China News

The slump in China’s property market has not yet bottomed out and will continue to be a drag on economic growth, former finance minister Lou Jiwei warned, calling for expansionary fiscal and monetary policies as well as structural reforms to counteract the sector’s persistent headwinds. While Lou said real estate is unlikely to be a source of systemic risk – a source of concern after China’s largest developers faced rolling liquidity crises that left many homebuyers without the flats they had...

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Alibaba Group Holding on Saturday denied a report by The Financial Times about the company’s alleged support for China’s military in operations against the United States. “The assertions and innuendos in the article are completely false,” an Alibaba representative said. “We question the motivation behind the anonymous leak, which the FT admits that they cannot verify.” The Alibaba representative called the article a “malicious PR operation” that appears to “undermine President Trump’s recent...

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China has told its citizens to avoid travelling to Japan, upping the ante in its row with Tokyo after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested her country could deploy its military forces in the event of a cross-strait conflict. In a notice late on Friday night, China’s foreign ministry said the safety of its citizens in Japan had “continued to deteriorate”, citing a series of targeted attacks this year. The ministry said the Japanese leader had made provocative remarks on Taiwan-related...

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Grass-roots enthusiasm has played the main role in shaping China’s online nationalist narrative and has pushed celebrities to follow, according to a study published in the American peer-reviewed journal Science Advances last week. Contrary to the common perception that nationalism on Chinese social media space functions more top down and that Beijing uses social media to influence or control public opinion, the study jointly done by researchers from leading universities in the United States and...

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The Nexperia factory in Dongguan, in the heart of southern China’s Pearl River Delta, has long been a poster child for successful globalisation. Since its launch in 2000, the plant, which covers an area the size of 10 football fields, has operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, non-stop. Following its most recent upgrade in 2018, its annual production capacity surged to 90 billion units, making it the largest assembly site in the Chinese-owned Dutch chipmaker’s global network. Yet, this...

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China has discovered a rare gold deposit in the Kunlun Mountains near the western border of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, according to government geologists involved in the survey. Initial estimates suggest its total gold reserves could exceed 1,000 tonnes. “The outline of a thousand-tonne-scale gold belt in West Kunlun, Xinjiang, is now taking shape,” wrote He Fubao, a senior engineer with the Kashgar Geological Team, and his colleagues in a paper published on November 4 in the...

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Southeast Asian economies have a “transformative” opportunity to enter the world’s critical mineral supply chain amid China-US trade tensions, a senior Asian economist said. Critical minerals – essential raw materials for the production of hi-tech gadgets, cars and aerospace equipment – will make the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) supply chain “more resilient and sustainable”, said Yasuto Watanabe, director of the Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO). The...

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As China’s global influence grows, the landscape of China studies is undergoing a profound transformation. Scholars both within China and internationally are confronting new challenges, from escalating geopolitical tensions and mutual distrust – especially between Washington and Beijing – to increasingly limited access, making research and academic collaboration more difficult than ever. Some have also urged a shift beyond Western-centric frameworks towards more field-based research and a truly...

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Beijing on Friday voiced deep concern and issued a stern warning to Tokyo against shifting its non-nuclear policy, after comments by Japan’s prime minister about Taiwan sharply escalated tensions between the two countries. Sanae Takaichi, who took office on October 21, has been considering revising Japan’s long-standing non-nuclear weapons principles, Japanese media reported on Friday citing government sources. This came after Japan’s defence minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, publicly urged the...

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The crisis surrounding the chipmaker Nexperia erupted into a war of words on Friday, with the company’s Chinese and Dutch arms trading barbs, while Beijing slammed the Dutch minister involved. The fiery exchange, which took place over several hours late on Friday evening, will raise tensions ahead of crunch government talks in the Chinese capital next week aimed at resolving the future of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-based company that makes legacy chips vital to the automotive industry. It shows...

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Three years into the cross-border e-commerce trade, Shenzhen-based seller Xiong Hao is grappling with the fallout from Washington’s decision to scrap duty-free treatment for small parcels – and now the European Union looks to deliver the next blow. “It’s getting harder and harder in the current environment,” said Xiong, who deals in toys and household goods. “Even though small parcels are technically duty-free, the EU already has a lot of miscellaneous taxes.” EU member states have agreed with...

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The tone was “constructive” at the US-China leaders’ summit but the two powers remain at odds on key issues – and that will not change unless Washington changes its approach, a former American diplomat said. David Firestein, inaugural president and CEO of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, said American policy must be grounded on a better understanding of China. And he said Washington needed “smarter policies that work better for the American people”. In a speech at the...

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China’s flagship sovereign wealth fund has moved three of its managing directors to new, subordinate roles, sources told the Post, with the heads of the fund’s fixed income, private equity and public relations departments all taking new non-managerial positions. All have extensive overseas work experience, and none have reached the statutory retirement age. More reorganising could be on the horizon at China Investment Corporation (CIC), the sources said on condition of anonymity, including those...

