Day: June 23, 2025

China will stage a military parade to commemorate the end of World War II – the second time it has held the event – as conflicts rage around the world, including the latest between Iran and Israel. Advertisement It will be held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on September 3, a decade after the People’s Liberation Army first staged a Victory Day parade. It is part of a ceremony marking 80 years since China defeated Japan and the global victory against fascism, Hu Heping, deputy head of the Communist Party’s…

In Tuanjie Village, in the heart of Chongqing – China’s largest inland city, best known for its spicy hotpot – orange gantry cranes hoist cargo onto goods trains bound for Europe and Russia. Each day, hundreds of containers pass through the sprawling 82,000-square-metre yard, exporting electric vehicles and components or returning with cars, meat, wine and dairy. Advertisement Just a five-minute drive away, blue cranes mark another yard – this one unloading tropical fruits and raw materials from Southeast Asia. Over the past decade, the southwestern Chinese metropolis has evolved…

Education department authorities of China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region did an unusual thing over the weekend. They opened the 2008 files of the gaokao, the national college entrance exam, to determine if rising mainland actress Nashi had committed fraud to enrol in the prestigious Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA). Advertisement That investigation was initiated after the 35-year-old Nashi caused an outcry on Chinese social media when the actress hinted online that she had not “played fair” in her exam 17 years ago. The team investigating the case found that Nashi did…

A US war in the Middle East could leave its armed forces stretched too thin to respond swiftly to a Taiwan Strait crisis, analysts on the island warned after the US launched multiple precision strikes on nuclear-related sites in Iran on the weekend. Advertisement While US President Donald Trump was quick to describe the operation as a “very successful attack”, defence analysts and lawmakers in Taipei suggested that American attention could be diverted from the Taiwan Strait. Their core concern: that the United States, already deeply engaged in supporting Ukraine,…

China is highly unlikely to use its navy to secure the vital Strait of Hormuz if Iran threatens to close it as Middle East tensions rise, a top US analyst told reporters Monday. Advertisement Although China depends heavily on Middle Eastern oil, its approach would be shaped by quiet negotiations and self-interest, not direct military intervention, Richard Fontaine, chief executive of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington-based think tank, said. He pointed to attacks by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in the Red Sea last year, when Beijing reached…

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas Monday called for what she called “a dose of realism” in its relations with China after EU foreign ministers discussed security aspects of relations with China. Advertisement The ministers met to set the agenda for a planned July 2 Brussels meeting between Kallas and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi aimed at setting the tone for a July 24-25 EU-China leaders’ summit in Beijing and Anhui. “It is clear that China is one of the largest trading partners, and we have a few issues…

Beijing’s “massive” military build-up increases the threat of conflict across the Taiwan Strait in a way that could draw Russia and thus European forces into the fray, Nato’s secretary general warned on Monday. Advertisement Speaking to reporters ahead of this week’s Nato summit in The Hague, Mark Rutte also said Nato enjoyed a close relationship with its Indo-Pacific partners – namely Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand – as it ramped up the member states’ defence industrial base. On the question of whether Nato would follow the US and…

China’s shipments of hi-tech goods to the European Union went into overdrive last month, coinciding with a big drop in exports of the same goods to the US, suggesting that the superpower trade and tech wars could be affecting trade with Europe. Advertisement Calculations based on recently published Chinese trade data showed that China in May exported huge amounts of batteries, laptops, smartphones and solar panels to the 27-member bloc, sending import numbers for some countries to unprecedented levels. China’s exports to Estonia soared 79.4 per cent in May compared…