China News

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stocks outpaced their US peers for the first two weeks of 2026 and should continue to do so for the rest of the year on the back of relatively cheaper valuations, a firmer yuan and policy tailwinds, as geopolitics drives more global investors to look to China as a hedge against rising risks in US assets, according to analysts. The CSI 300 Index has gained 2.4 per cent so far this year, while the Hang Seng Index has climbed 5.3 per cent, both outpacing a 1.7 per...

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The White House’s top science adviser on Wednesday said that the Biden administration’s decision to get rid of the Justice Department’s China Initiative was “damaging”, though stopped short of recommending that it should be fully brought back. Asked by Florida Republican Daniel Webster whether the termination of the programme aimed at combating alleged economic espionage from Beijing was detrimental, Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said:...

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Witnesses and lawmakers at a foreign affairs hearing blasted the Trump administration’s approval for the sale of Nvidia’s H200 AI chips to China and called for it to reverse the decision, as the White House’s top technology adviser defended the move in the administration’s first public testimony discussing the latest export control measures. Allowing China to buy Nvidia’s second most powerful AI chip is a “wrong path” that would “supercharge” Beijing’s military modernisation and damage the US’...

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China’s electric vehicle (EV) exports doubled in 2025 amid rising overseas demand for affordable cars and Beijing’s anti-involution campaign. The country – the world’s leading EV manufacturer – sold more than 2.6 million units to overseas markets last year, up 104 per cent from a year earlier, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on Wednesday. Despite persistent trade tensions, Chinese brands were expected to further deepen their presence in overseas...

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When US President Donald Trump gave his blessing to sales of Nvidia’s powerful H200 artificial intelligence chips to China, he sparked a national security backlash in both countries. Rather than seeing it as an olive branch, many Chinese commenters interpreted the move as a sophisticated Trojan horse-style trap that aimed to make Beijing dependent on American technologies in advanced semiconductors and other chokepoint sectors. Trump’s green light for the H200 – a template that he said would be...

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On January 17, a quiet revolution will take place across around two-thirds of the world’s oceans. A landmark United Nations agreement known as the High Seas Treaty will formally enter into force, creating the first legally binding global framework to protect marine biodiversity in international waters. For the first time, activities beyond national jurisdictions – from industrial fishing to deep-sea mining and bio-prospecting – will be subject to environmental impact assessments, marine...

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The US Secretary of the Navy on Tuesday outlined US President Donald Trump’s “Golden Fleet” initiative, stating that revitalising the American shipbuilding industry is essential for restoring strategic maritime dominance over China. Speaking at the Surface Navy Association symposium, Secretary John Phelan emphasised the importance of a strong industrial base, warning that the US Navy is currently unable to compete with Beijing’s production capacity. “To be a superpower, you need a dominant...

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Trade between Brazil and China hit a record US$171 billion in 2025, more than double Brazil’s total with the United States last year, as Chinese demand for Brazilian oil, farm goods and minerals surged and US tariffs on Brazilian exports nudged Brasília to deepen ties with Beijing. Washington imposed a sweeping 50 per cent tariff on a broad range of Brazilian products, citing political grievances linked to the prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro. As Brazilian officials scrambled to...

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As the US considers taking military action over a crackdown on unrest in Iran, there has been no official response from either the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or Brics. Iran is a member of the two Beijing-backed forums for the Global South, and analysts said remaining silent on the situation could be damaging for them. But according to one expert, the Iran crisis could also lead to an expansion of security and strategic cooperation within the two blocs. US President Donald Trump has...

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Chinese chip designer Montage Technology is set to enlist Alibaba Group Holding and JPMorgan Asset Management among the key investors in its upcoming Hong Kong listing, according to people familiar with the matter, in a sign of promising demand for the city’s latest share sale related to artificial intelligence. Alibaba and the JPMorgan Chase asset manager were participating as cornerstone investors, which get guaranteed allocation in exchange for holding the shares for a period of time, the...

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China has opened an antitrust investigation into Trip.com Group, the country’s largest online travel services provider, weeks before hundreds of millions of people on the mainland go away on holiday during the Lunar New Year break. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on Wednesday said the group – operator of namesake platform Trip.com, Skyscanner, Ctrip, Qunar and Dutch site Travix – abused its “dominant market position” and engaged in “monopolistic practices”. The...

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A leading young Chinese chemical engineer has left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to return home to Peking University. Zheng Yu recently completed her postdoctoral training in bioelectronics in the US but has now joined the Chinese university’s college of chemistry and molecular engineering as an assistant professor. According to her Peking University webpage, Zheng is working on wearable and implantable electronic devices, such as smart bandages that are used to monitor health. Her...

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China is likely to accept Nvidia’s H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips following US clearance, driven by immediate demand in the country’s vast tech sector, according to analysts – though they said Beijing would push to replace them over time. The American chip giant’s second-most-advanced AI processor can be exported to China from Thursday, as long as shipments total no more than half the amount sold in the US, according to the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and...

