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On the 32nd anniversary of New Oriental, a private Beijing-based education services provider, the company’s founder, Yu Minhong, wrote an internal letter to his staff about his trip to the South Pole. “I am standing in the icy world of Antarctica, surrounded by vast expanses of pure white, emerald-like icebergs and boundless tranquillity,” he wrote. “The glaciers shimmer with a captivating glow under the sunlight, as if to silently declare the power of time and the meaning of perseverance.” He...

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The dust has yet to settle despite the conclusion of the 47th Asean Summit under Malaysia, which remains the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the remainder of the year. There are two main takeaways from the Kuala Lumpur meetings. First, by most objective measures, Malaysia has successfully pulled off not only the summit but its year-long chairmanship, steering several initiatives long in the making past the finish line. One of the most consequential is the formal admission...

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A bipartisan group of US lawmakers is urging Donald Trump’s administration to reject Myanmar’s “sham” elections next month, days after the administration cited the country’s electoral progress as grounds to remove legal protections for Myanmar nationals in the US. “Burma’s planned elections this December are proving to be a sham,” said Representatives Brian Mast and Gregory Meeks and Senators Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen on Wednesday, using the former name for the war-torn country. “Orchestrated...

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French President Emmanuel Macron will visit China next week and meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Élysée Palace said in a statement on Wednesday. The three-day visit is scheduled to begin on December 3, with two stops in Beijing and Chengdu, according to the statement. “On this occasion, major issues relating to the strategic partnership between France and China will be addressed, as well as several major international matters and areas of cooperation aimed at tackling the global...

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While Beijing has remained largely offstage during US President Donald Trump’s latest push to end the war in Ukraine, China still sees significant stakes in how any peace deal could reshape its strategic environment – from the global balance of power to post-war reconstruction opportunities, according to observers. A Trump-brokered peace plan to end the nearly four-year war, first reported last week, remains fluid, but the proposed settlement has reportedly been reduced to 19 points after the...

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The growing influence of stablecoins is beginning to reshape how some Chinese firms conduct cross-border settlements. In this explainer, the Post outlines four roles that US dollar-backed stablecoins play in China’s overseas trade, based on a recent analysis by Zou Chuanwei, the president of the Jiangsu Jinke Research Institute on Digital and Technology Finance, published in Tsinghua Financial Review. How are Chinese traders using US dollar-backed stablecoins? First, some overseas importers face...

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Over 2,000 years ago, in a secluded bath chamber along the banks of the Nile, Queen Cleopatra of Egypt may have reached for an unlikely luxury: a fibrous, spongelike gourd – the loofah. This porous plant was prized by ancient Egyptian royalty as a natural exfoliant, a symbol of purity and refinement. Light as a feather, yet strong and intricately structured, the loofah scrubbed away impurities – both physical and spiritual – in rituals that blended hygiene with holiness. Today, this unassuming...

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There remains considerable potential to enhance artificial intelligence models by scaling up computing power and data, according to Yao Shunyu, a senior research scientist at Google DeepMind and former researcher at US AI start-up Anthropic. Amid heated discussions in the AI community about the future of scaling – the process of increasing computational resources and training data to develop better AI models – Yao said the method was still expected to yield results for at least a year “until we...

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Beijing has intensified its pressure on Japan and demanded a clear declaration of its stance on the one-China principle as the two countries continued to clash over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan. On Tuesday, the Japanese cabinet adopted a written response to a lawmaker’s question about Takaichi’s remarks, noting that they “do not change the government’s consistent position”. Such statements were “far from enough”, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said...

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Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. China’s private defence companies see opportunities amid growing conflicts Escalating global conflicts could create opportunities for China’s private defence companies as customers, both at home and abroad, seek affordable and reliable military equipment, according to industry insiders.
2. Why China’s space sector is grabbing attention – including from Elon...

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History rarely announces its turning points. More often, we wake up to find that the world we assumed was fixed has begun to shift beneath our feet. That is happening now. Artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and space infrastructure are advancing at a pace that stretches our political instincts – even our imagination. Each is transformative on its own. Together, they are becoming the new architecture of global power, an engine that will determine which nations shape the century ahead...

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Tesla does not exclude suppliers based on their country of origin as the US electric-vehicle (EV) maker applies unified and rigorous standards in selecting vendors from around the globe, according to a senior official. Grace Tao, vice-president of the US company, offered a vote of confidence to the more than 400 Chinese manufacturers that supply car components from batteries to heat-control systems to Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory. She made the remarks on Wednesday, in what appeared to be an...

