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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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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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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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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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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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China’s official military newspaper has accused the United States of “gunboat diplomacy” amid rising tensions with Venezuela. The Pentagon announced on Sunday that a strike group including the US Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, had been deployed to the Caribbean, carrying thousands of service personnel and dozens of aircraft. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had not ruled out sending US troops to Venezuela, while also expressing a willingness to engage in...

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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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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. 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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While the world’s attention is drawn to US President Donald Trump’s tug of war with China over trade tariffs and technological embargoes, a new development in the Ukraine war is catching the eye of geopolitical observers. Pokrovsk, a city in Donetsk Oblast, has emerged as the most critical flashpoint in Russia’s war on Ukraine. At the intersection of major supply highways and a key railway junction, it serves as a vital logistics hub for Ukrainian forces defending central and western Donetsk....

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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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Japan has urged its citizens in mainland China to take safety precautions as diplomatic tensions sparked by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan continue to escalate. In a message on its website, the Japanese embassy in China said it reiterated “safety measures in light of recent local media coverage concerning Japan-China relations”. “When going out, please remain vigilant of your surroundings, such as the approach of suspicious individuals, and endeavour to ensure your safety as...

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A series of electric vehicle fires in China has pushed the issue of battery safety into the public spotlight, triggering a wider public debate about the potential risks. Last month saw a number of high-profile incidents, including one on October 13 in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, where a Xiaomi EV burst into flames after a high-speed crash, killing the driver. On October 23 in Shanghai, a Li Auto car suddenly burst into flames on a bumpy road, becoming fully engulfed within 10...

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We have put together stories from our coverage of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments on Taiwan, the reaction and articles on Beijing-Tokyo relations for context. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. Beijing slams Japanese PM for ‘seriously damaging’ ties over Taiwan comment This article was published on November 10, 2025.
2. Has Takaichi planted a Taiwan ‘time bomb’ in Tokyo’s ties with Beijing This article was published on November 13,...

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Huawei Technologies is set to launch its latest flagship smartphone, the Mate 80 series, and a new foldable handset next Tuesday, as industry speculation swirls over the use of its next-generation Kirin 9030 processor in these devices. The Shenzhen-based telecommunications equipment maker on Monday said its new Mate series – including the basic Mate 80, Mate 80 Pro, Mate 80 Pro Max and Mate 80 RS models – would be available for pre-order, but pricing and technical specifications were not...

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China’s urban youth unemployment rate continued to ease last month, though fierce labour market competition remains a challenge for many jobseekers. The jobless rate for those aged 16 to 24, excluding students, slightly decreased to 17.3 per cent in October from 17.7 per cent in September, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. Following a record 12.2 million graduates entering the job market over the summer, the youth unemployment rate rose in August to its...

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A former French diplomat has urged Europe and China to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, describing the issue as “the major challenge” facing the two sides. “The Ukraine war is fracturing the dialogue between two parts of the world,” Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, France’s ambassador to China between 2014 and 2017, said in an interview. “It shouldn’t prevent us from having a stronger dialogue with China and finding out ways and means to cooperate as we did in the past, to find out shared...

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Chinese student numbers in the United States have continued to decline over the past year, but they remain the second-largest student group after Indians and the biggest contributors to the US economy, according to new data released on Monday. A total of 265,919 Chinese studied in the US in the 2024-25 academic year, marking a four per cent decrease from the previous academic year, according to the latest annual survey of higher education institutions by the Institute of International Education...

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US video game developer Riot Games, creator of League of Legends, retains bragging rights to the most popular PC game in China nearly a decade and a half after its launch. First introduced in 2009 and brought to the mainland in 2011, the multiplayer online battle game has been around longer than many of those who play it – a remarkable feat in an industry known for its rapid shifts. The secret to the game’s longevity may lie in the sustained appeal of the League of Legends esports scene, as...

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