Month: April 2025

Amid US-Japan trade talks under way in Washington, Japanese lawmakers have warned that Donald Trump’s tariffs posed a threat to not just economic partnership but broader strategic cooperation, leaving space for regional rivals like China to expand their clout. Advertisement Itsunori Onodera, a former Japanese defence minister who served while the first Trump administration was in office, framed ongoing efforts to come to a trade agreement as a national security challenge. “We have to think about the linkage of the problem … [The] economy, national security, food security and economic…

China has lifted sanctions on members of the European Parliament and their families, in the first firm concession of a charm offensive aimed at prising Europe away from Washington’s orbit. Advertisement Beijing will hope its gambit will thaw out a bilateral investment pact, the ratification of which the parliament froze following a tit-for-tat exchange of sanctions over EU human rights concerns in 2021. The announcement was made by European Parliament President Roberta Metsola to a closed-door meeting of the chamber’s senior leadership on Wednesday, but had been telegraphed through a…

There has been growing debate about whether US President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy will drive a wedge between China and other Global South nations. Analysts say the opposite is happening. Advertisement One example is China, facing duties of up to 245 per cent, and Brazil, where Trump’s global baseline 10 per cent tariff has been imposed. The two nations have stepped up high-level engagement since the tariff chaos started. On Tuesday, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi called for Brasilia and Beijing to oppose “the law of the jungle” together and…

The trade war between the United States and China has put more than US$140 billion worth of American exports and thousands of jobs at risk, according to a new report by a US business lobby group. Advertisement It said the tit-for-tat tariffs imposed by the two countries are affecting a wide range of industries that support employment in the US – including agriculture, semiconductors, education, travel and aerospace. The report by the US-China Business Council, released in Washington on Tuesday, said the “precipitous decline in US exports to China” was…

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. China passes private sector law, addressing gripes of beleaguered businesses China passed a much-anticipated law to shore up the country’s private economy on Wednesday, as Beijing delivers on its oft-repeated promise to protect and promote the non-state sector at a time when the Chinese economy looks to hinge more on domestic dynamism to ensure growth amid a trade war with the United States. 2.…

China’s home-grown artificial intelligence talent may be a threat to the United States’ tech dominance, according to a study of DeepSeek by the Hoover Institution, an American think tank. Advertisement China had cultivated a robust domestic AI talent pipeline, as seen in DeepSeek’s research team, whose members were mainly educated and trained within the country, the report said. While around a quarter of DeepSeek researchers gained experience in the US, most returned to China, resulting in a one-way knowledge transfer that strengthened China’s AI ecosystem, it found. “These talent patterns…

US President Donald Trump delivered the worst returns in half a century for American stocks and the dollar during the first 100 days of his second White House term. Advertisement But he may end up making Hong Kong great again as a financial hub, amid renewed interest in Chinese stocks listed in the city. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6.8 per cent in the first 100 days of Trump’s second term, which started on January 20, while the broader S&P 500 Index declined by 7.3 per cent. The US…