A large protest erupted in the south-western Chinese city of Jiangyou, videos on social media have shown, after the beating of a young girl by three other teenagers caused public outrage. Protests are rare in China, where opposition to the ruling Communist party and anything seen as a threat to civil order is swiftly quashed. But bullying in the country’s ultra-competitive education system has touched a public nerve, with a high-profile killing last year prompting national debate over how the law deals with juvenile offenders. On Monday, police said two…
Day: August 5, 2025
‘China is next in line’: after India, Trump tariff threats loom over Russian oil
Even in the face of threats by US President Donald Trump to levy tariffs on countries that import Russian goods, analysts expect that China “will not stop” buying oil from its northern neighbour, given their mutually beneficial relationship of energy cooperation. Advertisement Oil from Russia will continue to flow south over the long run because “China’s strategic goals require a stable and secure supply of critical resources such as oil”, said Matt Gertken, chief geopolitical strategist at BCA Research in Canada. His comments came with Trump sharpening his threat of…
Has China just released pictures of another 6th generation stealth fighter?
Images of a previously unknown stealth aircraft have started circulating on Chinese social media, triggering a debate about whether it is a new piloted warplane or a “loyal wingman” drone. Advertisement At least two photographs of the aircraft, taken from various angles on the ground, have been circulating since Monday. It is not clear from the pictures whether the plane had a cockpit or internal weapons bay. The images reveal a slimmer fuselage and smaller size compared with images of another plane thought to be the J-36 stealth fighter, suggesting…
US-China battle over rare earths, Beijing’s beef boost: SCMP daily highlights
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. Taiwan could run out of energy in 10 days under PLA blockade, report warns Taiwan would run out of natural gas supplies in about 10 days if Beijing blockaded the island, according to a report published by a Washington-based geopolitical think tank. 2. ‘Too far ahead’: can the US upskill to compete with China on rare earths? Multilateral moves to break Chinese dominance of…
Can Russia, India and China work together to stabilise Asia?
As geopolitical tensions realign global power centres, the trilateral forum of Russia, India and China (RIC) is seeing renewed diplomatic interest. While Moscow has expressed optimism about reviving the grouping and Beijing seems to support the idea, New Delhi has walked a cautious tightrope between signalling openness and managing its strategic autonomy. Advertisement Against the backdrop of an increasingly transactional and multipolar world, the question arises: Can the elephant, the dragon and the bear truly dance together again, or is this just strategic choreography shaped by necessity? For Moscow, the…
Chinese carmakers led by BYD report big rises in UK sales in July
Chinese carmakers led by BYD reported big jumps in UK sales last month, despite a declining overall car market, including a 59% slump in sales from their electric vehicle rival Tesla. BYD sales quadrupled year on year to reach 3,200 in July, even as overall sales of all types of car declined by 5% to 140,000, according to data published on Tuesday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. The car industry has said it is struggling with a weak economy, which is holding back…
Caterpillar warns of $1.5bn tariff hit as trade tensions dent earnings
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. US construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar posted a drop in earnings and warned of a hit of up to $1.5bn from Donald Trump’s tariffs, in a sign of how trade tensions are impacting the global companies it makes machinery for. The Texas-headquartered company on Tuesday said it expected a net hit from tariffs of around $1.3bn to $1.5bn for the full year. The US government’s tariffs have hurt companies across sectors,…
Is China stealing the march on science talent as US funding cuts spare no one?
Renowned mathematician Terence Tao says funding delays at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have left his lab struggling to support graduate students and research projects. Advertisement Not only Tao, but the entire UCLA system and several other top universities have been impacted by federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump. The predicament in the US scientific community sharply contrasts with China’s active efforts to attract talented science and technology researchers, particularly mathematicians. “The suspension of my grant has a non-trivial impact on myself, and now gives me almost…
Shattered Lands — the break-up of British India and dangers of nationalist mythmaking
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The geography and character of modern nation states often seem inevitable, even immutable, to those who live in them, particularly to the vehement nationalists now on the rise around the world. Sam Dalrymple’s Shattered Lands, which examines with pace and verve the break-up of the vast domains of British India in the 20th century, reminds us that very little about the shape of today’s nations was predictable ahead of their…
Trump is the gift that keeps giving to China
Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world The year is barely halfway done but China is 2025’s runaway winner. With metronomic regularity, Donald Trump has been dropping giant windfalls into its lap. Such is Trump’s awe of Xi Jinping, which seems only to grow with the latter’s unyieldingness, that observers could be forgiven for thinking Trump wants China to keep on winning. Amid a sea of bipartisan hawkishness, Trump is the last China dove in…