China News

Chinese researchers have unveiled a new rare earth alloy so cold and efficient it could upend decades of reliance on helium-3 and send shock waves through the global race for quantum computers or ultra-sensitive detectors. A mini-fridge built with the alloy has achieved temperatures extremely close to absolute zero using no moving parts. And it comes at a time when the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is actively hunting for exactly such a technology. On January 27, DARPA...

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Beijing is launching a pilot programme to expand industrial use of hydrogen energy, at a time when war in the Middle East is exposing the risks of global reliance on fossil fuels. Iran’s effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz amid its war with the United States and Israel – now in its third week – has disrupted oil and gas supplies, prompting some nations to re-examine their energy mix, with renewables emerging as a potential hedge against volatility. In a Monday notice, the Ministry of...

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Chinese and Chilean scientists have reached the bottom of the Atacama Trench, where light does not penetrate, in what they called the “most ambitious” deep-sea expedition ever conducted in the eastern Pacific. The joint mission to one of the deepest ocean trenches – which runs parallel to the coasts of Peru and Chile – took place from January 19 to March 5. It comes as Chile’s expanding cooperation with China on science and technology has inflamed geopolitical tensions with the United...

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President Xi Jinping has vowed to advance the creation of an international port alliance under the Belt and Road Initiative, at a time when the world’s top merchandise exporter confronts mounting challenges to global shipping routes – from the Strait of Hormuz to Panama. An excerpt of his speech, initially given at a closed-door meeting on July 1, 2025, was first published on Monday by Qiushi, the Communist Party’s top theoretical journal. “[China needs to] deeply participate in global ocean...

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The Trump administration has initiated a series of sweeping trade investigations that could lead to the imposition of fresh tariffs after the US Supreme Court struck down its previous tariffs. The US trade representative (USTR) announced two new investigations under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, including one targeting alleged excess manufacturing capacity, which opened for public comment today. Section 301 The USTR investigations cover at least 60 economies. US Trade Representative...

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Large passenger jets and advanced chips, BeiDou satellites and the Tiangong space station: these large-scale science and technology projects could be part of China’s efforts to mobilise resources nationwide to speed up the development of new weapons, according to a study by researchers with China’s top defence university. China’s military modernisation has accelerated at a pace that unsettles many analysts in Washington. In the past decade alone, Beijing has rolled out a sequence of major...

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South Korea and Japan have led declines in global stock markets amid the oil shock, underscoring how supply disruptions in the Middle East are weighing on growth in economies heavily reliant on fuel imports. The Kospi index in Seoul has slumped 12 per cent since the US-Israel war with Iran broke out on February 28, while Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 has slid nearly 9 per cent. South Korea last week moved to cap oil price increases to limit inflation, while rising crude costs added to price pressures in...

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US President Donald Trump said on Monday that his planned trip to Beijing later this month may be postponed, adding uncertainty to a visit expected to include talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Speaking at a news conference at the White House, Trump said the timing of the visit was still under discussion, citing the need to remain in Washington as the US manages its ongoing military campaign against Iran. The trip had been scheduled for March 31 to April 2. “I don’t know, we’re working on...

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Beijing has increased its inspections on Panama-flagged vessels entering Chinese ports, a source from the shipping industry said, an action intended to raise the Latin American country’s stress level after its courts voided the operating rights of Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison in the Panama Canal. Port state control (PSC) – the inspection regime countries may deploy to verify the compliance of foreign ships with various international standards – was being used as a form of leverage...

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The People’s Liberation Army ramped up aircraft sorties near Taiwan over the weekend, ending two weeks of relative calm just as a defiant speech by Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te drew a strong rebuke from Beijing. From 6am on Saturday to 6am on Sunday, Taiwan detected 26 PLA aircraft sorties operating around the island. Sixteen of these entered the island’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ), according to data released by Taiwan’s defence ministry on Sunday. The 26 sorties marked a...

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Maritime tracking data showed that no ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, marking the first full day without any confirmed commercial traffic in either direction since February 28, when the US and Israel began military strikes on Iran. Crossings dropped to zero, below the previous seven-day average of 2.57 daily transits, according to maritime analytics firm Windward. Although no vessels entered the waterway that day, about 400 ships sailed in the Gulf of Oman on Friday, it...

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A United States diplomat has told Brazilian port industry executives that Washington does not want a Chinese company to win the concession for a major container terminal in Santos, the largest port in Latin America, in the latest sign that the race for one of Brazil’s most prized infrastructure assets has become a front in the broader rivalry between Washington and Beijing. Kevin Murakami, the US consul-general in Sao Paulo, made the comments on March 5, at an event organised by Grupo A Tribuna,...

