Month: July 2025

As tensions between Beijing and Taipei rise, academia and the education sector reveal how each side is changing to adapt to – or shape – the new environment. In the first of a two-part series, we survey the vast research by mainland academics studying potential paths and models for governing the island. Advertisement For decades, Beijing has talked about peaceful reunification with Taiwan and possibly governing it under the arrangement of “one country, two systems”, a term that means the island could have a different political system than the mainland.…

Ahead of the China-European Union summit, set to take place in Beijing on July 24, the 27-nation bloc seems determined to adopt a firm stance in its relationship with the world’s second-largest economy. While accusing China of aiding Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, the EU also seeks what it sees as fairer economic relations. But can the growing pressure influence Beijing’s position on Moscow and the Ukraine conflict? Advertisement In a recent speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels “cannot accept” that China is “de facto enabling…

Mike Waltz, US President Donald Trump’s nominee for United Nations ambassador, vowed on Tuesday to make the world body “great again” – and that he would do so by confronting Beijing’s expanding influence while leading an overhaul of what he described as a bloated, favouritism-plagued institution. Advertisement “Countering China … is critical,” the former Florida congressman said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Waltz called it “absurd” that China, the world’s second-largest economy, was still “treated as a developing nation” and that most UN agencies continued…

When the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week arrested a suspected Chinese hacker for allegedly stealing sensitive American research on Covid-19 vaccines in 2020, the head of America’s top law enforcement agency hailed the episode as “manhunting” the Chinese Communist Party. Advertisement “The CCP’s relentless attacks on our institutions will not go unanswered,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on social media. “The FBI will hunt down those who threaten our national security – wherever they hide,” he wrote, adding, “huge … manhunting the CCP.” Then, soon after the FBI announced…