Month: July 2025

Beijing should encourage its firms to deepen integration with Southeast Asian economies instead of using the region as a transshipment route to the US, according to a senior regional economist – as Washington threatens the export-reliant region with high tariffs. Advertisement Transshipments drew attention earlier this month after the US announced tariffs on imports from Vietnam and 23 other trading partners. US President Donald Trump warned that imports diverted through Vietnam would face a 40 per cent tariff – double the 20 per cent levy on goods made in the…

On the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau, China envisions a future powered by the roaring waters of the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra). The river will be the site of a mega dam – the world’s most ambitious to date – that promises to bring clean energy, jobs, infrastructure and prosperity to the region. Advertisement Construction on the world’s largest hydropower dam began on Saturday, according to Premier Li Qiang, who called it the “project of the century”. But the project is not just about electricity and economic benefits – the…

A Chinese mega-constellation of communications satellites is facing serious delays that could jeopardise its ambitions to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink for valuable orbital resources. Advertisement Only 90 satellites have been launched into low Earth orbit for the Qianfan broadband network – also known as the Thousand Sails Constellation or G60 Starlink – well short of the project’s goal of 648 by the end of this year. Under international regulations to prevent spectrum hoarding, satellite operators must deploy a certain proportion of their constellation within set times after securing orbits and…

Washington China hawks are slamming the approval by US President Donald Trump’s administration of resumption of the sale of Nvidia’s downgraded H20 AI chip to China, questioning the move’s rationale and whether it was part of the June London trade deal between the two countries, as the administration claims. Advertisement Trump banned the sale of the Nvidia chip, designed to avoid export control restrictions imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration, in April as the trade war between the two global powers escalated. The decision was rescinded this month after Trump…

The head of a German think tank sanctioned by Beijing four years ago has returned from a trip to China, suggesting that travel restrictions on the organisation may be easing. Advertisement Mikko Huotari, the executive director of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics) was in Beijing from July 14 to 17, after being invited by a leading Chinese think tank. Merics was among the European institutions hit with travel bans and asset freezes in March 2021, in retaliation for EU sanctions on Chinese officials accused of perpetrating human rights…

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Sweden next week to continue trade talks between the two countries, suggesting the current pause in sky-high tariffs could be extended. Advertisement Bessent told Fox Business that he would be speaking with Chinese officials on Monday and Tuesday for a third round of high-level talks in Stockholm – following face-to-face discussions he held with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Geneva and London – to work out a likely extension of the pause beyond…