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Particle beams – streams of atoms or subatomic particles accelerated to nearly the speed of light – have been the holy grail of space warfare. The idea is simple: fire a tightly focused beam of high-energy particles at an enemy satellite or missile, damaging it through sheer kinetic and thermal energy. But turning this vision into reality has remained out of reach. One critical reason is power. To work, a particle beam weapon needs not just massive amounts of energy, but also extreme precision...

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European countries have been forced to boost defence spending because of the “threat” from Russia, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said as he wrapped up a visit to China where he called for the country to put more pressure on Moscow to end the war in Ukraine. In an interview with the South China Morning Post on Thursday, Tsahkna said: “President [Donald] Trump has been very clear that Europe must put skin in the game. Europe must take more responsibility.” Trump had previously...

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The Chinese embassy in Japan has urged Chinese citizens in the country to remain vigilant about local wildlife attacks amid a surge in incidents, with fatalities reaching a record high. The embassy released a statement on its official WeChat account on Friday, advising Chinese citizens to monitor wildlife sighting information released by local governments in Japan and avoid areas frequented by bears, wild boars and other animals to minimise risks. Since April, Japan has recorded at least 13...

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Chinese businesses should pivot their attention to the “rising” Global South such as Africa and the Middle East while minimising foreign investment risks through localisation, according to a former senior diplomat. Le Yucheng, who was a Chinese foreign vice-minister from 2018 to 2022, offered the assessment on Wednesday at the Hongqiao International Economic Forum in Shanghai, held as part of the China International Import Expo (CIIE), one of the world’s largest trade fairs. The annual six-day...

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Chinese officials have agreed to hold talks with their Dutch counterparts regarding the Nexperia crisis, which has thrown the global automotive chip supply chain into uncertainty, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on Saturday. In response to remarks made by Netherlands’ Economy Minister Vincent Karremans on Friday – indicating that Nexperia chips made in China could resume shipments in the coming days – Beijing expressed hope that the Dutch side would take concrete actions and agreed...

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In a high-stakes bilateral exchange where Taiwan has historically been an enduring flashpoint, the unusual silence was deafening. Last week’s summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump produced a rare omission – no mention of Taiwan at all in official readouts from both Washington and Beijing. The rare departure from diplomatic tradition has left the self-ruled island with an awkward sense of both relief and unease. While most Western media described the outcome of...

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The ferocity of China’s biopharmaceutical investment boom this year – fuelled by record-breaking licensing of commercial rights to global giants after a three-year slump – may have surprised casual observers. But according to Helen Chen, one of the most respected analysts and advisers in China’s life sciences space, the supercharged sector’s real renaissance came two years earlier. In December 2022, US drug maker MSD agreed to license global (excluding China) rights to develop and commercialise...

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Recycling sand and gravel aggregates from construction and demolition waste could meet half of China’s demand for the materials essential for building skyscrapers, roads and railways by 2050, a Chinese-led study has found. By embracing a circular economy strategy, some provinces could achieve aggregate recycling rates as high as 65 per cent, the team led by researchers from Tsinghua University found. This could significantly ease China’s annual aggregate demand, which is projected to halve by...

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Restoring confidence and stabilising the property market are “significantly more important” for China than the ramifications of tariffs, a Nobel laureate in economics said while warning of financial risks to Chinese households. Michael Spence, who won the Nobel Prize in 2001, made the remarks at the Hongqiao International Economic Forum in Shanghai on Thursday, during a panel discussion on China’s pathway to revitalise consumption. While acknowledging that Beijing needs to “seriously” address...

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China now has the largest naval fleet in the world, and its growing numbers of nuclear-powered submarines are an integral part of its efforts to project power beyond its coastal waters. But the view from Beijing is growing more complex as a handful of US allies in the Pacific also ramp up deployment of nuclear-powered subs. South Korea inched closer to attaining the technology on October 30 when US President Donald Trump said he had given the country approval to build a nuclear-powered...

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The fight against a Florida law restricting property purchases by Chinese citizens may hinge on finding new challengers – and on persuading a conservative judiciary unlikely to reverse course, legal experts say. In a 2-1 decision on Tuesday, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta upheld two provisions of the 2023 law – requiring buyers to register their property and attest to their eligibility by affidavit, and ruled that the plaintiffs lacked the right to challenge the main purchasing...

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China will join a Brazil-led coalition to link carbon markets across major economies, one of the key environmental proposals set to be adopted at Cop30 in Belém on Friday. The so-called Open Coalition for the Integration of Carbon Markets was created to align standards and make it easier for countries to trade carbon credits. Developed by Brazil’s Ministry of Finance, it is part of the government’s Ecological Transformation Plan, a broad strategy to combine economic growth with social inclusion...

