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It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In the second story in this new series, we look back at the events of 2025, examining how the trade war tested policymakers and firms, forcing a rethink in business, strategy and supply chains. In April, when US President Donald Trump upended global trade by announcing “reciprocal tariffs” on almost all the country’s trading partners, officials in eastern China’s Ningbo – a national export hub – went on a wartime footing. Across...

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1. ‘Testing the waters’? US reported to have seized Chinese cargo bound for Iran The reported US seizure of a ship allegedly carrying Chinese-made dual-use components to Iran might signal Washington was “testing the waters” on reviving an old tactic to pressure Beijing’s ties with its adversaries, but such moves risked breaching international law, analysts...

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Chile’s election of an ultraconservative leader has created another vocal ally for US President Donald Trump in a lithium-rich region where China has emerged as the dominant economic partner, positioning the South American country at the centre of an intensifying superpower rivalry. In what was probably Chile’s sharpest rightward shift since the end of its military dictatorship in 1990, José Antonio Kast, a right-wing former lawmaker who campaigned on Trump-style hardline positions on crime and...

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China has accused Japan of attempting to “mislead the public and hope that somehow the issue would resolve itself” after its foreign minister selectively quoted its position on Taiwan from a joint communique that was the foundation of establishing their diplomatic ties in 1972. During a parliamentary session on Monday, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi repeated Tokyo’s position on Taiwan as stated in the document that established and normalised ties with Beijing, although he did not read out...

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Mainland Chinese media are calling for the demolition of a wartime monument in Japan, resurfacing a long-standing point of bilateral tension, as Beijing and Tokyo are locked in a diplomatic row over Taiwan. Yuyuantantian, a social media account run by mainland state broadcaster CCTV, said on Saturday that Japan seized more than 370 stones from the countries it invaded during the second world war – most from China – and used them to build Hakko Ichiu Tower, which the account described as “a tower...

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Beijing has greenlit Biren Technology’s initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, as more Chinese artificial intelligence chip designers rush to go public amid heightened investor interest in these stocks. Biren, which designs high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), received regulatory approval to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange, according to a China Securities Regulatory Commission filing on Monday. This was expected to put the company on track to become the first GPU...

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Chinese artificial intelligence chip designer MetaX Integrated Circuits will make its trading debut in Shanghai on Wednesday, according to a filing late on Monday, more than a week after industry peer Moore Threads Technology’s stellar listing on the city’s Star Market. Founded in Shanghai in September 2020 by former engineers at Advanced Micro Devices, MetaX priced its initial public offering at 104.66 yuan per share, which was expected to raise 4.2 billion yuan (US$596 million) from the sale...

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A prominent Chinese expert on US affairs says the competitive relationship between Washington and Beijing is likely to remain stable for the rest of Donald Trump’s presidential term – a prospect crucial for China’s strategic planning. The China-US rivalry has achieved a “resilient balance”, Ni Feng, researcher and former director of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said at a symposium held in Shenzhen on Sunday. Unlike the competition of the...

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Beijing’s build-up of maritime facilities in a contested part of the Yellow Sea is expected to trigger “more scrutiny” from South Korea, a report by a US think tank has warned. According to a report published on Monday by the website Beyond Parallel, operated by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, there has been “growing” Chinese activity in and around the Provisional Measures Zone (PMZ) in the Yellow Sea. It said Beijing was building buoys in the area and could...

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A Chinese biopharmaceutical firm has sealed a global licensing deal valued at up to US$1.44 billion, the second in a week, as a wave of cross-border tie-ups shows no sign of abating despite headwinds from the US Biosecure Act. Shanghai Scizeng Medical Technology, a unit of Changchun High-Tech Industry, has agreed to grant US-based Yarrow Bioscience exclusive global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialise GenSci098, an injectable therapy for thyroid eye disease and Graves’ disease, both...

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For over a century, the dream of efficiently concentrating low-grade heat into high-temperature industrial energy has been constrained by a stubborn ceiling: 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit). Now, a team from China has shattered that temperature limit. Using a revolutionary heat pump with no moving parts, they achieved an output of 270 degrees with a 145-degree heat source to drive the cycle. Developed by a team led by Luo Ercang at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of...

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China has launched a national-level service platform to help returning overseas students find work and start businesses, as the country steps up its efforts to attract talent and the number of returnees surges. The Ministry of Education has partnered with 50 organisations to provide returnees with entrepreneurial mentors and match them directly with local government and corporate needs. The measures show the value of overseas returnees is still recognised at the national level, despite recent...