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Huawei Technologies edged out Apple to reclaim the No 1 spot in mainland China’s smartphone market in 2025, a new report showed, as the domestic handset maker overcame crippling US sanctions. For the full year, Huawei captured 16.4 per cent of China’s smartphone market with 46.7 million units shipped, narrowly beating Apple, which shipped 46.2 million iPhones for a 16.2 per cent share, research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) said on Wednesday. Huawei’s smartphone shipments fell 1.9...

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China’s anti-corruption watchdog has detailed how disgraced former banker and Communist Party chief of Hubei province Jiang Chaoliang received bribes for favours, ultimately landing himself and his brothers under investigation. The revelations came in an episode of a CCTV documentary series that aired on Tuesday night during the fifth plenary session of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). Held at the beginning of each year, the session aims to sum up the achievements of...

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Taiwan has appointed a senior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politician and former liaison to Japan to head the semi-official group that manages cross-strait ties in a move Beijing has met with scepticism. Su Jia-chyuan, former head of the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association under Taipei’s foreign ministry, will chair the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), according to Karen Kuo, spokeswoman for the office of Taiwan’s leader William Lai Ching-te, on Tuesday. The SEF is managed by Taipei’s...

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Generative artificial intelligence service Kling AI in December recorded more than US$20 million in sales, which corresponded to an annualised revenue run rate (ARR) of US$240 million, according to Chinese operator Kuaishou Technology. That was more than double Kling AI’s US$100 million ARR in March last year, according to a statement on Tuesday from Bejing-based Kuaishou. ARR is a financial metric used to project a company’s 12-month revenue by extrapolating earnings from a shorter period, like...

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A bit more than a week after the United States abducted former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a raid on Caracas, US President Donald Trump is threatening military action against Iran, which is seeing a massive wave of anti-government protests. Yet a strike aimed at taking out the Iranian leadership could prove harder, given that Iran’s more sophisticated air defence system is also reported to be integrating China’s most advanced exported technology. On Tuesday, Trump wrote on his social...

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For years, Beijing attempted to trade flats for microchips, a bold effort to rewire the economy. But 2025 showed that a hi-tech superstructure cannot be built on the crumbling foundation of a middle-class balance sheet. Now, in the opening 2026 issue of Qiushi, the Communist Party’s most influential journal, a new signal has emerged, indicating that the leadership is prepared to halt the decline. A key commentary in the journal presents a notable analytical shift. It reaffirms real estate as a...

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The valuation expansion that elevated Chinese stocks to world-leading gains last year will continue to galvanize equity financing by artificial intelligence companies in 2026 after a slew of eye-popping listings by key players, according to analysts. More AI players will capitalise on the rich valuations of mainland China’s technology boards to raise funds to drive research and expansion, as China and the US compete for dominance in the world’s cutting-edge technologies. After a solid run in...

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We have put together stories from our coverage on science from the past two weeks to help you stay informed. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. China builds a record-breaking hypergravity machine to compress space and time China is set to break its own record in hypergravity research with a colossal new centrifuge that can spin multi-tonne samples at unmatched intensities.
2. China applies to put up 200,000 satellites after calling Starlink a crash...

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As China pushes to take the global lead in building space-based solar power stations, a new study warns that powerful lasers beaming energy back to Earth could pose serious risks to other satellites in the increasingly crowded low-Earth orbit. If these beams miss their targets – because of tracking errors or system malfunctions – they could strike nearby spacecraft, overheat solar panels or trigger electrical discharges, according to a team from the Beijing Institute of Satellite Environment...

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Beijing should exercise “strategic patience” in managing its maritime disputes, with provocations to be expected from the Philippines in the South China Sea and Japan in the East China Sea, according to a leading Chinese analyst. Hu Bo, director of the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI), delivered his message in an article published this month in the latest issue of defence journal Modern Ship. There have been continuous tensions between Beijing and its uneasy...

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China’s exports defied a turbulent year of trade tensions to perform better than expected in 2025, cementing a record US$1.19 trillion annual surplus as manufacturers diversified markets to offset a sharp decline in shipments to the United States. Exports grew 5.5 per cent, year on year, in 2025 to US$3.77 trillion, according to customs data released on Wednesday, higher than the 5 per cent growth projected by financial data provider Wind. Imports for the same period remained flat at US$2.58...

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Chinese artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek continues to keep the world guessing on when its next major release – the much-anticipated updates to its V3 and R1 models – will be launched, according to analysts, amid its recent publication of technical papers. The papers underscored DeepSeek’s efforts to improve the underlying infrastructure of AI systems in China at a time when geopolitical tensions and domestic production hurdles restricted the country’s access to advanced semiconductors to...

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