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Trump’s threat to postpone his Beijing trip unless China helps break Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has fused two crises Beijing had sought to keep apart: the unravelling of Middle East stability and the fragile thaw in US–China relations. China, the world’s largest buyer of Gulf oil, is now being forced to weigh its economic reliance on stable energy routes against its tradition of non‑interference in diplomacy, according to observers. While Beijing is eager to host Trump for a...

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We have selected seven of the most interesting and important news stories covering US-China relations from the past few weeks. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. Trump slams European allies, praises China and continues to justify Iran attack US President Donald Trump used a White House meeting with the German Chancellor on March 3 to blast European allies, praise China, waffle on tariffs and argue that the attack he had launched against Iran days...

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Lessons from the wars in Iran and Ukraine are pushing Taipei to rethink its air-defence strategy, with officials now warning that expensive missiles alone cannot stop large waves of rockets and drones. In a report submitted to Taiwan’s lawmakers on Monday, the island’s defence ministry said low-cost interceptor weapons were urgently needed to counter the mainland Chinese military’s growing arsenal of long-range rockets and uncrewed aircraft. The new systems would form part of Taiwan’s planned...

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Alibaba Group Holding has reshuffled its artificial intelligence operations, creating a new top level business group and placing CEO Eddie Wu Yongming in charge as the AI and e-commerce powerhouse accelerates its push into the emerging token economy. The company said on Monday it had established the Alibaba Token Hub (ATH) Business Group, which brings all its core AI teams and products together under one umbrella. This includes Tongyi Laboratory – the developer of Alibaba’s Qwen series of...

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China and the US wrapped up their sixth round of trade talks in Paris on Monday, with the agenda ranging from a possible extension of bilateral tariff and non-tariff measures as well as bilateral investment. “China and the US conducted deep, frank and constructive consultations,” Chinese vice commerce minister Li Chenggang said. Both sides agreed to “continue to maintain the stability of tariffs” and discussed the possibility of establishing a mechanism for promoting bilateral investment, said...

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US President Donald Trump’s reported threat that he may postpone a long-awaited visit to China – unless Beijing helps unblock the Iran-controlled Strait of Hormuz – may put the current trade talks in Paris at risk by sidelining earlier priorities and potential deals, analysts say. As the US-Israeli war in Iran enters its third week and disrupts global energy markets, Trump has reportedly urged Beijing to send warships to help reopen the strait and ease oil shipments. About 20 per cent of the...

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China said on Monday it was still talking to the United States about President Donald Trump’s planned visit later this month, following his threat to delay the trip. Trump has been trying to pressure countries that rely heavily on oil from the Persian Gulf to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway that Iran has effectively closed in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks. On Sunday, he told the Financial Times “it’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the...

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US President Donald Trump said he may put off a planned visit to Beijing as he sought to press China and other nations into helping reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid the war in Iran. “We may delay” the trip, he told the Financial Times on Sunday, without saying for how long. The visit, scheduled for March 31 to April 2, includes a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump has “demanded” that about seven countries help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, he told reporters on Sunday, as the...

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A team of scientists in China has developed a way to freeze and revive organs for transplant, extending their viability from as little as six hours to several days, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Medical Devices. While the technology is still at the experimental stage and has not yet progressed to human trials, it could one day transform the entire field of organ transplantation, especially for hearts, the researchers say. “If just half of the currently discarded...

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The Formula One (F1) Chinese Grand Prix drew record crowds over the weekend, another indication the wide-ranging efforts from host city Shanghai to raise its profile as a global sports and event destination are paying off. The three-day event, which concluded on Sunday, attracted more than 230,000 cumulative spectators, the highest attendance headcount reported by the Chinese financial centre in nearly two decades. On the opening day, the number of foreign arrivals through Shanghai’s ports...

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Resource-rich African nations are increasingly asserting control over critical minerals to maximise domestic returns, sending global prices soaring and exerting pressure on Chinese supply chains. One price crunch started last month when Zimbabwe, Africa’s biggest lithium producer, abruptly suspended exports of raw lithium minerals and concentrates. The country had originally planned to impose the ban in 2027 to encourage more local value-added processing of the mineral but the government brought...

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World-leading Vietnamese mathematician Ngo Bao Chau has said his decision to leave the US was not just the result of the worsening academic environment there, but also a vision to transform Asia into the next global powerhouse for maths and science. Ngo, the first Vietnamese recipient of the prestigious Fields Medal, will join the University of Hong Kong in June. “I want Asia to be the next America or the next Europe [as] a place where science and mathematics strive,” he said in an interview on...

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US fashion brand Guess has told customers it will close all its stores in mainland China by the end of March, pending a new business model at a time when a growing number of international fashion retailers retreat from the market amid what analysts believe are issues including weak localisation and slow decision-making. Other foreign brands that have withdrawn entirely from mainland China in recent years include US label Old Navy, UK brand Topshop, and several labels owned by Spanish fashion...

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