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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. Stranded Chinese astronauts return home from space station mission Three astronauts whose return to Earth from China’s Tiangong space station was delayed last week after suspected space debris struck their vessel have landed at the Dongfeng Landing Site in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
2. China’s growth softens in October as property drags...

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China’s humanoid robot manufacturers on Friday took centre stage at the opening of the 27th China Hi-Tech Fair in Shenzhen, as the demand for these machines in enterprises gathers speed. The fair, which will run through Sunday, has put the spotlight this year on artificial intelligence and robotics innovation. With about a dozen of its products on display at this year’s event, Unitree Robotics drew one of the largest crowds on opening day, as it featured humanoid robots dancing and engaging in...

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Five Chinese nationals were killed and eight others injured in a car crash in Bali, Indonesia, according to China’s consulate on the island on Friday. The accident happened in northern Bali’s Buleleng regency, the consulate said in a statement. The Indonesian driver sustained minor injuries, it added. The 13 Chinese citizens were travelling in a minibus to Bali’s northern side when the driver lost control of the vehicle, veering off the road into a garden and striking a tree, according to Ida...

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Alibaba Group Holding has slashed charges for its biggest artificial intelligence model by as much as half, triggering speculation of another price war in China’s highly competitive AI market. Qwen3-Max, the first trillion-parameter model from Alibaba Cloud, was one of the company’s most expensive models on its release in September, with tiered pricing that charged a minimum of US$0.861 per million input tokens and US$3.441 per million output tokens for application programming interface (API)...

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Beijing sent a Type 055 destroyer fleet to the south of Japan on Tuesday, just days after comments made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan drew a strong reaction from Beijing, according to Tokyo. Japan’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that three Chinese ships, including a Type 055 destroyer, had passed through waters south of Kagoshima on Kyushu island on Tuesday before travelling through the Osumi Strait into the Pacific Ocean. According to the ministry, the three ships...

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Beijing has strongly criticised the latest possible US arms sale to Taiwan, accusing Washington of grossly violating the one-China principle. On Thursday, the Pentagon announced that the US had approved a deal to sell US$330 million worth of fighter jet parts to the island. It is the first arms deal with Taipei since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. Beijing’s foreign ministry said the deal seriously violated the one-China principle and “gravely infringed upon...

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As China and the Netherlands prepare to hold talks next week over the Nexperia chipmaker dispute, Beijing has the patience to resolve the issue through multiple rounds of negotiations to ensure the case remains isolated, analysts said. On Thursday, Dutch Economy Minister Vincent Karremans said a senior government delegation would visit Beijing “to continue our efforts to find a mutually agreeable solution”. The Dutch government took the unusual step of seizing control of Nexperia from its...

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Beijing has summoned the Japanese ambassador and lodged “solemn representations” in its latest show of protest over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s recent provocative comments on a Taiwan contingency. Sun Weidong, China’s vice-foreign minister, on Thursday summoned Kenji Kanasugi, expressing strong dissatisfaction and opposition to Takaichi’s remarks, which Sun called “egregiously wrong and highly dangerous”, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Sun said the Japanese leader’s...

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Spectating from afar during the Cop30 UN climate summit in Belem on the edge of Brazil’s Amazon forests, it is easy to despair. Despite 30 years of concerted global diplomacy and exhaustive scientific evidence of the gravity of global warming, carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, as do global temperatures. Brazil’s rainforest continues to burn. Global oil and gas production remains robust. Governments procrastinate and funding promises still fail to materialise. Worst of all, the world’s...

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Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), China’s largest chip foundry, said on Friday that full-year revenue is on track to hit an all-time high of more than US$9 billion, as tight foundry capacity and supply-chain localisation keep its fabs running at full tilt. “The iterative effects across the supply chain are continuing, which leads to a stronger-than-usual off-season. Our production remains in a state of supply falling short of demand,” co-CEO Zhao Haijun said on an...

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China has tested a 3D-printed turbojet engine in flight for the first time, a development that could support the country’s growing fleet of high-speed, low-cost and quick-to-produce military drones. During the 30-minute flight on Sunday, the engine took a small, missile-shaped target drone to an altitude of 6km (3.8 miles) and a top speed of around 925km/h, about three quarters the speed of sound, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday. It said the engine operated normally throughout the...

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China stands ready to align development strategies with Thailand for “greater progress” in bilateral ties, President Xi Jinping told the visiting Thai monarch King Maha Vajiralongkorn in Beijing on Friday. The Chinese leader described the two nations as “true good relatives, friends and partners” during his meeting with the king at the Great Hall of the People, according to the official broadcaster CCTV. “China is willing to strengthen strategic alignment with Thailand,” Xi said, while pitching...

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