Month: July 2025

China’s Shenzhou-19 astronauts reveal record spacewalk featured surprise repair

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Advertisement In an interview with state broadcaster CCTV aired on Sunday, Shenzhou-19 mission commander Cai Xuzhe said a payload adaptor unexpectedly jammed during a cargo installation outside the spacecraft and the team had to add the repair to their spacewalk tasks. Cai said it was something they had not trained for and he was worried about doing irreparable damage. “I feared that my intervention might make the damage worse,” he said. The adaptor is a docking mechanism used for various tasks, such as extravehicular (EVA) experiments or the replacement and…

China summons Nvidia to explain ‘back-door’ safety risk of H20 chip

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China’s cyberspace regulator has summoned Nvidia to explain whether its H20 chips have any “back-door safety” risks, casting a shadow over the US chip giant’s local operations. Advertisement The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the agency responsible for cybersecurity, said in a statement on Thursday that it had summoned and interviewed Nvidia regarding the risks associated with the potential tracking and remote control functions of its H20 chips. The regulator requested that the company provide explanations and relevant proof concerning those issues. The CAC said its inquiry was based on…

Wuxi AppTec joins funding rush as appetite grows for China’s biotech

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Wuxi AppTec, Asia’s largest provider of contract pharmaceutical research, has raised HK$7.70 billion (US$981 million) through a sale of additional shares in Hong Kong as it rides the wave of bullish appetite for Chinese biotechnology shares. Advertisement The Shanghai-based company sold 73.8 million new shares to institutional investors at HK$104.27 each, a 6.9 per cent discount to their closing price of HK$112 on Wednesday, it said in a filing to Hong Kong’s bourse on Thursday. The stock fell 5.2 per cent to HK$106.20 amid a declining market at 10.20am. The…

Bank of Japan raises inflation forecasts as food prices bite

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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 Bank of Japan kept interest rates on hold on Thursday but increased its inflation forecasts, prompting speculation that the central bank might be ready to tighten monetary policy later this year. The central bank said on Thursday that it had unanimously decided to hold short-term interest rates at 0.5 per cent following its two-day meeting, a move widely expected by analysts In a quarterly outlook report, the BoJ revised…

China has done HSBC a backhanded favour

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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. HSBC has long argued that its shareholding in China’s Bank of Communications is critical to its strategy and symbolic of its strong ties to the country. Perhaps, though, those ties aren’t as strong as it thought. The Chinese government recently elbowed HSBC aside in a $17bn capital raising. Awkward as that looks for the Hong Kong lender, Beijing might have actually done HSBC a favour. HSBC’s holding in BoCom has…

Are EU hopes of reducing reliance on China leading to its dependence on the US?

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The latest trade deal between Brussels and Washington may deepen the European Union’s economic and security dependence on the US and increase the risks to the bloc’s pursuit of strategic autonomy, according to a senior Chinese diplomat. Advertisement Shi Mingde, who served as China’s ambassador to Germany from 2012 to 2019, gave his assessment of Sunday’s transatlantic agreement to academics and reporters at an event in Beijing on Tuesday to mark 50 years of China-EU relations. Shi Mingde was Beijing’s ambassador to Germany between 2012 and 2019. Photo: Getty The…

Inside the relentless race for AI capacity

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For tech investors, 2025 began with a panic. A hyper-efficient new AI model from Chinese developer DeepSeek made Wall Street question whether Big Tech companies and Silicon Valley start-ups were overspending on huge new data centres and expensive Nvidia chips to build AI apps such as ChatGPT. Six months later, those worries look like a blip. The AI infrastructure-building frenzy has continued with a vengeance. Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta plan to increase their capital expenditures to more than $300bn in 2025. IT consultancy Gartner reckons a total of $475bn…

Trump announces 15% tariff on South Korean goods

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Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world Donald Trump announced a trade deal with South Korea on Wednesday that would impose tariffs of 15 per cent on the country’s goods. South Korea in exchange would “give to the United States $350 Billion Dollars for Investments owned and controlled by the United States, and selected by myself, as President”, Trump wrote on Truth Social.  The US president said the Asian country would also commit to buying…

Top Republican lawmaker to lead congressional delegation to Taiwan

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Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world A top Republican lawmaker will lead a congressional delegation to Taiwan in August, a development that will be welcomed in Taipei amid concerns about Donald Trump’s commitment to the country in the face of Chinese pressure. The visit by Roger Wicker, according to three people familiar with the trip, comes at a delicate point in US-Taiwan relations. The Republican chair of the Senate armed services committee is one…

China’s JD.com launches €2.2bn offer for German electronics retailer Ceconomy

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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 ecommerce group JD.com has launched a takeover bid for German electronics retailer Ceconomy, in what could be one of the largest Chinese acquisitions in Europe in recent years. The Beijing-based company said on Wednesday evening it had made a voluntary cash offer of €4.60 per Ceconomy share, with the German retailer’s management and supervisory board backing the proposed deal. JD.com’s offer values Ceconomy’s equity at about €2.2bn. The bid…