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Israel and China should avoid letting political disagreement hijack cooperation, an Israeli senior diplomat has said, amid growing signs that the two strategic partners are moving to repair ties following the Gaza war rift. “We do not let [ties] be hijacked by the political sphere and we continue our ongoing activities on the bilateral,” said Aviv Ezra, the Israeli foreign ministry’s deputy director general for Asia and the Pacific. Ezra was in China last week for a working visit, the...

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China’s top military command body has moved to tighten Communist Party control over the armed forces with updates to disciplinary rules for party members in the People’s Liberation Army. The PLA Daily, the military’s official newspaper, reported on Saturday that the revisions were to “actively respond to key concerns” in disciplinary enforcement practice. It did not specify the changes, but the report came just two weeks after the announcement that top general Zhang Youxia, first vice-chairman...

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Chinese scientists have developed a plant-inspired method to convert carbon dioxide and water into valuable chemicals, such as the building blocks for petrol, by using solar energy. The process – inspired by photosynthesis, where plants harness sunlight, carbon dioxide and water to generate energy – could help produce a sustainable source of fuel, the researchers said. The team, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said they had developed a...

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With the Winter Olympics now under way in Milan and Cortina, Chinese brands involved in the Games are mounting an ambitious marketing push across Italy and Europe, with sportswear and sports equipment naturally taking centre stage. At the forefront is Li Ning, the company supplying the national team with clothing and gear for the competition after returning as the official partner of the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) – a role that had previously ended in 2004. The partnership coincides with Li...

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Taiwan is moving to plug one-year conscripts directly into frontline combined-arms operations, mandating joint live-fire training with troops across all services to bolster resilience against a potential attack from Beijing. But the push is facing challenges, with experts saying that the inexperienced recruits could become a battlefield burden while the military also deals with training capacity issues and weakening public resolve on defending the island. The Taiwanese cabinet’s latest policy...

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China’s engagement with traditional US allies amid the turmoil of Donald Trump’s presidency may be a sign that it is moving away from its customary diplomatic approach in favour of a “wedge strategy” that some observers believe may help reshape global dynamics. They point to the ways US partners are trying to keep as many doors open as possible – to insure themselves against both an erratic Washington and increasingly assertive Beijing. At Davos last month, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney...

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“Three Starbucks peach lattes for 84.90 yuan [US$12]”, a live streaming host tells viewers on Douyin, China’s popular short-video platform. “Three, two, one – the link is up. Don’t miss this deal, babes.” As Starbucks’ planned sale of a majority stake in its China business to Boyu Capital, announced three months ago, awaits regulatory clearance, the US coffee chain has stepped up its push into China’s heated live streaming shopping race, using discounts to bring down the cost per cup. The...

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Just days after Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump held a two-hour phone call aimed at stabilising bilateral ties, the US confirmed it would play an active role at this year’s first Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation senior officials’ meetings in Guangzhou, signalling intensified engagement with Beijing. The US State Department announced on Friday that a “team of experts”, led by senior US official Casey Mace and Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans...

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Across Europe, demand for Chinese goods is soaring as consumers seek quality products at a lower cost. Some goods – particularly electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels – have been shipped from China at a large enough scale that the continent’s lawmakers have begun taking action against an “overcapacity” they feel could throttle domestic industries. But in one European country where multi-day blackouts are commonplace, buyers are rushing to secure a piece of that excess supply, desperate...

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For the India-China-US triangle, the new US-India trade deal, announced with Trumpian flourish on social media on Monday, has potentially significant economic, geopolitical and strategic implications. US President Donald Trump’s post, which came after a phone call with Narendra Modi, said the Indian prime minister had committed to “BUY AMERICAN”, including over US$500 billion of US products. It also said Modi had “agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and...

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The United States accused Beijing on Friday of conducting a secret nuclear test in 2020 ‌as it called for a new, broader arms control treaty that would bring in China as well as Russia. The accusations at a global disarmament conference highlighted serious tension between Washington and Beijing at a pivotal moment in nuclear ‍arms control, a day after the treaty limiting US and Russian missile and warhead deployments expired. “I can reveal that the US government is aware that China has conducted...

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In recent years, public discussion about China in the United States – and the West more generally – has been dominated by accusations, slander, McCarthyite fear-mongering and geopolitical posturing. The relentless anti-China narrative has meant that one of the most consequential social achievements of the modern era has been almost entirely ignored: China’s eradication of … Continue reading Ignoring China’s poverty alleviation success is costing us all

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Chinese President Xi Jinping replied on February 5 to his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith’s new year greetings to jointly designate 2026 as the Year of China-Laos Friendship. The friendship year will feature a number of celebratory events and Xi, in his letter, noted that China and Laos are good neighbours and good friends connected by … Continue reading China and Laos designate 2026 as friendship year

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China has promised to send more aid to Cuba and deepen cooperation with Uruguay as it reaches out to its Latin American allies to fend off renewed American interest in the region. Cuba became the second Latin American country to send a high-ranking official to China this week. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla’s arrival in Beijing follows that of Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first regional leader to travel to China since the US assault on Venezuela in early...

