Day: June 15, 2025

China’s economic data sent mixed signals in May, with US tariffs continuing to weigh on the country’s manufacturing and exports but domestic consumption picking up slightly in the run-up to a major online shopping festival. Advertisement Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, rose by 6.4 per cent in May, compared with the 5.1 per cent growth observed in April, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday. The figures exceeded a forecast of 4.85 per cent growth by financial data provider Wind. The stronger consumption figures came as…

Scientists in China have unlocked the potential of a radical new type of LED technology that could potentially revolutionise a key component of today’s electronic devices, making them highly energy efficient, more luminous – and possibly cheaper. Advertisement Until now, widespread commercial adoption of the perovskite light-emitting diode (PeLED) has been hindered by one major roadblock: it tends to be unstable, leading to a short lifespan. But this week, researchers published a study that showed how the lifespan of a PeLED could be extended to more than 20 years at…

Ryan Hass is director of the John L. Thornton China Centre and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at the Brookings Institution. He is also a senior fellow at the think tank’s Centre for Asia Policy Studies. He is a former diplomat with a focus on China and served as a key member of the National Security Council during the administration of former US president Barack Obama. Advertisement He served as a foreign service officer in the US embassies in Beijing, Seoul and Ulaanbaatar, and in…

China’s nuclear arsenal is growing “faster than any other country” and its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) force could potentially match that of Russia or the US by the turn of the decade, a Swedish think tank dedicated to weapons research has said. Advertisement According to the latest yearbook of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China has added 100 more warheads to its nuclear stockpile each year since 2023. It held at least 600 and that number was expected to “keep growing over the coming decade”, according to a…

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to reaffirm Beijing’s commitment to Central Asian ties and higher quality development projects when he visits Kazakhstan for a summit next week. Advertisement Xi will be in Astana from Monday to Wednesday for the China-Central Asia Summit, which is expected to focus on areas including transport, energy, security governance and the digital economy, according to analysts. It follows the first such summit in the Chinese city of Xian in 2023, when Xi vowed to strengthen trade and investment ties. The resource-rich Central Asian region…

Chinese scientists have created a carbide ceramic capable of withstanding temperatures up to 3,600 degrees Celsius (6,512 degrees Fahrenheit) in an oxidising environment, exceeding current thermal limits on hypersonic flight. Advertisement The development holds significant potential for applications in aerospace, energy and other extreme high-temperature fields. Modern hypersonic aircraft and advanced engines demand materials that can maintain structural integrity under extreme thermal conditions. However, most materials begin to fail well below 3,000 degrees. The heat shield tiles of SpaceX’s Starship, for instance, could withstand temperatures around 1,371 degrees, according to…