China News

China’s top anti-espionage agency said it had solved several infiltration and espionage cases involving Japanese spy agencies in recent years and vowed to step up counter-intelligence work amid serious diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Tokyo. On Wednesday, the Ministry of State Security said in a social media article that it had “cracked a series of espionage cases involving Japanese intelligence agencies infiltrating and stealing secrets from China”. It added that this had “effectively...

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The Dutch government has suspended its invocation of the Goods Availability Act, a Cold War-era law it used to effectively seize the European operations of Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia. In a statement on Wednesday, the Dutch economy minister said the government had held “constructive meetings with the Chinese authorities” in recent days and that he was “positive about the measures already taken by the Chinese authorities to ensure the supply of chips to Europe and the rest of the world”. “We...

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New Zealand’s top diplomat is set to visit China next week to mark a major deal with a state‑owned Chinese shipbuilder to upgrade interisland ferries serving the Pacific nation. New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed his trip on Wednesday, a month after Wellington said it had secured a deal to source two new ferries from Guangzhou Shipyard International to connect the country’s two main islands across Cook Strait. Peters told a press conference that he would travel to Guangzhou to...

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Family offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai are redrawing the global map of private capital. Each hub combines favourable tax and regulatory regimes with strong local networks of banks, advisers and deal makers. Together, they now rival Western centres in deploying private equity across the Global South. Drawing inspiration from family offices in the United States – where private equity has represented a major share of assets – these Asian hubs are scaling rapidly, positioning themselves as...

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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. Mathematician Qian Hong, son of top scientific clan, leaves US for China A renowned mathematician who is also part of China’s Qian clan – a surname linked in the annals of Chinese scientific history to national pioneers in science and engineering – has become the latest US-based scientist to return to...

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The European Union is expected to launch an anti-dumping investigation into Chinese robotic lawnmowers as early as this week, two sources familiar with the matter told the Post on Tuesday, marking another potential escalation of China-European trade tensions. China has been selling more robotic lawnmowers to Europe, and at higher prices. More than 40 per cent of China’s robotic-lawnmower exports, by volume, are shipped to the 27-member bloc, according to Chinese customs data. And in the first...

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Chinese Premier Li Qiang will arrive in the Zambian capital Lusaka on Wednesday, with a US$1.4 billion railway modernisation deal high on his agenda. But Li could also face political fallout from a toxic spill at a copper mine in the country’s north. Two Chinese mining firms have been sued over the incident that has been described as an “ecological catastrophe” by farmers. It will be the first visit to Zambia by a top Chinese leader since 2007, and Li’s first trip to sub-Saharan Africa. He will...

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The king and queen of Thailand have become the first visiting heads of state to greet Chinese astronauts in orbit, in an unprecedented moment for China’s tightly controlled human space flight programme. The 73-year-old King Maha Vajiralongkorn – a trained military pilot and long-time aviation enthusiast – and Queen Suthida smiled and waved at the astronauts, who appeared via a large screen from the Tiangong, or “Heavenly Palace”, space station. The encounter, which took place on Sunday at the...

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The Japanese economy could lose about 1.49 trillion yen (US$9.59 billion) over the next year if travellers from mainland China continue to avoid Japan over a row that has derailed the growth in arrivals seen earlier this year, an economist at the Tokyo-based Nomura Research Institute has projected. Takahide Kiuchi, the institute’s executive economist, made the calculation after Beijing told Chinese citizens last week to refrain from travelling to Japan following comments about Taiwan by new...

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China has told Japan it will suspend imports of Japanese seafood, Kyodo News said on Wednesday, citing a government source, as the bilateral tensions continue to spiral downwards. The suspension comes less than five months after Beijing announced it would lift a nearly two-year import ban on some Japanese seafood. Beijing had cited worries over Japan’s release of treated waste water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The suspension, if confirmed by China, would mark another retaliation...

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China’s ambassador to the United Nations said Japan was “totally unqualified” to become a permanent member of the Security Council amid an ongoing row about the new prime minister’s comments about Taiwan. Fu Cong, China’s permanent representative to the UN, condemned Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remarks as “highly dangerous” and “extremely mistaken” on Tuesday. “In light of Sanae Takaichi’s atrocious behaviour, how can the international community trust that Japan will adhere to its commitment...

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In Wufeng Tujia autonomous county, Hubei province, the rugged beauty of central China masks the region’s long-standing isolation. Its steep terrain and dense forests have long hindered transport, stifling growth and keeping communities cut off both physically and economically. But a new force is now reshaping the landscape – with dynamite, drilling rigs and lines of code. The Yangcun Tunnel in Wufeng is part of a high-speed rail line designed to bring 350km/h (217mph) trains into one of China’s...

