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The Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC) earned HK$2.34 billion (US$300.7 million) in investment income last year, as the city’s wholly owned investment vehicle made an impressive report after its first year of operation. HKIC posted HK$2.25 billion in operating income for the year that ended on December 31, on HK$64 billion in total assets, while deploying less than one-fifth of its initial capital of HK$62 billion, according to a report on Thursday. “HKIC is the patient capital investment...

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Witnesses at a US trade agency hearing are pushing officials to put economic security high on the agenda to counter China ahead of a high-stakes review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The hearing convened by the Office of the US Trade Representative on Wednesday – the first public session before next July’s joint review of the free trade deal – kicks off three days of testimony from more than 140 representatives from business, think tanks, academia and advocacy groups. “One...

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The United States will redouble efforts to ensure its return to the moon ahead of China and also establish an enduring presence on Earth's natural satellite to entrench the country’s presence, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on Wednesday during a Senate confirmation hearing. Such a sense of urgency for the US to accelerate its pace in this “second space race” has haunted Capitol Hill, as Beijing, a strategic rival framed by Washington,...

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With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter. On a busy roadside in Riyadh, K-pop music – popular among the city’s youth – pulses from the speakers of Javis Wang’s bubble tea shop. His stores have...

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Putting aside the ongoing war of words between Beijing and Tokyo surrounding Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s statements on Taiwan last month, there is a simple question that needs answering. Can Japan’s Self-Defence Forces really afford to fight the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) without American military support? Takaichi’s answer appears to be that Japan’s military must do so. The legislation approved by Japan’s Diet in September 2015 allowed the country to exercise its right of...

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Beijing is unlikely to offer military help to Venezuela if the United States moves against President Nicolas Maduro, analysts say, but it could still benefit from a shift in Washington’s global posture that revives old notions of spheres of influence, including one that might one day favour its ambitions towards Taiwan. While Beijing has condemned what it calls “external interference” and urged restraint, it has shown no sign it would defend the Venezuelan leader. The United States has deployed...

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US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday described the United States as an ally to both mainland China and Taiwan, while at the same time asserting that its relationships have not shifted, hours after US President Donald Trump enacted legislation deepening US ties with the self-governed island. Asked about concerns among some in Washington about the Trump administration’s approach to the long-held policy of strategic ambiguity on the Taiwan issue at The New York Times DealBook Summit,...

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When a full-scale model of the world’s first independent submarine hunter drone was unveiled at the Dubai Airshow last month, it offered a glimpse of the latest in a series of advances in China’s development of a modern integrated anti-submarine system. The Wing Loong-X export variant unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has anti-submarine capabilities that are reportedly superior in some respects to the United States Navy’s Boeing P-8 Poseidon and other manned aircraft. The full-scale model drone’s...

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Shanghai has launched a crackdown on online content that talks down the property market, as the sector remains mired in a prolonged downturn and two leading data providers pull back on releasing updated sales figures for China’s top developers. The Shanghai branch of the Cyberspace Administration of China said it had instructed platforms including RedNote and Bilibili – often dubbed China’s answer to Instagram and YouTube – to remove content deemed to be spreading misleading or alarmist...

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As it fights to survive in the new era of economic warfare, the European Union wants to turbo-boost efforts to de-risk its ties with China, using two new proposals. Launched on Wednesday, the blueprints will combine to upgrade the bloc’s economic arsenal and unpick its heavy reliance on China for critical minerals, including rare earths. The first, an economic security communication, will provide the EU with an “operating system” on which to manage its many trade, competition and economic...

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The legal battle over the death of Chinese-American neuroscientist Jane Wu officially began in a Chicago courtroom this week – a case that has shaken the research community and focused intense scrutiny on Northwestern University’s conduct. A civil lawsuit filed by Wu’s family in June centres on how the university handled one of its most accomplished professors during the controversial “China Initiative”, alleging her suicide in July 2024 was a direct result of the school’s treatment amid the...

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China’s average life expectancy hit a record 79 years in 2024, edging closer to developed-nation levels as the country grapples with a deepening demographic crisis and scrambles to improve aged-care resources. In discussing the all-time high, which broke the 2023 record of 78.6 years, National Health Commission (NHC) head Lei Haichao reiterated on Monday that the country’s newborns should be expected to live an average of 80 years by 2030 – a key metric in President Xi Jinping’s “Healthy China”...

