Day: July 13, 2025

China’s exports accelerate in June as US trade truce creates opening

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China’s exports recorded a larger-than-expected acceleration in June, as exporters took advantage of a 90-day tariff truce with the United States to speed up their shipments. Advertisement The world’s top merchandise exporter saw its outbound shipments rise by 5.8 per cent year on year to reach US$325.2 billion last month, according to customs data released on Monday. The figure follows a reported 4.8 per cent rise in May and eclipses the 3.6 per cent increase forecast in a market survey from Chinese financial data provider Wind. The country’s imports, meanwhile,…

Chinese biotech shares surge as Big Pharma looks to license cancer treatments

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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. Chinese biotech shares are surging this year on growing optimism over innovative cancer treatments being licensed to western pharmaceutical companies. The Hang Seng Biotech index, which reflects the performance of the 50 largest such companies listed in Hong Kong, has returned 61.8 per cent so far this year, well ahead of the 20.6 per cent return on the city’s benchmark Hang Seng index. The rally marks the end of a…

Top AI medical scientists Roland Eils and Irina Lehmann leave Germany for China

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Top German medical scientists Roland Eils and Irina Lehmann have joined Fudan University in Shanghai as full-time faculty members, according to the Chinese institution’s website. Advertisement The married couple joined the university in April, their arrival marking another milestone in China’s growing ambitions in artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine – a field that Eils and Lehmann have helped to pioneer. Eils earned his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Heidelberg in 1995, and was elected as a member of the German National Academy of Sciences in 2018. He is…

Taiwan’s central bank tells foreign investors to stop violating capital controls

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Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Foreign exchange myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Taiwan’s central bank has warned “a few foreign investors” against violating its capital controls as it seeks to contain volatility in its rapidly appreciating currency. In a statement to the Financial Times, the Central Bank of the Republic of China said it had “strengthened communication with a few foreign investors” and “asked them to self regulate and make necessary improvements” after finding that foreign capital inflows were not being invested…

Japan faces an era-defining reset with the US

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EU to step up foreign subsidy probes, antitrust chief says

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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. The EU is to pursue more subsidy investigations against foreign companies investing in the bloc as it steps up efforts to combat what it sees as unfair competition, its antitrust chief has said. Although not specifically aimed at China, the EU’s foreign subsidies regulation, which came into force in 2023, has been used to target many Chinese companies amid growing concern that oversupply by the world’s largest manufacturer is jeopardising…

Caught in the contest between China and the west, the Cook Islands asks where its future lies

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On a remote stretch of land in the Cook Islands lies a second world war airstrip. Once used as a wartime supply route by American forces, the narrow runway is in dire need of resealing to allow larger tourist jets to land. Leaders on the northern island of Penrhyn have asked New Zealand, Australia and the US to help, but none have come through. Now, they hope China will step in and fund it. “That is the dream,” says Penrhyn’s executive director, Puna John Vano. “We want to maintain our…

Australia juggles its China trade needs with Philippines defence ties

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As the Asia-Pacific’s power dynamics continue to evolve and shift, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to China promises to be a test of his country’s ability to walk the fine line between economic self-interest and strategic resolve. Advertisement His trip, which began on Saturday, unfolds against the backdrop of Australia’s deepening security ties with the Philippines, with Canberra stepping up support for Manila’s maritime capabilities and increasing participation in patrols and joint military exercises. The donation was part of a broader civil maritime cooperation programme, encompassing vessel remediation, postgraduate…

Tech takes centre stage as Chinese students weigh up major choices

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Like millions of Chinese students, 18-year-old He Junjie is anxiously waiting to see which university and major will admit him after last month’s intensely competitive National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or gaokao. Advertisement After evaluating his score and studying the universities and programmes he qualified for, He focused on engineering when submitting his applications a few weeks ago. Information and communications technology, as well as vehicle engineering, were the top choices, the young man from east China’s Zhejiang province said, because they “represent the direction of future industrial development”. “Many…

WHO’s south-east Asia head ‘on leave’ after Bangladesh corruption allegations

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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. The World Health Organization has announced that the chief of its south-east Asia regional agency is “on leave” following accusations of fraud, and it has taken the unusual step of appointing a senior official from its Geneva headquarters as interim head. Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, said in an email to staff last week, seen by the Financial Times, that he had informed regional member states of the period of leave…