and sluggish consumer spending, which have dampened demand for its goods. Following a comprehensive review, Ikea China said the seven stores would cease operations from February 2. These are located in Shanghai’s suburban Baoshan district, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Nantong and Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu province, Ningbo in eastern Zhejiang province and Harbin in...

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China has launched an anti-dumping investigation against Japan over a crucial chemical for chipmaking, marking a new escalation in tensions between Beijing and Tokyo. The investigation, set to run for one year with a possible extension of six months, targets dichlorosilane – a chemical that is primarily used in thin-film-deposition processes in semiconductor manufacturing and which plays a key role in the production of various types of chips, according to a notice from the Ministry of Commerce...

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Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for “patience” over North Korea’s nuclear programme, the South’s President Lee Jae Myung said on Wednesday. Speaking during a visit to Shanghai, Lee said he had asked Xi to act as a “mediator for peace” on the Korean peninsula, including on the nuclear issue. He said all channels between the North and South had been blocked and there was “zero trust” between the two sides. “President Xi noted the efforts until now and said patience is needed,” Lee said. He...

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China’s central bank has reiterated its commitment to a “moderately loose” policy stance in 2026, pledging stronger countercyclical and cross-cycle adjustments and signalling flexible and efficient use of reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cuts and interest rate reductions to support a strong start to the 15th five-year plan. At a work conference outlining priorities for the coming year, the People’s Bank of China also highlighted goals including a reasonable recovery in prices, mitigating...

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The United States’ forcible removal of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro from power has reignited a debate over international law and sovereignty. But this risks obscuring a more consequential fact: global energy markets are not governed primarily by liberal market logic, but are shaped by geopolitical strategy. Venezuela matters less as a case in itself than as a signal of how energy is being repositioned amid intensifying US-China economic competition. For decades, many assumed that energy...

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