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China’s space agency has released an action plan to take its commercial space sector worldwide, pledging to help integrate commercial projects into its international cooperation agenda. The ambitious plan could challenge a number of US laws and government regulations aiming to curb the expansion of China’s space industry on the global stage. On Tuesday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) posted guidelines for the promotion of commercial space flight and enterprises through 2027,...

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Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te has set out plans for an unprecedented rise in defence spending worth US$40 billion over the next eight years, describing it as a historic investment to safeguard the island’s democracy and deter an increasingly assertive Beijing. In an article for The Washington Post published on Wednesday, Lai said his government had committed to “significantly increase” military expenditure to 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product next year, then raise it further to 5...

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E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding expects to stay ahead of its Chinese Big Tech peers in artificial intelligence-related capital expenditure, as the firm’s AI and cloud computing unit posted its fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth. Alibaba Cloud on Tuesday reported a 34 per cent year-on-year revenue growth to 39.8 billion yuan (US$5.6 billion) in the three months ended September 30, as the Hangzhou-based parent’s overall revenue in its financial second quarter reached...

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China has boosted its strategic capacity from land reclamation to deep-sea mining and pipelines, with the successful completion of sea trials for Asia’s largest trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD). The Tongjun – China’s first domestically designed super dredger – completed its five days of testing in the Yellow Sea off the northeastern Chinese coast on Tuesday, three months after its launch, according to state news agency Xinhua. With a hopper capacity of more than 38,000 cubic metres (1.3...

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No winter lasts forever, but the deep chill in the bilateral relationship between Beijing and Tokyo that was sparked when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made remarks on Taiwan could last a long time. Adding to the complexity and uncertainty of the situation, according to observers, has been Takaichi’s consistently high approval rating since taking office, while US President Donald Trump has remained reluctant to show open support to Japan, America’s closest ally in the region. Against...

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China’s central bank has set the yuan’s daily reference rate against the US dollar at the strongest level in more than a year, with analysts expecting room for appreciation should a December rate cut by the US Federal Reserve weaken the dollar. The People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s midpoint rate, also known as the daily fixing rate, at 7.0796 to the US dollar on Wednesday – the strongest showing since October 2024. The decision followed a 0.34 per cent rally in the offshore yuan on Tuesday,...

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Current geopolitics might suggest that Western scientists have been in general alignment with the United States in the global race for fusion energy – but some of Europe’s top nuclear physicists are placing their bets on China. Scepticism over US fusion goals and chronic delays at the 33-nation International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project in France have created an opening for a new leader in the field, and China appears poised to fill it. Targeted for completion in 2027, the...

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Escalating global conflicts could create opportunities for China’s private defence companies as customers, both at home and abroad, seek affordable and reliable military equipment, according to industry insiders. “The international landscape is highly favourable for our private enterprises’ participation in the defence industry,” said Li Yi, a researcher with Beihang University’s Shenzhen Research Institute. Li made the comments on Monday at a military exhibition in the southern city of...

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On Saturday, the Beijing-based start-up LandSpace reportedly plans to conduct the maiden launch of its Zhuque-3 rocket – a reusable launch vehicle that could significantly boost China’s space industry by lowering the cost of lifting equipment such as satellites into orbit. The prospect of China mastering reusable rockets – a technology pioneered by US-based SpaceX – has attracted significant attention from aerospace experts, and even drew comment from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk last month. Beyond the...

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As China’s traditional spirits and premium wines grapple with declining consumption, a significant shift is under way across the beverage landscape. This three-part series examines the challenges faced by Maotai town as its once-coveted baijiu loses its lustre, the impact of economic shutdowns on European wine imports, and the rise of craft beer as a budget-friendly alternative for consumers seeking quality without breaking the bank. Marshall Su, a 30-year-old headhunter based in Shanghai, has...

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US Treasury Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that Trump may travel to China in November 2026 for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, one of four possible in-person meetings between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2026. Speaking on CNBC shortly before US markets opened, Bessent said the US and China will always be natural rivals, but their relationship is currently in a good place. Addressing a central concern for Trump and his team – rising inflation and the...

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US President Donald Trump’s phone calls with both his Chinese and Japanese counterparts this week suggest Washington is engaged in a delicate balancing act over the Taiwan issue. These high-level communications are also intended as a message to Japan, and other US allies, that Taiwan is not a top priority for the Trump administration and should not disrupt the stabilisation of Sino-American ties, according to diplomatic observers. On Tuesday morning, Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae...

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A private Chinese aerospace company has become the first in the world to start mass production of a low-cost, high-performance hypersonic missile, suggesting a seismic shift in military technology and defence industrial dynamics. On Tuesday, Beijing-based Lingkong Tianxing Technology released a video on its official social media account showcasing the YKJ-1000 hypersonic missile in flight and how it struck a real target in a desert testing range. A company spokesperson said the missile was...

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