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Taiwan’s Vice-President Hsiao Bi-khim gave a speech at the European Parliament in Brussels on Friday, in what organisers claimed made her the most senior official from Taipei to have spoken in a foreign legislature in which it does not have diplomatic recognition. Hsiao spoke at a private conference of lawmakers from around the world who advocate for tougher China policies, hosted in the parliament and unannounced, which is sure to provoke a furious response from Beijing. The No 2 leader told...

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China has completed ground and altitude tests of an adaptive cycle engine prototype with unprecedented thrust, efficiency and speed range, according to presentations at the Chinese Society of Engineering Thermophysics annual conference in Beijing last week. During the opening day report, Xu Gang, deputy director of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, presented his team’s research progress in adaptive cycle engine (ACE) technology. This advanced engine...

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Alibaba Group Holding will keep investing in super-scale computing infrastructure to empower the artificial intelligence era, CEO Eddie Wu Yongming said at China’s annual internet industry summit on Friday. Meeting the AI industry’s demand “requires super-scale infrastructure and full-stack technology accumulation”, Wu told the audience at Friday’s opening of the 2025 World Internet Conference, an annual industry gathering in the town of Wuzhen in eastern Zhejiang province. The event will run...

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1. China’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, enters service China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, entered into service on Wednesday at a grand ceremony held in Sanya, Hainan, according to state media reports.
2. China’s exports fall in October as firms wait out trade war reset China’s exports fell in October amid a volatile trade war with the...

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Fang Lei, a long-time professor with Texas A&M University’s chemistry department, has returned to China to join the cutting-edge Yongjiang Laboratory, a state-backed research centre that has drawn a cumulative investment of more than 26 billion yuan (US$3.65 billion) in less than four years. Fang built a distinguished career in the United States over nearly two decades, rising to be deputy head of the chemistry department at Texas A&M. He resigned from the university earlier this year to assume...

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The Netherlands’ Economy Minister Vincent Karremans said on Friday that China could resume supply of chips to Nexperia customers in Europe and the rest of the world “over the coming days”, signalling that the Dutch government has “softened its stance” and raising hopes of a breakthrough in a row that has threatened to throw global automotive production into disarray. “The Netherlands trusts that the supply of chips from China to Europe and the rest of the world will reach Nexperia’s customers...

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China has put another shipborne uncrewed helicopter through its paces at sea, but the ship used for the tests has drawn more attention than the new aircraft. A report on state broadcaster CCTV last week showed the drone helicopter – an AR-500CJ developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China – taking off, hovering over and landing on a ship’s flight deck at sea. An operator was shown controlling the aircraft in front of a short structure on the deck. But the ship was not identified or...

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Chinese artificial intelligence systems are nearing levels of “frontier risks” similar to their US counterparts, according to a study. Recent advances in the capabilities of AI models from DeepSeek and other Chinese firms heightened the possibility that these systems could be misused by bad actors or escape human control, according to Concordia AI, a Beijing-based consultancy focused on AI safety in China. As AI models grew more powerful, their frontier risks – or their potential to endanger...

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Developing China’s “new quality productive forces” – a growth model championed by Beijing that emphasises technological breakthroughs and industrial upgrades – does not mean abandoning traditional industries, but rather integration and transformation through innovation, according to the ruling Communist Party’s leading theoretical journal. The sustained driving force for economic growth comes from both fostering emerging industries and upgrading traditional ones – a dual-pronged push that must...

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Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn will embark on the first trip to China by a Thai monarch since the two nations established diplomatic ties half a century ago. The state visit, at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping and scheduled to take place from November 13 to 17, will make China “the first major country” that the Thai king has officially visited since ascending the throne in 2016, according to Beijing’s foreign ministry. “In recent years…bilateral relations have maintained...

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said on Friday that there were “no active discussions” about selling the company’s state-of-the-art Blackwell chips to China. Blackwell is Nvidia’s current flagship artificial intelligence chip that the Trump administration has so far prevented from being sold to the world’s second-largest economy, for fear it would aid the Chinese military and the domestic AI industry. While there was speculation last week that talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese...

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On the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in 2007, a celebratory special by state media included a brief history of the late Deng Xiaoping’s observations. “In June 1987, while analysing Inner Mongolia’s economic development, Deng Xiaoping, the chief architect of China’s reform and opening-up, predicted that Inner Mongolia was likely to ‘take the lead’,” it read. Under a black and white photo, the text continued: “This was in January 1992, when he...

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China has called for further talks on Iran’s nuclear programme to get the process “back on track” after European countries reimposed sanctions on Tehran a few weeks ago. “China appreciates Iran’s recent reaffirmation that it has no intention of developing nuclear weapons, and supports Iran’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in a phone call on Wednesday. Wang warned there was currently a “deadlock” over the...

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