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China’s market regulator has penalised several companies for posing as DeepSeek and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to defraud users, in its latest crackdown on unfair competition in the fast-growing artificial intelligence sector. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), China’s market watchdog, fined Shanghai Shangyun Internet Technology 62,692.70 yuan (US$9,034) for operating a fraudulent ChatGPT service on Tencent Holdings’ super app WeChat. The service posed as the official Chinese version...

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London has cemented its role as a leading offshore hub for China’s yuan, according to a new financial cooperation agreement that also aims to ease the cross-listing of firms in each other’s markets. The deal emerged from the first meeting of the UK-China Financial Working Group, which convened in Beijing on Saturday. The meeting coincided with the final day of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s state visit. The meeting’s outcome and a joint statement were not made public until Friday. “The...

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Chinese scientists and engineers are developing a smart, ultra-small hypersonic glide missile that can be fired from an 80mm (3.4-inch) anti-aircraft gun. Upon leaving the barrel, the missile reaches a speed close to Mach 6, far faster than a conventional anti-aircraft shell. This allows it to strike fighter jets or drones more than 20km (12 miles) away, even at altitudes around 10,000 metres (32,800 feet). Because of its tremendous speed and small size, an enemy aircraft may only detect the...

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Hours after Alibaba Group Holding began offering freebies including bubble tea through its artificial intelligence app Qwen on Friday, a surge in downloads pushed the chatbot past Tencent Holdings’ Yuanbao to the top of China’s Apple App Store, climbing from 10th place a day earlier. More than 10 million free orders – worth 250 million yuan (US$36 million) – were placed within nine hours using vouchers capped at 25 yuan through Qwen, its team said on its official Weibo account. The surge in...

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While China emerges as an unmistakable superpower, “Great” Britain or the “United” Kingdom increasingly sounds like self-mockery. Much of the UK outside London is threatening to descend into developing-world status. There have been at least a dozen instances of English councils declaring bankruptcy since 2018, while one in four could be insolvent by 2027. Diplomatically, it turns out the American cousin across the Atlantic thinks nothing of the so-called special relationship, as London...

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A deepening cash crunch at the United Nations has reignited debate over the future of multilateralism, with analysts warning that the crisis also reflects a more profound shift in how the United States views the world body. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last week warned that the organisation was at risk of “imminent financial collapse” as unpaid contributions threatened programme delivery, with funds potentially running out by July. In a rare letter addressed to all 193 member states,...

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TikTok’s “addictive design” has been found to violate EU digital laws – in a move that could land the Chinese-owned company a fine of up to 6 per cent of its global revenue. Preliminary findings of the European Commission investigation, announced on Friday, said the video app’s infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and “highly personalised” recommender systems had addictive properties. Brussels wanted TikTok to change the basic design of its service, it said, including disabling some of...

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The People’s Liberation Army said it would redouble efforts to crack down on “fakery that undermines combat capability” and improve scrutiny of training and drills to tackle “deep-seated problems”. The pledge was made in an article in official newspaper PLA Daily on Tuesday outlining anti-corruption priorities for the year. It came soon after last month’s announcement that top general Zhang Youxia, first vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, was under investigation for corruption,...

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German companies are turning towards investments in China as they lose confidence in the United States over President Donald Trump’s policies, but they still see obstacles in the world’s second-largest economy, according to an executive at a German chamber of commerce. That landscape would form the backdrop of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s planned visit to China later this month, said Oliver Oehms, executive director and board member of the German Chamber of Commerce in North China. Merz...

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Xiao Jie, a senior official in Hainan province who played a leading role in building reefs in disputed territories in the South China Sea, has been detained on suspicion of corruption. Xiao, 66, became the first Communist Party chief and mayor of Sansha when it was established as a prefecture-level city in 2012 to administer territories held by Beijing, including the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands and Macclesfield Bank. He was accused of “serious violations of discipline and law” – a standard...

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If anyone anywhere this week spares a thought for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, it will almost certainly be linked to the Apec leaders’ meeting set for Shenzhen in November. But this is to miss the massive value and purpose of the 21-member grouping inaugurated in Canberra in 1989. To witness Apec’s unique and distinguishing value, you should have been in Guangzhou this week, where over 1,000 have gathered without pomp or fanfare for the first senior officials’ meeting (SOM1). I...

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