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China has carried out extensive upgrades to its surveillance and electronic warfare systems across its Spratly Islands outposts to improve its intelligence gathering in the South China Sea, according to an American think tank. The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative under the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said in a report on Tuesday that satellite images revealed new and upgraded radar sites, antenna fields and other reinforced electronic warfare...

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China is training an artificial intelligence tool to support the country’s port industry using what the National Development and Reform Commission says is the “world’s largest” port operation data set. The AI application draws on data covering “the most comprehensive range of port business scenarios”, according to Li Chao, deputy director of the NDRC’s policy research office. “It will provide strong support for technological research and development as well as verification in areas such as port...

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Japan’s position on Taiwan remains unchanged, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Wednesday, referring to a 1972 commitment that led to the normalisation of ties between Beijing and Tokyo. “The Japanese government’s basic position regarding Taiwan remains as stated in the 1972 Japan-China joint statement, and there has been no change to this position,” Takaichi told the Japanese parliament. According to the 1972 statement, “the government of the People’s Republic of China reiterates...

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A fireworks shop owner in Hunan province died from drinking pesticide after publicly reporting officials for disciplinary violations, Chinese media reported. The owner, surnamed Peng, had recently published a video of himself drinking the substance, local authorities in Chenzhou, Hunan province, said in a notice on Monday. A local task force was investigating the matter to ascertain if the allegations were true and would “deal with the incident according to laws and regulations without mercy”,...

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French President Emmanuel Macron has started a three-day visit to China, where he is expected to confront thorny issues including Europe’s trade with Beijing and the Ukraine war. On Wednesday evening, Macron landed in Beijing at the start of his fourth visit to China, which will also include a trip to the southwestern city of Chengdu. He was given a red-carpet welcome by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, with whom he had a brief exchange of words. The French leader is due to meet Chinese President Xi...

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HSBC Holdings, the biggest lender in Hong Kong and Europe, has appointed veteran accountant Brendan Nelson as group chairman, according to its filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Wednesday. Nelson, 75, has been serving as interim chairman since October 1, replacing Mark Tucker, who stepped down to become non-executive chairman of insurer AIA. The appointment surprised the market after HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery said a day earlier at a global banking summit in London that Nelson was not...

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China and Russia had reached a “high degree” of strategic consensus on issues related to Japan and jointly opposed the revival of “Japanese militarism”, a readout from Beijing said after Foreign Minister Wang Yi met chief Kremlin security aide Sergei Shoigu in Moscow. Statements from the World War II allies after Tuesday’s meeting indicated continued solidarity amid growing China-Japan tensions. Shoigu, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also told Wang that Russia could achieve...

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China’s latest credit figures have raised eyebrows, but they need not raise alarm. New bank lending, aggregate social financing and total credit growth all came in weaker than expected for October, marking their softest readings in more than a year. For markets conditioned to expect Beijing to counter every slowdown with a surge of liquidity, the numbers may suggest a worrying loss of momentum. But that reading misses the broader structural shift under way. The data reflects not a collapse, but...

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French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Beijing for his three-day visit to China on Wednesday – and he is not coming alone. Alongside his wife Brigitte, the French leader is bringing a delegation of more than 80 people, including multiple ministers and nearly 40 CEOs from across the corporate world. Despite rising trade tensions between China and Europe, the long guestlist signals that Macron is travelling to Beijing looking to do business – and hints at France’s likely priorities. From...

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1. China’s new tech war warriors: PhD graduates without a thesis China’s top defence university is piloting a scheme that allows PhD students to graduate with a product or design instead of a thesis in an effort to solve “bottleneck” engineering problems amid the tech race with the United States.
2. Chief...

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Records of minor offences will be sealed under a new regulation rather than linked to a person’s identity information – a move that is proving unpopular among the public though it has been welcomed by legal experts. The new rule is part of the amended Public Security Administration Punishments Law, which was introduced in 2006 and includes minor offences such as drug use, soliciting prostitutes and minor brawls. National People’s Congress lawmakers approved the revision in June and it will take...

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With their domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter. The emergence of Chinese companies onto the global stage has been one of the most important business stories of the past 50 years. From engineering contractors...

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China’s first reusable rocket, the Zhuque-3, launched for the first time on Wednesday and successfully reached orbit, but efforts to recover the first stage failed after it crashed near the planned recovery site. The United States is still the only country in the world to successfully return an orbital-class booster, though China is still vying for the second spot with other upcoming launches. The reusable rocket, designed by the Beijing-based commercial space company LandSpace, was launched...

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