Day: May 4, 2025

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was ordering a new front in his tariff war – extending his “America first” blitz to foreign-made films and claiming that Hollywood was being “devastated” by the number of filmmakers and studios working overseas. Advertisement If his administration follows through on the president’s remarks, it would be the first time that a Trump tariff is imposed on services rather than manufactured goods. “I am authorising the Department of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative to immediately begin the process of…

China’s anti-corruption drive targeting the top brass of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) should not be taken as a sign that President Xi Jinping has weak control over the military, according to analysts. Advertisement They added that the campaign’s impact on the military’s war readiness and modernisation was also limited, and that internal competition among Xi’s supporters could be a factor behind the high-level investigations. In the past two years, Beijing has targeted two of the seven members of its Central Military Commission (CMC), a powerful body led by Xi,…

One of the United States’ most respected experts on modern China, Rory Truex is an associate professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, researching Chinese politics and authoritarian systems. Advertisement As one of the first to identify a growing pressure in Washington for policy specialists to adopt an anti-China hawkishness, Truex is well-placed to assess the hostility coming from the White House, where he says it really is “all about Donald Trump”. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click…

To call or not to call – that is the question poised to vex the US-China relationship in the coming weeks, as Beijing and Washington up the ante in this power game to see who will blink first. On April 2, US President Donald Trump ignited a global trade conflict, specifically targeting China due to its substantial annual trade surplus with the US. Advertisement Since then, the world’s two largest economies have engaged in a tit-for-tat over trade tariffs. The US has imposed a 145 per cent tariff hike on…

US President Donald Trump said he is willing to lower tariffs on China at some point because the levies now are so high that the world’s two largest economies have essentially stopped doing business with each other. Advertisement Trump has placed tariffs as high as 145 per cent on Chinese imports. China has retaliated with tariffs of 125 per cent on American imports. The moves rattled markets and threaten to drive up prices for manufacturing equipment as well as affordable goods that many Americans rely on, including clothing and toys.…

Advertisement Unlike the previous two weeks, when foreign buyers eagerly sought out Chinese tech products, the toy exhibition halls saw relatively low foot traffic and a lack of blockbuster products, reflecting the plight of traditional Chinese manufacturers being battered by massive increases in United States tariffs. Many toy exporters avoided showcasing the latest products developed in collaboration with US clients, due to fears of plagiarism and expectations of low US participation at the fair. They highlighted the risk of stagnation in research and development on new products if US orders…