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Chinese authorities have intercepted 430kg (948lbs) of cocaine aided by tip-offs by the United States, a sign of possible progress on the issue following an agreement on counternarcotics cooperation reached by the leaders of the two countries in October. Chinese authorities had found the drug in an international container at the Yantian port in Shenzhen, southern China’s Guangdong province, on November 26, state broadcaster CCTV said on Tuesday. The case is under further investigation and no...

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Taiwan has moved to tighten conscription rules after a string of high-profile cases involving celebrities and young men who falsified their medical records to evade mandatory military service. In addition, the proposed changes would also mandate alternative service for transgender and intersex people, a move that has sparked backlash from rights groups and other members of the public. The island’s defence ministry on Monday unveiled a draft amendment to its physical classification standards,...

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The reported US seizure of a ship allegedly carrying Chinese-made dual-use components to Iran might signal Washington was “testing the waters” on reviving an old tactic to pressure Beijing’s ties with its adversaries, but such moves risked breaching international law, analysts said. An American special operations team boarded a ship from China bound for Iran in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka last month, The Wall Street Journal reported last Friday. Citing sources, it said the operation aimed to...

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Recent months have witnessed an important shift in the political landscape across the Taiwan Strait, one that deserves careful consideration from policymakers in Asia, Europe and the United States. Despite considerable global turbulence, years of rising tensions in Asia and external pressure, there are emerging signs of stabilisation and even fresh momentum for peaceful momentum towards unification between mainland China and Taiwan. Taiwan’s political environment has evolved significantly since...

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China has announced a new policy package to boost household spending by tightening coordination between commerce and financial regulators, expanding access to credit and promoting new forms of consumption. The move comes as soft retail sales and weak consumer confidence continued to weigh on economic growth last month, highlighting the urgency for policymakers to expand domestic demand. That priority has topped the agenda of the central economic work conference – an annual gathering of the...

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Britain’s government on Monday summoned China’s ambassador to the UK to protest the conviction of British citizen Jimmy Lai Chee-ying on national security charges in Hong Kong, while US President Donald Trump said he urged leniency for Lai in a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release,” Trump told reporters, without specifying exactly when he spoke with Xi. “He’s an older man, and he’s not well. So I did put...

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US President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order (EO) designating illicit fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid driving the US overdose crisis, as a weapon of mass destruction. The EO issued by the White House asserted that “illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic” due to its extreme potency. “Two milligrams, an almost undetectable trace amount equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, constitutes a lethal dose,” it said. The order highlights the national...

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It has been a turbulent year for the fraught US-China relationship. In a new series, we look back at the events of 2025, starting with the geopolitical struggle between the two rival superpowers. In a year marked by domestic crises and global turmoil, Washington and Beijing are set to end 2025 with a fragile truce after they stepped back from the brink of full-blown tariff warfare – but deeper antagonisms remain. The downward spiral of rhetoric and retaliation started with US President Donald...

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Senior US officials on Monday pushed back against suggestions of American retreat from the Indo-Pacific, declaring that Washington is recalibrating its foreign assistance to more effectively outcompete China in the strategically vital region while maintaining support for allies through targeted aid and security cooperation. The focus, they said, is shifting away from broad assistance towards targeted partnerships that serve US interests and advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, ranging from...

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Constructed around 256 BC, Dujiangyan is the world’s oldest irrigation system that is still in use today. Long before the invention of gunpowder, the system was using natural topographic and hydrological features to divert water from the Min River for irrigation and flood control without the use of dams. To this day, the ecological engineering feat irrigates 668,700 hectares of farmland in the Chengdu plains of southwestern China. It was in the tranquil, lush mountains surrounding Dujiangyan...

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Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard on Monday defended Mexico’s decision to impose new tariffs on imports from China and other Asian countries, describing the move as a necessary step to protect hundreds of thousands of domestic jobs rather than a provocation to any trading partner. The tariff package, approved by Congress last week, will take effect on January 1 and introduce duties ranging from five to 50 per cent on 1,463 products from countries without trade agreements with Mexico. These...

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China’s latest long-endurance stealth unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the CH-7, has completed its maiden flight, further expanding Beijing’s rapidly growing arsenal of autonomous weapons. State broadcaster CCTV said on Monday that China’s new high-altitude, high-speed, long-endurance CH-7 had recently completed its first flight. The drone offered long endurance, stealth and high cruising speed, meeting the needs of ground observation, data support and communication under complex conditions, the...

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At a sprawling industrial complex in the Inner Mongolian city of Baotou, workers feed bag after bag of rare-earth additives into roaring furnaces, turning ordinary steel into a high-performance alloy worth twice as much. This is the front line of a technological leap being powered by China’s dominance in critical minerals and its strategic industrial policy. The advanced rare-earth steel being produced is used in the country’s most ambitious engineering projects – from high-speed railways to...

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