Month: July 2025

Advertisement The three-way discussions in Shanghai, hosted by vice-minister for foreign affairs Sun Weidong, secured a commitment from both sides to abide by the ceasefire and were described by Beijing as an “informal consultation” given the “fragile situation” on the ground. Underscoring that fragility, the two sides continued to trade accusations on Wednesday, with Thailand accusing Cambodian forces of a “flagrant” violation of the ceasefire – claims Phnom Penh rejected as “misleading and fabricated”. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a press conference later in the day that the…

Catch up on some of SCMP’s biggest China stories of the day. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. China’s Politburo calls for ‘stepped up’ economic policy support China has vowed to maintain its macro policy support for the rest of 2025 as the country seeks to navigate economic risks – both external and internal – in the second half of the year and plan for its next half-decade of development. 2. Shanghai, east China brace for severe tropical storm after dodging tsunami…

China’s finance minister has pledged to step up the use of fiscal tools to spur domestic demand and tackle local government debt, following stable growth and improved economic momentum in the first half of the year. Advertisement Finance Minister Lan Foan said the central government would accelerate fiscal spending, including the issuance and use of ultra-long-term bonds and local government special-purpose bonds, in an article published on Wednesday in Study Times – a newspaper run by the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China. Lan’s article echoed Wednesday’s…

A team of Chinese researchers has criticised the world’s largest Earth-imaging satellite fleet, describing the shoebox-sized spacecraft as “low-cost orbital landmines” that threaten the safety of space operations. Advertisement Using a self-developed tracking platform, software scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences analysed the Dove constellation – which has launched hundreds of CubeSats since 2013 to provide daily, medium-resolution imagery of the Earth’s surface – according to the team’s article posted on Chinese social media on July 21. The Chinese team said the thruster-less satellites operated by San Francisco-based Planet…

China’s top economic planner has unveiled new draft guidelines aimed at tightening oversight of government-backed investment funds, urging a sharper focus on advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries. Advertisement The warning against overlapping investments marks the latest push to rein in redundant spending that has intensified cutthroat competition and added to deflationary pressure – a key concern for policymakers seeking to steer capital toward high-impact, innovation-driven sectors. On Wednesday, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) released two draft documents for public comment, laying out guidance on how government funds…

China should factor in the future visions of America’s right-wing tech barons to gain a more complete picture of the second Trump administration’s policies, a top Chinese strategist has suggested. Advertisement As the two powers had their latest round of trade talks in Stockholm, another prominent expert in China also called on Beijing to look beyond the present tariff tensions with the United States to understand Washington’s broader strategic agenda. The inclusion of Silicon Valley tech elites as a new force on US President Donald Trump’s team had been a…

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has substantially raised its growth forecast for China this year, while also slightly revising up global estimates, as China diversifies its export partners and trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies de-escalate. Advertisement The IMF now projects that China’s economy will expand by 4.8 per cent in 2025, up 0.8 percentage point from its previous forecast in April, according to its World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday. The upwards revision for China’s forecast was the largest among all countries and regions included in…