Day: June 25, 2025

Democrats accused Republicans of pushing conspiracy theories about China in a clash on Wednesday over Beijing’s role in the US energy sector – days ahead of a potential Senate vote on a tax bill that would penalise American companies for having financial relationships with Chinese energy businesses. Advertisement The fiery exchanges began at the outset of a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas alleging that China’s Communist Party was “funnelling millions of dollars” into environmental lawsuits against US fossil fuel companies. Cruz highlighted…

The Chinese government has presented its first themed report to the top legislature on “new quality productive forces” – a growth model focused on technological breakthroughs and industrial upgrades – pledging to expand the use of home-grown large language models and attract more foreign investment. Advertisement The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner, told lawmakers that China had made significant progress in advancing the development model, which President Xi Jinping first introduced in late 2023. Authorities would press ahead with “breakthroughs in key technologies”, according…

Strategic bombers remain “irreplaceable” for China’s military – even as it makes progress with sixth-generation fighters and long-range missiles – given their role in global strikes and nuclear deterrence, analysts say. Advertisement They pointed to the American B-2 stealth bombers that hit Iran’s three nuclear sites on Saturday, dropping bunker-buster bombs directly over the facilities before returning unscathed. Seven of the B-2 bombers were flown nearly 27,000km (16,700 miles) – supported by more than 100 other aircraft including aerial tankers – in the mission that lasted 37 hours. With China’s…

Finnish video game studio Supercell, developer of Clash Royale and Brawl Stars, is set to launch its popular titles on Tencent Holdings’ WeChat as installation-free mini games, leveraging the super app’s vast user base. Advertisement Jakub Barczyk, business and operations lead for Supercell’s Clash of Clans, said on Wednesday that Brawl Stars was already available on WeChat, known as Weixin in mainland China, while Clash Royale was “currently being developed” for a September release on the WeChat mini-game platform. He made the remarks during a live-streamed session at a WeChat…

Chinese companies should relocate their entire manufacturing ecosystems – rather than just completing the assembly of goods in another country – to solidify their overseas expansions, industry insiders said during the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin. Advertisement With uncertainty over global trade on the rise in the second term of US President Donald Trump, Chinese companies will look to strengthen the resilience of their supply chain by building factories in new markets, either for export or local sale, said Ben Simpfendorfer, partner and chief Asia-Pacific macro strategist…

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced a bill in both chambers of Congress to ban the federal use of China-linked artificial intelligence tools such as DeepSeek, writing the latest chapter in the tech rivalry between the world’s top AI powers. Advertisement Titled the “No Adversarial AI Act”, the proposed legislation aims to prohibit federal agencies from procuring or deploying AI technologies developed in China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The bill was introduced in the House by US congressman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican who chairs the House Select…