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China should add a quantitative target for consumption growth as part of its long-term modernisation goals to help sustain growth momentum as the country’s population declines, a prominent Chinese economist said. “In addition to setting a gross domestic product growth per capita target through 2035, we should also establish a target for the household final consumption rate – meaning the share of household consumption in GDP should be increased as well,” said Cai Fang, an academician at the...

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While failing to see eye to eye is hardly new to Beijing and Tokyo, Sino-Japanese relations have been especially strained this month and are at risk of worsening even further. The trigger for the downturn was Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments to the Japanese parliament on November 7 that the use of force against Taiwan could be perceived as a “survival-threatening situation”, which would permit Tokyo to deploy the Japan Self-Defence Forces. She has refused to retract her...

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Xpeng’s CEO He Xiaopeng is among three corporate founders who have been shortlisted as finalists in the 2025 Business Awards organised by SCMP Live, in a reimagination of a series of accolades first introduced in 1990. A total of 43 nominations were received for the awards in six categories, honouring the most noteworthy business owner, corporate executive, company, small-and-medium-sized enterprise (SME), start-ups and the best globalised brand. A discretionary award honouring lifetime...

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Limiting AI use in military applications and ensuring global AI governance could ease collaboration and dialogue between China and the US as they vie for influence over the transformative technology, according to experts at a forum in Hong Kong on Monday. Their remarks came as artificial intelligence is being increasingly adopted in the defence sector, including for weapon-related functions. It raises serious ethical and accountability concerns, further elevates the US-China AI race to a...

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China turned a brief but intense India-Pakistan conflict in May into a live testing ground for its advanced weaponry and intelligence systems, and then aggressively marketed those results to undercut Western arms sales, a US congressional panel said in its annual report on Tuesday. “Beijing opportunistically leveraged the conflict to test and advertise the sophistication of its weapons,” a new report from the bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated bluntly. It...

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Brazil has cleared a Chinese navy hospital ship to dock in Rio de Janeiro in January, ending a months-long review that drew quiet pushback inside the country’s military, according to local media. The approval, dated November 13 and published Tuesday in the government’s official gazette, allows the Ark Silk Road to remain in Rio from January 8 to January 15 next year. The 178 metre (584 feet) vessel operates under China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy. Records show a United States ship will...

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Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent remarks suggesting that Japan could intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait under the pretext of a “survival-threatening situation” represent a strategic pivot away from Japan’s post-war pacifist ethos. These statements, explicitly condemned by Beijing as “blatant interference in China’s internal affairs”, transcend mere diplomatic indiscretion. They reflect a calculated alignment with containment strategies aimed at curtailing China’s...

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Randal Shelby planned carefully and waited years to ditch a career spent in hospitals and medical centres to chase a dream in which he traded antiseptic hallways full of sick patients for the great outdoors. His new life started six years ago, after he secured about US$1.3 million in financing for a Case combine and other equipment, fertilisers, seed and labour needed to produce soybeans and rice, staples that enjoyed strong demand overseas, primarily from China. High fuel costs, rising interest...

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Beijing could step up military and coastguard activities near Japan if tensions escalate further following Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s provocative remarks on Taiwan, according to analysts. “It cannot be ruled out that there will be new military activities near the Diaoyu Islands,” a government adviser said, referring to the disputed group of islands known as the Senkakus in Japan. The islands, located in the East China Sea, have long been a source of tension between the two...

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Alibaba Group Holding’s new multipurpose artificial intelligence consumer app, Qwen, has the potential to become China’s “super-app” in the AI era in the same way Tencent Holdings’ WeChat defined the mobile internet age, analysts say. Powered by Alibaba Cloud’s own model series of the same name, Qwen quickly jumped to fourth overall on Apple’s app store for free apps in Hong Kong and fifth in mainland China on its second day of beta testing. The app, billed as “the best personal AI assistant”,...

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1. US pulls missile system from Japan as Beijing-Tokyo row over Taiwan deepens A US missile system that could strike Beijing has been withdrawn from Japan, Japanese media reported on Monday, amid sharply escalating tensions triggered by the Japanese prime minister’s recent remarks on Taiwan.
2. China’s dominance shrinks US remote sensing share from 88% to...

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Chinese internet search giant Baidu on Tuesday reported a 50 per cent increase in artificial intelligence-related revenue in the three months ended September from a year ago, which was the bright spot to an otherwise lacklustre financial quarter. The Beijing-based company’s third-quarter revenue declined 7 per cent year on year to 31.2 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion), owing to sluggish demand in its advertising business, while its net loss hit 11.2 billion yuan on asset writedowns. While its core...

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China’s newest aircraft carrier, the Fujian, had returned to port following a training mission with its strike group, state media announced on Tuesday amid rising tensions with Japan. According to state broadcaster CCTV, the mission marked the “first maritime live-force training” for the world’s largest conventionally powered warship since it was commissioned to the PLA Navy on November 5. The Fujian, China’s first domestically designed carrier and its third overall, has a displacement of more...

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