Month: May 2025

Hegseth says Chinese military action against Taiwan ‘could be imminent’

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Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world US defence secretary Pete Hegseth warned that a Chinese military attack on Taiwan “could be imminent” as he called on America’s allies in the Indo-Pacific to boost defence spending as a further deterrence to Beijing. Speaking at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue defence forum in Singapore on Saturday, Hegseth said China wanted to become a hegemonic power in Asia and was acting in a manner that should be an…

US defence secretary urges military build-up over ‘imminent’ China threat

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Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world US defence secretary Pete Hegseth warned that a Chinese military attack on Taiwan “could be imminent” as he called on America’s allies in the Indo-Pacific to boost defence spending as a further deterrence to Beijing. Speaking at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue defence forum in Singapore on Saturday, Hegseth said China wanted to become a hegemonic power in Asia and was acting in a manner that should be an…

China’s smart cities are streets ahead, but same challenges apply the world over

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Each night in the darkest hours, a fleet of drones patrols the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, watching over potentially dodgy areas such as underground station exits and the riverside to deter any would-be criminals. Advertisement The nightly routine has been operating since last year, according to a report published in April by the city’s police bureau, which detailed its use of artificial intelligence to plan patrol routes. According to the report, the AI puts a laser focus on patrolling Nanjing’s blind spots – the areas generally ignored by human…

Regional Chinese censorship more aggressive than national Great Firewall: study

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Online censorship in China by some regional governments is even more aggressive than enforcement of the national-level ‘Great Firewall’ by the central government, according to a recent study and local sources. The Great Firewall Report (GFW Report) highlights how the central Chinese province of Henan has adopted its own provincial firewall which is less sophisticated and robust than the central government’s but more volatile and aggressive, blocking significantly more websites than the national-level censorship system. Local sources told Radio Free Asia that the heightened restrictions at the provincial government level…

Football boot makers jump out of kangaroo leather

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Asics and Mizuno will stop using kangaroo leather in their football boots as the sports equipment industry’s last major holdouts abandon a material beloved of elite stars such as Pelé, Diego Maradona and David Beckham. The decisions by Japan’s two biggest sports shoe makers follow decades of campaigning from activists who argue that the unique combination of lightness, durability, strength and exceptional ball control provided by kangaroo leather comes at…

China replaces its top official in Hong Kong

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Read about this topic in Cantonese. China announced Friday it was replacing its top official in Hong Kong who was regarded as a symbol of Beijing’s hardline approach toward the territory since 2019 pro-democracy protests. China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said it was removing Zheng Yanxiong from several key positions including as director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Zheng was viewed as the Chinese Communist Party’s top envoy in Hong Kong and a key liaison with…

Europe and Asia should form ‘positive new alliance’, says Macron in Singapore

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European and Asian countries should form a “positive new alliance” based on shared principles, security, defence and trade, away from the battling superpowers of the US and China, Emmanuel Macron has said. Addressing the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore on Friday, the French president said the division between the US and China was the biggest threat in the world right now, but he also warned of the threat from Russia and North Korea. He said it was crucial that allied nations act together to maintain credibility against aggressors. “We are…

Macron calls for European and Asian ‘coalition’ during US-China tension

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Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world The president of France on Friday called for a “coalition of action” between European and Asian countries to protect the international order from coercive superpowers, as US President Donald Trump disrupts global trade and security. Calling the division of the world between the US and China the biggest threat to the world, Emmanuel Macron said the two powers’ competition for global dominance presented others with impossible choices. “We…

Macron calls for European and Asian ‘coalition of action’

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Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world The president of France on Friday called for a “coalition of action” between European and Asian countries to protect the international order from coercive superpowers, as US President Donald Trump disrupts global trade and security. Calling the division of the world between the US and China the biggest threat to the world, Emmanuel Macron said the two powers’ competition for global dominance presented others with impossible choices. “We…

China has ‘totally violated’ its trade agreement with the US, says Trump

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Donald Trump declared that China has “totally violated its agreement” against the US on trade just two weeks after the countries reached a deal, raising fears that the trade war will continue to rattle the global economy. “I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday morning. “Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY…